Celtics sign O'bryant

[BballTim]

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.

  Danny pushed hard for Karl Malone and McDyess. They just didn't want to come to Boston. That led to Scal (who Ainge shouldn't have given 5 years to), who was probably the best FA that Danny could get to sign for a reasonable deal.

  I'd bet this is like a Brandon Wallace contract, with the first year partially guaranteed.

[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.

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.

very true.  Although I think Danny has been undeniably solid in drafting, and this kid is basically a draft pick.

[winsomme]

I don't believe he's going to be the main backup to Perkins. It's probably a high risk high reward gamble. But the risk is extremely high. I think this may mean that PJ is going to be back in March. I like that.

But if Danny had to use the LLE or part of the MLE, I'll be ...um..... upset. We need to use that $$ on players that are a lock to crack the rotation.

Agreed.

yeah, i don't have a problem with this at all. but then again, i wouldn't have had a problem bringing Pollard back for the same reasons. and i think that making a late season run at PJ makes a ton of sense.

[Triboy16]

This is a pollard replacement and not a pj brown replacement. Obryant is all potential, height, looks good but isn't consistant nor has an edge to be good

i trust danny but i dunno, this guy over chris anderson or even a guy like david harrison??

he really got no time in GS , doc and his staff are good at raising kids, who knows

[nickagneta]

I have never seen the kid play not even a minue in college or the pros. But I have read here that Nellie said the kid didn't domiante the NBDL so he's a waste.

So I looked up his D-League stats:

http://www.basketball-reference.com/nbdl/players/o/obryapa01d.html

In 33 games over 2 years his stats are:

13.2 PTS
9.7 REBS
3.0 BLKS
1.6 ASTS - a bit of a surpise for me.
0.8 STLS
FT - 80%
FG - 53.6%

So it's not dominating. But it's pretty [dang] far away from being a stiff

Danny had to have gotten this guy with a 2 year vet min and teamoption second year. There is not a chance of a snowflake in Hades that the Wrold Champs had to give a 22 yr old with his resume any more than that.

Look at it this way. If they have have a team option 2nd year and the 1st year is at the min, he is playing the role of Semih Erden for a year.

I have no opinion right now whether this is a good sign or not. Let's see what they paid him, how much of the contract is guaranteed and what he can do on the court with players that will definitely make him look better.

[Chris]

i trust danny but i dunno, this guy over chris anderson or even a guy like david harrison??

I don't think you can look at it that way.  Chances are Anderson and Harrison were both looking for more than the minimum (they both are more proven), and given the C's situation (if they want any chance of resigning Posey), they can't really afford to be using any more than the minimum for a big man who they can't completely count on (which would be all 3 of them).

[mahonedog88]

By the way the Globe describes his workout and Don Nelson's comments about it, you have to ask "Why?"

That's why I figured they signed this guy for a couple of reasons.  One, cause of the money and they knew they could get him for cheap.  Two, I have a feeling Danny signed him because KG is on this team.  If we don't have KG, then we don't sign this guy.  He's fully expecting Garnett to get into this guy's head and maybe show him some moves too.

[lon3lytoaster]

I won't knock it... It's probably a small salary deal that's going to leave all of our exceptions untouched. If he can pan out at all, it'll make Danny look like the greatest GM in sports... If it doesn't work out for us or him, whatever. It's not a big deal at all.

Now if we can still get Andersen, though... That'd be terrific. And what happened to Kirk Synder?

[P2]

O'Bryant might only be the 15th roster spot gamble, but if Danny signed him to a 2-year contract, I believe there's something behind it. He definitely didn't fit into Golden State's system, so let's see what he can do in Boston.

[PRIDE]

I think Snyder is only a backup plan if Posey leaves. I wouldnt take him over Tony Allen though.

[Cman]

I have never seen the kid play not even a minue in college or the pros. But I have read here that Nellie said the kid didn't domiante the NBDL so he's a waste.

So I looked up his D-League stats:

http://www.basketball-reference.com/nbdl/players/o/obryapa01d.html

In 33 games over 2 years his stats are:

13.2 PTS
9.7 REBS
3.0 BLKS
1.6 ASTS - a bit of a surpise for me.
0.8 STLS
FT - 80%
FG - 53.6%

So it's not dominating. But it's pretty [dang] far away from being a stiff

Danny had to have gotten this guy with a 2 year vet min and teamoption second year. There is not a chance of a snowflake in Hades that the Wrold Champs had to give a 22 yr old with his resume any more than that.

Look at it this way. If they have have a team option 2nd year and the 1st year is at the min, he is playing the role of Semih Erden for a year.

I have no opinion right now whether this is a good sign or not. Let's see what they paid him, how much of the contract is guaranteed and what he can do on the court with players that will definitely make him look better.

While we are throwing out stats, Hollinger's PER rating for O'Bryant is 13.41, which is just above Kendrik Perkins and just below Sean Williams.  Of course, this is based on really limited data, which is why Jerome James tops the list....
http://insider.espn.go.com/nba/hollinger/statistics?sort=per&qual=false&pos=c&seasonType=2&action=login&appRedirect=http%3a%2f%2finsider.espn.go.com%2fnba%2fhollinger%2fstatistics%3fsort%3dper%26qual%3dfalse%26pos%3dc%26seasonType%3d2

[ManUp]

Well at first I hated the signing, but after reading through the thread I'm ok with it. I have put on the green tinted glasses and rationalized to the point where I honestly think it's an ok move.

His college numbers and NBDL numbers are pretty good. I don't know about his work ethic, but I'll assume that Don Nelson just wasn't the right coach for him. Nelson has a reputation for not liking rookies. If Nelson doesn't like rookies I don't see him being to happy with a project like O'bryant. He was probably expecting a little too much from O'bryant. If he's able to practice he'd already be a better pickup than Pollard.

[LarBrd33]

I'm happy with this.  We got some projects at the SG and SF positions.  We got a couple PF projects (Big Baby and Powe).  But there is no legit big man project that Clifford Ray can work with.   Patrick O'Bryant is 22, 7 feet and 250 pounds.  I don't care that he's out of shape, a stiff and stinks at basketball.   That's why we have Clifford Ray as a big man coach, Perkins as a weight lifting buddy... and KG as a mental brainwashing machine.  

By mid season O'Bryant will be dropping double doubles.

[Andy Jick]

the second coming of the kandi-man...

don't like this at all...

[Evantime34]

I have several thoughts on this signing.
1. On the bright side he is a legit 7 footer who can move around.

2. People need to give him a chance, it doesn't seem like a great signing now (especially if it's for more than the min). If Bryant is trashed by the Celtics diehards before he even sees the court it does not bode well for his career.

3. We do need veterans, this year showed us Vets win championships. So far we have signed no veterans and brought in two rookies, signed a 22 year old and are probably going to increase the roles of three young players (Powe, BBD and Pruitt). That's not to say we can't still sign veterans but if we sign anymore young players (besides Livingston who I love) it will be bad.

4. If we do sign more vets replacing Pollard who never played (although he did have a hilarious segment on FSN) with a young player who doesn't play isn't a problem.