Ainge Wanted Rahim; Now Wants Barry

[wayray@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]

Ainge may have wanted Rahim, but the package the Celtics were offering, seems pretty
insufficient. So, now it appears there's going to be a big push for Barry,
and likely a haggling over a draft pick. Seattle will want the Celtics first-rounder;
Ainge will want to give up the Dallas pick...

One that got away
Ainge eyed Abdur-Rahim
By Peter May, Globe Staff, 2/11/2004
CLEVELAND -- Danny Ainge was on the phone with his wife after Monday night's game in Cleveland, watching TV, when he saw a notation cross the bottom of his screen: Atlanta had traded Shareef Abdur-Rahim to Portland in a five-player deal that included Theo Ratliff and Rasheed Wallace. His heart sank.
		
Abdur-Rahim had been front and center on Ainge's radar screen for a while. Ainge believed he had a package sufficient and attractive enough to entice the Hawks to send Abdur-Rahim to Boston. Believed to be part of Ainge's package was the expiring (and mostly insured) contract of Chris Mills, along with a couple of Boston bench warmers and, if need be, one of the two first-round picks the Celtics have in this year's draft.
"They got two players for two months," Ainge said of the Hawks, who picked up Wallace and Wesley Person, each of whom is in the last year of his contract. "We had guys involved who only had a year or more left. We could offer draft picks. I thought that was how they wanted to rebuild. But, ultimately, I guess they wanted a clean slate in having two guys for two months. But that's how deals go. You can't force them."
Ainge envisioned Abdur-Rahim as an ideal No. 2 to Paul Pierce. But the package he had simply couldn't match the one Portland produced, either in immediate help (should Atlanta want it, which is dubious) or in the future (the Hawks can erase the two contracts and $24 million-plus after this season.)
"Oh well, it's back to the drawing board," Ainge said.
Ainge still believes he has a very valuable chip in Mills, whose $6.6 million deal (thank you, Rick Pitino) not only expires at the end of the season but also is 80 percent insured (Mills isn't going to play). Teams love contracts like that. Ainge has a long-held interest in Brent Barry, who he thinks is the second-purest shooter in the league (after Peja Stojakovic) and whom he likes for his size (6 feet 6 inches, 203 pounds). Barry is in the last year of his contract with Seattle