In stark contrast to the Indiana/Sacramento trade two days ago that amounted to mutual benefit, yesterdays Boston/Minnesota trade was entirely lopsided.  It appears that Danny Ainge managed to find that Celtic Pride still residing in Kevin McHale's heart and exploited it to improve his team at the expense of the T-Wolves.

Breakdown:

salary data from www.hoopshype.com, statistics from www.espn.com

Celtics receive -

Wally Szerbiak (signed thru 2009 currently making $10MM) - 6'7" SG/SF - 20.1ppg, 40.6% 3pt

Michael Olowokandi (final year making $5,949,570) - 7'0" C - 6.0ppg, 5.6rpg, 23mpg

Dwayne Jones (signed thru 2007 making $398,762) - 6'11" C - playing in NBDL

Conditional 1st Round Pick (terms undisclosed)

Timberwolves receive -

Ricky Davis (signed thru 2008 currently making $5,908,500) - 6'6" SG/SF - 19.7ppg

Mark Blount (signed thru 2010 currently making $5,512500) - 7'0" C - 12.4ppg, 4.2rpg, 27mpg

Marcus Banks (final year making $1,724,280) - 6'2" PG - 5.5ppg, 1.8apg

Justin Reed (final year making $641,748) - 6'8" SF - 2.3ppg

Two second round picks

From a statistical standpoint, it looks like a wash.  From a managerial standpoint, the Celtics cleaned up. 

For full disclosure, I am not a fan of Ricky Davis' in any way shape or form.  To me, he is one of those players that looks good on paper, but when you watch him play, he frustrates you.  Last year when he was no better than the third best offensive weapon for the Celtics, he was the one who became selfish down the stretch.  It is hard to be more selfish than Paul Pierce and Antoine Walker, but Davis managed.  By doing so, he shot the Celts out of many winnable games while the team's top two offensive threats spectated.  The best anecdotal evidence of Davis' personality came when he was bringing the ball up the floor and actually turned around to fire a shot at the opposing team's basket so he could rebound it and secure a triple-double.  For some reason, Minnesota attempted to sign him away from Cleveland a few summers ago, and maintained their interest enough to give up their # 2 scoring option and take on an albatross of a contract to get him.

Speaking of that albatross contract, I introduce you to Mark Blount.  Blount was a life long bench warmer who managed to put together a few good performances down the stretch of his contract season.  The Celtics made the mistake of taking that as a sign of things to come instead of the obvious indication of a player being motivated in hopes of a big payoff.  Now he makes starter money with reserve talent and will continue to do so for the next five years.  Explain to me why a guy who is seven foot tall and plays more than half the minutes of a game can only grab four rebounds a game.  It makes no sense.

The other two players given up by the Celts are players in the final year of their contract who likely would have been given walking papers at the end of the season.  Ainge fell in love with Marcus Banks as the point guard of the futurue, and traded up to draft him.  Banks has never developed into an even suitable floor general, then Delonte West and even second round pick Orien Greene have usurped him in much less time as pros.  Banks is likely the third string point in Minnesota now behind Marko Jaric and Troy Hudson.  Justin Reed is a good defender, but limited otherwise.

It is unclear how Kevin McHale felt pulling the trigger on this deal would make the team better.  Davis upgrades the team defense at the three, and perhaps he felt a strong personality like Kevin Garnett could keep him in line on offense.  (Latrell Spreewell did well for a while under that premise.)  However, the team no longer has any outside shooters now that both Szerbiak and Fred Hoiberg are gone.  Opposing defenses will sag down in the lane making life difficult for both K.G. and Davis.  Kandi for Blount robbed them of some rebounding, and the team will likely be without a first round pick for the seventh time in a decade withholding another chance to draft a player who can develop to be K.G.'s sidekick.

While Wally Szerbiak is not a great defender, he upgrades the Celtics perimeter threats.  While Davis and Paul Pierce possessed the same skill sets (with Pierce being much better), Szerbiak is a yin to Pierce's yang.  Pierce will slash to the basket, Szerbiak will find an open spot for when "The Truth" gets double teamed to make a jump shot.  If the defensive lapses become a problem, the Celtics always have Tony Allen who is a great defender in the wings.

The Olowokandi and Jones pick-ups are of little significance to the trade.  Olowokandi will most likely end up as a free agent within the next few weeks if the Celtics cannot immediately trade him.  A contract buyout is likely on the way so that their promising young post player, Al Jefferson will see more playing time.  More importantly, they ridded themselves of a bad contract with five years remaining in return for a player whose salary will come off the cap this Summer, and opening up an immediate roster slot.  There is probably room on the Celts roster now to add Jones and see what he can do, and possibly get Gerald Green back from the D-league and on the floor.