Latest Simmon's Article on Celts

[PosImpos]

I guess "ridiculous" is anyone who doesn't see it your way....that's a great characteristic to have.

TP.

My suggestion for your, Master Po, is to not even bother with birdbrady.  Not worth the time.

[dlpin]

Tired of you smartalics using the word ridiculous in a demeaning manner. I didn't call you out or call you something. Poor behavior...I hope Forum Mods call you out on it

This whole "Ainge was gifted KG by his friend" is just nonsense by people who didn't like the celtics.

I have been watching and the Celtics before you ever born and maybe your daddy depending on your age...so blow it out your nose with that demeaning talk to me about who likes the celtics...and calling someone's opinion ridiculous.

I didn't use the word "ridiculous" anywhere in my post, so you got me confused with someone else. I said that the idea that McHale traded KG to the celtics to bail out his friend makes no sense (i.e., it is nonsense), and then proceeded to explain why it made no sense. You know nothing about me or my family, so I'd appreciate if you didn't try to pull rank on me instead of substantiating your opinion of why McHale would make a bad trade to favor a friend.

[Master Po]

If I would have pulled rank on you I would have booted you but Forum Mods make those calls not me. I was calling you out for equating people who think McHale's GM skills (or lack thereof) helped his friend DA as being people who don't like the Celtics. I was calling out another poster in my post about calling others opinions "ridiculous".

I never said McHale made the trade to "bail out his friend" - you should read closer .

[TripleOT]

I'm not to thrilled with the trade suggestions that Simmons offered up, but I agree with his take on how the Perk trade destroyed this team's ubuntu.

OKC is 40-10 when Perk has played for them in the regular season the past two seasons 80% winning percentage.  The Cs are 33-32 since the Perk trade. 

I just finished watching Perk do a solid job bodying Bynum to a frustrating night (15 points on 14 shots, with only 2 offensive rebounds, with a -15 in 41 minutes).  Offensively, Perk set solid pick almost every possession he was on the floor. The statline showed well in one area - 9 rebounds, with Perk going +13.  His game is one that a star laden team needs to be successful night in and night out.   

 
 

 

[goCeltics]

I'm not to thrilled with the trade suggestions that Simmons offered up, but I agree with his take on how the Perk trade destroyed this team's ubuntu.

OKC is 40-10 when Perk has played for them in the regular season the past two seasons 80% winning percentage.  The Cs are 33-32 since the Perk trade. 

I just finished watching Perk do a solid job bodying Bynum to a frustrating night (15 points on 14 shots, with only 2 offensive rebounds, with a -15 in 41 minutes).  Offensively, Perk set solid pick almost every possession he was on the floor. The statline showed well in one area - 9 rebounds, with Perk going +13.  His game is one that a star laden team needs to be successful night in and night out.   

 
 

 

the c's starting sucking once shaq went down, also westbrook, durrant and harden were maturing whlist pierce, garnett and allen starting only getting older, unless somehow not trading perkins would have reversed paul, kevin and rays ageing process would the celtics not have declined

[guava_wrench]

Simmons in that article: DeAndre Jordan: "I was supposed to be a lottery pick and fell 20 spots. If anyone was going to take a flier on me, it should have been Boston. I could have learned from KG and become another Perkins. When Danny passed me up for a selfish 24-year-old gunner who had just spent six years in college and wouldn't have a relevant NBA moment, it was something of a wake-up call. Four years later, I'm starting on a contender, I'm third in the league in blocks, and I'm making $10 million a year. Danny, thanks for passing on me even though it was the easiest sleeper pick in the world!"

Such an obvious pick, Bill.  Here's what you said in your 2008 running draft diary: By the way, I'm torn on DeAndre Jordan for the Celtics at No. 30 -- a lottery talent with no heart at all, but someone who might be redeemed by going to Kevin Garnett College and getting a double major in woofing and chest-pounding. He's like the gift nobody wants to end up with in a $25 Yankee Christmas swap: A potential keeper until you realize you also have to pay for $20 worth of batteries to make the gift work, so you're better off just passing it to someone else. Did that even make sense? I feel like that made sense. I need to wrap this up soon.

7:20: Detroit spruces up its D-League team with D.J. White at No. 29. He could end up being the Mel Daniels of the D-League before everything's said and done. Please, Lord, let the Celtics take Chalmers or Douglas-Roberts to finish off the luckiest year in Celtics history. Please.

Yet another illustration of why Simmons is great for entertainment but useless for insightful analysis.

[greenlion]

simmons is jeff van gundy personified in these celtic threads..insightfully irrelevant, total crap..

[kenmaine]

Had to log in and make one of my occasional posts.
This was a very funny and well-written article. And unfortunately, most of the points were valid.
But c'mon guys-   where's your sense of humor?  I even laughed at the jibes at Tommy, even though I love him.
Anyway, IMO DA's constant shuffling of players has hurt the team. No continuity, no chemistry, and no loyalty. And the replacements for the most part have been inferior.

[Dr H]

Anyway, IMO DA's constant shuffling of players has hurt the team. No continuity, no chemistry, and no loyalty.

And something that I don't see people say or realize - you(in general) don't think this has anything to do with Boston as a FA destination? I certainly do...on one hand it's great to have a GM that can and will make moves, but on the other hand you pull certain moves and betray your loyalty to the player(s). I know I know, it's a business why does loyalty matter that much..but as anyone knows a team needs great chemistry to succeed in trying times.

Larry Bird said he loved how loyal Red was to him and his teammates. I hate to say it but a lot of players now are mentally fragile. They want to be loved..they want to be wanted. They don't want to sign with a team only to get shipped out later on.

[cman88]

Being stuck with perks 8mill albatross contract for his 5ppg on a rebuilding team would've been great move for ainge

[mctyson]

So, Simmons has been diddling with Presti, and how he 'owned' Ainge by 'stealing' Perk from him.  Yes, the Perk trade hurt US because it killed our chemistry last year.  But Presti didn't get the better end of the deal either.  It was a lose-lose for both teams.  Presti is stuck with Perk making 8-9M for the next few years while he still hasn't paid Ibaka and Harden yet.  And they are a small market so they have some decisions to make.

Anyways, Simmons' in that hit-piece was just saying that Ainge made "two good moves in 8 years" and they were both from McHale.  Well....what about when...Ainge...heisted another Hall of Famer...from.....SAM PRESTI!!!  What about that Bill?  Here's what YOU said about the Ray trade back in 2007

4:30 p.m. (PT): Thanks to rumors that the Celtics might trade the No. 5 pick, Wally Szczerbiak and Delonte West for a soon-to-be 32-year-old shooting guard coming off double ankle surgeries (Ray Allen), I just spent the last 20 minutes on basketball-reference.com trying to find one great shooting guard who didn't decline significantly in Years 12 through 14 of his NBA career. Here's the list: Reggie Miller. That's it. Also, I just threw up in my mouth and some of it went up the back of my nose.

4:41: Andy Katz reports that Boston agreed to deal the No. 5 pick, Szczerbiak and West for Allen. Not even 10 seconds later, the Sonics take Kevin Durant … the guy I'd been rooting for the Celtics to get since December.

(Hold on, I'm picking my jaw off the ground.)

Unless there's another major move coming -- and Lord, let's hope so -- are we really contending for the title in 2008 or 2009 with Pierce, Jefferson, Allen, Doc Rivers and nine unproven young guys? Are we even winning 47 games? Three seasons from now, if you're watching Doc and Danny Ainge announcing the same TNT game, then you flick channels and see a broken-down Ray Allen jogging around a half-empty TD Banknorth Center at age 34, you'll think of me. I promise you.

And here's the gem right here:

Here's the problem: Allen's draft class was the year before I wrote my first draft diary. His movie ("He Got Game") came out nearly a decade ago. He played at UConn with Donyell Marshall, Donny Marshall and Doron Sheffer. This guy is not a spring chicken -- just look at his hairline, for cripes' sake. This feels like Mitch Richmond going to the Bullets for C-Webb all over again. I'm somewhere between "quitting coffee and trying to make it through Day 3" rattled and "waiting for the results of an HIV test" rattled. And you know who's going to suffer? You, the home reader. That's who.

So, for the record...Simmons said Ray Allen = Mitch Richmond, and Jeff Green = CWebb (yes, that very same Jeff Green that he killed Ainge for trading Perkins for)

But, wait! There's more!!!

4:47: Marc Stein sends me an e-mail about the Allen trade that ends, "It could have turned out worse." Great. That's just the celebratory e-mail I was hoping for on draft night: "It could have turned out worse."

...

4:56: Dad calls again: "And by the way, I liked Delonte West. Put that in, too. Terrible. This is just terrible."

4:58: Boston picks Jeff Green for Seattle at No. 5, but Green has to go through the charade of wearing a Celtics hat for the next few minutes because the trade hasn't been officially announced yet. Topps needs to release a special series: "Trading cards of NBA draft picks who had to wear the wrong caps for 15 minutes."

...

6:53: Looks like Boston acquired the 35th pick in the Ray Allen trade, as well. Hmmmmm. I'm feeling a little better about things. I was a 2 out of 10 two hours ago … now I'm a 3 out of 10, and I'll be a 5 out of 10 if they take Big Baby with one of their second-rounders. As for my Dad? Let's call him.

6:53: "I'm still a 0 out of 10," he says.

Well, then.

Let's skip through the rest of the first round: Wilson Chandler to the Knicks (shockingly, Stephen A. loved the pick); Rudy Fernandez to the Blazers (purchased from the Suns, who continue to p--- on their fans by dumping crucial first-rounders for money reasons); Morris Almond to the Jazz (much-needed shooting); Brooks to the Rockets (sleeper No. 2 in the books); Arron Afflalo to Detroit (typically savvy Dumars pick); Tiago Splitter to San Antonio (typically savvy Spurs stash-away pick); Alando Tucker to the Suns (scoring off the bench!); and Petteri Koponen to the Sixers (seriously, can you imagine anyone with that name actually becoming an NBA star?). Also, G-State dealt Jason Richardson to Charlotte for the rights to Brandan Wright, one of those moves that has "the first step in another trade in which G-State gets Yi" written all over it.

One more thing: With the second-rounder obtained from Seattle, my dad and I were on the phone rooting for Big Baby … and when it happened, we both cheered and did the whole "I can't believe we got him at 35!" routine. Sure, it was a minor victory, but when you're a Celtics fan these days, you take what you can get.

So the night we got a Hall of Famer in his prime for a not-so-great lottery pick in a weak draft ALL WHILE trading Wally who was making NEAR MAX MONEY FOR THE NEXT TWO SEASON, drafting Big Baby was a 'minor victory.'

Here's the story: http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=simmons/070629

And btw, for those who want to say that Presi was 'dumping payroll.'  Well, yes.  Sorta.  But Presti was never a fan of Ray, and he wanted to move on without him.  Here's what their sources leaked to Andy Katz the night the trade was made here:

But for all his talent scoring the ball, Allen was a defensive liability. Since his arrival on June 7 as the youngest GM in the NBA, Presti has constantly reiterated his desire to build a foundation based on defense.

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/draft2007/news/story?id=2920183

Was it a horrible idea for OKC to get rid of Ray? No.  But what they got for a HOFr in his prime?? Jeff Green, and not even immediate cap relief? Ouch.  Presti got owned by Ainge and no one talks about that.

And the scoreboard still reads Ainge 1 Presti 0.  And Ainge did it without a ping pong ball bouncing his way either.

I had to quote this whole post for its sheer brilliance.  Please send this to Simmons and ask him to comment.

Let's also recap the Ray trade to this day:  we gave up Jeff Green, D-West, and Wally Z for Ray and Big Baby.  That is a win on its own.

BUT...fast forward to 2012.  We turn Kendrick Perkins and 5-years at $50 million into Jeff Green (1 year at 9 mil) and a first round pick.  Plus we turn BBD into Brandon Bass. Ray is either totally coming off the books as cap space or will be retained at a bargain price.

So in 2012 reality: we traded D-West, Wally Z, and a ridiculously overpaid Kendrick Perkins for a 1st round pick, Brandon Bass, and a ton of cap space.  And we STILL might keep Ray and Jeff Green.

Plus we won an NBA title, should have won 2, and for four years have watched the best Celtics team since the 80's

Ainge >>>> Presti.

[Roy H.]

Enough with the bickering.

For the record, describing others' opinions as "ridiculous" or "nonsense" is inconsistent with our rules; it's the equivalent of calling somebody stupid.  Please review this thread to better understand our rules related to tone.

Similarly, don't call out other posters.  Just push the report to moderator button, or send us a PM, and we'll take care of things.

Please move on.

[mctyson]

Danny has had 3 "bad" draft picks in the 8-9 years he's been here.  Marcus Banks, Gerald Green (who Simmons LOVED), and JR Giddens.

I won't even nail Danny for Giddens.  When you pick at the end of the 1st round, it is a total crap shoot.  If I was a GM I would trade out of that spot every time for a future first if I could.  30 other teams missed on D'Andre Jordan too.

Banks and Green are debatable "bad" because Danny at least got value back for both of them.  But they have been bad players.

Danny should definitely get hit for the Telfair trade.  I was furious with it, but that's when the team need a PG and he thought Telfair was better than what was there.  We have to also note that they drafted Foye with the pick.  That was probably the Blazers request.  Foye has turned into nothing.

Other than that, Danny has been great at drafting.  And I don't want to hear about the draft picks he didn't make (e.g. Yi Jianlan).  

[birdbrady]

So, Simmons has been diddling with Presti, and how he 'owned' Ainge by 'stealing' Perk from him.  Yes, the Perk trade hurt US because it killed our chemistry last year.  But Presti didn't get the better end of the deal either.  It was a lose-lose for both teams.  Presti is stuck with Perk making 8-9M for the next few years while he still hasn't paid Ibaka and Harden yet.  And they are a small market so they have some decisions to make.

Anyways, Simmons' in that hit-piece was just saying that Ainge made "two good moves in 8 years" and they were both from McHale.  Well....what about when...Ainge...heisted another Hall of Famer...from.....SAM PRESTI!!!  What about that Bill?  Here's what YOU said about the Ray trade back in 2007

4:30 p.m. (PT): Thanks to rumors that the Celtics might trade the No. 5 pick, Wally Szczerbiak and Delonte West for a soon-to-be 32-year-old shooting guard coming off double ankle surgeries (Ray Allen), I just spent the last 20 minutes on basketball-reference.com trying to find one great shooting guard who didn't decline significantly in Years 12 through 14 of his NBA career. Here's the list: Reggie Miller. That's it. Also, I just threw up in my mouth and some of it went up the back of my nose.

4:41: Andy Katz reports that Boston agreed to deal the No. 5 pick, Szczerbiak and West for Allen. Not even 10 seconds later, the Sonics take Kevin Durant … the guy I'd been rooting for the Celtics to get since December.

(Hold on, I'm picking my jaw off the ground.)

Unless there's another major move coming -- and Lord, let's hope so -- are we really contending for the title in 2008 or 2009 with Pierce, Jefferson, Allen, Doc Rivers and nine unproven young guys? Are we even winning 47 games? Three seasons from now, if you're watching Doc and Danny Ainge announcing the same TNT game, then you flick channels and see a broken-down Ray Allen jogging around a half-empty TD Banknorth Center at age 34, you'll think of me. I promise you.

And here's the gem right here:

Here's the problem: Allen's draft class was the year before I wrote my first draft diary. His movie ("He Got Game") came out nearly a decade ago. He played at UConn with Donyell Marshall, Donny Marshall and Doron Sheffer. This guy is not a spring chicken -- just look at his hairline, for cripes' sake. This feels like Mitch Richmond going to the Bullets for C-Webb all over again. I'm somewhere between "quitting coffee and trying to make it through Day 3" rattled and "waiting for the results of an HIV test" rattled. And you know who's going to suffer? You, the home reader. That's who.

So, for the record...Simmons said Ray Allen = Mitch Richmond, and Jeff Green = CWebb (yes, that very same Jeff Green that he killed Ainge for trading Perkins for)

But, wait! There's more!!!

4:47: Marc Stein sends me an e-mail about the Allen trade that ends, "It could have turned out worse." Great. That's just the celebratory e-mail I was hoping for on draft night: "It could have turned out worse."

...

4:56: Dad calls again: "And by the way, I liked Delonte West. Put that in, too. Terrible. This is just terrible."

4:58: Boston picks Jeff Green for Seattle at No. 5, but Green has to go through the charade of wearing a Celtics hat for the next few minutes because the trade hasn't been officially announced yet. Topps needs to release a special series: "Trading cards of NBA draft picks who had to wear the wrong caps for 15 minutes."

...

6:53: Looks like Boston acquired the 35th pick in the Ray Allen trade, as well. Hmmmmm. I'm feeling a little better about things. I was a 2 out of 10 two hours ago … now I'm a 3 out of 10, and I'll be a 5 out of 10 if they take Big Baby with one of their second-rounders. As for my Dad? Let's call him.

6:53: "I'm still a 0 out of 10," he says.

Well, then.

Let's skip through the rest of the first round: Wilson Chandler to the Knicks (shockingly, Stephen A. loved the pick); Rudy Fernandez to the Blazers (purchased from the Suns, who continue to p--- on their fans by dumping crucial first-rounders for money reasons); Morris Almond to the Jazz (much-needed shooting); Brooks to the Rockets (sleeper No. 2 in the books); Arron Afflalo to Detroit (typically savvy Dumars pick); Tiago Splitter to San Antonio (typically savvy Spurs stash-away pick); Alando Tucker to the Suns (scoring off the bench!); and Petteri Koponen to the Sixers (seriously, can you imagine anyone with that name actually becoming an NBA star?). Also, G-State dealt Jason Richardson to Charlotte for the rights to Brandan Wright, one of those moves that has "the first step in another trade in which G-State gets Yi" written all over it.

One more thing: With the second-rounder obtained from Seattle, my dad and I were on the phone rooting for Big Baby … and when it happened, we both cheered and did the whole "I can't believe we got him at 35!" routine. Sure, it was a minor victory, but when you're a Celtics fan these days, you take what you can get.

So the night we got a Hall of Famer in his prime for a not-so-great lottery pick in a weak draft ALL WHILE trading Wally who was making NEAR MAX MONEY FOR THE NEXT TWO SEASON, drafting Big Baby was a 'minor victory.'

Here's the story: http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=simmons/070629

And btw, for those who want to say that Presi was 'dumping payroll.'  Well, yes.  Sorta.  But Presti was never a fan of Ray, and he wanted to move on without him.  Here's what their sources leaked to Andy Katz the night the trade was made here:

But for all his talent scoring the ball, Allen was a defensive liability. Since his arrival on June 7 as the youngest GM in the NBA, Presti has constantly reiterated his desire to build a foundation based on defense.

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/draft2007/news/story?id=2920183

Was it a horrible idea for OKC to get rid of Ray? No.  But what they got for a HOFr in his prime?? Jeff Green, and not even immediate cap relief? Ouch.  Presti got owned by Ainge and no one talks about that.

And the scoreboard still reads Ainge 1 Presti 0.  And Ainge did it without a ping pong ball bouncing his way either.

I had to quote this whole post for its sheer brilliance.  Please send this to Simmons and ask him to comment.

Let's also recap the Ray trade to this day:  we gave up Jeff Green, D-West, and Wally Z for Ray and Big Baby.  That is a win on its own.

BUT...fast forward to 2012.  We turn Kendrick Perkins and 5-years at $50 million into Jeff Green (1 year at 9 mil) and a first round pick.  Plus we turn BBD into Brandon Bass. Ray is either totally coming off the books as cap space or will be retained at a bargain price.

So in 2012 reality: we traded D-West, Wally Z, and a ridiculously overpaid Kendrick Perkins for a 1st round pick, Brandon Bass, and a ton of cap space.  And we STILL might keep Ray and Jeff Green.

Plus we won an NBA title, should have won 2, and for four years have watched the best Celtics team since the 80's

Ainge >>>> Presti.

Haha, thanks.  The stuff I have exposed Simmons with should be on the front page of every Celtics fan website, including this.  And like I also posted earlier in the thread:

Simmons in that article: DeAndre Jordan: "I was supposed to be a lottery pick and fell 20 spots. If anyone was going to take a flier on me, it should have been Boston. I could have learned from KG and become another Perkins. When Danny passed me up for a selfish 24-year-old gunner who had just spent six years in college and wouldn't have a relevant NBA moment, it was something of a wake-up call. Four years later, I'm starting on a contender, I'm third in the league in blocks, and I'm making $10 million a year. Danny, thanks for passing on me even though it was the easiest sleeper pick in the world!"

Such an obvious pick, Bill.  Here's what you said in your 2008 running draft diary: By the way, I'm torn on DeAndre Jordan for the Celtics at No. 30 -- a lottery talent with no heart at all, but someone who might be redeemed by going to Kevin Garnett College and getting a double major in woofing and chest-pounding. He's like the gift nobody wants to end up with in a $25 Yankee Christmas swap: A potential keeper until you realize you also have to pay for $20 worth of batteries to make the gift work, so you're better off just passing it to someone else. Did that even make sense? I feel like that made sense. I need to wrap this up soon.

7:20: Detroit spruces up its D-League team with D.J. White at No. 29. He could end up being the Mel Daniels of the D-League before everything's said and done. Please, Lord, let the Celtics take Chalmers or Douglas-Roberts to finish off the luckiest year in Celtics history. Please.

Simmons has no right to talk.  The guy was ripping Ainge and Doc, esp from 2005-2007, and now as soon as he gets a Celtics team that isn't a contender for the first time in five years he goes back to shamelessly attacking those two, esp Ainge.  Because he'd look like a moron if he reminded everyone of what he was saying about Doc in 2006 and 2007.  Here are two more pieces that expose this joker: http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=simmons/060112
http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=simmons/061115
First sentence of that first piece reads: Doc Rivers stinks as an NBA coach.

I actually would take Presti over Ainge as a GM.  But you'd think the gap between Presti and Ainge is like the gap between Jerry West and Dan Issel as GMs.  Or to make people better understand it: the gap between Michael Strahan's teeth.  It's not.  And like I've said ten zillion times, no one is talking about Sam Presti and all his "under the radar moves" (like drafting Ibaka late) IF HE DOESN'T GET THAT DURANT PING PONG BALL.

Every great GM has bad moves, like Ainge with Raef and Blount.  Presti gave away Ray Allen for garbage.  RC Buford let Hedo get away for nothing.  And all three of these GMs, you can say that "they drafted this guy over that guy."  But they've made the moves that matter and that's what really counts.  Obviously, what can elevate one over the other is you minimize those bad moves, where each and every one of them has made at least one of them.

And like I said about Mitch Kupchak, another great GM in this league:

Simmons could just as easily write a column on Mitch Kupchak, a top 5 GM himself and absolutely shred him for brutal signings like Luke Walton, Ron Artest, and Steve Blake.  Those three guys are all signed through this year and next, and in Blake's case the year after that as well.  The three of them are combined taking up a max contract slot.  The Artest signing was particularly bad because he let Ariza go, who was younger, better and a far better fit.  Kupchak also has hit like one first round pick in the last 7-8 years, (Jordan Farmar.)  He also re-signed Derek Fisher to a not one, not two, but three year deal.  And Fisher is absolutely baked.

But the moves Kupchak did make? Hold onto Kobe despite trade demands.  Turn down deals for Andrew  Bynum that had the Lakers getting back either Jason Kidd or Jermaine O'Neal...much to Kobe's dismay.  Trade for Pau.  All that matters.

Yep.  All that matters.  Just like that 17th flag that's hanging above the parquet now, Bill.

Although, maybe you wouldn't know.  Because you're going all 2007 on Celtics fans again, and are descending into a childish bore.  Like I said, as well.  Focus on the moves your pathetic Clippers make:

Again, moves like Simmons' Clippers made - trading the #1 pick in the draft for Mo Williams - are FAR more crippling.  Repeat, the #1 pick in the draft for Mo Williams.  Yet you don't hear a peep from that clown.

[mctyson]

I actually would take Presti over Ainge as a GM.  But you'd think the gap between Presti and Ainge is like the gap between Jerry West and Dan Issel as GMs.  Or to make people better understand it: the gap between Michael Strahan's teeth.  It's not.  And like I've said ten zillion times, no one is talking about Sam Presti and all his "under the radar moves" (like drafting Ibaka late) IF HE DOESN'T GET THAT DURANT PING PONG BALL.

This is such an important point.  I had a discussion with a friend yesterday about the Simmons article and other GMs/teams.  I brought up the Spurs and Duncan.  Does anyone kneel at the altar of Popovich if the Celtics don't get screwed in the lottery and the Spurs don't get Duncan?  I don't think so.

Presti has done a good job. But he has been lucky too, like every NBA GM has been.  That's the point of the the lottery system.