Yesterday I responded to this post, but the more I thought about it the more I felt I needed to clarify my thought process regarding this thread and its emergence on the day of the parade following Ray's performance in the finals.
So just to clarify:
I HATE THIS THREAD!!!
ok, now I can take my medication.
This thread is over a month old. If you don't like my take on trading Ray, you should reply back with some information on why the C's should not trade Ray. Or say nothing at all and just skip it. There are many topics that have arguments that I don't agree with, but I always try to counter with well thought out ideas and statistics.
This is a fantasy sports junkie thread. Utter nonsense in the real world filled with real people.
Anyway, why not wait to see how he does two years after double ankle surgery before you trade him for Jamal "Black Hole" Crawford and the Knicks' tag team entry into the Nathan's hot-dog eating contest? He might even continue to get better as the surgery recedes farther into the past--see e.g., hangtime on Game 4 baseline reverse layup.
Good lord...
In two years, when Ray is old and worthless, I think your memories of him may not be so great.
In two years, even if Ray is broke, out of the league, has undergone a sex change operation, and spends his days huffing wet cement fumes on the side of the road, my memories of him will remain fond, because he was our most consistent player in the NBA Finals that garnered us #17, shattering the Finals record for 3 pointers made and exposing my least favorite player in the NBA, Sasha Vujicaicaciczktiz, as the newt that he is at the end of Game 4, and nobody can change that.
I'm not saying the guy should retire a Celtic, though it'd be nice. But he was very efficient during the regular season, was as up and down as the rest of team versus Atlanta, had a bad Cleveland series (to say the least, though I think Doc helped turn the cold streak into a full-fledged slump by not running enough plays for him to get a rhythm going (with the exception somewhat of the second half of Game 2), and was just flat-out disco from the second half of the Detroit series onward (don't forget Game 5 of that series, which we absolutely would not have won without the way he played at the beginning of the game and at the end of the game). There's evidence there that the guy still has more of a groove to settle into during the second half of his career, and I think he can be a very efficient, productive player for about another half-decade or so, with at least 2-3 more All-Star seasons in there.
I also agree with one of the few semi-coherent observations I've ever heard Scoop Jackson make: the slump may have forced Ray, on the fly, to sharpen other aspects of his game--just look at his Game 1 of the Finals line, or the energy he played with in Game 4 of the Detroit series when his shot wasn't falling.
I don't think he'll be old and worthless in 24 months--far from it--but if you do, then I guess we'll just have to agree to disagree. I think he's going to have a heck of a season next year, and will understand/test/work with the limitations of his body post-surgery even more successfully.
At the very least, I hope you hope I'm right and you're wrong, since we'll in all likelihood be keeping him for another season or two, and we're all Celtics fans here.
Topic: Trading Ray in his last year-should it be done? (Read 43131 times)