Ainge to address the media at 9:30 AM

[Cman]

However our season was most affected by the random event of Garnett's serious injury.

Agreed, but then again, was it random or a harbinger of things to come for the Big Three?

[crownsy]

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.

right but that still wouldn't of helped ray and paul as they split the three minutes.

IMO the biggest miss last year was not signing a player to back up the 3 spot at a high level.

letting posey walk is fine, i understand the reasons.

not replacing the backup 3 is not fine.

[Birdbrain]

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.

Sure for the MLE or below and what about Walker?  Was he waste of pick or can he help backup at SF?

[RAcker]

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's exactly the plan A I would go with.  Of course, it's easier said than done, but it is VERY possible to pull this plan off with what is out there.

Danny is very good at not showing his hand before he's ready to make a move.  Let's just keep hoping this is what is going on and that he doesn't abandon this type of plan too soon to go with his plan B which would be more conservative similar to last off-season instead of more agressive in my opinion.

[CoachBo]

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%.

Don't know that any of us know the truth. But Ainge has been known to make some pretty egregious miscalculations.

Either way is extremely believable.

And as for the Garnett injury, it certainly hurt. But we weren't going anywhere with Pierce on fumes and Allen worn down. Giddens washed out last year, and Walker's an immature kid. I'll be surprised if he helps at all before the Big Three window closes.

No bench, no title. Said it last summer. And I'll be saying it this summer if Ainge spends another year diving into the league's dumpsters.

Perhaps we should begin expecting the annual "Tony Allen will develop into our stopper" line from Danny ...

[winsomme]

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.

Well, I'll say this. You can expect injuries to the Big 3 if we don't get a lot deeper on our bench. and we need players better than Jones.

personally, i don't think any major trade is going down with the Cs. I'm just worried about getting a couple of the top FAs (Sheed, Dice, Hill, etc....) That's where Danny needs to thread the needle.

[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.

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.

Isn't walker a 3?  Can we get a good backup PF/C for the MLE or below?

[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.

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.

Sure for the MLE or below and what about Walker?  Was he waste of pick or can he help backup at SF?

we have no idea, because he never got any playing time.

based on that, I'd like a veteran over trusting a rookie to spontaneously develop into that guy.

we tried that last year, when we were assured this was tony's year, and he was going to make us forget alllll about posey at the three.

his epic failure is not a risk im willing to take with regardless of the fact that i feel bill walker has a good skill set.

[RAcker]

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!

[guava_wrench]

Most of the players in the first round I wouldn't trade for J.R. Giddens or Bill Walker..

Someone tell me this isn't trying to up the value of these two in the trade market.

That sounds like marketing to me. I am skeptical that he has that level of confidence in Giddens until Giddens sees the floor. Notice no mention of Pruitt.

[Gainesville Celtic]

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.

True, but I believe that we could have had Chris Anderson (made $900K), Matt Barnes (made $1.2M) and Quinton Ross (came to MEM training camp as a non-roster invitee) for the same money we ended up spending on O'Bryant (O'Busto?), Cassell, Marbury, and M.Moore and we would have gotten far more consistent bench play that most likely have kept Ray and Pierce fresher for the playoffs after KG went down.

[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.

Isn't walker a 3?  Can we get a good backup PF/C for the MLE or below?

walker is an unproven kid who may earn some backup minutes. that is not an acceptable risk for a championship team.

we just tried that with TA, a player we had a better feel for, and it failed completely as a solution for paul's backup.

with regards to the MLE for a PF/C, i hope so, and i hope those comments by ainge don't hint, as i and other's read, that they are shying away from offering the MLE this year.

Antonio mcdyess should get our full MLE offer, ASAP.

We shall see if the checkbook is open for that.

[Birdbrain]

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%.

Don't know that any of us know the truth. But Ainge has been known to make some pretty egregious miscalculations.

Either way is extremely believable.

And as for the Garnett injury, it certainly hurt. But we weren't going anywhere with Pierce on fumes and Allen worn down. Giddens washed out last year, and Walker's an immature kid. I'll be surprised if he helps at all before the Big Three window closes.

No bench, no title. Said it last summer. And I'll be saying it this summer if Ainge spends another year diving into the league's dumpsters.

Perhaps we should begin expecting the annual "Tony Allen will develop into our stopper" line from Danny ...

And I disagreed with you last summer as well.

[CoachBo]

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%.

Don't know that any of us know the truth. But Ainge has been known to make some pretty egregious miscalculations.

Either way is extremely believable.

And as for the Garnett injury, it certainly hurt. But we weren't going anywhere with Pierce on fumes and Allen worn down. Giddens washed out last year, and Walker's an immature kid. I'll be surprised if he helps at all before the Big Three window closes.

No bench, no title. Said it last summer. And I'll be saying it this summer if Ainge spends another year diving into the league's dumpsters.

Perhaps we should begin expecting the annual "Tony Allen will develop into our stopper" line from Danny ...

And I disagreed with you last summer as well.

Nice of you to admit that.

[winsomme]

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.

that's actually not true. I remember reading one article where KG was talking about lighting a fire under O'Bryant about halfway into the season and he said  "my knees are killing me, but I'm out there working hard every practice..." (I'm paraphrasing...)

Whether KG was playing more or less minutes than the year before is irrelevant IMO. And it's not only about minutes. It's also about burden.

We need bench players that will lessen the overall burden on the starters.