Ainge/Shaughnessy Interview Discussing Perk Trade (merged)

[boscel33]

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2011/writers/dan_shaughnessy/03/07/ainge/

This was a great read (thanks for pointing us to it on the front page).  I like the last question:

"Me: "You know that we'll blame you if you don't win the championship now."
Ainge: "I'm all right with that. Blame me all you want. Do I get all the credit if we win?"

Ainge is awesome....

[winsomme]

linked on the front page:
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2011/writers/dan_shaughnessy/03/07/ainge/

I thought the crux of the interview was when he discussed Shaq.

He(Shaq)'s better than he was in the fall...

Now if Shaq and Jermaine [O'Neal] can't play we could be in trouble.

this pretty much says it all to me. Green and Nenad seem to be helping the offense, but our interior defense is too easy to penetrate (see Jennings last night).

The question is: what are the real chances that Shaq and JO can contribute at a high level this season?

I think our Title chances hang on this question.

[rondohondo]

Shaughnessy is a moron , he is wrong almost all the time .

[Greenbean]

Shaughnessy is a moron , he is wrong almost all the time .

He is a contrarian in the Felger mold for sure.

Not as irritating as Felger though. Maybe its the soft voice.

[winsomme]

timing of this article not so good considering Shaq is out indefinitely...I wonder when he interviewed him

[Roy H.]

Shaughnessy is a moron , he is wrong almost all the time .

True, but I give him credit for standing by his opinions, rather than backing down.  The questions he asked Danny were good ones, and Danny wasn't afraid to answer them.

[FatjohnReturns]

 I have 100% confidence in Dannys ability to be the GM of this
 team.

 

 

[pearljammer10]

Yeah I love Danny. I was shocked and upset when the trade first happened but I should have known to trust Ainge with any move that he makes.

[RAcker]

He's not afraid to make tough decisions and take the heat if it doesn't work out.  Ainge is the closest thing to Red we're ever going to get.

[jdpapa3]

One of the weird consequences of this trade is that one of Peter May or CHB will be correct.

With Perkins, I think you were running the risk of all 3 centers being hurt in the playoffs. Knock on wood for Nenad.

[zerophase]

It's still too early to decide on the trade. The trade all comes down to Shaq's health. If he is okay, the team is okay. It's even okay to have Nenad as our 2nd string center... He just can't be our starter going into the playoffs. However, I don't think Shaq will miss the playoffs. He'll play, hurt or not, in order to get that 5th ring.

I've had an inflamed achilles before... similar to Shaq's injury. I was out for 2 months. It's bad but nothing that you can't push through with a little adrenaline from the crowd.

[EmilioBonilla]

At first I wasn't on board with the trade, I was like everyone else who hated trading Perk, but now since we picked up a few decent players I'm liking the trade more and more. Good job Ainge, even though that was a huge gamble. Murphy was a big pick-up and will offset that rebounding loss from losing Perk. Btw love ya Big Perk!

[jdpapa3]

Also just took a look and Perk was averaging an entire block less per 36 minutes. You can get killed by small sample sizes, but I think that's what Danny was looking at.

I do know that our defense with Perk so far this year has been virtually the same as with Shaq and Glen Davis alongside the big 4.

[RMO]

I'm curious to see how the lakers defense does this Thursday against a team whose center can pull Bynum out of the middle.  We might get a glimpse of what it would be like if the C's make it to the finals without shaq.

[LooseCannon]

It's still too early to decide on the trade. The trade all comes down to Shaq's health. If he is okay, the team is okay. It's even okay to have Nenad as our 2nd string center... He just can't be our starter going into the playoffs. However, I don't think Shaq will miss the playoffs. He'll play, hurt or not, in order to get that 5th ring.

I think this team could win with Krstic as the starter and a healthy-enough-to-play Jermaine O'Neal as the backup (and that's how I would play them if Jermaine is in and Shaq is out).