It's not the best bench in the league, but it's not terrible.
Terrible is a strong adjective. But I'm with CoachBo here, it's not a championship bench right now. From what we know now, it's basically last year's bench without its two best players. Any reasonable person would exchange this bench for at least 10 of the others benches from the league.
One can't just assume that everything good will happen. Doing that maybe delusional. O'Bryant will be a reliable backup? Long shot. Who knows for sure? Powe and BBDavis will improve? Perhaps. Rondo, Perks? Ditto. Pruitt will show he's a NBA player? I don't know. Is Tony Allen go back an entire season to his few months of good production? How can one be sure of that? Can the rookies play? I don't think one can depend on wishful thinking so much.
There are evident flaws. We need size in the wings - tall swingmen with good jump-shots can kill Tony Allen. We need size in the frontcourt. Who's going to guard 7ft jump-shooters like Gasol, Ilgauskas, Dirk, if we face them in the playofs? We need experience. What if the 4 rookies (Pruitt and O'Bryant are basically in their 1st year) bust? Or 3 of them? We don't have a clear 6th man. If Allen doesn't improve, his turnover rate can be a killer in a playoffs series. More spacing wouldn't hurt.
Perhaps everybody will improve, or at least enough guys, to make this bench, as it stands, good enough to compete in the playoffs. But I'm pretty sure Ainge isn't counting on that. This bench can be enough to the regular season, but unless everything good really happens, and most of the players improve a lot, is not good enough to the playoffs.
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Unlike before last summer (when the big 3 were brought together), most of the risks are with bench players down the depth chart. The starting 5 are all back with Perkins and Rondo possessing possibly unfulfilled potential still to emerge. Though Posey is gone, Powe, BBD, T. Allen and House are proven as the remaining top 4 reserves of the champion team (with some or all of the first 3 of these young reserves probably improving in expanded roles with limited chance of regressing). P. J. Brown was a playoffs revelation but contributed almost nothing during the regular season. O'Bryant has a lot to prove but, even if he is mediocre, he will contribute more than Brown and Pollard did on a combined basis before the playoffs. While he was probably overrated when drafted relatively high in as a lottery pick, O'Bryant still has upside that could be unleashed with this positive change of scenery and opportunity. Walker and Giddings are unknown quantities who might not contribute right away as rookies but, based on what we know about them and Ainge's ability to find late first round and second round gems, either or both of them could be as good or better than Gomes and Powe turned out to be when selected as second rounders. It's obvious that the 15th spot will be filled either by a Posey type bargain for the veteran minimum left at the end of free agency or with Brown/Cassell type veteran signings to plug any remaining depth chart gaps later during the season but in time for the playoffs. I have no complaints.
Topic: I see now what dannys plan was, lineup is set (Read 22439 times)