We'll know the fate of Giddens today...

[jdpapa3]

I remember us in the chatroom on draft night imploring Danny to pick CDR.

And then we were like "J.R Who" when we heard the pick.

I will know set myself on fire

I also remember people freaking out saying Marcus Williams over Rondo...I'm happy with the guys in charge, even if they messed up with Giddens.

[moiso]

Yeah, Jay Bilas almost had me jealous of the teams that took Marcus Williams( Kidd with a nice shot), and Randy Foye (Dwyane Wade #2).  Ainge has done a pretty good job.  Still, I never again want the C's to draft a superior athlete with absolutely no handle like Kedrick, Gerald, Giddens.  If the great athlete can't beat his defender, the athleticm is useless on offense.

[wiley]

I think Danny drafted for raw talent in the first round with the intention of trading them at some point.  He chose experienced players with some kind of issue (undersized / injury) who could contribute in the second round.

I've always thought Rivers is grossly overrated in here and everywhere else as a developer of players.  Perk and Jefferson were going nowhere until Clifford Ray came on board.  The defense was a collossal joke until Thibs came on board.

I could not agree more.  There were so many players who looked good (Rondo, Gomes, Powe, etc etc etc) that Doc would bench in favor of worse players (Telfair, Scalabrine, etc).  I still don't think Doc has been all that influential in Rondo's development, and Doc's defenses were awful.  Doc becomes a good coach when there aren't a lot of options for rotations and he's surrounded by assistants who come up with the actual schemes.  Thankfully that is the case now.

I hope you don't think winning a championship has to do only with schemes...

[wiley]

And a couple of things on Danny.  Put me on the side that considers him a draft guru.  And I include in that his total approach to the draft and the team's results, not just going back in hindsight and looking at this or that player/pick.

I do count the Giddens pick as a rare miss by Danny, but not an egregious one by any means, because I think he gambled and I think he knew he was gambling...Nevertheless, a couple of players picked later have panned out to a degree that makes the Giddens pick count as a miss in my book.

Gerald Green is not a miss imo.  How many people on this site would have commit suicide had we not taken Gerald?  You have to gamble on that kind of talent.  Other GM's who passed on Gerald look very good (and a few bad again for not taking Granger) for not taking him, but Larry in particular looks good (the later you don't take Gerald the better you look, plus he got Granger), but none of that is on Danny.  If you approach it without hindsight, he really had no choice with that pick, imo.