Rolls Royce with Bicycle tires on it

[ScoobyDoo]

When you win a championship you have a bullseye on your back. Whe you have KG, Pierce and Ray Allen on that championship team, the Bullseye on your back is even bigger. I've atched every game thsi year and the Celts are in a fist fight...every night. Every team is bring their best.

The correct move after winning that championship and "knowing you're goign to have that bullseye on your back and knwoing also that your Bif three arent' in the mid to late twenties but in their early to mid thirties....is:

To stack your bench. Instead, Ainge has stripped his bench and hung KG, Pierce and Ray Allen...along with Perk and Rondo for that matter...out to dry.   

We entered this season with:

1. No Back up Center
(Powe and Baby are not back up centers and everyone knew POB wouldn't be ready). Therefore, we have zero length coming off the bench after Perk and KG.

2. No Legit Back up "Point guard", someone who can set the table and create for the second unit. Eddie House is not a "point guard". I love him in  Steve Kerr kind of way, but the fact of the matter is that he is an off guard in a point guard's body. If he were 6'6", he'd be Ray Allen. But he's not, he's 6'1".

3. No Legitimate back up for Paul Pierce. Tony Allen is an off guard and Scal is a Power forward.

I have been one of the biggest supporters of Ainge form day one, even when most people hated him. I still feel he's excellent but this mess we are in right now in on him and the lack of stacking his bench to prepare for  the inevitable onslaught a team receives when they're tryign to repeat. It's why repeating is so hard, you are getting clobbered every night. Therefore  stacking your bench in preparation, not stripping it is ciritical.

KG, Pierce and Ray only have about a 3 year window together. Anything after that is gravy. Therefore, why not give them the best shot?

Personally I would have gone all in for Posey, put the four of them together and let them play it out, hope to get another ring or two and then start re-building.

1. You could easily trade Posey in the alst year of his four year deal.

2.You could offer Ray Mid level money after his current contract expires and leave the choice to him.   

3. You could offer Pierce $7-8 mil to continue on as a Celtic legend.

This way you wouldn't be perceived as pushing them out of town after they'd brought you rings. The choice would be theirs.

I can also understand "not" signing Posey, moving forward. However, while I understand signing POB as project and wanting to hold onto Walker and Giddens...you could have easily signed guys like Matt Barnes and Birdman ( or roughly equivalent veterans, heck, I'd be happy with Jake Voskul backing up Perkins for God's sake...someone...anyone..) that signed for Vet min contracts this year.

Don't get me wrong, I'm happy with 29-9 record, it's a good one. The points to me are that with just even an average off season, a logical off season in which you stacked your bench even a little:

1. The record would be 35-4 and we'd be staring down #18
2. We wouldn't have gone into this funk because the we wouldn't be so beat up
3. We'd be doing the right thing in giving KG, PP and Ray the best shot in their short window, to bring us more rings.

Now, it's a long season and I still have faith in Ainge that he might pul something off.

Stephon Marbury ( as much as I don't like his head ) would do two things for us we desperately need on that second unit; create his own shot and create shots for others.

A big man: there are some out there who may come avail ( Magloire, Mourning, Joe Smith, I still think PJ might come back if the big three really pressure him )

If Ainge does these little moves...I think we could become lethal again and perhpas catch Cleveland and regain homecourt advantage which I think is critical in being able to beat them. if not...

Right now, this is on Ainge...     

[Cman]

To the OP:

I appreciate the general theme of your post which is frustration with the way things are right now with the Cs.  But fans really need to get off of the Posey nostalgia wagon.  That ship has sailed, and we can't have a do-over for the summer (heck, if we want do-overs, I say sign Matt Barnes).

The question is what to do now, and I think all the ideas have already been hashed out in other threads.  I think one goal should be to get Walker or Giddens some playing time.  The perfect time for that is now, when PP, TA are banged up.  Second is to be active with vet players that are semi-retired or about to be bought out.  From all accounts, DA is doing just this (Mutombo, Marbury, etc).

Finally, just a suggestion: let's all relax a little bit.  The season is long, and all teams go through slumps.  If our guys can learn from it and fight back, so much the better.

[ScoobyDoo]

Point taken. I did mention the season was long and had faith in Ainge to pull some stuff off. While I probably would have re-signed Posey I also mentioned I understood why we didn't so it's really not a Posey nostalgia wagon for me. My point was if don't shoose the Posey path...choose another one. Right now, to this point...Ainge has basically done nothing to buffer this team in their repeat bid. That is odd to me.

But I do agree, we need to see what can be done now, moving forward. I was doing a follow up post about what I'd do but I got kicked out, my time expired. Hopefully we can make a few little moves and regain homecourt advantage. I hope that going in undermanned will not have an end result of losing home court and that being the reason we can't get by a Cleveland come June...

To me a slump for a great team, a top tier team is playing 500 ball over ten games. 2-7 is another thing. I think the biggest problem is they're tired, a direct result of Ainge stripping rather than stakcing his bench this summer.

[MMacOH]

Isn't the main problem in Boston that the Celtics have no salary room at all to sign any type of player?  It is going to be hard to bolster the bench when ou have no money.  That's the biggest problem with the Big 3 costing the team so much of their cap.  Right?

[Roy Hobbs]

Isn't the main problem in Boston that the Celtics have no salary room at all to sign any type of player?  It is going to be hard to bolster the bench when ou have no money.  That's the biggest problem with the Big 3 costing the team so much of their cap.  Right?

Eh...  Boston had the MLE, LLE, Bird rights with Tony Allen, and the veteran's minimum.  That's pretty much the same thing every other team in the league is working with.

[ScoobyDoo]

Yes Hobbs, thats' my point. So fine, don't re-sign Posey. How about Matt Barnes and Birdman who both signed for Vet min contracts? We had the ability to sign people.

I bring these two guys up because I really wanted both this summer after Posey wasn't re-signed:

1. I thought Barnes would've been a pretty cheap and pretty good replacment for Posey. Plays physical D, rebounds, can shoot the three pretty well.

2. Birdman. Long, energetic big guy. I thought the energy he and KG would've brought together would've been crazy. If you wanted to sign POB as a project, fine. But put someone in front of him in the meantime.

Neither of these two are superstars. But we don't need them to be. I truly beleive with just these two little signings this team would've been even better than last year's because our starting five is so much better now. They're not showing it at the moment but it's becasue they're tired...from having no bench. They're playign too many hard minutes. I think Barnes could've played Posey's role and Birdman would add some good, young atleticism and energy in the front court.

But it didn't have to be those two guys. It could've been someone else. Just someone...

I still have faith in Ainge that he'll make a couple little moves like last year with Cassell and PJ but right now this slump is on him as far as I'm concerned.
We have no depth and the bench isn't a complete unit. That is our problem right now.

[jdpapa3]

I think we will be able to judge the offseason in the playoffs. Our rotation could be completely different come playoff time, just as it was last year. It is also too early to judge the Posey thing. What if that Posey money in 2011 is the money that helps us sign the next piece that keeps the ball rolling for a dynasty?

I just think it's something we have to give Danny the benefit of the doubt for....for now. This is a Celtics board that analyzes even the promotions of a water boy, so we should be analyzing every single deal. The PJ Brown signing last year put us over the top and he wasn't on the radar until March. Our sixth man in 2 months could be someone we haven't even mentioned yet. Give it time.

Danny sees the same things we do and gets sick of players at the same time that we do. He is not gunshy and that's a fact. He's not an idiot that didn't want to sign Posey. He saw that he was either overvalued by the market or simply didn't get the go ahead to sign him.

Another thing that may be happening with this team is hiding assets. I feel as if this happened with Rajon Rondo his rookie year. If he played a ton that year and showed what we knew he had, Seattle would have demanded him in a trade over Delonte. Maybe Danny sees some wheeling and dealing and is doing the opposite of showcasing. I think some of this happens around the league.

[ScoobyDoo]

Good points jdpap3...

[xmuscularghandix]

ACTUALLY... Ainge didn't enter the season with them hung out to dry, he entered the season with virtually the same exact team. what should we have done? traded our future to build around our old big three with more old role players? so that when KG Pierce and Allen just grow old, retire, and then we have Rajon Rondo, Perkins, and an empty inexperienced bench.

it's more important to have young inexperienced bench players now that we have the big 3, so that when the 3 is gone, those young inexperienced players can be the crafty veterans for this team. As at that point we will most likely have young inexperienced starters.

[jdpapa3]

Yes muscular, but the problem that some of us have is that Doc will play some of the guys that we see no future for with this team and play them over guys that we see will possibly have a future. I'm talking about Eddie House, Scal, Big Baby, TA playing over Pruitt, Powe, POB, Walker, Giddens. I include Baby in the first list and Powe in the second list because I feel as if 8/10 Cbloggers would choose Powe in a poll between him or Baby. It may come down to a choice between the two this offseason.

I wonder if Eddie House will get pushed out of the rotation again in the playoffs. Eddie was good against the Lakers, but he seemed to kill us against teams like the Pistons and Cavs, the teams that also happen to be our rivals. He's just not that effective against good defenses. Heck, even Ray struggled against those two teams because of their perimeter defense.

[Andy Jick]

danny came into this offseason figuring that posey was his only issue...he wanted the extra year, and the celtics didn't blink and let him walk.

so he resigns tony allen, figuring it's best to go with what he already knows.

add allen in with BBD and Powe, figuring that those players would improve (also keeping eddie house) and he was willing to sacrifice posey because the other players could step up...so he did NOTHING.

problem is: it's not working.

i'd like to see walker or giddens, but not both of them...i trust the coaching staff to put the best player on the floor, and i'm guessing it will be walker's turn first.

[ScoobyDoo]

Muscular...I agree with you that we need to develop our young guys now so that they are capable when this version of the big three leave in 3-4 years. But bringing in a Barnes or equal and a Birdman or equal, both of whom signed for the vet Min of $1.2Mil, would not have hindered anyone's progress. Those kids are developing in practice, in games and in the D-league. Bringing in a couple low level Vets to help the big three right now wouldn't have stopped that.

We have a very short window to win titles with this group of KG, Pierce and Ray. If these guys were all in their mid to late 20's I wouldn't even care about this issue. Because I would know we could sacrafice one year, reload next year and have a 5-6 year run.

The problem is that we have about a three year window, including this year tow in title with three hall of fame players. Can we at least get them a Matt Barnes and Jake Voskul/Birdmman type so we don't drive them into the ground?

You have to have a bench to win titles. To me, to say that the bench we have this year is basically the same as the one last year with Posey, PJ and Cassell on it is like saying there is no difference between a Filet Mignon and Cheeseburger from McDonald's. And the result is that these hall of famers are playing way too many "hard" minutes right now. They don'have the gas.

As Jick said Ainge lost key pieces, did nothing and thought it would work. It isn't.

My question is why but a Rolls Royce and then put Bicycle tires on it? What's the point?

I'm sitll hoping Ainge has a PJ / Cassell move in his pocket. I'm also hoping it's not too late, we don't lose homecourt and it costs us a ring.

Why go get the hall of famers and then sell them short.

We don't need superstars, just decent solid Vet role players that's it.

       

[ScoobyDoo]

Perk out with shoulder injury...NO ONE...to legitmatelly replace him...

Rolls Royce with bicycle tires...

[orrzor]

Still surprised Ainge did not go hard after Deke. That's got to mean he already feels confident he can find a backup C right?