Tuesday, October 21, 2003
A vote of confidence in Vin Baker?: Hub Blog doesn’t like this Celts deal. Not at all. It’s like the twisted Gods planned this to get angry minds off the Sox. Reader No. 1 doesn’t like it either:
“Danny Ainge has made many statements with this deal:
“1. A vote of confidence in Vin Baker (as he'll succeed Walker at power forward).
“2. A vote of confidence in the young pointguards. (Note: Marcus Banks had an assist/TO ratio of 3-2 last year vs 3-1 for former Celt JR Bremer; Mike James is a little better than 2-1 and comparable to Tony Delk last year).
“3. A vote of no-confidence in Tony Battie's knees. The Celts just picked up the remaining four years of LaFrentz's Baker-like contract of 5 years/$69 million, and you don't have a backup center on the bench earning that money (unless something major goes wrong, ie Vin Baker's problem last year).
“4. An unsurprising vote of no-confidence in the 3-point-dominated game that Jim O'Brien rigged together the last year and a half for the Celts. Whether this translates into a vote of no-confidence for O'Brien himself, we shall see... from this seat, he has done a remarkable job putting together working, mostly winning lineups from what Cedric Maxwell once described as "the island of misfit toys."
“5. He is trying to keep Paul Pierce happy. I doubt Pierce is happy to lose Walker (Antoine had pretty much conceded team leadership to Pierce over the past year). Having Pierce's former Kansas teammate LaFrentz come aboard might ease the pain... we shall see. ...
“Conclusion #1: this Celtic team will struggle to make the playoffs and won't go far if they manage to slip in. ...
“Conclusion #2: a Celtic team that doesn't show measurable improvement this coming year will lead to a season-ticket-holder exodus (after last summer's hellacious price increases, not a few longtime fans are saying ‘I'll give them this year to see how it goes.’)
“Question for Ainge and the ownership: how exactly does trading Walker and Delk for a non-physical center, a completely unknown quantity (Jiri Welsch), a salary-cap-throw-in (Chris Mills) and what will surely be a draft pick in the #25-30 range next year improve the Celtics?”
Hub Blog’s reaction: Ainge and the new ownership have bet a lot on this deal. A lot. With ticket prices where they are, they had better be right. The team was at least fun.
“Danny Ainge has made many statements with this deal:
“1. A vote of confidence in Vin Baker (as he'll succeed Walker at power forward).
“2. A vote of confidence in the young pointguards. (Note: Marcus Banks had an assist/TO ratio of 3-2 last year vs 3-1 for former Celt JR Bremer; Mike James is a little better than 2-1 and comparable to Tony Delk last year).
“3. A vote of no-confidence in Tony Battie's knees. The Celts just picked up the remaining four years of LaFrentz's Baker-like contract of 5 years/$69 million, and you don't have a backup center on the bench earning that money (unless something major goes wrong, ie Vin Baker's problem last year).
“4. An unsurprising vote of no-confidence in the 3-point-dominated game that Jim O'Brien rigged together the last year and a half for the Celts. Whether this translates into a vote of no-confidence for O'Brien himself, we shall see... from this seat, he has done a remarkable job putting together working, mostly winning lineups from what Cedric Maxwell once described as "the island of misfit toys."
“5. He is trying to keep Paul Pierce happy. I doubt Pierce is happy to lose Walker (Antoine had pretty much conceded team leadership to Pierce over the past year). Having Pierce's former Kansas teammate LaFrentz come aboard might ease the pain... we shall see. ...
“Conclusion #1: this Celtic team will struggle to make the playoffs and won't go far if they manage to slip in. ...
“Conclusion #2: a Celtic team that doesn't show measurable improvement this coming year will lead to a season-ticket-holder exodus (after last summer's hellacious price increases, not a few longtime fans are saying ‘I'll give them this year to see how it goes.’)
“Question for Ainge and the ownership: how exactly does trading Walker and Delk for a non-physical center, a completely unknown quantity (Jiri Welsch), a salary-cap-throw-in (Chris Mills) and what will surely be a draft pick in the #25-30 range next year improve the Celtics?”
Hub Blog’s reaction: Ainge and the new ownership have bet a lot on this deal. A lot. With ticket prices where they are, they had better be right. The team was at least fun.
