Celtics sign O'bryant

[Roy Hobbs]

And yet Danny still offered this guy a contract... With his track record I think I will take Danny's opinion on this one...

Now paging Brian Scalabrine. 

Again, I'm sick of the "Danny Ainge is infallible" mantra.  Danny has made maybe two shrewd free agent signings since he got here that weren't absolute no-brainers:  Eddie House and Mike James.  The rest of his free agents have been either obvious moves for the money (Posey, P.J.) or pretty poor (Scal, Googs, everybody else).

I appreciate the "In Danny we trust" slogan, but his record in evaluating free agents has been a bit spotty.  I'm not criticizing him, because overall as a GM he's been good.  However, I'm not going to trust Danny's judgment on a free agent because of some imaginary tremendous track record.

That's fine. I agree Danny has some signing that turned out better than others. Here is the point though. Danny liked the kid enough to sign him over the other guys. Danny has played college basketball at a high level, nba basketball at a high level, coached at a high level, and been a GM at a high level winning championships throughout his career. WE are guys that spend way too much time on a blog. WE didn't see the guy workout. WE didn't watch tons of tape on the guy like Danny most certainly did.  I'll take his opinion...

Sure.  And Don Nelson did all of those things, too.  He hated O'Bryant, so we're back to square one.  I'll trust what my own eyes tell me.  I wasn't impressed when he was at Bradley, and I've seen little to change my mind since.  I of course hope I'm wrong, but I seriously doubt that he makes a meaningful contribution this season.

I suppose the upside is, if 40% of Doc's roster is filled with rookies and guys who don't belong on the court, he'll be absolutely forced into playing an 8 or 9 man rotation.   

[Chris]

And yet Danny still offered this guy a contract... With his track record I think I will take Danny's opinion on this one...

Now paging Brian Scalabrine. 

Again, I'm sick of the "Danny Ainge is infallible" mantra.  Danny has made maybe two shrewd free agent signings since he got here that weren't absolute no-brainers:  Eddie House and Mike James.  The rest of his free agents have been either obvious moves for the money (Posey, P.J.) or pretty poor (Scal, Googs, everybody else).

I appreciate the "In Danny we trust" slogan, but his record in evaluating free agents has been a bit spotty.  I'm not criticizing him, because overall as a GM he's been good.  However, I'm not going to trust Danny's judgment on a free agent because of some imaginary tremendous track record.

That's fine. I agree Danny has some signing that turned out better than others. Here is the point though. Danny liked the kid enough to sign him over the other guys. Danny has played college basketball at a high level, nba basketball at a high level, coached at a high level, and been a GM at a high level winning championships throughout his career. WE are guys that spend way too much time on a blog. WE didn't see the guy workout. WE didn't watch tons of tape on the guy like Danny most certainly did.  I'll take his opinion...

Sure.  And Don Nelson did all of those things, too.  He hated O'Bryant, so we're back to square one.  I'll trust what my own eyes tell me.  I wasn't impressed when he was at Bradley, and I've seen little to change my mind since.  I of course hope I'm wrong, but I seriously doubt that he makes a meaningful contribution this season.

I suppose the upside is, if 40% of Doc's roster is filled with rookies and guys who don't belong on the court, he'll be absolutely forced into playing an 8 or 9 man rotation.   

The problem is, there aren't many better options out there who would sign for the minimum.  My guess is guys like Harrison and Birdman (who again, I am not a fan of) chose to hold out for more money.  So they made this signing, and are leaving it open to get someone else later, if it doesn't work out.

[SShoreFan 2.0]

By the way, I think anyone who was pining for Devon Hardin or Deandre Jordan should be very happy with this pick.  O'Bryant has every bit as much talent as either of them, and still is incredibly young for a center.

And there is a chance that the C's got him for less money, and less obligation than they would have if he was a draft pick (assuming they have options/buyouts).

I have to agree with you on the age --- that registered with me as well.  Who knows a little bulk and some maturing, he may not live up to the lottery selection but may justify being a mid first rounder.

[BrickJames]

In spite of EJPLAYA's pseudo-clairvoyant ramblings, there are people who have seen this guy play.

O'Bryant is very similar to Mark Blount.  Rudimentary differences are that O'Bryant has better hands and no jumpshot to speak of (yet, but Blount didn't early on either).

They have similar body types (but O'B needs to pack on some LBs) and similar goofiness.  O'B has trouble moving laterally (like most 7 footers do) - as someone else said though is something Bryan Doo + staff can address.  As we all know though, despite coaching, it's ultimately the player that has to respond...

Patrick is not as good as a defender as Perkins, but he is primarily a weak-side/help shot-blocker on defense.  I'm not sure how well he will respond to TT's defensive scheme, but to me he seems to have a good sense of when/where to rotate, so the outlook is promising.

He is also a somehwat better rebounder than Blount (I attribute that mostly to desire - Blount could be good when he wanted to be.)

Honestly this guy is Mark Blount take II.  I don't see that as a bad thing either, because this time around we have the veteran leadership to keep him in ch...I mean, "nurture" him.

This analytic opinion may all be moot though, because Dealer Danny is never done.

[PRIDE]

I think we need to trust DA. He must have shown something to someone in order for us to take him over Pollard. We know what we're getting out of a guy like Pollard and O'Bryant is a risk. DA or Clifford Ray must have some type of interest in him. He has legit size and he is only 22. Look at the kind of shape we put Perk into. Let him come to Waltham to workout with BBD all summer. Clifford Ray can turn him into a serviceable backup Center if anyone can. He doesn't need to dominate, just rebound and be a defensive presence when he's on the floor.

[Champzilla]

This is bad news.

[paintitgreen]

I'm fine with the move if it doesn't block us from pursuing other players. For instance, if there are better big men available, I hope we don't say, no we're all set, we've got Patrick O'Bryant. And if we used LLE/MLE money, then I'm highly suspicious of the wisdom of using it on him.

But for now, like most others, I will wait and see.

[PRIDE]

Theres no way he signed for anything above the minimum.

DA wouldn't risk losing Posey for Patrick O'Bryant.
DA wouldn't waste the LLE on him and leave it unavailable to us next year.

[thebirdman]

I never liked O`bryant but I wanted to "scout" him out a bit more. What was said before the draft, his strengths, weaknesses, stats...

I have to say after reading all this that I am not that down on the guy anymore. A good environment, veteran team, Clifford Ray is just what he needs. He might be a decent pickup afterall...

Some links...

Draftexpress: http://www.draftexpress.com/profile/Patrick-O-Bryant-333/
NBAdraft.net: http://www.nbadraft.net/admincp/profiles/patrickobryant.html


Stats:
College: http://statsheet.com/mcb/players/patrick-o-bryant
NBDL: http://www.basketball-reference.com/nbdl/players/o/obryapa01d.html
NBA: http://www.nba.com/playerfile/patrick_obryant/career_stats.html

[shookones99]

Asking "how's he going to do against a legit NBA player?" doesn't make sense since O'Bryant has already played against NBA players.

Well, sure, exactly.  And he's played very poorly against them, which is why Golden State released him.  Don Nelson was pretty unimpressed with this kid; it's not like people are evaluating him based upon one workout.

My issue right now is that of the 12 players either under contract or expected to sign with our team, five of them are either completely unproven, or they're not very good (Scal, Pruitt, Giddens, Walker, and O'Bryant).  There's room for a project or two on a championship team, but when they make up 1/3 of your roster, I think that's an issue.

I'm willing to see what else comes in free agency, but I see this as a wasted pickup.

Scal is not really a project.  Mostly just a bad signing.  The other 4 are projects and when you have a team as old and experienced as ours you need as many talented young players as you can get.   We have KG, Pierce, and Ray Allen who are 3 of the more influential people in the league.  They won't be around for too much longer and while they are here we need to take advantage of the impact that they will have on younger guys. 

If just one of those 4 guys turns out to be a real solid player than that will make a huge difference for our future.  And I do trust Danny.  I know that he isn't "infailable" but he has proven that he knows how to recognize the right type of attitude in a young player that will drive them to be succesful.  So I say the more the merrier when it comes to projects because who knows one of them may turn out to be the future of the Celtics.

[rondofan1255]

For all of those talking about how we are filling our roster with 1/3 projects, at least we aren't San Antonio (no offense to them) and loading up on past-their-prime players, ready to fall apart and go COMPLETELY into rebuilding mode anytime soon. I feel much better about this team.  The Spurs realistically have no trading chips except Manu, Parker, and Duncan. We, in a manner of speaking, are going for low-risk high-reward players who might not be a flash in the pan, which might make the window of noncontender-team after this championship much shorter.

[JSD]

And yet Danny still offered this guy a contract... With his track record I think I will take Danny's opinion on this one...

Now paging Brian Scalabrine. 

Again, I'm sick of the "Danny Ainge is infallible" mantra.  Danny has made maybe two shrewd free agent signings since he got here that weren't absolute no-brainers:  Eddie House and Mike James.  The rest of his free agents have been either obvious moves for the money (Posey, P.J.) or pretty poor (Scal, Googs, everybody else).

I appreciate the "In Danny we trust" slogan, but his record in evaluating free agents has been a bit spotty.  I'm not criticizing him, because overall as a GM he's been good.  However, I'm not going to trust Danny's judgment on a free agent because of some imaginary tremendous track record.

Scal, I'll give you that. But Googs? It was a 1 year fill-up the roster type of deal


Scal is the only bad signing DA had made.

[Lucky17]

Just came back from lunch, and see that this thread has taken off since I posted.

Forgive me for not sifting through the posts that alternately praise Ainge's infallibility and blast O'Bryant as a walking waste of skin, but have the terms been announced?

I'm willing to bet the first year is the only one guaranteed, and it's for minimum money. In other words, we're spending a few hundred thousand of Wyc's money to essentially call 'dibs' on POB through training camp. If he earns a roster spot, fine; if he can't cut it, no big loss.

I know we're all starving for some real news on the Posey/FA front, but ease off on the throttle, gents.

[PRIDE]

Some interesting things...

Averaged 13.4 ppg, 8.3 rpg, and 2.9 bpg in College. Those scoring jumpers show he can at least put some points up but he wont be needed for that here. Almost 3 block a game is pretty impressive and 8.3 boards isnt bad. If he can improve to defense and rebounding and bring up them to an NBA level then I think he is the perfect big man off the bench for years to come.

If he cant cut it in training camp, cut him. No big loss.

Its also good to finally see some kind of FA signing from DA. Now lets hope Posey gives in and we resign Eddie House or take a shot at Delonte.

[Roy Hobbs]

And yet Danny still offered this guy a contract... With his track record I think I will take Danny's opinion on this one...

Now paging Brian Scalabrine. 

Again, I'm sick of the "Danny Ainge is infallible" mantra.  Danny has made maybe two shrewd free agent signings since he got here that weren't absolute no-brainers:  Eddie House and Mike James.  The rest of his free agents have been either obvious moves for the money (Posey, P.J.) or pretty poor (Scal, Googs, everybody else).

I appreciate the "In Danny we trust" slogan, but his record in evaluating free agents has been a bit spotty.  I'm not criticizing him, because overall as a GM he's been good.  However, I'm not going to trust Danny's judgment on a free agent because of some imaginary tremendous track record.

Scal, I'll give you that. But Googs? It was a 1 year fill-up the roster type of deal


Scal is the only bad signing DA had made.

Don't forget resigning Blount and signing Dickau. 

Sure, overall, Danny hasn't made any major stabs into free agency, so it's hard to give him a solid grade.  However, to tout his amazing "track record" is off base to me.