Whos to Blame?

[Roy Hobbs]

The roster construction certainly didn't help matters, but the only thing to "blame" is bad luck.  Without KG (and Powe) there was no way this team was going to win a championship.

I hope, though, that management doesn't invoke the easy "injuries" excuse, and use it to decline to upgrade the team in the off-season.  Even with KG and Powe, this team's championship aspirations were going to be an uphill climb.  With Powe hurt, free agency for BBD and others looming, and the "big three" a year older, Danny can't afford to rest on his laurels (and I doubt he will).

[BballTim]

  The reason we lost was injuries. People complain about the depth but before KG went down we were as good as any team in the league. It's not like we could have solved what happened with better depth. Take any remaining team and take away their best big and a regular backup: Denver without Nene and Kleiza, Cleveland without Z or Smith, LA without Gasol or Powell? or Orlando without Howard and Battie (or, if that's too much, Lewis and Gortat). Which team can lose those players and still be among the title favorites? Did none of those GMs make the effort to build championship rosters?

[Bankshot]

The roster construction certainly didn't help matters, but the only thing to "blame" is bad luck.  Without KG (and Powe) there was no way this team was going to win a championship.

I hope, though, that management doesn't invoke the easy "injuries" excuse, and use it to decline to upgrade the team in the off-season.  Even with KG and Powe, this team's championship aspirations were going to be an uphill climb.  With Powe hurt, free agency for BBD and others looming, and the "big three" a year older, Danny can't afford to rest on his laurels (and I doubt he will).

Agreed. Going cheap in the offseason really hurt.

[Fan from VT]

I agree that without KG, no possible moves Ainge could have made would have helped win a title. We wouldn't have stood a chance vs. cleveland without a fully healthy roster.


I also find it hard to criticize Ainge's or wyc's "cheapness" too much when we're 5th in the league in payroll. I'm pretty sure everyone knew that when you are working against a salary cap and lock up about 60 million dollars (already over the cap) between 3 players (all of whom are on the later side of their peak year), you severely limit options for acquiring players via free agency and trade. WE went all in with 3 players who were on the downslope from their primes with increased risk for injury and fatigue, and we won a title (an underappreciatedly rare event) and have some potential moving forward. what more do we want?

[KungPoweChicken]

Here's something I don't understand about management: A lot of fans  have been calling us "penny pinchers", which I understand. But is this actually true? I think it may be to some degree. But on the other hand, Danny just misfired on a lot of moves. He had nearly five million dollars locked up on players that did not contribute: Marbury, Moore, Walker, Pruitt, Giddens, Allen, and O'Bryant. It would have made more sense to spend that five million on one player who could get it done. Instead, we saw a multitude of scrubs. To me that's not penny pinching but bad management. If Ainge is indeed operating under a "Wyc Cap", he still made the wrong "penny pinching" decisions. As we all know, he missed out on The Birdman and on Joe Smith. A few simple moves, one less injury, and I think we're still in the playoffs. To reiterate this point again, why did we spend five million dollars on scrubs? When you bring luxury tax into the mix, that's more like ten million dollars spent on white towels. If I'm Wyc, I'm not very happy at where my money is being spent (or wasted).  

[Thruthelookingglass]

Why all the long posts?  I thought it always boiled down to Stern and the refs. 

[Roy Hobbs]

He had nearly five million dollars locked up on players that did not contribute: Marbury, Moore, Walker, Pruitt, Giddens, Allen, and O'Bryant. It would have made more sense to spend that five million on one player who could get it done. Instead, we saw a multitude of scrubs.  

We couldn't just spend the combined salaries of those players.  Of the above listed players, only Marbury and Walker were signed using the MLE.  The rest were signed using exceptions:  Moore - minimum salary; Pruitt - already under contract; Giddens - rookie scale; Allen - Bird rights; O'Bryant - minimum salary (despite erroneous reports to the contrary).

Overall, though, I agree that the team wasted a lot of money last season on players that didn't produce.  The Tony Allen example, of course, is the best one; we could have had a player who is just as good (Quinton Ross) for the minimum.

[LB3533]

Injuries is something that one cannot predict or have control over.

Roster construction and planning or safeguarding is something Danny, Wyc and Doc have a certain amount of control over.

We knew we were losing Posey.

We knew our roster was getting 1 year older.

We believed we could reload with players wanting to play for the gloried Boston Celtics.

We believed Perk and Rondo grew up enough to help us more than just as role players.

When reality settled it, injuries took its toll, Rondo and Perk did step up, but were not consistent enough to play at an all-star level, and that's what we needed to make up for the lack of KG and the lack of our bench.

[housecall]

Even if we had KG and Leon healthy,it would have been tougher to repeat with the way our bench was constructed.I blame the management for not bringing in any decent role players in the offseason...Its as simple as that(imo).

[celticpride07]

were lucky everything worked out the way it did last year and won it all...injuries happen and all we can hope for is good health and we will be alright next year.

[Jon]

KG's leg. 

It's as simple as that. 

Yes, Danny did a crappy job of assembling a bench.  However, if KG stayed healthy, I'm convinced they would have won 18.  With Rondo and Perk's strides, the best starting rotation in the NBA from last year got much better. 

[dark_lord]

injuries and no bench.  simple as that

[CoachCowens]

Injuries 80% (obvious reasons)
Coaching 10% (Playing Ray and Paul too much during the regular season. Not adjusting to the double team on Pierce. Too bad Doc couldn't have seen Kenny Smith on TNT showing how to get the ball to Ray.)
Bench 5% (partially a result of injuries.)
Refs 5% (Tough to quantify when they can be awful for both teams. but you can't have 68 year old ref's and guys like Kennedy and Crawford refing games.)

[Celtics17]

Definitely KG's and Powe's fault. They had a lot of nerve getting injured like they did. Seriously though, it would have been interesting had our team been relatively healthy. I still say you dont let a guy like Posey walk! Guys who may not dominate the game all the time but still manage to do just the right thing at the most importatnt times are hard to find, and it's not just coincidence with Posey. Oh well, let's let by gones be just that. With the development of Rondo and Perk if we get healthy and pick up a  couple of key reserves we are still competitive next year.

[tenn_smoothie]

danny ainge - really danny has had only one very good year as GM - aquiring KG & Ray.

other than a few late draft picks that have been good (although rondo was genius)- danny has had several very mediocre to bad seasons in charge of personnel.