Danny.. ..this constant lying thing. It's got to stop. I get that you thought this was the best way to help the team short term and long term. I get that it's your job and you're confident. I get that your values may be different especially since you yourself was traded.
But this lying thing is getting out of hand. It's so out of hand that you have other people lying for you and with you now.
Let's look at the following things said by you and your associates in the past few weeks.
1. We offered an extension to Perk and he didn't take it and we were afraid we'd lose him.
Did you talk to him? How'd he look in those Thunder profile pics? Happy to be with a new team that might give him the money? How does he sound about throwing out his shoes? A guy whose heart wasn't in Boston? A guy who wanted every cent? Did he hold out for every cent in the past? Cmon Danny. Cmon.
2. We think Nenad is a starting center in this league.
In this league? Maybe. On a championship team? On our team? There's lots of starting centers in this league. Start Chris Johnson there tomorrow. Boom. Starting center. Nazr Mahommed? Kwame Brown? Darko? All starting centers I guess.
3. Jermaine O'Neal will be healthy for the playoffs. Danny. Jermaine. The last time we saw this guy he could hardly walk. Boy who cried wolf at best. Either you lie about injuries or the team has medical staff issues.
4. Tommy says Semih wants to go back to Turkey. Highly convenient. Way to keep a tight lid on that till juuuusssssttt the right time, and the time just happens to be damage control time and we don't trust you any more so you get Tommy to say it for you. Oh Danny. Danny Danny Danny.
5. You would have traded Bird before he got old. Actually I rather believe you on this. That's the problem. I know you think it would have been great to trade him for Clyde Drexler, Sam Bowie and a bag of peanuts in 1988 and that's the problem. Hey Danny. Do me a favor ok? Try not to trade Lucky for the Suns Gorilla and a draft pick, and try not to trade Red's statue and Bill's new medal he got from Obama for 40 pieces of silver ok? If someone calls you offering a great deal for Paul Pierce involving a young stater and a Euro just hang up. Nobody will think less of you. It's ok. Just let it go.
The only thing that Danny's said the past few weeks that I think he's exaggerated about is the fact that Green might be a better defender than Perkins. Now while I don't necessarily think that's true, let's at least give it the season to pan out. For all we know Perk has poor movement when he comes back and Green does an admirable job on LeBron in the playoffs. As for the other stuff:
1) Just because Kendrick is sad doesn't mean that Danny didn't offer him what's rumored to be the case. I think he absolutely talked to his people and things didn't get worked out. I think there's zero evidence to suggest he's lying.
Also remember that the Thunder have their core and can afford to overpay for role players right now. The C's have to keep in mind that they want to get under the cap in a couple of years. Simply put, the Thunder could afford to give Perk a big contract more than we could.
2) He never said Nenad Krstic is this team's starting center. He's been very explicit that Shaquille O'Neal is. So I don't know why you take umbrage with the fact that he called the former starting center of #4 seed Thunder a "starting center" in this league. He certainly was as recently as two weeks ago.
3) Jermaine. Should we be skeptical? Probably. However, let's wait and see what happens before we call Danny a liar. There were countless people on this board who practically wrote novels on this board about how KG would never be the same again and that it's impossible for a player in his 30s to recover from a leg injury. That obviously proved completely false. Thus, I wouldn't rule out the possibility that JO could give us 15 mpg of good rebounding and defense.
4) Semih? Same deal. Let's see what he does next year before we jump the gun. Furthermore, what's really his incentive to lie about this one? Was the Celtic fan base really so upset about Semih Erden that he needed to lie about why he was traded? I don't think so.
5) The Larry Bird thing I think has been overblown. I don't really agree with his assessment of things there. Red did have a rebuilding plan; unfortunately, Reggie and Len died. But I also feel that the situation we have today is much different. Larry and Kevin were chronically injured, making it very tough to gauge what to do. On one had Red clung on to the notion that they could recover (keep in mind, that both had been in the league fewer than 10 years by '88).
Here's it's completely different. Paul and Ray look rejuvenated, looking just as good as '08 (one could argue that Ray actually looks better). And KG is fairly close to what he was in '08, even if he is a step slower.
So even if Ainge is sincere about trading aging vets, these vets aren't chronically hurt like Larry and Kevin and this team is still clearly an elite team. You couldn't say that about Red and the C's of the late '80s.