Posted on 9/4 on CelticsBlog.com here:
Rickyfan, I suggest you get a clue.
here is the deal. when you are a great drafter, you NEVER have to overpay for talent.
there was nobody on the free agent market that would have made us a better team.
I guess you didn't notice the gaping hole at PG. I think several of the free agent PG's (Marko Jaric, Antonio Daniels, Brevin Knight, Damon Stoudamire, Sarunas Jasikevicius) are rated higher than Dickau and any of the Celtic PG's.
paying 1a players max contracts makes you a worse team. you throw all of your money away because you overpay for other teams talent. and you need to overpay if you dont have any homegrown talent.
Phoenix definitely hurt themselves by signing Nash
he is very Belichick-like in his approach. he doesnt go after big name free agents.
Have you ever considered that that may be due to the fact that he has no cap room?
he goes after reformation projects with tons of upside like Ricky (compare him to Dillon) or he signs cheaper players to fill a role, who can play major minutes if you need them to, but are better off playing 20 minutes or less a night.
Ainge has signed or traded for a number of players (Mike James, Jumaine Jones, Jiri Welsch, Chris Mills, Raef LaFrentz, Ricky Davis, Chris Mihm, Michael Stewart, Chucky Atkins, Lindsey Hunter, Gary Payton, Tom Gugliotta and Antoine Walker). The only one of those that has worked out is Ricky Davis (Raef LaFrentz has done well, but isn't worth his contract). So if you pay attention to only the trade that has worked out, what you say is true.
and he is absolutely on the money with his drafting. he has not picked a player yet who cannot play the game. his first 2 years he picked 5 first rounders that could already play together as a starting 5, and be better than 5 or 6 teams in this league.
Do you read this board? Have you heard that the C's couldn't get anyone to offer a first round pick for Banks? And are thinking about cutting him?
It generally takes three years to evaluate a draft. After 2 years, the 2003 draft is looking like a bust - Banks is close to being cut, Perkins only averaged 9.1 mpg in his second season and Brandon Hunter only played 36 games as a Celtic. The 2004 draft produced 4 players who couldn't average more than 16.4 mpg. So Danny has yet to draft a player in 5 tries who is playing starter's minutes.
i dont know if anyone should be called a genius until they win a title, but i think Ainge knows how to do it, and is an incerdible talent evaluator, and really knows how to judge heart.
How about waiting until the team make it out of the first round of the playoffs?
