Reconstruction is no longer in the “This Old House” phase. Think Egypt before the Pyramids, or the day they tore down the old Boston Garden.
Think about a Celtics team wiped clean of Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett — two players who will surely have their jerseys retired before long, but who will not retire in a green uniform.
Ainge, who has been itching to start a new era for the last two years, finally tore his team down to the floorboards yesterday before settling in to trade up to the 13th pick and take Gonzaga center Kelly Olynyk.
When the NBA’s contract moratorium ends on July 10, Ainge will announce that he has traded the soul of the franchise — Pierce and Garnett — in addition to Jason Terry to Brooklyn for first-round draft picks in 2014, 2016 and 2018, in addition to Gerald Wallace, former Celtic Kris Joseph, Tornike Shengelia, Reggie Evans, Keith Bogans and the expiring contract of Kris Humphries.
The hard pill for the Celtics is Wallace, who has three years and $30 million left on his contract. But they were able to shed the contract of Terry, who has two years and almost $12 million remaining on his deal.
Ainge and Brooklyn general manager Billy King both declined comment last night, but sources from both teams confirmed the trade had been completed.
As a result, the Celtics that Olynyk, a 7-foot Canadian, might know is not the team he will join.
Though Ainge tried his best to avoid answering all questions about this enormous deal, when asked about the players Olynyk will complement, he mentioned Rajon Rondo, Jared Sullinger and Jeff Green.
Nowhere in that comment were the names of Pierce and Garnett. When this was pointed out to him, Ainge caught himself before saying, “I don’t know what you’re trying to get at. I can’t go there.”
Asked if he has talked to Garnett, whose waiver of a no-trade clause was needed to make the trade go through, Ainge said, “Yes, I talked to Kevin. I can’t talk about that.”
Welcome to the Rajon Rondo era.
“Yes, we are,” Ainge said of whether the Celtics will be rebuilt around Rondo.
Asked if Rondo was untradeable after Ainge said that there were indeed untouchable players on the roster, the general manager asserted that Rondo was one of those players.
Just as he was open to a trade to the Clippers — since blocked by the NBA — because it would have meant a chance to play for Doc Rivers, Garnett was reportedly open to the Nets’ proposal because it would allow him to remain on the same team with Pierce.
The knock for Celtics fans was that it would mean seeing Pierce and Garnett in Brooklyn uniforms twice at the Garden next season. But trading his two stars to a division rival obviously was a trivial consideration for Ainge.
Moving forward from a dying era is the overriding plan.
Once the deal goes through, the Celtics will have at least two first-round picks in each of the next three years, including the selection they received for Rivers.
Though the C’s failed in their attempt to unload either the mid-level contract of Courtney Lee or Terry when dealing with the Clippers, the Nets were willing to take on Terry’s contract.
The Celts are now expected to pick up the $15 million option on Pierce’s contract by Sunday’s deadline to make the numbers in the complex trade work.
Though the fan base may wake up in a horrified state this morning, Ainge sounded confident about taking this very lonely step forward.
“We’re in a much better position than when I got here 10 years ago,” he said of the tools he had to rebuild at the start. “We have more younger core players.”
