Chad Ford Dissects & Analyzes

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Cavs, Celtics fallout
Three for Paul Silas: The Cavs traded away Silas' mortal enemy, Ricky Davis, on Monday and in exchange got three players cut out of the Silas mold. Eric Williams, Tony Battie and Kedrick Brown are tough and defensive minded and won't make waves in Cleveland. While none of them can score at anywhere near the clip Davis could, that wasn't the point. 
Silas wanted to change the losing culture in Cleveland before it infected LeBron James too much, and this trade accomplished just that. GM Jim Paxson is under heavy fire in the Cleveland media today for getting so little in return for Davis and Mihm, but given the current state of the team, he had little choice. 
Had he seen the writing on the wall the way the rest of us did this summer, Paxson could've gotten much more for Davis. But at this point in the season, and given the Cavs' needs, he probably got the best deal out there. Insider talked to several GMs Monday night who had discussed a Davis trade with Paxson. All of them claimed they wouldn't have given up any more for Davis than Danny Ainge did. 
This trade doesn't mean, however, that the Cavs are done dealing. Zydrunas Ilgauskas, Darius Miles and Ira Newble (who's being showcased right now) are all available, according to several GMs who have had trade discussions with the Cavs. With Battie, Williams and Brown in place, Silas would prefer to go all the way and toughen up this roster even more. Paxson is more hesitant -- he doesn't want to strip-mine the team too much -- and likely will wait and see what type of impact Williams and Battie have. The team is also crossing its fingers that a healthy Dajuan Wagner will fill the scoring void left by Davis. In other words, don't expect Paxson to give away Ilgauskas and Miles the way he did with Davis. 
Internal disagreements: The Celtics may have gotten the second scorer in Ricky Davis that lost when they traded Antoine Walker, but that doesn't mean that Jim O'Brien and his coaching staff were happy about it. O'Brien told Ainge not to pull the trigger on the deal, but Ainge, largely on the advice of brain-typing guru Jonathan Niednagel and some encouragement from T-Wolves GM Kevin McHale, made the trade anyway. 
O'Brien loved Eric Williams, because he was a natural locker-room leader and a tough, defensive minded player on the floor. Tony Battie and Kedrick Brown were essentially expendable, but losing Williams stung. 
At the press conference, O'Brien waffled when asked about the trade and deferred to Ainge, claiming he had told Ainge what he thought but that Ainge had final authority to make a trade. O'Brien did add this, however, for those of you who weren't getting the signal: "We're losing three guys, two veterans in Eric Williams and Tony Battie, and it's very painful." 
Could this be yet another chapter in what appears to be a straining relationship between Ainge and O'Brien. After ripping the team apart once, O'Brien found a way to put together a squad that had a chance to win (albeit not to compete for a title). Tearing apart a team that was averaging more than 100 points a game during a five-game winning streak under the theory that they couldn't score enough had to chafe O'Brien. So does Ainge's statements that he doesn't expect his team to win in the short term. 
When asked whether he made the trade because of Raef LaFrentz's season ending injury, Ainge countered by saying, "Absolutely not. That would mean that I'm looking at short-term results. And I'm not." 
That just can't be music to a coaches ears. 
Pierce on board: There are still lots of questions about how well Paul Pierce and Davis will mesh together, but you can ignore suggestions that Pierce was unhappy with the trade. Davis left his agent, Dan Fegan and hired Pierce's agent, Jeff Schwartz, about a month ago. According to NBA sources, Schwartz was instrumental in getting Davis out of Cleveland and onto the Celtics and cleared the trade with Pierce before pursuing it with Ainge. 
Shared history: One thing the Cavs and Celtics have in common is that they're both in their predicaments because of terrible drafts and bad trades in the past. Hindsight is 20-20, but it can be pretty damn frightening when you look back at how many times these two teams screwed up in the past few years. Ironically, there's a link between the two that goes even deeper than that. 
The Celtics woes started when they traded a future first-rounder to the Cavs for Vitaly Potapenko. That first-rounder turned out to be Andre Miller -- a guy you have to believe would've been the answer to all the Celtics point-guard woes over the years. 
The Cavs got it right when they drafted Miller at No. 8 in 1999, but they screwed it up when they passed on Corey Maggette and Ron Artest to take Trajan Langdon at No. 11. In 2000, they passed on Desmond Mason, Quentin Richardson and Jamaal Magloire to take Chris Mihm. In 2001 they drafted DeSagana Diop ahead of Vladimir Radmanovic, Richard Jefferson, Zach Randolph, Gilbert Arenas and Tony Parker. The run of bad decisions continued when they traded Miller for Darius Miles so they could turn the point guard job over to 2002 lottery pick Dajuan Wagner. While Miller had an off year with the Clippers last year, there's no question that had the Cavs kept Miller and drafted either Amare Stoudemire or Nene Hilario instead of Wagner, they'd be a playoff team right now -- with or without LeBron. 
The Celtics compounded their problems by royally screwing up the 2001 draft. They had three picks that year and drafted Joe Johnson, Kedrick Brown and Joe Forte -- none of whom are still with the team. The Celtics gave up on Johnson during his rookie season and traded him, along with another first-rounder, for Tony Delk and Rodney Rogers, who also are no longer with the team. Brown has never been able to make the jump from JUCO to the pros, and Forte already is out of the league. Had the Celtics taken Radmanovic, Randolph, Jefferson, Troy Murphy, Arenas and/or Parker with their three picks, Ainge never would have had to blow up the roster in the first place.