i fully believe Boston wins the 2011 title if Danny Delusion doesn't rip the team apart with the Perk trade - we would have maintained home court and would not have seen miami/chicago until ECF.
you'll never convince me Perk would have left as a FA - he stated he couldn't see himself anywhere but Boston.
as for acquiring an athletic wing to compete with our rivals - that's foolish - the Celts were the ones with the advantage - a tough, physical front line with an attitude who controlled the blocks - it was Miami/Chicago who needed to adjust to us - DA gave away our advantage for Jeff Green, who didn't have much appetite for battle.
acquire Jeff Green to replace Pierce 2 - 3 years down the road ? what ? this team was all about winning titles right now - we have not been in rebuilding mode of late.
kinda funny how Perk's teams keep showing up in the finals.
firstly, i completely disagree with the idea that its a foregone conclusion we would have won had we have had perk. but i'll go into that later.
secondly, the best general manager in the league is the guy who runs the spurs. i would put presti of OKC as second, and then it's either the guy who runs the nuggets, or danny (and danny pretty much fooled presti in the perk trade - but alas - later).
FIRSTLY:
dannys not perfect. he hasnt got the greatest eye for potential in the league, but he's waaayy up there... you cant expect someone to be 100%... even the spurs traded away luis scola for basically nothing:
"On July 12, 2007, the Spurs traded the rights to Scola, along with center-forward Jackie Butler, to the Houston Rockets, in return for Vassilis Spanoulis, a future second-round draft pick, and cash considerations."
you also gotta look at the fact that he was the one who drafted
shawn marion for the phoenix suns in 1999.
he tried his hardest to trade up and grab
kobe bryant in the 96 draft... but instead dropped the ball and only drafted
steve nash at number 15

then in 1997, when he didnt have a 1st round pick, he picked up
stephen jackson at number 43 in the second round.
98' they didnt have a pick.
in 2002 he went on record as saying
amare stoudamire would probably end up as the best player from that draft (which outside of yao ming he is). decoded this means, "he's the guy i would have drafted."
SECONDLY:
perk now has one of the worst contracts in the league at 10 million a year. looking at wins per 48, stiemsma is producing more than perk:
http://www.basketball-reference.com/players/p/perkike01.htmlhttp://www.basketball-reference.com/players/s/stiemgr01.htmland looking at per on espn:
- stiemsma is at 13.62
- perk is at 8.69
keep in mind perk turned down 4 years at 30 mill danny tried to give him... would you pay 10 million for stiemsma?? if the answer is yes, i just dont know what to tell ya...
AND...
the reason perk was in the finals is not coz perk is a difference maker, but instead there are three guys on his team. one all-star named westbrook, one 6th man of the year named harden, and one absolute beast of a player named durant...