Daily Links 6/3

I certainly think folks are entitled to reasonable doubt as to whether or not Stern has his thumb on the scales when it comes to the lottery. The result that actually occurred this year would only occur in one half of one percent of all cases. Did anyone pysically weigh the balls after they came out of the “popcorn machine”?

After Kentucky and Boston, May now calls Blatt “a Framingham native”. That’s getting ridiculous now.

PS. I thought that the username bug was fixed…

From Williams agent: “When you talk about the mistakes people have made in judgement while living and working in a fishbowl,………”

Seriously? That’s not intentional? Even I’m not that out of touch. :D

When it comes to the draft…“don’t fix what ain’t broken”…but ah!, it is broken and needs to be fixed. It has failed in its’ most basic function and that is to give the most help to those teams in greatest need.

Why ask the league owners for suggestions on making the draft more viable when they are MONEY managers/entrepeneurs and not mathematicians. It’s Stern’s duty to make the tough calls and to make the necessary changes. It’s a time when leadership is most needed and Stern now has a history of lottery failures to justify making a change.

The draft actually worked just fine this year. The Celtics were as bad as they they were because of injury, not because they had the greatest need. Simply as a matter of statistics, the teams with the most need are those who are among the league’s worst year after year — it’s no surprise that Portland or Atlanta jumped up, because they were due.

MattD,

You make a good point. No way were the Celtics the second worst team had they not had the injuries. Everyone loves to hate on Ainge and Doc so much that they ignore that fact. The truth is the Celtics are still picking three four spots higher than they would have had they been healthy this year.

Atlanta is really in a tough spot at number 3. The pick would seem to be Hortford. But, they don’t need a big man thanks to drafting Sheldon Williams and Marvin Williams the last two years. They also desparately need to draft someone with some buzz to get their fanbase to show up. That rules out Yi. But three is too high for both Conley Brewer or Noah. They really don’t have a good option.

Random observation. Kobe Bryant is a better player than Lebron. At the beginning of the year the Lakers were 26-13 until injuries kicked in. (And much later, Bryant maligned the quality of his teammates’ talent.) Lebron leads a team with players who are not as good as Bryant’s teammates and whose coach is not in the pantheon that Phil Jackson occupies. Depsite all of this, Lebron is in the Finals. This speaks to two things. The West is really a tough conference and Lebron is a much better team player than Bryant.

I just read the “Destrucity of the Celtics” article. It’s a good recap of the past 20 years.

Reading about the ML Carr years and the Ainge years, its remarkable how similar their tenures have been. And it made me wonder who was worse. I never thought I’d be considering that question.

I’d have to say that Ainge has performed as bad as Carr. The difference may be that Ainge will be given more time to try to redeem himself, while Carr was moved aside. Lucky for Danny, he gets another chance, but I’m thinking that he should be given the same “opportunity” as ML after his failed sprint to the lottery.

If they trade Pierce it will be a three way involving JJ & Lewis. Danny will add those two for Paul. Otherwise Paul stays. I think Ainge wants to go with Rondo not Conley. I bet he goes for Yi, Horford (if there), J. Wright or Green at #5. If it’s a trade down all bets are off.

Ownership will only sign off on moving Pierce if we are getting all star caliber talent back (JJ & Lewis). 2 for 1.

Might be interesting… a Phoenix east, Jefferson down low with Rondo running the break feeding JJ & Rashard. JJ could run the break well too I bet.

Um, and if any of those 2 could defend a chair…

true but can Pierce defend a chair anymore either? we need a perfect balance of offense and defense

 The S.I article..“Destrucity” did not represent balanced reporting in that it only focused on the negative aspects of the trades. It did not address the need to trade certain “cancers” (Walker, Davis), poorly motivated players (Blount), those lacking NBA talent (Banks) or the moves that freed the Celtic’s from the financial stranglehold they were in. The trade that brought Telfair was not done with Telfair as the centerpiece as was represented in the article.

Still, the article was not a pleasant read but did help explain why the Celtic’s were in the lottery and as such it was a useful read.

true but can Pierce defend a chair anymore either? we need a perfect balance of offense and defense

Sure he can. At this point in time, the he might be our second best defender for his position after Tony. He might not be the shutdown type that Prince or Bowen are, but he rarely coasts on D, which is already amazing having in mind the sheer volume of offensive load he has to take.

Oh, and as for the 2 for 1 trade ideas, that puts us into luxury tax land for the years to come. I am sure the ownership will think long and hard before they sign off on a move like that.

Agree to disagree. Pierce is ok but slowing down on D in my mind. With him and Wally out there on the floor we’re toast. Any kind of deal to immediately improve this team will hurt us luxury tax wise and the owners have to know that. Does Ainge keep Paul here and just draft a project at #5? I don’t think the owners want Pierce moved so the pick will be moved instead. Unless there is a way to move Wally and the pick (which I’m sure Ainge wants to do first instead of Ratliff)or we can get a significant vet at a mid level salary (maybe Camby)there will be tax to pay.