Can anyone Recap?
On the Celtics :
Simmons said that Danny Ainge has been on vacation since the 2008 championship, claiming that since then his draft picks jave been bad, that the Sheed's signing was terrible (he acknlowedged he had a good game against Toronto but said he was out of shape and that he plays with motivation 1 game out of 6), that Marquis Daniels was hurt and that it was not a surprise (so it was a bad signing in his opinion), and he feels like the Celtics are missing a piece like PJ Brown to win the championship.
To give my opinion on the subject, I think he is flat out wrong about Rasheed and he can't really criticize the Daniels signing. Sure, Marquis is injury prone, but he was the best option for the Celtics this summer, the only realistic one, and he agreed to a cheaper contract to play for them. It was a situation perfectly handed by Ainge, he couldn't have done any better... Marquis has a history of injury but he is a great player for our bench and he agreed to a discount. Can't ask for much more, considering what our options were.
Simmons is worried about the starters' minutes, especially Rondo's (can't disagree with him on that point), and the lack of depth. He said that the Celtics should do the following trade in a heartbeat if Chicago called them to give them Hinrich for our expirings + a draft pick. Ford mentioned that the problem was money and quoted the Nocioni possible trade as an example.
Ford also made Simmons realize that Ainge's draft choices/targets turned out to be really good ones, while Simmons thought he did a poor job ; the Jefferson, Durant, Tyreke Evans (Ainge was really high on him last summer), Baby examples came to mind. Simmons acknowledged that Danny was really good at sensing which player could become a really good one or a star.
About the rest of the league :
They discussed the Bosh for Bynum trade idea and said it would be good for both teams.
They discussed for a long time the 2010 free agency market, basically concluded that NY had no chances of signing good players (not enough cap space) and that Miami was the team with the best chances of signing Bosh, Wade or LeBron, or the three of them. They are convinced that the three of them could sign in Miami and accept paycuts in order to do so. Pretty scary thoughts, by the way...
They mentioned Chicago as a good destination for these players too, but the Bulls have to get rid of Hinrich's contract to get more cap space.
They also praised Tyreke Evans for his game and the fact that Kings are really a good surprise this season. They think they should trade Kevin Martin and put Evans back to the guard position.
Simmons and Ford also discussed David Kahn and Al Jefferson. Basically criticized Kahn ; Simmons suggested a good trade idea between the Wizards, Wolves and Rockets, that would send T-Mac and Butler to Minnesota, Jefferson to Houston with expirings, and Scola draft picks to Washington.
Finally, they praised John Wall and said there is no way he is not the #1 pick next summer. Said Wall would be remembered as a top draft pick of the past 10 years like LeBron and Durant.
Hope I have mentioned all the interesting things discussed in the podcast, but it's always better to listen to it.
