Will we have another franchise player like Paul Pierce?

[mgent]

rajon rondo

to me, a "franchise player" is a guy you can build a playoff team around.  rondo's not that guy.  a good #2 or #3, for sure, but not the #1.

Isn't it possible for Rondo to be the franchise player/captain and not the best player on the team (Pierce and KG when we won)?

[paulcowens]

Ainges 'anyone is expendable' attitude is a big problem, but I expect Rondo to stay a long time, if Ainge manages to avoid having another Manic Moment.

As someone pointed out, we'll see how Rondo responds as a bigger and bigger load is put on him.  So far, he's done well.

[shookones99]

Ladies and gentleman....................................................................Anthony Davis.



http://nbadraft.net/players/anthony-davis


Whatever Ainge has to do to trade up to that 2-5 zone you do it for this kid.  A year or 2 of watching KG in action and he'll be, well, the next KG.

[csfansince60s]

rajon rondo

......if he develops that jumper, and especially if he extends his range out to three-land.

[PosImpos]

rajon rondo

to me, a "franchise player" is a guy you can build a playoff team around.  rondo's not that guy.  a good #2 or #3, for sure, but not the #1.

Isn't it possible for Rondo to be the franchise player/captain and not the best player on the team (Pierce and KG when we won)?

if by 'franchise player' you just mean the guy who's been one of the major contributors to the team for his whole career, then sure.

p.s., when we won it all in '08, KG was the best all around player on the team but Paul Pierce took over games and was the best player on the floor in the Finals (outplaying Kobe).  what made the '08 team special is that any of the Big 3 were capable of playing like the guy on any given night.

[mgent]

rajon rondo

to me, a "franchise player" is a guy you can build a playoff team around.  rondo's not that guy.  a good #2 or #3, for sure, but not the #1.

Isn't it possible for Rondo to be the franchise player/captain and not the best player on the team (Pierce and KG when we won)?

if by 'franchise player' you just mean the guy who's been one of the major contributors to the team for his whole career, then sure.

p.s., when we won it all in '08, KG was the best all around player on the team but Paul Pierce took over games and was the best player on the floor in the Finals (outplaying Kobe).  what made the '08 team special is that any of the Big 3 were capable of playing like the guy on any given night.

You can talk about Pierce's clutch factor all you want, bottom line is KG was our best player and he told Paul it was still his team because it had already been his team for quite some time.

[CaptainJackLee]

The reason there's a soft cap in the NBA is precisely to promote team-player continuity. If the owners have their way and a hard cap is imposed, then it's obvious there will be less team-player continuity and players who stay with the same team for their entire career will be even rarer.

The reason players are against a hard-cap is because teams will operate more on a boom-bust logic. Retooling and sustaining success will be a lot more difficult to do (think the Spurs that built 2 championship teams around Duncan, the Pacers throughout Miller career or Dallas with Dirk, the Pistons keeping their '04 title line-up for new runs... cases that won't happen under a hard-cap scenario). It'll be more like Miami last season. There will be very little incentive for non-contending teams to offer multi-year contracts to role-players. Which is basically a salary cut, as guaranteed wages are a premium. The same % of the revenue + a hard-cap equates a salary cut for role-players relatively to star players (that wouldnt' see their situation affected). As the large majority of the union members are role-players, it's obvious they don't like it and rightly so.

Plus, if owners get their way and the % of the revenue is reduced in any significant way, then I'd expect star players to gravitate towards certain locations - as non-salary factors will become much more important. Not sure if that's good or bad for Boston - it's certain terrible for Minnesota and great for LA.