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With fans calling for the firing of head coach Doc Rivers, Celtics General Manager Danny Ainge responded with yet another major deal prior to the NBA trading deadline. For the third consecutive year, Ainge dramatically shook up the Celtics roster in the middle of the season.

In a seven player deal, the Celtics sent Mark Blount, Ricky Davis, Marcus Banks and Justin Reed to the Minnesota Timberwolves for Wally Szczerbiak, Michael Olowokandi, and minor league player, Dwayne Jones. The deal also included draft picks, the T-Wolves picking up two conditional second round picks while the Celtics received a conditional number one pick.

Ainge's propensity for wheeling and dealing has earned him the nickname of "Danny The Dealer" from Boston Globe columnist Bob Ryan. Says the columnist of Ainge, "Antoine goes. Ricky comes. Antoine returns. Antoine just floats away. And now, Ricky goes."

Say this about Ainge, he certainly isn't afraid to admit his mistakes, at least in the course of his later actions. First there is the Mark Blount issue, a major mistake by the GM. Ainge knew he needed to get rid of the center after signing him to a long term contract at inflated dollars.

In fairness to Ainge, Blount worked diligently to make himself into a decent NBA player, having his best season as his contract came to an end. Assuming he had a player with a strong work ethic, Ainge stepped in to reward the center with a fairly big contract at the end of the 2003-04 season. There was never any thought that Blount would be an elite player but Ainge and the Celtics assumed he would continue to work on his game and be a solid second tier center.

But there in lies the mistake, because some players get the big guaranteed money, then basically coast. That is what happened with the 7-footer, his statistics dropping off the board after the big signing, particularly in the two areas that are defined by effort, defense and rebounding. Give Ainge credit here, he knew he needed to send Blount packing.

Second up on the mistake list was Marcus Banks, Ainge's first number one draft pick, selected 13th overall. The super-quick, 6-1 point guard just never developed any feel for running an NBA team. Other than putting some defensive pressure on the ball with that quickness, Banks height liability and his inability to run the offense definitely made him expendable.

As for Justin Reed, he is a late second round pick who could have a bit of an NBA career as the 9th or 10th man on a roster. But the youngster was not going to solve the Celtics problems.

On the flip side, Ricky Davis going to the Wolves gave Celtics fans serious pause. The extremely athletic guard was averaging nearly 20 points a game and was leading the Celtics in minutes played. He was also demonstrating that he was finally maturing as a man, making him a force to be reckoned with. Most Celtics fans feel that this is where Ainge may have made a major mistake.

In return the Celtics received another underachieving and overpaid center in Olowokandi. However, whereas Blount had four years left on his inflated contract, in Olowokandi the Celtics have a player with a contract that will expire at the end of the season. Therefore, the newly acquired center has little chance to play as the Celtics commit to the development of post players Kendrick Perkins and Al Jefferson.

In Szczerbiak, the Celtics match the scoring potential that was lost in sending Davis to the Wolves. The forward is an outstanding shooter, having averaged around 50 percent for his career from the floor with an ability to truly stretch a defense with his ability to shoot the three as well as anybody in the league. In that regard, the Celtics moved Davis who had many of the same game attributes as Paul Pierce and acquired a player that compliments Pierce much more.

But it is hard to see how the Celtics defensive woes get any better by adding Szczerbiak. He is actually a shade worse than the athletic Davis who is known as everything but a defensive stopper.

And that is why the fans are struggling with the entire deal - couldn't Ainge at lest have addressed one of the team's weaknesses even as he moved players he no longer needed. Especially, in throwing in Davis, one would have thought Ainge could have upgraded the team defensively.

In analyzing the trade, the basketball experts at TNT had the audacity to state that the deal actually hurts both teams. The experts at Fox Sports hammered Ainge mercilessly for undermining the deal by including Davis, noting that getting rid of the other players was probably in the team's best interest. One writer noted that when Ainge took over the Celtics they were a plus 500 basketball team. Three years later the team is seven games under 500.

And Bob Ryan, well he just shook his head at "Danny The Dealer." Ryan wondered aloud who would be next to go and what Ainge's next deal would be, noting that there was still time for the dealer to pull yet another trade prior to the NBA deadline in 2006.

Say this for Ainge, he is indeed willing to pull the trigger.