So...What are your thoughts on Ainge's mastery of not signing Birdman OR Martin?

[CelticG1]

I'm surprised people were upset by this.

All I heard on this board earlier this year was "there's a reason no one has signed him yet" one of the stupidest comments you always hear on this board and "we need to get younger!!!!" One of the most overrated and misguided comments you will ever see on this board.

[kgainez]

to be fair, youre asking DA to see the future.

it was just us to passed on these 2, 35 other teams did as well. I think they just so happened to find good fits where they were needed badly. Ainge prolly didn't want them because they couldn't be effective at the pick and pop. You all know this team is made up to shoot jumpers.

KMart and Birdman would probably be on the bench for us.

[Roy H.]

I thought he should have signed Birdman, especially over Collins. 

I wasn't as big on Martin, if only because of the chemistry concerns.

[nickagneta]

Who's to say he didn't go after Birdman and Martin but was turned down? Those players could very well have NOT wanted to come here.

[Roy H.]

Who's to say he didn't go after Birdman and Martin but was turned down? Those players could very well have NOT wanted to come here.

I'm skeptical of this, just because Kmart was so openly begging for a job for awhile, and Birdman went unsigned for so long.

[Kane3387]

Kenyon Martin has been killing us. He really has been the best big man on the court in both of the first two games.

Can't win if Kenyon Martin is outplaying Kevin Garnett.

Can't win a game, let alone the series.

[fairweatherfan]

Who's to say he didn't go after Birdman and Martin but was turned down? Those players could very well have NOT wanted to come here.

I'm skeptical of this, just because Kmart was so openly begging for a job for awhile, and Birdman went unsigned for so long.

And K-Mart has repeatedly said he was on the verge of signing here and it fell through.

[Kane3387]

The Celtics had considered signing free-agent forward Kenyon Martin this offseason, but ultimately chose Collins, Chris Wilcox and Milicic over him. Some Celtics’ veterans have been pushing for the team to sign Martin.

http://www.celticstown.com/2012/11/19/reports-boston-celtics-interested-in-marcin-gortat-kenyon-martin/

This is from Woj.

Danny made a mistake.  It happens, but I think this would be an easy series for us if we had K-Mart and they didn't.

Games 3 and 4 are must wins though.

[Neurotic Guy]

The only silver lining is a losers silver lining:  we wouldn't have won a championship even with both of them.  The net result would be a worse draft pick and maybe a 1st round series win.   With either 1 of them we easily could have gotten the 5th seed and faced Miami in round 2.

Anyway, water under the bridge, tired of thinking about it.

[badshar]

The Celtics had considered signing free-agent forward Kenyon Martin this offseason, but ultimately chose Collins, Chris Wilcox and Milicic over him. Some Celtics’ veterans have been pushing for the team to sign Martin.

http://www.celticstown.com/2012/11/19/reports-boston-celtics-interested-in-marcin-gortat-kenyon-martin/

This is from Woj.

Danny made a mistake.  It happens, but I think this would be an easy series for us if we had K-Mart and they didn't.

Games 3 and 4 are must wins though.

It would be an even easier series if we had Rondo and Sullinger.

[Lucky17]

More recent words re: Martin (from late March):

http://greenstreet.weei.com/sports/boston/basketball/celtics/2013/03/25/doc-rivers-im-not-happy-that-kenyon-martin-went-to-the-knicks/

“I don’t know,” Rivers said when asked why Martin didn’t wind up with the Celtics. “We looked at all the guys, we were still looking at guards at the time. So we were in no hurry at the time for a big. We were looking for more a big of size, if you know what I mean. And by the time we got around to it, he was gone.”

I had also heard/read (but can't track down) that Chauncey Billups related to Kevin Garnett how Martin was one of several players in last year's Clippers locker room who was part of a splinter group pushing for Del Negro's ouster. So, there may have been legit concerns about team chemistry.

Don't know about Chris Andersen's story, although I've also not read anything that he's been officially cleared by the FBI, either. So, another potential distraction that concerned the Celtics brass, perhaps.

I too was hoping the Celtics would go after Martin. Water under the bridge now. Makes me wonder: would Martin be motivated to play hard if the Knicks were playing the Hawks in this series?