Over the past two years many in this group felt we would have been better off if the team tanked rather than win a few extra games. *I’m not talking about people like myself who were on the fence on this idea and regret not doing so in hindsight. I’m talking about those who favored the “tank no matter what” plan. My hats off to you. In retrospect over the past two years we could have drafted players in the top 3 range if we played our cards right.
Many of us were saying and believed Danny and Brad were not on board with the tanking idea and that their aim was to win as many games as possible. In reality winning as many games as possible was not their goal for we traded away or didn’t resign players that would have given us a few extra wins, such as Lee, Green, Thornton, Nelson, Powell, Prince, etc. (The point of this post isn’t to argue the merits of each decision. Just saying that by keeping one or a few of these players would likely have led to a few extra wins.)
Thus, using this argument one might say Danny was in favor of losing a few games in the hopes of winning more games in the distant future and/or acquiring more assets. However, Danny and crew could have lost more games and not have been questioned by it.
Specifically, I’m talking about letting players return from injuries before they were totally healed. Three players come to mind. One is Marcus Smart. He had a badly sprained ankle, yet returned before he was fully healed. I believe he was out less than three weeks. In reality he should have been out for 2 months or more. Why the rush to get him back in uniform when he obviously wasn’t fully healed is puzzling?
My feeling is that the medical staff and Danny’s long term goals were way out of sync. If the Celtics were in the Championship hunt then his return makes more sense. I also take issue with the medical staff for letting a talented young player return to action when it could have jeopardized his future.
The second player is Isaiah Thomas. He returned from his crushing fall way too early. He was limping and in obvious pain. Why the medical crew and Danny let him return I’ll never know. And lastly, Jared coming back. Why?
My feeling is that Danny took the team in two directions. One he helped lose by releasing better players. Yet, win by letting players return from injuries when they could have stayed out longer. In other words he didn’t have a cohesive strategy.
One could argue that trading away players led to more victories, but I don’t believe Danny expected the players that came here to perform as well as they did. Isaiah being the exception.
