You're talking about Perkins being good for us when he came back but he played 10 games or something at most?
Well those 10 or so games was arguably the team's most impressive stretch. That was the time of year when we were missing almost half the team due to injury, and we were still somehow winning games against some fairly good teams (you know, Lakers in LA, Miami in Boston?) He was clearly a lesser player than he was in the 09 and 10 regular seasons, but he was still an acceptable starting center on a team that lacked size and strength.
Danny made the trade because there is no way we would sign Perkins for the money he wanted AND he was on one leg.
It wasn't "no way" they could have re-signed him if they wanted too. But that's besides the point anyways. First off, it would have been more valuable to have him last year, and make a run with that team. And then, as has been pointed out a million times - Perkins would have fetched us something in a sign and trade. A trade exception alone (lets say he signed for 8-9M elsewhere) was worth more than what we got back.
You didn't mention the reasoning behind his trade, which was mainly in part to needing a back up for Paul Pierce with us facing Miami, Chicago and New York in the playoffs and their very good small forward line ups.
Well that's where Ainge failed. He never got a back-up wing man for us in the off-season (lost out on Barnes because he didn't have his LLE, used up the whole MLE on Jermaine when there were plenty of solid wings available.) Besides, our biggest need last years was rebounding. The old Pat Riley quote - "No rebounds, no rings." Rebounding wins championships, not back up small fowards.
And even if that was the case. He failed miserably in the sense he acquired Green. Who after 5 years in the league proved he was nothing more than an empty suit. Look at his stats. No, not his points per game, but his efficiency numbers. Green is nothing more than an average wing man, and guys like that grow on trees. And worst part - he doesn't even defend all that well.
Do you think with Perkins that we would have gotten past Miami and Chicago? Honestly?
LOL, that's an argument? Following the trade, the team was under .500 and lost in FIVE to that very Miami team. I'd say we had a [dang] better chance to beat Miami with Perkins than what we had. We beat Miami with Perkins on the lineup on a Sunday afternoon and were missing almost half our team. Late in the year, when we were essentially playing a game down in Miami in a game that decided who was going to have home court in the second round - we got BLASTED, and then proceeded to lose in five in the playoff series. That alone right there proved the trade was a failure.
Shaq was 3 times better than Perkins had been and Danny had to make a tough decision; gamble on Shaq getting healthy and get Paul a solid back up and some scoring off the bench for us, or let Perk walk to whoever would overpay for him in the off season with nada in return.
Problem: Shaq essentially never played the rest of the way. So, I find major fault banking on Shaq's return, and then Jermaine - who had provided us nothing at the time of the trade. And will you stop talking up Jeff Green? He was never that good. He's not a "solid back up" and did not give us "scoring off the bench," and we saw that in the time he was here.
Danny knew that Perks stock was worth a lot because the players around him made him look so much better than he was, so he did what a good GM should do, whilst trying to help his MVP and the future of this organisation by getting Green.(3rd scoring option, 16ppg on OKC at the time)
He had a sub 13 PER for a wingman who's D is average at best. That's absolute junk.
If Shaq wasn't healthy, we still had bench scoring and a starting center in Nenad Krsti.
Kristic gave us like 6 good games and was useless the rest of the way.
We got the best player in the trade,
At the time of the deal, Perkins was the best player in the trade and it wasn't even freaking close. At the time Perkins had a high PER, was a center, and played infinitely better defense.
a first round pick in a loaded draft,
That's the only saving grace in the deal. A pick that could very well be in the mid-20s now. And btw, this so-called awesome pick could have been had if we didnt take Avery Bradley (OKC had the pick right after us, and then traded it to LAC for that very pick we have so they could take Bledsoe.)
and an NBA caliber starting center
It was the Celtics that was the team that sent out the "NBA starting caliber center" (Perkins) not the Thunder.
for an injured role player.
... if Perk was an 'injured role player' than what ... is Jeff Green (out for the year, and didn't do [anything] last year), Nenad Kristic (playing somewhere in Siberia right now probably, and gave us maybe 6 decent games last year) ?
I'm sorry it just sounds like an argument for your heart, not your head.
[Edited.]
Come on, man. No masked profanity, no personal attacks. Don't ruin a good thread, where you've made lots of strong arguments. -RH
Topic: Grading Danny Ainge from 2003-11 (Here's your GM Boston) (Read 9401 times)