Danny might be able to sign him. But at this point, after the Cassell debacle late last season, I don't think Danny can force Doc to play him. It would be a huge mistake that could polarize this team.
Where does this come from? First of all, I was never a Cassell guy. I wasn't excited about the signing before it happened and I had much lower expectations of him than many on this board. But calling his signing/play a debacle is ridiculous.
But, more to the point, where did you get the notion that Danny foisted Sam on Doc and tried to force Doc play Sam? Either you have quotes to back this up or you're just making things up to cast aspersions on Danny's judgement/abilities as a gm.
I get the notion that Cassell was forced upon Doc to play him from observations, personal speculations, and personal observations from what transpired.
House was playing well. Suddenly Cassell is brought in and he is eating up Eddie's minutes. Cassell wasn't just struggling he was horrible and yet Cassell was continued to be played. Finally the whole Cassell experiment was tossed aside, Eddie came back and the team played much better.
Will you dispute any of that?
Well, my speculation is that there were conversations where it was mentioned to Doc to get Cassell up to speed with the team because he would be needed for the playoffs. He had a lot of advantages over Eddie as a backup PG. He would be needed in that capacity.
That's my speculation. I have no proof those conversations occurred. I think it's foolhardy to believe they didn't.
Do I think Danny went out of his way to say to Doc that he had to play Sam over Eddie? No. But we have all worked with people who were our superiors within a working place and had things discussed about how that person would like to see things transpire without being told point blank what was expected to be done. It was understood. I think this was one of those things.
Or will Danny cut ties early and call him a mistake? Danny has invested $3.1 million in O'Bryant, more if you count salary cap penalties. Danny gave the team's entire LLE to O'Bryant, or near enough. Could it have been spent wiser? Is that money wasted? Could this be a rather decent sized miscalculation for Danny? Would a more known commodity, someone like a Jake Voskul or Michael Doleac have been the more intelligent move?
Would either of these players be playing over BBD? Would they have been active for all 4 games or would they have been sitting in suits with Sam? And, if they weren't playing, wouldn't you be claiming that Danny miscalculated when he signed them?
How many gms look like geniuses if you judge them on players who are on the roster but not part of the regular rotation?
First off, read the post I wrote. I said players like those and not necessarily those too players. I also said that he could have gotten a proven player to fit in as the tenth player in the rotation, not ahead of BBD.
I do believe a good proven veteran would have been playing some minutes each of the four games as the tenth person in a rotation. Doc likes long benches although maybe he has learned his lesson because I love the nine man rotation he is going with. Love it. But a good proven vet, yeah I could see that guy getting minutes ahead of Gabe Pruitt(2nd year guy, no experience), Bill Walker and J R Giddens(unproven rookies, no experience), Sam Cassell(washed up vet that is here to coach), and Scal(nuff said, he's an air ball waiting to happen).
It is still probably way to early to make concrete judgments regarding this move. My point was, could someone better have been a better fit for this team, because it doesn't, at this early juncture, appear that POB is? Also, my previous opinion of being open minded about his addition has turn sour and I don't like what I have seen or read about the kid in his first 5 weeks as a Celtics.
I think Danny is a fine GM and he has my loyalty. All I am saying is that he could have gaffed badly on Patrick O'Bryant. I had early firm opinions on Darius Miles and I was right. I had early opinions regarding Sam's addition last year and I was wrong. My logic is starting to tell me that Danny may have goofed here and maybe to the tune of:
$3.1 million - POB's salary
$1.55 million-$3.1 million - salary cap penalty
Vet min contract plus salary cap implication to sign another player
This total mistake might cost the team almost $7 million.
Now, maybe that second year of POB's contract isn't guaranteed, but Hoopshype is usually pretty accurate. Maybe they never cut him and maybe he gets his act together and becomes productive. If so, maybe this wasn't a mistake and maybe the money was invested wisely. We will see. But right now, I am not getting a good vibe on the situation.
Topic: How big of a miscalculation is POB? (Read 26126 times)