Danny Ainge holding out?

[GaBerkowitz]

while that is a fair point...remember we did get back KG, a top 10 all time forward in the league.  The Lakers got back a talented, but softer than soft 7'0 llama look-a-like named Pau Gasol.

[BballTim]

The only player I am even remotely upset that we didn't get done at the money that they signed for elsewhere is Kurt Thomas. Other than that, when it comes to the financial aspect of things, I think Danny did a good job staying away from these guys listed above at the price it would have taken to sign them.

And I think you place a bit too much interest in some of the players you listed. There is just no way I would even consider, at any price, any of the following:

Darius Miles
Antoine Walker
Gerald Green
Kwame Brown
Ricky Davis
Dahntay Jones
Adonal Foyle
Brian Skinner

or a guy you didn't list

Shaun Livingston.

Nick, You don't think Foyle or Kwame could fill that role as a backup C?

I would have signed Theo Ratliff or Kurt Thomas to fill in the backup center position and that's it. Foyle last year lost his backup role to a guy named Marcin Gortat and is currently third on the Magic derth chart and Brown signed for 2 years at $4 million a year in Detroit. For what he can contribute to a team, that is an obscene amount of money.

If I was going to make a questionable $8 million investment oi anyone this off season, it would have been giving James Posey his fourth guaranteed year and not to a stiff like Kwame Brown.

Of course, that's just the way I look at it. I honestly don't see either of those guys being able to contribute anything more to the team than Patrick O'Bryant. I've never seen O'Bryant play and I willing to give him the benefit of the doubt over Foyle and Brown, who I did see play last year and were awful.

You saw Kwame Brown play last year?  Big Grizz fan, huh? 

No, I actually saw more of him while watching Laker games late on TNT and League Pass than I saw him in Memphis, which is another reason why I can't understand how David Stern could allow the trade between the Grizless and the Fakers to happen. He was basically the centerpiece of the deal headed to Memphis. That that deal was allowed to go through is mind boggling considering just how poorly he had been playing in LA.

Very few people league wide, whether they be writers or front office personnel, questions the Jerry West connection between those two teams in that trade but I've heard all sorts of innuendos about the McHale-Ainge-Celtic relationship when the Garnett trade was made. It's not like we traded Theo Ratliff and a couple of scrubs and a bad draft pick for him, which is what the Lakers sent the Grizless in the Gasol trade.

The Celtics sent Minnesota a top 5 pick, a future dominating big man with All Star potential, an excellent 6th man option, an $11 million expiring contract, and a PG that is young, learning and has potential to be a good starting PG in this league. We got Garnett.

The Lakers sent nowhere near that type of package for Gasol.

Sorry, got off track, didn't mean to go off subject but I still had that rant left in me about the crap McHale gets in the KG trade nationwide and how Chris Wallace gets little comparatively.

  We didn't really send them a top 5 pick, did we?

[kozlodoev]

  We didn't really send them a top 5 pick, did we?

We sent them their own pick, which was a top 5 pick for them, but not for us, since it had all sorts of protections. So it depends on how you spin it.

[CelticsWhat35]

  We didn't really send them a top 5 pick, did we?

We sent them their own pick, which was a top 5 pick for them, but not for us, since it had all sorts of protections. So it depends on how you spin it.

You're right, but there's really no way to spin it.  We gave them our own 1st rounder for 2009, which in all likelihood will be in the 25-30 range, as well as the Wolves protected 1st rounder back, which was going to turn into a 2012 2nd rounder for us.  There was no "top 5 pick" that we gave up.

[jdub1660]

In regards to all the hate on the players that I think have talent(definitely not as much as Posey) but players that had more talent than an empty seat on the bench, the point is that we need someone. If any of the big 3 gets hurt, who plays their minutes. I don't want Scalabrine in there period to replace Pierce minutes, and you can't expect our draft picks to do much more than than half of what Tony Allen did last season. As much as I wish the signing of House and Tony would make up for losing Posey, it won't. We need experienced players on the bench, and of those we need a true SF that can shoot and play team defense. I wouldn't pick anyone on that list before Posey, but we lost him. And along with losing Posey, we also lost the opportunity of getting role players to at least do part of what he did. There is and was no Posey replica out there, but there were free agents that together with our 2 re-signings could put together enough production to make up for Posey's departure...but too late for most of them. The free agent list is drying up fast, and our offseason has nothing more to show for than signing 2 players for chemistry and drafting 2 possible prospects that no other team wanted. There have been posts bragging about the average age decreasing from last year...but that doesn't make up for the loss of talent. I could put my 13 year old brother on the team to bring the age average down, but that doesn't make him the 6th man of he year

[mkogav]

I know the season has yet to begun, but has Ainge missed out on too many key additions for the returning champs to make a run at another ring?

  No.

Seriously, the team is the same as last year except for the departure of Posey, Sammy, and the tall injured guy.

Barring injury, the Cs are still the beast of the east. The only East team which made themselves drastically better was Phili. Cleveland hasn't done anything. Detroit?

Orlando and the Raptors should be better b/c they are young teams with  more experience.

Can't wait for the finals next year.

Mk

[Eeyore III]

mkogav,

You're forgetting about PJ Brown--you know, the guy who came in when Perk got injured or picked up his usual two quick fouls.  He and Posey were the first two guys off the bench, and they're gone. 

And no, O'Blount and Medical Bill Walker aren't adequate replacements.

I can only hope/trust that Danny has something more up his sleeve.  Otherwise, we'll contend, but unless someone has a break-out year we'll be worse.  We could still win it all, but we'll be worse than last year's team.

[Birdbrain]

mkogav,

You're forgetting about PJ Brown--you know, the guy who came in when Perk got injured or picked up his usual two quick fouls.  He and Posey were the first two guys off the bench, and they're gone. 

And no, O'Blount and Medical Bill Walker aren't adequate replacements.

I can only hope/trust that Danny has something more up his sleeve.  Otherwise, we'll contend, but unless someone has a break-out year we'll be worse.  We could still win it all, but we'll be worse than last year's team.

You mean the guy they didn't sign until March of this year?  How did the C's ever win 66 games last year?

Wow first Posey now PJ Brown will keep the C's from repeating.  Sure.

** Edit I believe I may overstated your opinion sometimes my reading comprehension is lacking.

[BballTim]

mkogav,

You're forgetting about PJ Brown--you know, the guy who came in when Perk got injured or picked up his usual two quick fouls.  He and Posey were the first two guys off the bench, and they're gone. 

And no, O'Blount and Medical Bill Walker aren't adequate replacements.

I can only hope/trust that Danny has something more up his sleeve.  Otherwise, we'll contend, but unless someone has a break-out year we'll be worse.  We could still win it all, but we'll be worse than last year's team.

  I honestly can't believe the number of people that think that the team that went 7-2 when KG was injured won't be able to survive the loss of Posey and PJ Brown. PJ was the guy who came in because he was the only tall backup on the roster.

[D Dub]

I know the season has yet to begun, but has Ainge missed out on too many key additions for the returning champs to make a run at another ring? In semi-numerical order here's the possible losses to Boston..."*'s" for my favs

Dallas signs Gerald Green* - Probably would have worn green again if we knew Posey was leaving sooner

See.. here is the thing.  By starting your list with Gerald Green - I kind of have a hard time taking the rest of it seriously.


There will be better players available to fill out our roster as we get closer to the trade deadline --- at which point we will still be blowing teams out regularly and had a chance to evaluate what exactly we have on our bench. 

[Eeyore III]

mkogav,

You're forgetting about PJ Brown--you know, the guy who came in when Perk got injured or picked up his usual two quick fouls.  He and Posey were the first two guys off the bench, and they're gone. 

And no, O'Blount and Medical Bill Walker aren't adequate replacements.

I can only hope/trust that Danny has something more up his sleeve.  Otherwise, we'll contend, but unless someone has a break-out year we'll be worse.  We could still win it all, but we'll be worse than last year's team.

  I honestly can't believe the number of people that think that the team that went 7-2 when KG was injured won't be able to survive the loss of Posey and PJ Brown. PJ was the guy who came in because he was the only tall backup on the roster.

Who said anything about "surviving"?  My points are

1.

[Eeyore III]

mkogav,

You're forgetting about PJ Brown--you know, the guy who came in when Perk got injured or picked up his usual two quick fouls.  He and Posey were the first two guys off the bench, and they're gone. 

And no, O'Blount and Medical Bill Walker aren't adequate replacements.

I can only hope/trust that Danny has something more up his sleeve.  Otherwise, we'll contend, but unless someone has a break-out year we'll be worse.  We could still win it all, but we'll be worse than last year's team.

  I honestly can't believe the number of people that think that the team that went 7-2 when KG was injured won't be able to survive the loss of Posey and PJ Brown. PJ was the guy who came in because he was the only tall backup on the roster.

Sorry, hit wrong button.

Who said anything about "surviving."  My points are:

1. PJ Brown > POB (At least for 2008-09)
2. Posey > Medical Bill (At least for 2008-09)

and therefore 2007-08 Celtics > 2008-09 Celtics.  We still could win it all, but there are legitimate questions to be raised about the roster at this point.

[Champzilla]

Eeyore your point 1. doesn't make any sense.  We didn't have PJ Brown at the start of the season so you can't compare him to O'Bryant.  You have to compare him to Pollard who was considered our backup center at the start of last season.  IMO O'Bryant > Pollard, Pollard only played in 22 games and did nothing.

[BballTim]

mkogav,

You're forgetting about PJ Brown--you know, the guy who came in when Perk got injured or picked up his usual two quick fouls.  He and Posey were the first two guys off the bench, and they're gone. 

And no, O'Blount and Medical Bill Walker aren't adequate replacements.

I can only hope/trust that Danny has something more up his sleeve.  Otherwise, we'll contend, but unless someone has a break-out year we'll be worse.  We could still win it all, but we'll be worse than last year's team.

  I honestly can't believe the number of people that think that the team that went 7-2 when KG was injured won't be able to survive the loss of Posey and PJ Brown. PJ was the guy who came in because he was the only tall backup on the roster.

Sorry, hit wrong button.

Who said anything about "surviving."  My points are:

1. PJ Brown > POB (At least for 2008-09)
2. Posey > Medical Bill (At least for 2008-09)

and therefore 2007-08 Celtics > 2008-09 Celtics.  We still could win it all, but there are legitimate questions to be raised about the roster at this point.

  I wasn't referring only to you. And you left out players who should be better in 2008-2009 than they were last year, such as Rondo, Powe, Davis, Perk or Tony Allen as well as the improved chemistry/confidence from playing together for a year as well sa winning a title. It's not a given that 2007-08 Celtics > 2008-09 Celtics.

[jdub1660]

I know the season has yet to begun, but has Ainge missed out on too many key additions for the returning champs to make a run at another ring? In semi-numerical order here's the possible losses to Boston..."*'s" for my favs

Dallas signs Gerald Green* - Probably would have worn green again if we knew Posey was leaving sooner

See.. here is the thing.  By starting your list with Gerald Green - I kind of have a hard time taking the rest of it seriously.


There will be better players available to fill out our roster as we get closer to the trade deadline --- at which point we will still be blowing teams out regularly and had a chance to evaluate what exactly we have on our bench. 

The only reason Gerald Green was first on the list was b/c he was one of the 1st free agents signed this summer. Look online and find that I went in order by date of signing, even though that wasn't my original intention.