Is O'Bryant that bad?

[rondofan1255]

O'Bryant has skill. He is very young, and very tall, and pretty athletic. It would be disappointing to me if he were cut to make roster room for Mutombo or PJ, but that is what I fear will happen.

I like watching POB play and think he should stay; I think I'm a POB fan, and I'm sure that's not common around here. If he could bulk up, I would be begging for some playing time for him. 

Regardless, I, too, would be sad to see him go.

[crownsy]

O'Bryant has skill. He is very young, and very tall, and pretty athletic. It would be disappointing to me if he were cut to make roster room for Mutombo or PJ, but that is what I fear will happen.

I like watching POB play and think he should stay; I think I'm a POB fan, and I'm sure that's not common around here. If he could bulk up, I would be begging for some playing time for him. 

Regardless, I, too, would be sad to see him go.

Forget Bulk, if he starts to run the floor and, most importantly, give effort on defense, he could be alright.

[no kidding]

O'Bryant does need to bulk up and work on keeping his butt down. But we'll have to wait until next year to see if he pans out, which is fine, because I don't see him going anywhere. If Ainge brings in someone (and I figure he'll bring in Motombo), Cassell will shift off the roster to a coaching slot.  Pruitt's developing too well (with perhaps some major credit going to Cassell for his assistance) for there to be any need for Cassell as a guard.

[TerreHaute]

O'Bryant does need to bulk up and work on keeping his butt down. But we'll have to wait until next year to see if he pans out, which is fine, because I don't see him going anywhere. If Ainge brings in someone (and I figure he'll bring in Motombo), Cassell will shift off the roster to a coaching slot.  Pruitt's developing too well (with perhaps some major credit going to Cassell for his assistance) for there to be any need for Cassell as a guard.

I agree that releasing Cassell is the way to go, before POB. However, to answer the original question. Yes, O'Bryant is that bad right now. That is not to say he has no future value. But, right now he has virtually no value to this team, other than a practice body. By no means does that mean I think we should give up on him, but if we get the chance to sign PJ or Mutumbo to take his minutes (or BBD's for that matter) we should do it. Developing POB is a great idea, but our first priority should still be winning the championship. He probably does not give us the best chance to do that this year.

[Toine43]

No harm, no foul. Danny didn't invest a lot in the gamble, and he lost. Time to move on, get a competent 5 in here and quit trying to make chicken salad out of, uh, something less.

We're 29 games into the season. After rotting on the end of the bench for Golden State, did anyone, including Danny, really expect O'Bryant to contribute for Boston by now? He has no history of success in the NBA, and Boston is a completely new system for him. He was never suppossed to come in here and play right off the bat. He is a PROJECT.

Unless Danny never had any plans for him, and just wanted an extra body in town to begin the season, POB is here to stay at least until the end of the year.

[cordobes]

No harm, no foul. Danny didn't invest a lot in the gamble, and he lost. Time to move on, get a competent 5 in here and quit trying to make chicken salad out of, uh, something less.

We're 29 games into the season. After rotting on the end of the bench for Golden State, did anyone, including Danny, really expect O'Bryant to contribute for Boston by now?

Yes. Plenty of people in this forum. During the pre-season it was almost consensual he'd be able to contribute right away; just go back to those threads. I mean, I remember reading the question if he'd start over Perkins.

Personally, I still can't see the "talent" and the "skill" people talk about. He's not even good holding the basketball in his hands or setting a pick.

[Chris]

No harm, no foul. Danny didn't invest a lot in the gamble, and he lost. Time to move on, get a competent 5 in here and quit trying to make chicken salad out of, uh, something less.

We're 29 games into the season. After rotting on the end of the bench for Golden State, did anyone, including Danny, really expect O'Bryant to contribute for Boston by now?

Yes. Plenty of people in this forum. During the pre-season it was almost consensual he'd be able to contribute right away; just go back to those threads. I mean, I remember reading the question if he'd start over Perkins.

Personally, I still can't see the "talent" and the "skill" people talk about. He's not even good holding the basketball in his hands or setting a pick.

He is long, athletic (although not tremendously coordinated...he looks uncomfortable in his body), and has good touch on his shot.  Unfortunately, he is weak, and does not know how to play basketball at this point.

[QuinielaBox]

Patrick O'Bryant is a project to be sure. He has shotblocking skills and has a nice low post game. So I think he should be kept around and given playing time sparingly until he gets used to playing with the Celtics.

[Toine43]

No harm, no foul. Danny didn't invest a lot in the gamble, and he lost. Time to move on, get a competent 5 in here and quit trying to make chicken salad out of, uh, something less.

We're 29 games into the season. After rotting on the end of the bench for Golden State, did anyone, including Danny, really expect O'Bryant to contribute for Boston by now?

Yes. Plenty of people in this forum. During the pre-season it was almost consensual he'd be able to contribute right away; just go back to those threads. I mean, I remember reading the question if he'd start over Perkins.

Personally, I still can't see the "talent" and the "skill" people talk about. He's not even good holding the basketball in his hands or setting a pick.

You're right. I phrased my post incorrectly, because in the preaseason a lot of people did assume he would get meaningful minutes immediately. But I never assumed anything, because I knew that I didn't know enough about him to make any judgements. Maybe O'Bryant starting in the preaseason sent the wrong message to people, but looking back at it now, it is obvious that he wasn't going to contribute right away.

Regardless of what the fans thought, you'll have a tough time convincing me that after doing his homework on the kid, Danny thought that he could realistically contribute immediately. Something often overlooked that suppports my argument is that we truly didn't need him to contribute immediately, and Danny knew that as well (27-2 is proof). Danny's smart, and if he wanted a rotation player instead of a project, he would have signed someone else.

I'm not saying that he is or isn't a disappointment (I don't have my hopes up about him), but I'll be shocked if he's cut midseason, because Danny had to have seen him from the start as nothing more than a project.

[DannyZ]

I call him Patrick Slow-Bryant.  He looks like he ran a marathon before he entered the game.  I think Manute Bol had quicker feet.

[CoachBo]

Danny makes mistakes. That's reality. He's always had an affection for pillow-soft unaccomplished bigs: Robert Swift, Yi (thank God we didn't draft him), Paddy.

As I've been saying since the summer, you cannot coach effort in a guy whose major asset is size, not skill. Not Paddy's fault because he certainly wasn't good enough or consistent enough in college - where there wasn't a lot of effort, either -  to warrant a lottery pick. He was merely taller than anyone else in a conference where historically there isn't a lot of size. And when he met someone who could match his size - Wichita State's Paul Miller, who never sniffed meaningful NBA time is one - the truth about him became quite apparent.

Time to move on and use the roster spot on someone who can help us win.

[crownsy]

O'Bryant does need to bulk up and work on keeping his butt down. But we'll have to wait until next year to see if he pans out, which is fine, because I don't see him going anywhere. If Ainge brings in someone (and I figure he'll bring in Motombo), Cassell will shift off the roster to a coaching slot.  Pruitt's developing too well (with perhaps some major credit going to Cassell for his assistance) for there to be any need for Cassell as a guard.

I agree that releasing Cassell is the way to go, before POB. However, to answer the original question. Yes, O'Bryant is that bad right now. That is not to say he has no future value. But, right now he has virtually no value to this team, other than a practice body. By no means does that mean I think we should give up on him, but if we get the chance to sign PJ or Mutumbo to take his minutes (or BBD's for that matter) we should do it. Developing POB is a great idea, but our first priority should still be winning the championship. He probably does not give us the best chance to do that this year.

he's our 12th man, will it really matter come playoff time if he's on the end of the bench?

i mean, what was the scal/sam/TA contribution in last years playoffs worth? (they rotated the inactive spot/12th man role so i grouped them)

[TerreHaute]

O'Bryant does need to bulk up and work on keeping his butt down. But we'll have to wait until next year to see if he pans out, which is fine, because I don't see him going anywhere. If Ainge brings in someone (and I figure he'll bring in Motombo), Cassell will shift off the roster to a coaching slot.  Pruitt's developing too well (with perhaps some major credit going to Cassell for his assistance) for there to be any need for Cassell as a guard.

I agree that releasing Cassell is the way to go, before POB. However, to answer the original question. Yes, O'Bryant is that bad right now. That is not to say he has no future value. But, right now he has virtually no value to this team, other than a practice body. By no means does that mean I think we should give up on him, but if we get the chance to sign PJ or Mutumbo to take his minutes (or BBD's for that matter) we should do it. Developing POB is a great idea, but our first priority should still be winning the championship. He probably does not give us the best chance to do that this year.

he's our 12th man, will it really matter come playoff time if he's on the end of the bench?

i mean, what was the scal/sam/TA contribution in last years playoffs worth? (they rotated the inactive spot/12th man role so i grouped them)

PJ or Mutombo would not be our 12th man, however. If we can get one of these guys and it costs us POB, I don't have a real problem with that.

[crownsy]

O'Bryant does need to bulk up and work on keeping his butt down. But we'll have to wait until next year to see if he pans out, which is fine, because I don't see him going anywhere. If Ainge brings in someone (and I figure he'll bring in Motombo), Cassell will shift off the roster to a coaching slot.  Pruitt's developing too well (with perhaps some major credit going to Cassell for his assistance) for there to be any need for Cassell as a guard.

I agree that releasing Cassell is the way to go, before POB. However, to answer the original question. Yes, O'Bryant is that bad right now. That is not to say he has no future value. But, right now he has virtually no value to this team, other than a practice body. By no means does that mean I think we should give up on him, but if we get the chance to sign PJ or Mutumbo to take his minutes (or BBD's for that matter) we should do it. Developing POB is a great idea, but our first priority should still be winning the championship. He probably does not give us the best chance to do that this year.

he's our 12th man, will it really matter come playoff time if he's on the end of the bench?

i mean, what was the scal/sam/TA contribution in last years playoffs worth? (they rotated the inactive spot/12th man role so i grouped them)

PJ or Mutombo would not be our 12th man, however. If we can get one of these guys and it costs us POB, I don't have a real problem with that.

Im saying POB would be our 12th man if we cut cassell. I was just pointing out that i doubt his preseance at the end of the pine will be the determining factor between us winning a championship or not.

[kozlodoev]

Danny makes mistakes. That's reality. He's always had an affection for pillow-soft unaccomplished bigs: Robert Swift, Yi (thank God we didn't draft him), Paddy.

Also, Kendrick Perkins and Al Jefferson, no?

Swift isn't soft. He's just been perma-injured for the last 2 season, which really isn't his fault.