In hindsight, if you could change one move of Danny's, what would it be?

[Roy H.]

No GM is perfect, and Danny has certainly made some mistakes.  Some of those seemed clear at the time, while others looked like solid moves that just didn't pan out.

If you could change just one move, which would it be?  The only caveat is that the move has to be based in reality; there's no "I would have signed Lebron to the MLE" allowed.

With the benefit of hindsight, I'll say that the top move I'd change is drafting Gabe Pruitt over Marc Gasol in 2007.  That pick would have given us the center we've needed these past several seasons, and arguably would have kept Pau Gasol away from the Lakers.

My other big "what if" that isn't necessarily obvious to most Celtics fans is, what if Danny had included top-35 protection on the second rounder he sent to Minnesota in the Mark Blount / Wally deal.  That pick turned out to be the 31st pick in the 2008 draft, which turned into Nikola Pekovic.  That's a move that you can't criticize Danny for, but it's interesting to Ponder what could have happened.

And last, there's the blatantly obvious "what if Danny had drafted a competent player over J.R. Giddens in 2008", with the most likely candidate being DeAndre Jordan.

That's three starting centers that we could have had, all available with just a little more luck and/or foresight.

[Roy H.]

Oh, and I'm forgetting perhaps the biggest "what if" of all...  what if the medical staff had pushed KG to get surgery on his bone spurs / knee tendon early in the 2009 season -- when it was first detected, and surgery was brought up -- rather than deciding just to rest the injury and have KG play through it?

[pearljammer10]

Have to go with the Marc Gasol over Pruitt pick.

Or instead or JR Giddens gone with DJordan, Pekovic, or Omer Asik.

Funny enough I would like to play this game for the Twolves... My do over for them, is obviously 2009 when they 5 guards out of their 6 picks taking 3 pgs and a sg in the first round, and another pg in the second round. (It was a crazy guard heavy draft btw Rubio, Lawson, Curry, Holiday, Teague, Maynor, Collison)

The Wolves in 2009 could have gotten away with drafting Rubio at 5 and Curry at 6. Also could have nabbed Taj Gibson at 18 rather than take Lawson and trade him.

[Yoki_IsTheName]

Those are very bigs names that could have really changed the course of history.

I'm going little names here but I think would have a big impact on the team if this little change happened.

Fab Melo, love the pick but clearly right now he isnt working out. If Danny picked Festus Ezeli over him, it would be a different story. Ezeli looked way ready, is tough and I think could've gotten some playing time here and contributed defensively.

[bdm860]

It's easy to go back in the draft, and cherry pick the gems out of the 2nd round, so I'll stay away from those obvious answers (though would gladly go back in time and make those picks).

But how about James Posey?

Signed for a 2 year deal for $6.67m with the 2nd year being his option (which he opted out of).  Then we lost him the next year when he signed a 4 year, $25m deal with NO (which I think a lot of us agree was too long a deal for him).  I believe the Celtics were offering the full mid-level for 2-3 years, or something around that, right?

So what if he just signed Posey for 3 or 4 years in the first place?  Maybe offer 3yr/$15m in 2007 (or possibly even a few million less) instead of essentially offering 1yr/$3.2m and having to try to re-sign him the next year.  Would that have been possible with our cap position at the time?

He would have helped (though probably wouldn't have made much of a difference in '09, but would have still have useful in '10, more so than Daniels or Finley).

[PierceMVP08]

Wow Roy, you just blew my mind on the Gasol pick.  I had no idea we passed on him.

Mine is simple but I think could've gone a long way... keep Tony Allen.

[slamtheking]

No GM is perfect, and Danny has certainly made some mistakes.  Some of those seemed clear at the time, while others looked like solid moves that just didn't pan out.

If you could change just one move, which would it be?  The only caveat is that the move has to be based in reality; there's no "I would have signed Lebron to the MLE" allowed.

With the benefit of hindsight, I'll say that the top move I'd change is drafting Gabe Pruitt over Marc Gasol in 2007.  That pick would have given us the center we've needed these past several seasons, and arguably would have kept Pau Gasol away from the Lakers.

My other big "what if" that isn't necessarily obvious to most Celtics fans is, what if Danny had included top-35 protection on the second rounder he sent to Minnesota in the Mark Blount / Wally deal.  That pick turned out to be the 31st pick in the 2008 draft, which turned into Nikola Pekovic.  That's a move that you can't criticize Danny for, but it's interesting to Ponder what could have happened.

And last, there's the blatantly obvious "what if Danny had drafted a competent player over J.R. Giddens in 2008", with the most likely candidate being DeAndre Jordan.

That's three starting centers that we could have had, all available with just a little more luck and/or foresight.

I think you made a compelling case for the Gasol pick with those 3 reasons:
- better pick that Pruitt
- Center we really need even though we had Perk
- deprives LA of the assets needed to get Pau (at least without including Bynum and thus impact thir 2010 title run).
The thing is, that change is so slight and so feasible it's heartbreaking.

other than that and the Giddens pick you mentioned already, I'd have gone with the wasted Melo pick.  any of the next 15 players taken would have been better for us.  Of course not signing Krstic after the trade has backfired on us too.

[BballTim]

  The funny thing about this topic is if you took a reading closer to the times of the deals the biggest mistakes would either be Antoine for Raef or Raef (and the Brandon Roy pick) for Theo. Without those trades we'd probably still be looking back fondly on our last title team in 1986.

[Chris]

It's easy to go back in the draft, and cherry pick the gems out of the 2nd round, so I'll stay away from those obvious answers (though would gladly go back in time and make those picks).

But how about James Posey?

Signed for a 2 year deal for $6.67m with the 2nd year being his option (which he opted out of).  Then we lost him the next year when he signed a 4 year, $25m deal with NO (which I think a lot of us agree was too long a deal for him).  I believe the Celtics were offering the full mid-level for 2-3 years, or something around that, right?

So what if he just signed Posey for 3 or 4 years in the first place?  Maybe offer 3yr/$15m in 2007 (or possibly even a few million less) instead of essentially offering 1yr/$3.2m and having to try to re-sign him the next year.  Would that have been possible with our cap position at the time?

He would have helped (though probably wouldn't have made much of a difference in '09, but would have still have useful in '10, more so than Daniels or Finley).

We couldn't sign him to a deal like that in the first place.  Posey signed under market value, purposely to try to earn that last big pay day.  Unless the C's offered him close to the full MLE, he would have demanded the option after 1 year, no matter what.

I do think one of Danny's biggest mistakes though, was waiting on Posey for so long.  He let all of the options to replace him come off the market in the time while Posey was deciding what to do.  Danny should have given him a take it or leave it offer, and then moved on quickly. 

[connor]

One move I wish Danny would have pulled off would be bringing in David West two years ago. In the end it turned out the West to Boston rumors were overhyped and it wasn't ever really close, but I think his inside presence, scoring, rebounding and toughness would fill a lot of holes on our roster the last few years.

Its not exactly Danny's fault, especially since West chose Indiana anyway, but I wish that he could have worked harder to convince West that he could be the difference maker for another championship run and after that we'd have enough cap space and talent to keep it going. It would have been a sign and trade in which the Celtics sent basically Jermaine O'Neal and filler for West. Absolute steal.

[gpap]

Yeah, not drafting a Gasol, Pekvoic or Jordan was certainly a boneheaded move.

At the top of my head, I have two:

1.) Trading Perk while we were the best team in the East two years ago

2.)Not trading Ray Allen for OJ Mayo when he had the chance, last year.

I am not saying OJ would've helped us beat Miami last year, but he would've given us alot more than a hobbled Ray Allen who already knew he was leaving Boston after the season was over.

[Celtics4ever]

1.) Trading Perk while we were the best team in the East two years ago

Perk was not the same player though in all fairness, he has and was in decline then.  He was a gimp when we let him go and we ended up with Jeff Green.

Gasol pick was a killer.

[StartOrien]

Maybe this doesn't totally fall in line w/ the question but here's my biggest 'what if' to ponder:

What if instead of trading Delonte West, Wally Szerbiak and the #5 pick in the 2007 draft for Ray Allen, the Celtics kept the fifth pick and selected Joakim Noah.

Could the Celtics have found another way to bring in a star to attract Garnett? How incredible would those 2 be together? If not, would Pierce demand a trade?

If that was the case would we have been better off building around Rondo, Jefferson, Noah while keeping the picks lost in Garnett trade (like the pick Minny blew on Jonny Flynn), and acquiring assets for Szerbiak and Pierce.

[Roy H.]

  The funny thing about this topic is if you took a reading closer to the times of the deals the biggest mistakes would either be Antoine for Raef or Raef (and the Brandon Roy pick) for Theo. Without those trades we'd probably still be looking back fondly on our last title team in 1986.

I liked he second deal, even though I was in love with Rudy Gay at the time.  I did expect Telfair to be a bigger impact than he was, but it was clear at the time that Ratliff was the key to either making a big trade or having the financial flexibility to keep our young guys.

I wasn't a big fan of the Antoine deal.  Raef was damaged goods on a huge contract.  Danny recovered from that deal pretty well, though, picking up Tony Allen and Delonte West.

[CelticG1]

Wow Roy, you just blew my mind on the Gasol pick.  I had no idea we passed on him.

Mine is simple but I think could've gone a long way... keep Tony Allen.

Yeah I think a lot of the "shoyld have drafted so and so" is pretty hard to criticize considering other teams made the same mistake and most of us have no idea what to expect from these players going into the draft and moving forward.

For me, at the time and since I cannot wrap my head around not signing TA. It was less money and less years than poseys deal. In the prime of his career. He has been a celtic his whole career and knew the system and was just creating an identity in the NBA.

And what did it eventualy boil down to? 1 extra year at 3 mil? Chump change.

And please don't give me the "TA wanted to start bit"