LOS ANGELES -- With Eddie House openly admitting Wednesday that the Boston Celtics and New York Knicks are nearing a trade deadline deal that likely will involve him swapping jerseys with Nate Robinson, two questions immediately come to mind:
1) Are the Celtics a better team because of this deal? 2) Is this the only move Boston plans to make before Thursday's 3 p.m. deadline?
Maybe it's appropriate the Celtics were traveling near the San Andreas Fault as this deal came together, because, if nothing else, it's set to provide Boston with the shakeup it so desperately needed after dropping 13 of its final 22 games before the All-Star break.
The Celtics, sloppy and lacking composure at times late in the first half of the season, stumbled time and again, and president of basketball operations Danny Ainge appears to be sending a message that the status quo will not be tolerated by stripping the team of one of its core members from the 2007-08 championship team.
For a Celtics team that hung a blank championship banner in its practice facility before the start of the 2009-10 season, it's a reminder that anything short of filling in that banner will be considered failure.
For a Celtics team that has a picture of the Larry O'Brien trophy hanging near the locker-room door at TD Garden, it's a reminder that management will not simply let a championship-caliber season spin out of control.
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