Did Ainge Have the Worst Offseason

[winsomme]

Ainge was handcuffed by Posey & his agent. 

How so?  What did Posey and/or his agent do that was wrong, unethical, or misleading?  If Danny misread the situation, and didn't have a viable contingency in place, isn't that on Danny, rather than Posey's agent?

i agree that DA made a mistake with Posey, but that said i disagree with many about what exactly the nature of the mistake was..

many believe Danny should have cut bait on Pose earlier and gone after guys like Pietrus, Barnes, Mo Evans, etc...

personally, i would take Pose ten times over compared to those guys.

so the problem with DA, as i see it, was not committing sooner to the 4th year...he clearly did not see NO offering that deal and if he did, he didn't see Pose not giving him a chance to match it...

but targeting Pose IMO was the right decision.

as for the rest of our bench rotation - Powe, BBD, Eddie, TA - they were fine last year, so i see no reason why they wouldn't be fine this year...

the problem is that without Pose, the rest of the bench has been needed to take on more responsibilities and that IMO has made them less effective. With Pose, BBD and Powe could just focus on battling underneath and wreaking havoc, but now we really need them to be a reliable scoring option, and that, so far, has not proved to be their game...

[winsomme]

 Clearly Ainge wanted Posey back. The fact that he didn't offer Posey all of that money over 4 years is a pretty strong indication that signing him would have caused issues. I don't think that Danny's shared that issue with us, whether it's based on his budget or future financial considerations. That doesn't imply that a reason doesn't exist.

the reports that i heard were that they didn't get a chance to match the deal Pose got with NO.

so the ultimate decision about how important these financial considerations were for that 4th year (remember they offered the full for 3 years) was actually taken out of their hands.

we will never know for sure if they would have matched, but my impression was, given that they passed on the rest of the FAs out their to wait for Pose, that they would have gone that 4th year...

[Chris]

 Clearly Ainge wanted Posey back. The fact that he didn't offer Posey all of that money over 4 years is a pretty strong indication that signing him would have caused issues. I don't think that Danny's shared that issue with us, whether it's based on his budget or future financial considerations. That doesn't imply that a reason doesn't exist.

the reports that i heard were that they didn't get a chance to match the deal Pose got with NO.

so the ultimate decision about how important these financial considerations were for that 4th year (remember they offered the full for 3 years) was actually taken out of their hands.

we will never know for sure if they would have matched, but my impression was, given that they passed on the rest of the FAs out their to wait for Pose, that they would have gone that 4th year...

I think Danny was pretty clear that whether they were given the chance or not (I believe they were), they would not have matched it.  Danny did not want to go to 3 years, and he wouldn't even consider 4.

Letting Posey walk was absolutely a conscious decision by Danny.  Only time will tell whether it was the correct decision or not.

I still comment on the original question, since I don't think the story has been written yet.  So far, it looks like Danny did have a bad offseason, but he still has plenty of time to redeem himself...as do the players.

[BballTim]

 Clearly Ainge wanted Posey back. The fact that he didn't offer Posey all of that money over 4 years is a pretty strong indication that signing him would have caused issues. I don't think that Danny's shared that issue with us, whether it's based on his budget or future financial considerations. That doesn't imply that a reason doesn't exist.

the reports that i heard were that they didn't get a chance to match the deal Pose got with NO.

so the ultimate decision about how important these financial considerations were for that 4th year (remember they offered the full for 3 years) was actually taken out of their hands.

we will never know for sure if they would have matched, but my impression was, given that they passed on the rest of the FAs out their to wait for Pose, that they would have gone that 4th year...

  Ainge may or may not have had the chance to match NO's offer but he certainly had the chance to offer Posey a 4 year deal and it seemed pretty clear that Posey would have stayed for that money. Ainge (at some point) offered Posey 3 years. Posey's agent said no because they wanted a longer deal. Ainge didn't offer the 4th year.

  Also, there were a lot of reports that we were talking to Maggette before he isgned with GS. Clearly they were looking at other options while they were talking to Posey.

[jdpapa3]

I've said this a bunch, but you can't judge it yet. Look at our rotation in January and our rotation in June last year. Completely different.

Doc could be slowly bringing the rooks/POB/Gabe along to becoming role players. It's like how the Red Sox treat their pitching. They didn't just throw Masterson out there to the wolves in their first homestand of the season or against the Yankees. They ease him into the role with stints against the Orioles on a Wednesday night. Doc isn't throwing our young guys into the fire early because early failure can absolutely kill confidence.

Most of us see that Gabe has the talent to play in this league. Doc isn't an idiot. He is easing him into the rotation with stints in the second quarter in games where the team is up 10 points. That's how he started out. Now, Gabe is consistently getting those minutes in the first half, irregardless of the score. He is also getting some end of 3rd/4th time, also. Doc doesn't want the kid's ego to get bruised. He's putting him into positions where the failures can only be minimal. I think the Bill Walker rookie implementation process will start soon as well.

If we get knocked out in the second round, fine, it definitely is a failure of an offseason, but it's too early to call at this time. Joe Smith/Marbury/any vet FA will have us at the top of choice list.

[LarBrd33]

I like to think Danny has a plan.  I think his patience will pay off. 

It might pay off in late Feb.  People predict their will be lots of action at the deadline.  Something might fall in our laps.

And long term we are in pretty good shape.

[Bankshot]

I like to think Danny has a plan.  I think his patience will pay off. 

It might pay off in late Feb.  People predict their will be lots of action at the deadline.  Something might fall in our laps.

And long term we are in pretty good shape.

Danny may have had a plan.  But it wasn't a good one and it failed miserably.

[Andy Jick]

part of his plan included no other teams in the east getting much better...he gambled that his roster, minus posey, was still good enough to win another title.

time will tell, but this team is not a championship team right now...

[Lucky17]

Posey wanted the full MLE, if I'm not mistaken.

Sign Posey, you'd likely have no House. Ownership also holds their nose as Ainge spends additional money (and takes luxury tax hits) resigning Allen and Cassell and taking a flier on POB.

There'd also be no additional money to attract a released player (Joe Smith, etc.) with other than a minimum-level contract.

The team, as currently constructed, has the best record vs. conference foes (23-4).

Is the sky really falling because Ainge chose bench depth over putting all his eggs in the Posey basket?

[housecall]

Ainge was handcuffed by Posey & his agent.  He did the CORRECT thing in letting him walk instead of a contract that would have hurt us later on.  He picked up a true big with a nice offensive skill set for a project (for nothing).  Drafted 2 players who are nba ready.  Has Sam ready to be part of the coaching staff and his spot can be filled, Ainge isn't done yet.
Better question, Davis work on anything in the off season?

[gustusias]

We will have to se if there are future developments that can be connected to the past offseason, i.e. the additional players. I would say that they did mess up on Miles. They really need a tall player who can defend at the small forward. Not just that Miles is servicable at power forward as well against certain players. I have no idea in the world why Sam Cassells is here, unless in order to get him last year they agreed to a wink-wink arrangement about this year. Also, it would seem that either Walker or what's his  name, Gidden, would have been enough, but not both. O'Bryant is one collosal failure, Even know with Perk out, he is getting no time on the copurt. Yeah, his offseason was terrible. Also, it seems that resigning Tony Allen wasn't the greatest idea on basketball creek either. How many here would rather see Pruitt instead of Tony off the bench? I think I will open a new thread with that.

[housecall]

Than any other contending team?  I would think so.  Doc was on PTI yesterday and said that while teams like Cleveland and Orlando got better the Celtics didn't.  He also said that the Celtics are younger than they were last year, which is true.

I don't get it.  All they talked about after winning the championship last year was that they would have to get better in order to repeat, but instead they do absolutely nothing to improve the team and in fact made it worse!

Ainge and the owners stiffed the Big 3 by sticking them with young and inconsistent players rather than seasoned vets like last year.  They knew other teams would get better, yet did nothing to better themselves.

Like I said, I don't get it. 

good post,tp

[LarBrd33]

I like to think Danny has a plan.  I think his patience will pay off. 

It might pay off in late Feb.  People predict their will be lots of action at the deadline.  Something might fall in our laps.

And long term we are in pretty good shape.

Danny may have had a plan.  But it wasn't a good one and it failed miserably.

How's the future?  Is Obama doing well?   Did Tom Brady ever return to form?

[LarBrd33]

Like I said... I think Danny HAS a plan.  It's still early.  The trade deadline is next month.  The media talks about how there is going to be a unusual frenzy of trades due to economic reasons.  We'll see what happens... but it's likely going to be an interesting deadline.  I expect there will be a lot of players cut and bought out in the aftermath.  One example we hear a ton about (just an example):  Marbury.  The Knicks are going to hold onto him until the deadline to see if they can get a potential trade for him.  They also probably want to wait until after the Celtics visit NY.   Then, Marbury will likely be bought out if no trade is found.  Heck... even if a trade IS found, Marbury will likely be bought out by his new team. 

We'll start to hear a lot of rumors in the coming weeks...

I seem to think Danny had enough foresight to realize this.  He didn't want to pay Posey for 4 years.  I don't blame him.  And he didn't like any of the other "options" that were available at the time.  I don't blame him there either.   So we'll see what happens.     

[ThreadCrasher]

If nothing else it was a big risk to make the moves he made.  With the Rise of Lebron, it appears the east is going to be a tough conference to win for the next decade.  I wish he would have been more aggressive toward THIS season and dealt with 2011 and beyond in the summer of 2011...

The rotation has gotten younger...TA, BBD, a little of Pruitt.  The end of the bench with POB, Giddens, and Walker are no help this year.  And none of those guys are very attractive to other teams in trades.

If the stars align and Marbury rises like a pheonix in a Celtic's Uni and the 'right' big is released/lured out of retirement...we have a great chance at a repeat.  Otherwise, the big three have to be ready for 28 games of 40+ minutes with no let downs.

And not signing Posey had better turn into a positive (meaning use that flexibility to bring in a player better than Posey)...