I don’t know how other people feel, but my sports sanity is as volatile as the New England Weather. Now-a-days I coach myself to look short term with a long term perspective, sound crazy? Yea, most definitely, I sometimes feel like a sober Charlie Sheene, fighting a battle that I constantly believe I’m winning, against myself. So like many things I write, say, don’t focus on the sentences, poor punctuation, unstructured paragraphs, I suggest reading it, chewing it, tasting it, spitting it out (thanks Mike Singletary) and by the end hopefully you don’t feel like you wasted valuable time in your life, like the movie “Watchmen.” By the way, if you enjoy watching 2 ½ hours of shitty non sensible plot with tons of flaccid blue radioactive penai, you will love this movie!
The article is about Danny Ainge and the angst he has caused me and my beloved Celtics. The man with the plan has jeopardized the season on a bet that Doc Rivers and the Big 4 can assimilate any big man into a championship Caliber defense in only half a season, while still resting his star players. It has pained me to watch this team play lately as I want them to gel and earn the top seat in the East; I cringe every night to see the minutes the Big 4 are playing. In the end of the day, to loose faith in Danny would be about as cool as being alone in a bathroom with Ben Roethlisberger.
Why in Danny we trust:
After the Celtics traded Perkins I was mouth a-gap searching for an answer. But Ainge is no fool he has a plan. In 2007, after failed attempts to acquire Kevin Garnett, dealing with a disgruntled superstar in Paul Pierce and people yelling for his head on a platter, after one of the worst seasons in Celtics History. Celtic fans fell further into depression when they did not win the Greg Oden/Kevin Durant sweepstakes. Memories of ping pong balls past came flooding back, when Tim Duncan bounced out of our championship grasp. Danny knew drastic changes were necessary, we all know the story, he then drafted Jeff Green, soon after trading him for another aging superstar Ray Allen, which sent most fans for the their torches and picket signs. However as some speculated many of the members from the initial kg trade remained which lead to the big ticket coming to Boston. Danny soon after was very swift and impressive adding integral parts to the team to complete a very competitive roster that would ultimately earn the best record in the NBA and win its League leading 17th Banner.
What won the Celtics that Championship was three fold, their team chemistry was unmatched, team defense relentless and that every position played their role to the full capability accompanied by some unexpected prime time play by PJ Brown and Leon Powe! This February when the Celtics traded Perkins I felt like the team had lost 2 out of the 3 main components that had won Boston their championship three years ago. I have waited to write this article because I wanted to try and fully interpret what I thought Danny Ainge’s full plan of action was. However, the longer I waited; my worst fears seemed to come to fruition, that we will now rely on size by committee to defend some of the lengthier teams in the NBA.
While you might think I’m opposed to the trade, in fact I feel that it was almost a necessary evil. Perkins was going to be an unrestricted free agent next year; by getting Jeff Green who is restricted I believe we were able to spend the money more frugally. With our superstars aging Perkins value would have decreased as the superstars around him became less relevant. Perkins is in my opinion the best defender in the league and is definitely worth a great contract, but if you have been watching Jeff Green you can see how in a league that more than half of the teams are losing millions, he would definitely give your roster more bang for its buck.
Now we can debate value and chit chat with Billy Bean about money ball all we want but in my opinion in Sports it’s all about Championships. A general manager must make decisions that put his team in the best position to win the hardware. Danny Ainge just broke up a championship starting 5 and is gambling that the Big 4 along with Doc to pull it together in just half a season, while teams like the Bulls, and Lakers are hitting their stride.
With Perkins I honestly believe we could have one a championship, Perk would have taken Boozer and Kg would have made Noah his lil nancy boy. All I can hope now is that after rest and surgery the O’Neals can come to play, and KG can stay healthy. Because if Doc can ascertain a full playoff roster, who knows what will happen when you back this team into a corner, they might just win it all. This however I guarantee, Danny Ainge has a plan for this looming lockout and is not done making moves and will most definitely add a big man next year (Marc Gasol?)
