This time, Danny's posturing and "GM speak" has gone too far

[Roy Hobbs]

Tony would be a great option at backup shooting guard for a team looking to shed salary and position themselves for a high pick in the 2010 lottery or free agency.

Sacramento, New Jersey, New York and Minnesota come to mind.

Exactly.  This is how Danny should be selling it.  "Put Tony in your rotation and you'll suck for a year, guaranteed".

[BudweiserCeltic]

Key words in the quote: "urgency", "even Tony". What does this mean? That in an emergency situation they can have Tony step up. Again, he'd be the 4th-5th player to be asked to play the position if asked at all. I really don't see what's the problem with it. It's not like they're prepping him up to be our back-up PG.

Don't really see what the issue is here.

[Ghost_Deini]

We won a championship with Eddie and Tony as the primary backups for a 2nd year starting PG.  While I agree that Ainge is probably better off saying nothing, I think he is right.  There doesn't need to be a great sense of urgency.  

Our current backups can do enough for us to put us in a position to win every night (especially with the addition of Marquis).  If we have an injury, however, then that'll be another story.

[Fafnir]

I read the quote as saying we don't need a great or even good backup PG to compete.

He just pointed out we can even win with Tony playing to spot, which I think you'll agree is remarkable.

[wdleehi]

How else do you sell TA to other teams right now? 

[Roy Hobbs]

How else do you sell TA to other teams right now? 

I like the "he'll make you lottery teams suck even worse" strategy brought up earlier in the thread.

We won a championship with Eddie and Tony as the primary backups for a 2nd year starting PG.

Well, we brought in Sam Cassell, too. 

[BudweiserCeltic]

How else do you sell TA to other teams right now? 

I like the "he'll make you lottery teams suck even worse" strategy brought up earlier in the thread.

We won a championship with Eddie and Tony as the primary backups for a 2nd year starting PG.

Well, we brought in Sam Cassell, too. 

So our PG depth chart was pretty much Rondo, Cassell, House, Allen.... Pruitt.

We're currently at Rondo, Daniels, House, Allen with room for one more.

What's the problem again?

[paintitgreen]

I read the quote as saying we don't need a great or even good backup PG to compete.

He just pointed out we can even win with Tony playing to spot, which I think you'll agree is remarkable.

Agree. He just elaborated on what he was saying about Rondo earlier this year - he doesn't believe you need a point guard, much less a backup point guard, to win in the NBA. He cited the Lakers of this decade, 90s Bulls and 80s Celtics as examples of dynasties that had no point guard.  

I tend to agree - I'd still rather have another solid defender at the 3 than another point guard. Keep this in mind - only two of the other four contenders have a real point guard - Spurs and Magic. Cleveland has a small 2 playing as a 1, Lakers have Fisher, who might be a point guard but isn't a playmaker, just a guy who brings the ball up the court and takes open shots when the ball comes to him. They all, however, have bigtime perimeter players (Kobe/Artest, Ginobli/Jefferson, Lewis/Carter, Lebron) and post presences (Pau/Odom, Duncan, Howard, Shaq/Z). If we need anything, it's to shore up the perimeter rather than the point.

[nickagneta]

We won a championship with Eddie and Tony as the primary backups for a 2nd year starting PG.  

Well, to be truthful, we had a great 3/4 of a regular season with Eddie and Tony as our regular back up for a 2nd year PG. We won a championship with Eddie and Sam as our regular back ups for a 2nd year PG while Tony sat the bench as much as humanly possible.

[wdleehi]

How else do you sell TA to other teams right now? 

I like the "he'll make you lottery teams suck even worse" strategy brought up earlier in the thread.

We won a championship with Eddie and Tony as the primary backups for a 2nd year starting PG.

Well, we brought in Sam Cassell, too. 

So our PG depth chart was pretty much Rondo, Cassell, House, Allen.... Pruitt.

We're currently at Rondo, Daniels, House, Allen with room for one more.

What's the problem again?

I think the issues is the Celtics have guys that they would feel ok with playing PG in a pinch or to cover 15 minutes of a game.

What they don't have is insurance in case Rondo goes down for a longer chunk.

[Roy Hobbs]

How else do you sell TA to other teams right now? 

I like the "he'll make you lottery teams suck even worse" strategy brought up earlier in the thread.

We won a championship with Eddie and Tony as the primary backups for a 2nd year starting PG.

Well, we brought in Sam Cassell, too. 

So our PG depth chart was pretty much Rondo, Cassell, House, Allen.... Pruitt.

We're currently at Rondo, Daniels, House, Allen with room for one more.

What's the problem again?

Who said it was a problem?  I don't think anybody has.  Rather, this thread is pointing out a silly / stupid quote from Ainge, that refers to exactly one game by Tony as evidence that he can play the point guard position.

Danny, of course, has used this "Tony can play point guard" argument before.  It's a ridiculous, stupid argument, and some of us get a chuckle out of it.  If this thread isn't your bag, that's cool.  I just don't get the multiple "why are we even discussing this" posts; if you don't want to discuss it, you certainly don't have to.

[celticinorlando]

if the plan is to have 3 guys rotate as the back up point..i don't like it...eddie is not a point...he is a catch and shoot guy and when he plays point he struggles offensively...tony is a walking turnover who has a shoot first mentality and hardly gets the team into their offense...daniels to me is more of a wing than point...i prefer having an actual back up PG that can concentrate on playing that spot...

[Edgar]

Vote portland

 


kidding...we really need a PG , i still think theres a slight chance it WILL be Starbury

[paintitgreen]

I think the issues is the Celtics have guys that they would feel ok with playing PG in a pinch or to cover 15 minutes of a game.

What they don't have is insurance in case Rondo goes down for a longer chunk.

And I agree with this, as well. I'd be happy to get a veteran minimum point to play in case of emergency, but am happy with House and Daniels sharing the backup guard minutes when Rondo is playing. I'd like a guy who can step in for 20 minutes if Rondo can't play for some reason and will otherwise ride the pine. But I'm getting more comfortable with the idea of Hudson being that guy. If we can do it by trade, I'm happy to do it, so long as we also fill get a big perimeter defender, either in the trade or by free agency.

[Bankshot]

Why take what Danny says seriously?  He didn't believe that last year when he brought in Marbury or the year before when he brought in Cassell.  Don't worry, he'll bring in a vet point guard.