Ainge to address the media at 9:30 AM

[crownsy]

If someone is going to make the C's better at MLE or below we'll sign him.  If not be happy you have a team that if healthy will represent the Eastern Conference in the finals. 

Where does Danny say to expect us to use the full MLE if it will make the team better?  In fact, Danny seems to be dampening expectations by saying that those MLE players might not be a good fit for us.

Assuming that Cs are financially constrained and will not add via MLE, it means trades and vet mins are how the team will add depth.  One would think the expiring contracts of TA+Scal could bring back some depth, but then the rest of the depth will be through vet min contracts.  Alternately, trading Ray for a serviceable - albeit not great - starting SG along with bench depth might be another strategy.

Before we start assuming financial constraints, let's recall that Grousbeck has said publicly the money was there to resign Posey last summer. The decision not to was made by the "basketball people."

the biggest financial constraint on this team is not making it past the second round of the playoffs.

certainly the owners saw all that lost revenue this past season.

they should look in the mirror with regards to that loss of revenue, and open thier check books this year.

Hope they enjoyed saving the money on posey vs. the loss of revenue when we had to rely to much on the starters and wore them out before the playoffs.

(and yes, i've heard the wyc washing his hands of any personal involvement on posey and putting the non-signing on "the basketball people" but i don't buy it.)

[crownsy]

From common sense, knowing the C's cap situation, and talent on the team and he actually said it.

What did he actually say?

"The free agent mid-level talent pool is fairly deep, but based on our needs it may not be that deep."

How does that translate to the following?:

If someone is going to make the C's better at MLE or below we'll sign him.  If not be happy you have a team that if healthy will represent the Eastern Conference in the finals. 

Where does Danny say to expect us to use the full MLE if it will make the team better?  In fact, Danny seems to be dampening expectations by saying that those MLE players might not be a good fit for us.

Sounds to me like he's rounding up dumpster addresses.

Again.

Prepare for another early playoff exit if he does ...

What?

Early playoff exit.  Common sense tells me that was more to do with injuries but, I guess we disagree.  Maybe a backup for KG would have decreased his chances of knee injury...

I'm all about common sense today.

paul and ray both came into the playoffs tired and had nagging injuries as well.

you don't think depth, I.E having a backup 3 for example, might have saved some of that wear and tear during the season?

[CoachBo]

From common sense, knowing the C's cap situation, and talent on the team and he actually said it.

What did he actually say?

"The free agent mid-level talent pool is fairly deep, but based on our needs it may not be that deep."

How does that translate to the following?:

If someone is going to make the C's better at MLE or below we'll sign him.  If not be happy you have a team that if healthy will represent the Eastern Conference in the finals. 

Where does Danny say to expect us to use the full MLE if it will make the team better?  In fact, Danny seems to be dampening expectations by saying that those MLE players might not be a good fit for us.

Sounds to me like he's rounding up dumpster addresses.

Again.

Prepare for another early playoff exit if he does ...

What?

Early playoff exit.  Common sense tells me that was more to do with injuries but, I guess we disagree.  Maybe a backup for KG would have decreased his chances of knee injury...

I'm all about common sense today.

Correct. We disagree.

I don't know how anyone can bet on this starting five entering the playoffs healthy with the garbage bench we rolled out last year. It will not happen.

The idea that all we need is 5 players to win a title is abjectly flawed. No bench, no title - because the injuries will happen. You hope they're not as serious as Garnett's, but there will be injuries and significant wear and tear among this group.

Any depth would help. But without depth, we will not win a title.

[nickagneta]

Ainge:  "The free agent mid-level talent pool is fairly deep, but based on our needs it may not be that deep."

Translation: Cs have bumped up against the luxury tax limit and owners are unwilling to add more salary.  If true, this will be a summer where the "big signing" is Dahntay Jones at the LLE.

Haha, yeah.  I mean, if the mid-level talent pool is deep, and we have needs at the backup 1,3,4 and 5, how is it not deep based upon our needs?

I think what he is trying to say is that if there were more high quality MLE type players then eventually some would have to take less than the full MLE because the teams spending a full MLE would dry up. That would in turn allow them to swoop in and get some bargains.

I really hope Danny is proactive this year and not reactive like last year because if he does wait around trying to find bargains, there isn't going to be anyone left worth paying.

Are you trying to say Patrick O'Bryant wasn't a bargain?

How can a guy that's worthless be a bargain if you have to pay him?

 

[Birdbrain]

Of course the C's need some additions to help out the bench again common sense.  Re-signing BBD and I anticipate one of the rookies adding to the depth.  I just subscribe to 'doing less is better' with the talent on this team.  To each his own I guess.

[BringToughnessBack]

I know this is going to be an unpopular viewpoint and it even confuses me to a degree and makes me very uneasy. But, We have 3 aging superstars, all with tons of minutes on their legs. What makes any of us think that all 3 will be healthy come playoffs next year- We have to be realistic, more then likely, one of our players will most likely get injured again at some point next year, and it could once again coincide with the playoffs. If you take one of our big 3 away again, we will go deep into playoffs but once again fall short. This is inevitable..Older players do not usually stay healthy as their bodies begin to breakdown. The only way you can preserve 3 older players is to reduce there minutes. We do not have the depth to do this right now and Doc is stuck between a rock and hard place in trying to do so. Danny knows he cannot get the necessary depth to get us back to winning the finals unless we get lucky with our health next year. There are no free agents that can give us the depth to make up for one of our big 3 going down prior to the playoffs and we will not win a title when that happens again but we will be one year older once again. Do we really believe that by adding G.Hill and maybe A McDyess we will suddenly be a superpower next year?..I do not....

This year, despite amazing production during the regular season from Ray, Ray, we began to see him faltering later in the playoffs. Some games he was unstoppable and some games, it appeared his legs had hit the golf course already. This is also true of PP. Due to KG being out, our other 2 stars had to play more minutes then their 30 something bodies could handle. They started to look very old and tired towards the end and with good reason..no depth to relieve them. Do we really believe they will be better off next year due to this increased wear and tear? I do not...

I can only be so optimistic and I have a feeling Danny can as well. 3 aging superstars will not stay healthy for a full season and playoffs/finals run. He saw what happened in the 80's and he has said before, he will not let that happen again to our team. Do we really believe Danny will sit by and watch our team grow older and older without making a move? I do not...

Of course with a health starting 5, we have a great team that would have won it all this year but one of our big 3 broke down. How can we not think it will happen again next year. There bodies will not be better next year due to more wear and tear on them and we are deceiving ourselves if we believe otherwise.

Trust me, I do not want to go back to the losing ways of a few years ago but if we put our faith in Danny and owners to get us a championship before and it worked, we are going to have to take another leap of faith and let them do it again.

Rondo from the outside seems like a superstar in the making. But none of us truly know what is going on behind closed doors. Of course, I would love to see us build around him but only if the other players want to play with him and that he can be signed for a reasonable contract that allows us to build more title teams. There are invariables we just do not know for sure and we have to trust in Danny and the management to make the right decision with Rondo. We do not know what his agent has told the team or what other players on the Celtics have told management. I love Rondo and what I saw from him in many games this year but I do not know his work ethic and leadership abilities but what I do know is that his value is at an all time high. Whether it goes higher is unknown and completely dependent on how hard he wants to improve his game each and every day. Does he have that dedication to his trade like Larry had and like Ray Ray has? Management should be able to know this better then us. I hope he does, but I just do not know for sure. I just do not know everything when it comes to Rondo

This year before the draft is definitely reminding me of the year we acquired Ray Ray and then you know what that led to. Danny has the itch and he is looking at our situation with a realistic viewpoint. This is his job. He is not some naive school kid running our franchise. We had 20 plus years of horror and close calls and then we finally won our title a year ago. He has a plan and he apparently has the itch to trade away 2 of our stars...this seems apparent to me unless this is all being made up by the press. I believe something is going to happen. I believe Danny and the owners will do what it takes to keep us winning for years to come and challenging for more titles..I do not believe that we can hope and pray that 3 aging superstars will stay healthier next year then this one. Something has to be done besides picking up spare parts because when one of our big 3 go down again, we will be repeating what we saw this year in the playoffs with one more year of minutes on the other 2 stars legs.

Lets hope that Danny throws his darts against the wall and successfully misses the Gasols and Iversons we almost had in years past and ends up again with a bull's-eye or 2 for us going forward. This week should be a very interesting one. Get ready to expect the unexpected.

Deny, Deny, Deny...Trade..that is where I believe we are heading. Ray Ray is as good as gone, what goes with him and returns in the deal is anyone's guess but one thing we know for sure is that Danny and ATT will be very busy on Thursday night.

[winsomme]

It is kinda sad that he has to address the media.  Lots of erroneous reports out there.  I know it is a business, but it can impact kids like Rondo AND Jefferson. 

which is probley why he did it.

I don't believe for a minute that discussions haven't happened with teams regarding trading for rondo. That's just kicking the tires, and that's good business. Maybe something giant shakes loose that you move on, more likely nothing happens.

By laughing off the rumors here though, he props up rondo's feeling that the team trusts him and the media is just making news. Good move by ainge.

but is that what he did? did he laugh off the rumors or the reason behind the rumors?

I was watching Chad Ford report this DET rumor this morning, I find it hard to believe that the whole thing was made up.

the thing that i think the media is wrong about is the idea that they are looking to move Rondo because he is too "mouthy" and difficult to handle. that part of this whole thing is absurd. If anything, Doc is the perfect guy to deal with a headstrong player like Rajon and the proof is the great results he has gotten with him so far.

what is far more likely being a reason for shopping Rondo is that his value is at its highest and he is up for a new contact soon. It's much plausible that Danny is thinking he could sell high on Rajon and then have the money that would go to Rondo in a contract extension to use in the 2010 FA market....

that doesn't mean he's trying to run Rondo out of town or wouldn't be perfectly happy with him as our  PG next year. it's just that, as we know, Danny is ALWAYS looking to make moves. That's why we call him Trader Danny.

yes, in this interview, ainge did laugh off the rondo trade rumors. he denied any trade talk involving rondo, and flat out said they love him and wouldn't trade him.

sorry that i missed it, but I still find it hard to believe. he wouldn't be doing his job if he wasn't trying to see what he could get for Rondo with a big extension due very soon.

plus, one response that front office people always use is "I don't know where these guys get this stuff from..."

that's not really a denial.

also you get "we not close on anything happening.." that also is not a denial.

maybe Danny went further today and said Rondo will not be traded under any circumstance....there are a lot of fire burning on this issue so maybe he is just trying to do damage control figuring the likelihood of a trade is small even if Rondo's name had come up.

yes win, we agree on that. they obviously made inquires to teams about what rondo would net them. That's good basketball, and i have no problem with it.

My point in the original post was as ainge you call this presser and act like the rondo rumors are unfounded to assure rondo that the team trusts him to be the PG of the future and wasn't trying to trade him, weather that's true or not, to bolster his confidence going into next year and cut any feelings of resentment over being shopped off at the knees.

okay, I see what you're saying now.

but that said, I'm sure if this stuff (the inquiries to other teams) is getting out then Rondo and his agent know that discussions are taking place.

The liking of Rondo by both Danny and Doc is very clear. Heck, Danny was one of the only guys chasing Rondo down out of college.

It just must be frustrating Danny not so much the rumors about trading him, but this rampant speculation that Rondo is a problem on the team. That stuff is total poppycock.

anyway, this is going to be an interesting next few days.

[Casperian]

So, a GM came out and denied trade rumors involving his young star PG, saying that they love him and value his skills and personality?

I...am...shocked!

[winsomme]

If someone is going to make the C's better at MLE or below we'll sign him.  If not be happy you have a team that if healthy will represent the Eastern Conference in the finals. 

Where does Danny say to expect us to use the full MLE if it will make the team better?  In fact, Danny seems to be dampening expectations by saying that those MLE players might not be a good fit for us.

Assuming that Cs are financially constrained and will not add via MLE, it means trades and vet mins are how the team will add depth.  One would think the expiring contracts of TA+Scal could bring back some depth, but then the rest of the depth will be through vet min contracts.  Alternately, trading Ray for a serviceable - albeit not great - starting SG along with bench depth might be another strategy.

Before we start assuming financial constraints, let's recall that Grousbeck has said publicly the money was there to resign Posey last summer. The decision not to was made by the "basketball people."

the biggest financial constraint on this team is not making it past the second round of the playoffs.

certainly the owners saw all that lost revenue this past season.

they should look in the mirror with regards to that loss of revenue, and open thier check books this year.

Hope they enjoyed saving the money on posey vs. the loss of revenue when we had to rely to much on the starters and wore them out before the playoffs.

(and yes, i've heard the wyc washing his hands of any personal involvement on posey and putting the non-signing on "the basketball people" but i don't buy it.)

agree 100%.

[winsomme]

From common sense, knowing the C's cap situation, and talent on the team and he actually said it.

What did he actually say?

"The free agent mid-level talent pool is fairly deep, but based on our needs it may not be that deep."

How does that translate to the following?:

If someone is going to make the C's better at MLE or below we'll sign him.  If not be happy you have a team that if healthy will represent the Eastern Conference in the finals. 

Where does Danny say to expect us to use the full MLE if it will make the team better?  In fact, Danny seems to be dampening expectations by saying that those MLE players might not be a good fit for us.

Sounds to me like he's rounding up dumpster addresses.

Again.

Prepare for another early playoff exit if he does ...

What?

Early playoff exit.  Common sense tells me that was more to do with injuries but, I guess we disagree.  Maybe a backup for KG would have decreased his chances of knee injury...

I'm all about common sense today.

how about a backup for Paul so he wouldn't have been fumed by the ORL series. That was one freakin tired player by the end of the year.

[Jon]

Celtics are one resigning and two good FA away from having a strong bench.


Resign Davis.

Get a good backup C/PF
Get a good backup swingman.



Bench is set.  Use TA and or Scali to find an upgrade for the back up PG situation during the season.

That would be great and I think we could even live without Davis if we land someone like McDyess.  Come playoff time, we'd probably just go with 4/5 rotation of Perk/KG/Dice anyway, and any extra minutes Leon Powe and Brian Scalabrine could handle. 

I think Davis is a key piece to the bench.  Protect the Celtics against one injury to a big man.  And I think his price will be right.

Maybe.  But in my book, if he's better than Leon Powe, he's only marginally better than him.  So by midseason (when Powe returns), assuming we signed McDyess, we'd have a 4/5 rotation of Perk/KG/Dice/Powe/Davis/Scal.  We really don't need all of that.  It'd be nice, but we certainly could survive with a Perk/KG/Dice/Scal rotation until Powe came back, and then come playoff time, Perk/KG/Dice/Powe would more than get the job done.

I agree that it'd be nice to have Davis, but if it came down to a real big man like Dice vs. someone like Davis, I'd take Dice.  

[crownsy]

Of course the C's need some additions to help out the bench again common sense.  Re-signing BBD and I anticipate one of the rookies adding to the depth.  I just subscribe to 'doing less is better' with the talent on this team.  To each his own I guess.

unless walker somehow becomes  trevor ariza lite, that still doesn't adress:

back up PG
back up 3
Back up C/PF with height who can match up against 7 foot post players
*Back up 2/shooter if eddie leaves via option.

ect, ect.

[Fafnir]

People keep blaming that the C's were worn down on the lack of a bench. I think Garnett going out for is what did it. Garnett wasn't playing any more than he did last year, and a deeper bench in all likelyhood does not affect his bone spur/tendon issue.

Could the C's put a better team out there last year, yes be a small margin with two better bench players. However our season was most affected by the random event of Garnett's serious injury. Nothing that the Celtics can do about that.

[Cman]

Management Deny, Deny, Deny...Trade..that is where I believe we are heading. Ray Ray is as good as gone,

Long post, but I agree with your general sentiment that the Cs have to deal with the prospect of *more* injury in the future to the Big Three, not less.  With that said, and the fact that Ray Allen is a very tradeable asset, it wouldn't surprise me to see him traded.  As I said before, Ray for a decent starting SG and two quality bench pieces wouldn't be that bad... (especially given the assumption of financial constraints).

[Gainesville Celtic]

I tend to think that what Ainge meant was that the players he'd most like to add to fill holes may command more than the MLE and that with the guys left, he won't overpay for them at the full MLE.

FWIW, the guys I would offer the full MLE to and who *may* take it (I had Ben Gordon, Turkoglu, Gortat and Ariza on the list but I think all can AND will get more either from their current team or DET/POR/Etc):

Rasheed Wallace
Antonio McDyess
Shawn Marion -- prob. worth more, but who's gonna give him $8M/yr?
Drew Gooden


Players I'd split the MLE for --- so 2 of:
Jamario Moon (restricted FA like Big Baby)
Zaza Pachulia
Ime Udoka
Chris Anderson
Shelden Williams
Matt Barnes
Dahntay Jones
Grant Hill


Regardless of HOW we get there i agree with others that we MUST add depth (i.e. 2-3 guys) to our top 7 of Rondo/R.Allen/Pierce/KG/Perk/Scal/House. If Pruitt, Walker or Giddens breakout great, but we shouldn't rely on that IMO for depth.