Off-season in hindsight: what could have been done better?

[snively]

Who on our team other than Paul will defend Bron, Joe Johnson, Travis Outlaw, and possibly Carmello? You need that 6'8" small forward. While DA has gotten praise for gathering talent, he has ignored an actual need for this team. Paul himself has questioned him on where his backup was. He might need to make a trade for a wing, and depending on what Erden & Gaffney provide, maybe a true PF, one who defends and gets defensive rebounds for a change(get rid of Baby). I've heard that this roster is finalized. This roster struggles without a backup for Paul, and no, it shouldn't be fragile Daniels or Delonte. Both won't play 82 games, write it down. Jarvis Hayes and Joe Alexander are available & hoping that a change of scenery can help them turn things around and increase their production. Don't sound like much right, but I wonder what a 6'8" small forward who can shoot 3's can do in the NBA Finals? The Lakers added two small forwards. They win again. Overall though near perfect offseason.

  Doesn't Ray usually guard Joe Johnson?

Yes. But he still has a point about Carmelo and Lebron.

Ray actually guarded LeBron quite effectively last year.  Small guys like Ray and TA who are quick enough to deny driving lanes can at least bait LeBron into more jumpshooting.

I'm not worried as much about size at the 3 as I am about impact.  TA was 6'4 but he still would have made an impact at that spot with his speed, tenacity, athleticism and defensive ability.

It's Daniels passivity and mediocre athleticism that have me concerned more than his size.

[incoherent]

If Danny knew we could get Shaq for min at the start of the off season does he still spend the MLE on Jermaine?

[xmuscularghandix]

The Off-season isn’t over yet... Tanguay said that Paul can opt out so that Lebron and Joe Johnson can sign.   

[Roy H.]

If Danny knew we could get Shaq for min at the start of the off season does he still spend the MLE on Jermaine?

It's an interesting question, but I still think yes.  In terms of talent and overall game, Jermaine is one of the best value signings of the summer, in my opinion.  I'd rather have him on a MLE level deal, rather than a guy like Amir Johnson, etc.)  Plus, Shaq isn't a 30 minute per game guy anymore, meaning we still would have been thin in the front court.

When you look at the summer's signings, the only impact small forward who signed for an amount near the MLE was Travis Outlaw.  He got a five year deal, which is a long time for a player whose game has stagnated for a couple seasons.

EDIT:  I guess there was Mike Miller, too, but he wanted a long term deal, as well, and has seen his aggressiveness dip the last two years.

[snively]

If Danny knew we could get Shaq for min at the start of the off season does he still spend the MLE on Jermaine?

Who could we have landed instead?  Of my favorite targets, Mike Miller went to Miami on a discount, and Tyrus Thomas and Amir Johnson resigned with their teams. 

I guess a Dorell Wright/Louis Amundson combo is nice, but hardly devastating to miss out on. 

Besides I like JO better with the Shaq acquisition. The quadruple towers, once Perk returns, give us our best chance for dominance in the playoffs.  Four strong 6'10+ guys who can defend their man, block shots, post-up, finish strong and rebound without worrying much about fatigue or fouls due to depth: that's a fantastic asset.

[BballTim]

If Danny knew we could get Shaq for min at the start of the off season does he still spend the MLE on Jermaine?

  And go into the season with Shaq and Erden as his only centers instead of getting JO?

[incoherent]

JO is big for us, I agree.  However, Danny may have been willing to use the MLE on someone else and ride out Perks injury maybe using Shaq/Baby/Erden or possibly even KG at center at times.  Danny also could have picked up another cheap center prospect somewhere to get a couple minutes.    

I don't know who else he could have gotten in place of JO.  I just thought that getting Shaq  at min may change his mind on JO's contract a bit.  

While I don't want to make this a shaq v. Jermaine argument, I would like to point out in the playoffs this year Shaq played leaps and bounds better then Jermaine against our team.  JO's last two games he managed 4 points, Shaq... 38 points.

[Drucci]

I really don't think Danny could have done anything better. It's almost a miracle that he pulled out such a great offseason considering how his hands were tied and how limited were his options.

In hindsight, the full MLE on Jermaine was maybe too much but at the time he made the offer, ridiculous contracts were thrown around big men (Haywood, Gooden...) so it looked like a steal at the moment. Now Shaq for the minimum makes you rethink about it, but not really when you consider that Jermaine is only 31 (although his injury problems are well-known) and Shaq is 38 (and has had chemistry issues with all his former teams except Cleveland, which made him repellent to a lot of teams).

I also would have loved to see Danny try to get Travis Outlaw but he got a big deal with NJ so I guess he was out of reach.

No, really, I think it was the perfect offseason considering our bad cap situation. Sure, there a lot of risks involved with almost every player signed this summer but they are all low risk, high reward gambles so it's all good, and it will be very interesting to see how it pans out this season.

I think our offseason was the best of the summer among the teams who were championship contenders last season and had very little space to maneuver this summer and improve their team. Along with the Lakers who got great talent for little prices, too.

[Celtics17]

As another poster already said, if you had told me at the beginning of the offseason that we would have had these additions I would have been happy. That being said, I would like to have seen Tony Allen resigned. Miami looks to be our stiffest competition and Tony would have come in very handy against them.

[More Banners]

As another poster already said, if you had told me at the beginning of the offseason that we would have had these additions I would have been happy. That being said, I would like to have seen Tony Allen resigned. Miami looks to be our stiffest competition and Tony would have come in very handy against them.

Tony Allen isn't worth what it would have cost to keep him here.

[Witch-King]

The only qualms I have with our off-season acquisitions is that we couldn't find a 'true' back-up small forward for Paul Pierce.

Now, that is by no means the end of the world, however guys like Paul and Ray will need to have suitable back-ups in order for them to avoid 'running out of steam' by the end of halves, games or come all-star weekend, the end of the season, etc. It is always a delight to see our starters sitting out the majority of the 4th quarter because our entire team has made an effort through the first 3 quarters and we are leading near the end of the game.

It is impressive to me that Doc has allowed our younger players to grow (Rondo, Perkins, Big Baby) by signing suitable back-up players for them. The mere fact that Perkins 'replacement' until he is again healthy includes Shaquille O'Neal and Jermaine O'Neal, two former all-stars should be a testament to how important Perkins is to our team.

Same with Rondo and Glen Davis; we have re-signed Nate Robinson as a solid back-up pg to Rondo, as well as side-kick to Glen Davis. Harangody is like an even younger version of 'Big-Baby' (if that's even possible  ), we might have to name Harangody 'Big Baby v2.0' and call Glen Davis by his regular name, or something.

Delonte West is also quite capable of playing the point as well, so maybe during some games Rondo might get much needed rest on the bench and not have to play 'Allen Iverson' minutes in order for us to win a ton of games.

[Tai]

I don't know what else could've been done better from Danny himself. I mean, TA coulda re-signed, but he wanted to go to Memphis instead. I suppose Matt Barnes coulda taken his talents to Boston, but he chose the West Coast instead, and we couldn't offer more than the min to get him here.0

I also like how Danny at least had insurance plans. I mean, we're not likely to get Rudy? We got Wafer AND Delonte. We couldn't keep TA? Hey, we got to keep Marquis Daniels. Insurances like these didn't seem to be existent the off-season after our banner year; We couldn't get Posey, so we got no one else. Granted, KG going down probably hurt our chances the following year than that.

None the less, that is one thing I noticed off-season; that Danny always seemed to have a backup plan to our issues. People aren't happy with Daniels, for example, but at least he's here in Boston and not giving a starting SF elsewhere rest.

[JSD]

Danny's off-season thus far looks as follows:

Added:

Jermaine O'Neal, full MLE
Shaquille O'Neal, guaranteed minimum (two years)
Von Wafer, partially-guaranteed minimum (one year)
Delonte West, non-guaranteed minimum (one year)


Re-signed:

Paul Pierce - 3 years guaranteed, 1 year partially guaranteed
Ray Allen - 1 year guaranteed, 1 year player option
Nate Robinson - 2 years guaranteed
Marquis Daniels - 1 year guaranteed

Drafted / rookies:

Avery Bradley
Luke Harangody
Semih Erden

Departed:

Tony Allen
Shelden Williams
Rasheed Wallace (retired)

If you'd told me at the beginning of the off-season that Danny would put together the above haul, I would have thought you were crazy.  I would have been very skeptical of getting Shaq and Delonte each for the minimum, and I'm very happy with our draft picks.

That said, a lot of times there's room for improvement.  The only thing I would have liked to have seen differently would have been trading Rasheed for a trade exception or for a player who could help.  However, if that deal was out there, I think Danny would have jumped on it.  I also would have loved to have seen the Ronnie Brewer deal come together, but we offered similar money and Brewer passed.

I can't think of too many other FAs that we could afford that I would have preferred.  The big loss was Tony Allen, of course, but I'm honestly not heart-broken to see him go.  If he has his head on straight, I think Delonte is the better overall player. 

Well put. When it comes to it, though, my main problem with the offseason was not finding a reliable backup to Pierce. Id feel a lot better if it was Marquis and someone else. That said, I think Danny agrees, and he tried to get a legit backup at the 3 but to no avail.

[Jon]

Overall, I'm pretty happy.  Sure, theoretically it's nice to think that we could've traded Rasheed, however, I'd contend a number of things:

1) The market for Sheed wasn't what most people thought it was.  His salary was really only appealing to team's looking to dump long term contracts, something Danny wanted no part of.  Danny only wanted deals expiring two years from now.  And given that the lockout may mean that teams don't have to pay player in 2011-2012 anyway, Rasheed didn't offer much savings. 

Furthermore, even if the league would've let us hold onto him (something I think they would've stopped over the 5+ months until the trade deadline), his value would go down as he'd progressively save teams less money the longer he stayed on our books (and the more the potential trade partner had to pay the player we'd get). 

2) Almost every rumored deal was impossible from a cap standpoint or not conducive to use or the other team.  I mean Rudy Fernandez sounded nice, but why would Portland not only give us him for Sheed and a pick, but also throw in another useful player like Pryzbilla?  Why would the Rockets, a team looking to contend, simply give away one of the best perimeter defenders in the game?  Why would the Wiz, looking to at least convince potential ticketbuyers that they can contend for the 8th spot in the East with Wall and Co, give away Josh Howard? 

3) Aside from all of that, had you told me that we could've traded Sheed to Cleveland for Shaq and West, I would've been satisfied, so I'll remain satisfied now. 

Would I have liked a real small forward?  Sure.  I just don't know where we would've gotten one.  I supposed in a perfect world irrespective of money I would've liked to see Danny trade Sheed for Posey; however, I can't fault him for not wanting to take a 12 million dollar gamble on a player whose game is in decline.