Celtics owned his Bird rights and used that to give him that 2 year $5 million contract. Personally I would have preferred they had let Eddie and Tony go and signed Roger Mason or Mickael Pietrus with the full MLE, but that was just me and yes, go back and check the record, that's what I was calling for last year.
Neither of them were worth the full MLE.
As what was already correctly deduced by someone else what I meant was we would have the full MLE to use on someone else. It was going to take more than 60% of the MLE to get Mason, a 42% three point shooting, 12 PPG scoring wing that would have provided a lot better rest at the wing than Tony, Eddie or the rookies did. Given he won like three games single handedly with last second shots for the Spurs last year my opinion is, he would be worth [dang] near all the MLE and if you could have gotten him at $4 million per you would have gotten a bargain. Remember, this was last year before the economy tanked so what might be perceived as an overpayment now, though I don't think so, was reasonable back then.
Pietrus got almost the whole MLE and was definitely worth it being a difference making shut down defender as well as a clutch shooting offensive player that the Magic and many experts, just were not expecting. Again, in last year's market it looked like a possibility of an overspend but with his playoff contributions and the solidity he gave the bench, he was worth every penny and remains that way.
I would have preferred either over the combined contributions of Allen and House last year and whatever they may bring the team this year.
Pietrus was injured most of the year. Luckily it was early in the season, but other than timing, TA was doing his job quite well. Difference was timing of their injuries.
The main problem with resting our wings was more of coaching problem than a personel problem. But surely you don't see it that way. And then came the playoffs, which he incorrectly cut down TA's minutes, when he should've played more. And incorrectly inserted TA at the end of games when he shouldn't have... Big Baby should've stayed on the floor. He was quite content with playing Marbury and House against Chicago when they were clearly not cutting it, and in the meantime letting Rose and Gordon have their way with them.
Same thing occured last year with Cassell. He over trusted the vets, which I don't blame him to a point, but he had options and he wasn't using them adequately. Difference was that during our championship year he made the adjustments, a bit late, but he did them. TA shoudl've had more playing time early on during the Chicago series and build from there.
Would he have played better? Who knows, but he was the better option than Marbury at the very least. Other than that one poor game against Chicago (when he wasn't even supposed to be on the floor), TA wasn't the catastrophe people are trying to make him to be.
Now, not saying that Pietrus wouldn't have manage... in fact, he surely would've since he's a better player and I have no reason to believe that Doc wouldn't trust him. Just saying that TA wasn't used as he should've, especially when you consider who they were playing instead and how they were performing.
Topic: Blame Danny for Tony and Powe (Read 8170 times)