I voted "None of the Above." The real reason is because Danny was a combo guard, so that's what he knows best. ;Di
You could be more right than you know
Ainge has missed out on a lot of talent, especially during that era, just as the front office missed out on a ton of talented players during his career in Boston, so I guess that it's come full circle
True, good/great centers or big men with any discernible level of skill are hard to come by, but that's why it's so frustrating when it's often pretty clear who those guys are, and yet he passes over them. Many people point to Marc Gasol, and I must admit that I wasn't as into the draft as I am now, but that would have been a coup for the ages. In the 2nd round!?
Wow. Strike one. The very next year, Hibbert slipped, but not nearly far enough, even though I believe Danny was interested in him, and he was traded on draft day to Indiana for Jermaine O'Neal. Outstanding move by Bird, even if it took some time to pay off. I'm always frustrated at how Ainge says that he wanted to take player X, or that he was interested in this other dude. Well, saying isn't enough - you've got to go out and do it. After 07-08, the only guys who were untouchable, imo, were the fantastic four, and possibly Leon Powe, but everyone else could have been moved. Take Perkins, for example. He's a role player, at best, whose value, along with Big Baby's, was never higher than after the 2009 postseason. That was the time to trade them for potentially awesome draft picks, like the one the Jazz had from the Knicks that wound up being #9 in 2010. We could have signed Ben Wallace as his replacement and been more than compensated for his departure, but we didn't. You don't get many chances to improve a contending team on the fly, if at all, and Danny should know this, but history suggests that he doesn't. Who else needed a post defender after 2008 that could have yielded us a pick to select Hibbert? Toronto? Maybe. Phoenix? If Shaq hadn't been traded there, absolutely, because that was always the gaping hole in their lineup, and they needed someone cheap, to boot, and Perk easily fits all of those requirements, but alas, nothing happened.
At the very least, Deandre Jordan was a no-brainer, both at the time, and now, but that's me. What were our needs that offseason? Posey, Posey, Posey, Posey, as well as replacements for Sam Cassell and PJ Brown. What about Keyon Dooling (a free agent at the time) and the Birdman, who Danny passed over, despite, again, being heavily interest in the guy for years, for Patrick O'Bryant. Stop. Carlos Delfino was another guy who could have helped, although, after seeing him play this year, Alan Anderson would have been my choice, and what about Bonzi Wells? My point here is that, yes virginia, we did have options
Bottom line, we need much better scouts at the absolute minimum, or maybe it's time for a change at the top, because Danny doesn't know what he's doing, imo, especially when it comes to the draft. Adding a guy like Gasol to that 08-09 team may not have yielded a title that year because of KG's injury
, but I don't doubt that we could have won it all in 2010 with him inside instead of Perk. HUGE UPGRADE. Ugh.
Poll
Topic: Poll: Celtics haven't drafted many good centers under Ainge. Why? (Read 18537 times)