[The Ghost of Championship]

http://www.celticsblog.com/2013/5/10...way-trade-with

Danny Ainge's comments and actions seem to indicate that he'd like to find a way to trade Paul Pierce and move on with the next era of Celtics basketball. Maybe I'm reading too much into his comments yesterday, but he said his first decision would likely be to decide what to do with Paul Pierce (after a lot of "discussions" with all the parties involved). He also said that he expects Pierce to play and and that the Celtics were more than one player away from a Championship.

Also, go back to the last trade deadline and you'll find that he was pretty close to moving Paul Pierce to the Mavericks - as outlined by Wojo (and hat tip to the forums poster "chambers" that unearthed this article from back in early March).

After trade talks to send Paul Pierce to Dallas fell through, Celtics make another spring run - Yahoo! Sports

In a three-way deal that would've secured Josh Smith and surrendered Paul Pierce to Dallas, Atlanta wanted Boston's first-round draft pick, too. The Celtics were in talks to send Paul Pierce to Dallas at the trade deadline. (AP)As much as any of the proposed deals discussed in February, perhaps this had been the closest Pierce had come to parting with the Celtics, sources told Yahoo! Sports. Dallas had constructed a package that included Jae Crowder, Brandan Wright and Dahntay Jones to Atlanta, with the Mavericks and Hawks exchanging positions in the 2013 NBA draft. Nevertheless, Boston wouldn't relent on the pick and the deal died on meeting-room grease boards in three cities.