Pritchard: "Celtics never made offer for PG. Would have accepted reported offer"

[timpiker]

I guess he never reads the papers

[green_bballers13]

Would it matter if Danny didn't offer anything for PG13?

George wants to be in LA, and he could be the face of the franchise as they ascend from the basement to a contender. Good timing for a match would be right when LA has $ (check) and he hits FA (next year- check).

Hayward is a better match for Boston as a secondary player, as IT is a ball dominant guard. The obvious Stevens/Hayward Butler connection has value, and definitely got Gordo to Boston.

I'm happy with Hayward over PG13.

[Bobshot]

Ainge has been behaving all along he had Hayward in the bag.

Could be he decided George would endanger being able to sign Hayward cap-wise. It would have been a tighter fit, since George makes more than Crowder + Bradley.

The '08 team did it with 3 stars plus role players. Maybe 4 stars is stretching it in terms of depth. Not enough resources left to fill other holes.

The team he has right now looks very good. Better than last year. And he still has two high lottery picks next year!

[Eja117]

If he would have accepted the offer then shame on him. Woulda coulda shoulda.

Lots of GMs linked to us settling for pennies on the dollar these days. It's adorable.

Ainge is in their head.

They don't want to trade with him for fear of getting fleeced.  So then after he holds the line they sign up to get fleeced by someone else then say "Well I woulda...."

Yeah, well maybe we woulda but you'll never know.

[GreenShooter]

I think we got our Paul George in JT11. He'll be as good in a couple of years.

[Boris Badenov]

I put less weight in Kevin Pritchard's public statements than Danny's at this point. And that is really saying something.

[Snakehead]

A bunch of people reported it.  I do think possibly Ainge didn't really put it on the table, wanting things to play out a bit but I don't really blame him at all, especially if George wasn't going to extend at all.  He would be thinking you need to be sure he will stay on a super team.

There was no reason to rush the deal.  Explain that part Kevin.  He blew it.

The Celtics have leverage right now and in some cases you see deals going elsewhere but in the end Ainge is in a great position.  He didn't need to rush the deal for them.

[chambers]

nah he's covering his butt here.

Why wouldn't he wait to see what happened with Hayward first?
There was absolutely no reason to rush into things like that.

Anyway, hopefully we can pull a S+T for PG13 at some point in the future.

[tstorey_97]

Ok, I got it. Ainge "didn't make an offer for a player who did not want to play here." Shocking, but true.

"Hey Ainge, let's blow our roster to smithereens and mess with our future trying to sign the guy who wants to play for the Lakers."

That was a tough decision wasn't it?

[green_bballers13]

I think we got our Paul George in JT11. He'll be as good in a couple of years.

I agree. JT actually works out better for us than PG13 re: timing. By the time the Celtics are ready to make a legit push, JT will be entering his prime, and PG will be on the wrong side of 30.

[Geo123]

I think we got our Paul George in JT11. He'll be as good in a couple of years.

People need to quit talk like this.  The guy hasn't played an actual NBA game yet and you're saying he's going to be as good as PG in a couple years?  That's crazy talk right now.  He has potential and has ability let's wait and see when he's actually playing against all players who will play in the NBA this year... 

[BostonClamCrowdah]

Ok, I got it. Ainge "didn't make an offer for a player who did not want to play here." Shocking, but true.

"Hey Ainge, let's blow our roster to smithereens and mess with our future trying to sign the guy who wants to play for the Lakers."

That was a tough decision wasn't it?

Uhhh the offer certainly wouldn't have blown the roster to smithereens

[obnoxiousmime]

The rumor mill drove expectations sky-high, even among the media. That's why there was disappointment when George went to OKC. As fans, we obviously wanted a super-duper team. Media members wanted the best story, and a team that might actually legitimately contend with the Warriors would have been more interesting than Westbrook and George teaming up for a year (come on, we all know he's going to leave).

It was these increased expectations (and admittedly, the trade of the #1 pick) that made a successful offseason look like a slight letdown. However, unless you can tell me exactly what happened with Pritchard and the so-called phantom offers, or whether the Celtics owners were really willing to pay four max contracts (it could have easily been an Indiana leak to try and get better offers from teams like LA for George), or get into Paul George's head and know what his true plans really are, it's extremely unfair to criticize Ainge for not going as much as he could have. We don't really know if these apparent best-case scenarios were ever realistic in the first place.

We signed the best free agent that was actually on the market. We gained a valuable 2018 draft pick. That seems like a good offseason to me. Anything else is speculation.

[GreenShooter]

I think we got our Paul George in JT11. He'll be as good in a couple of years.

People need to quit talk like this.  The guy hasn't played an actual NBA game yet and you're saying he's going to be as good as PG in a couple years?  That's crazy talk right now.  He has potential and has ability let's wait and see when he's actually playing against all players who will play in the NBA this year...

Ok, that's fine. All I said was "I think we got our PG..." That's just my opinion. And yes, he will be, IMO, as good as George (obviously not as good "right now" but he'll show a lot relatively quickly) in about his 3rd year (as in as good as PG was in his 3rd and 4th years when he started getting major minutes). You just can't keep a good man down, even on this deep team, at his position anyways. I'm not exactly going out on a limb here. PG is good but not a top 5 talent so it's not a reach by any standard. Feel free to make that your sig if you disagree with me. I'm glad you agree that he has that kind of ability though.

[Casperian]

I think we got our Paul George in JT11. He'll be as good in a couple of years.

I agree. JT actually works out better for us than PG13 re: timing. By the time the Celtics are ready to make a legit push, JT will be entering his prime, and PG will be on the wrong side of 30.

You got any more best-case scenarios we should hope for...er, I mean "have to rely on"?

Too bad our current "big three" will be beyond their prime once (if) he reaches that level.