One of the few things I agreed with Kyrie on was the need for a “15 year veteran”. Having a guy like Johnson would have provided more than Carsen Edwards.
well yeah, but only because Edwards just sucked. A team that isn't really a contender doesn't need 15 year veterans, it needs young players that could be decent some day. The problem with Edwards was he just wasn't any good and was never going to be any good. He didn't have NBA size and couldn't do anything at a NBA level.
The Kyrie-era Celtics were supposed to be a contender. Mind you, Carsen Edwards wasn't on that particular team, but the point is the Celtics #12-14 players were Robert Williams (rookie), Semi, and Yabusele in Kyrie's second year. With Tatum and Brown already playing major roles in their second and third years, the Celtics would have been better served to have one more vet and two prospects rather than all three of those guys. Heck, they could have just signed a vet for the year as opposed to leaving the spot open until buyout season. A Vince Carter or Joe Johnson type for the end of the bench would have been helpful.
key word supposed to be, but Ainge knew they were not, which is why he wanted Davis so badly and made basically no moves other than signing rookies for 2 years. The 1st and 2nd year players that season were Williams and Wanamaker as rookies and then Yabu, Theis, Tatum, Semi, and Dozier (as the 2W). So the only guy of that group not still in the league is Yabu. Tatum, Williams, and Theis are all starters and Semi and Dozier (until his injury) were rotation players on good to great teams. Now if you want to say that that is a bit too many young guys, perhaps, but it isn't like a guy like Carter or Johnson was going to help Boston beat Milwaukee in the playoffs, so I have no problem with the team taking flyers on young guys who weren't in the rotation anyway (aside from Tatum and Theis). I mean the 10 deep rotation was Irving, Rozier, Smart, Brown, Tatum, Morris, Hayward, Horford, Baynes, and Theis. Who is a 15 year vet actually going to play over? In the playoffs, Theis dropped out of the main rotation and they went 9 deep until Smart got hurt and then went 8 deep. A veteran wasn't going to play and wasn't going to do anything. Ainge absolutely made the right call in going for the young guys and he mostly got them right that year with Yabu the glaring exception.
