Rosen Is Not Impressed

Until I see Rosen-or anybody else-actually back up these “doomsday” predictions with something other than negitivity and fear of the unknown, I’ll go by the talent of the incoming players, the relative stability of the main rotation from last year to this, and my belief that the man who has displayed such a fine eye for talent has done his homework and is expecting a good return on his investment..

Ainge has consistently selected young players that produce above and beyond their draft slot as well as ahead of the normal developmental curve—I expect more of the same…

While the big three may be older, they also have a year together under their belt. They should be more efficient from the getgo, thus expending a bit less energy. Eddie House will also end up getting the ball more in better spots.

Rondo will be distinctly better than he was last Nov., as will Perk and Powe. Pollard never gave us anything, so if O’Bryant just plays he will be an upgrade.

I do think O’Bryant could be a disappointment though. The Wizards drafted JaVale McGee with the 19th pick, and watching his highlight reel is like watching what we hope O’Bryant will play like:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qJilDqw8JOY&eurl=http://nbadraft.net/admincp/profiles/javalemcgee.html

I don’t know if O’Bryant can manufacture the drive.

Solid points??? His analysis is flawed.

1. He criticizes Danny without suggesting alternative moves. What should Danny have done? Broken the bank for Posey and hamstrung the franchise for years to come for a role player? No thank you.

2. Eddie House isn’t a serviceable point guard? Considering he held his own all through the regular season and contributed when he got playing time in the playoffs, including the finals, I don’t think Rosen is paying attention.

3. Rosen attends the Bob Ryan School of Misunderstanding the NBA. Benches don’t win championships in the NBA. Starters do. Role players always look better when they’re playing for better teams. Posey couldn’t get an offer last summer. This summer he’s worth a 4 year $25 million. Did he improve by that much? Of course not. Fortunately Danny is more discerning than Ryan and Rosen.

…i’m also pretty tired of the “age” thing too…yes GPA is getting older, but you aren’t going to see some black-and-white decline over the 5 months of the off-season…these are elite players who played at an elite level last year…if they begin to show age it will be during the year, not over the off-season…

Frankly, with modern medicine and advances in nutrition and excercise, I expect all three to maintain their current level of play until each is north of 35 years old…this isn’t 1985…

Funny, but I just don’t remember Rosen from a year ago loudly predicting the Celtics would steamroll through the regular season with the league’s best record, and then take the title, flattening the Western Conference finalist. All the same, I’m sure whatever he’s saying now is spot on.

Blah blah blah.

Last year I paid close attention to what the pundits had to say, starting with Bob Ryan’s “the sky is falling” article and ending with 9/10 of ESPN’s experts picking the Lakers.

In the interim, I decided most of these morons are paid to say something, and the easiest thing to do is predict gloom.

I don’t plan on Tivoing Around the Horn or PTI this year in anticipation of hearing the latest from the pundits. Hell, one of the pundits picked the Cs to win 43-44 games last year.

Listening to the pundits is a colossal waste of time.

I’d characterize this offseason as “careful”. I’m ok with “careful”. What does Rosen want, that Danny turn into Isaiah Thomas and throw $999 billion dollar, forty-year contracts at half-proven talent simply because it is available? Darius Miles is the definition of a risk-free investment; the Blazers, after all, are paying his contract for us. And if he proves to be that big a skadouche, we can cut him with no pain. I don’t see where any of these are bad moves. They just aren’t big splashes. Very rarely do you win a poker game on the first draw.

Stephon Marbury is there is we want him!

Dumb as a rock…people were saying negative stuff about the celtics last year even when they started off so great, no bench, no PG or C, etc etc
who gives a crap what someone who has a bias against the celtics think, PJ brown and james posey piggybacked the big 3 not vice-versa, open your damn eyes

the guys that got us #17 are here except Posey and PJ…..Danny has until April to fill those 2 spots…the moves he made or didn’t make(Posey) are for the summer of 2010 and beyond..let’s talk around tax day and see if we have a roster to repeat…

I’m not sure you can blame Danny if his moves this year don’t add up to his moves last year, which was NBA Exec of Year. You’ll never get an award for NOT signing a player as in Posey but I agree with most bloggers here that he is balancing long term and short term pretty darn well. And….I’ve got a very good feeling re Giddens

Let’s see, after signing Tony Allen and Eddie House, Danny had part of the MLE, and he was supposed to do what? There are two kinds of teams that can roll the dice on high upside players teams that are in early rebuilding (been there, done that and got Garnett and Ray Allen for the pieces) and top tier teams (where we are now). Truth is Danny doesn’t know who is going to be either a keeper or a desirable trade piece of the new guys (for that matter the jury is still out on BBD and Powe), yet. What he does know is that he needs to start the cycle again now. Will they pan out in one year, two years? In all probability someone will (particularly when being pushed by KG). I suspect that Danny could have done something that might have been incrementally better for this year, but has chosen instead to shoot for big upside down the road.

The only meaningful move available to Danny this summer was to resign James Posey on Posey’s terms, which could cause us problems in the future. But if he did sign Posey he would not have been able to sign House and TA, House being the major signing until proven further by TA. Any of the FA names being mentioned were either not worth the money or would have required sign and trades for which we have nothing to give right now that other teams would accept. Even though the roster is now full, several of the contracts are non-guaranteed or can be paid off with waivers. We have some possible young talent. We are fine to begin the season. We may find we need more help to win another championship and it is at the trade deadline that other teams often do stupid things and I believe that is the time we will bolster the team, if needed. The negative comments on Miles, O’Bryant, whoever else are meaningless because these players have not played with the type of players we have. If TA can return to form and If Scals can give us 15-20 good defensive minutes while hitting one or two 3’s we’re in great shape. Our biggest need is a backup to Perk. Powe and BBD can do the job in the regular season and I wouldn’t count them out post-season. Not alot of teams have great backups to their Centers. Actually I think LA is in worse shape because even if Bynum, whom I’ve never seen play well against the C’s, comes back they did lose their backup whose name I forget. Pau cannot get the job done as a center.

   Nobody ever suggested the Celtics were a dynasty in waiting. The fact that that they emerged as an elite team and were fortunate enough to win an NBA championship is really great. This year will be the same. They are extremely competitive, and are one of the 4-5 teams that have a real shot at the prize. If TAllen, OBryant, Giddens, and Pruitt show anything, we’ll be there. They are right about about Miles. He’s NEVER been a star, probably never will, and may not make the team. We’ll miss Posey at the end of games, but we’ll still score a lot, and our defense will be fine. If OBryant can get some of that KG/Perk/Powe nastiness, he could really contribute.

Agreed 100 percent.

it’s good to see so many dannyites on this blog. keep the faith. he’ll do what he has to do when he has to do it, and in the meantime, maybe 1 or 2 of his small time plays will work out.

Last year at this time, many folks were saying, “the Celtics won’t win this year, because their three stars have to learn to play together. Maybe they’ll win 2-3 years down the road, but not right away.”

So now that they’ve won right away, they’re suddely too old?

Ainge’s offseason was perfectly fine. He did not bring back that dog Cassell, he refused to overpay Posey, and everything else was pretty much status quo: the whole starting five plus Powe, Davis, House, Tony Allen, Pruitt and Scalabrine are back. They’ve added 4 new players for very little money: all are low risk, high reward. If even one of those 4 players (O’Bryant, Giddens, Walker or Miles) pans out, it will be an incredible offseason.

Rosen is also flat wrong about Darius Miles’ defense. He was quite a good defender before he got hurt. But Miles is one of those players that the Charlie Rosens of the world love to hate. When a guy gets big, big money right out of high school and then does not live up to the hype, he’s an easy target for the “traditionalists.”

Brick, I was one of the many folks who didn’t believe the Celtics could win it all because we’d spent everything on the Big 3 and couldn’t provide a supporting cast. Ainge did it, and the key was Posey. Maybe the Celtics could have won it all without Cassell, but I wonder if they could have won it all without P.J. Brown. But more importantly, it was a “total sum” situation. Ainge somehow cobbled together a surprisingly effective bench.
I don’t believe he has assembled an effective bench â€" yet. O’Bryant may surprise. Miles may surprise. Walker/Giddens may surprise. But remember, we didn’t sign Posey hoping he’d surprise; he was a proven winner. Ainge hasn’t signed one â€" yet.
I agree with Surferdad in that he hasn’t made any stupid moves. I’m just waiting for some kind of a “no-brainer,” winner of a move. So far they seem like the more typical, take-a-shot moves that may/may not reap benefits.

Final thought: I do think it’s tough to second-guess Ainge during this offseason, although I do believe it was a mistake not to give Posey the extra year. I honestly couldn’t care less if he stunk up the back end of his time here if it meant delivering at least one more title while this group was together. All along I thought the plan had become “win now” because the Big 3 weren’t getting any younger. So I don’t get the sudden long view he’s trying to take to gear up for some supposed free-agent bonanza down the line.
But was it egregious? Well, maybe not, that’s why I’m not THAT inclined to second-guess Ainge on his moves, because despite winning a title, I thought his offseason options were remarkably limited.
Hope that doesn’t sound too flip-floppy. I guess I’m trying to say that while I would have given Posey what he wanted, I appreciate Ainge was in a tough situation this offseason.

Why should Ainge have made dramatic moves this past offseason? He has a champoinship team that won 66 games. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.

Posey was a financial decision; the full MLE for four years is alot to pay for a 15-20 minute player. It remains to be seen how much he will be missed. As for Cassel and PJ Brown, Cassell stunk it up most of the time and while Brown had his moments, I think Powe or BBD can take those minutes and be almost as effective. And Pollard was useless, except for comic relief. Even if he’s terrible, O’Bryant will be an upgrade over Pollard.

If Rosen had a Southern accent, he’d be denounced as an idiot around the country.

“If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” Agreed. If it ain’t broke, then re-sign Posey, is all I’m saying.

Well, I was in favor of resigning Posey too. But they can win without Posey. He was not an absolutely essential piece. They’ve got four younger, much less expensive players (Tony Allen, Givens, Walker, Miles) who will be competing to fill that role.

The most talented of the four may well be Bill Walker. If his knee holds up, Walker is going to surprise alot of people. He has the complete package.

Ainge and Wyc screwed up big time – for the next two years – pinching Posey’s pennies. But they’ve got the notion that $7 million would just destroy the franchise sold lock, stock and barrel to the fanbase. Very political of them.

Today – note the word – this team is not as good as the one that won the title. The question now is whether Danny’s willing to undo some of the mess he’s made as the season unfolds.

anybody else sick of hearing how Eddie House can’t play point guard?

i guess Eddie will have to prove them wrong… again…..