There's a commercial where a little girl is sitting in a room and a man asks her if she'd like a pony. She says yes and she gets a toy pony. Then another girl enters the room and the man asks the new girl if she'd like a pony. She also says yes, but then they bring in a real pony. The look on the first girl's face is just priceless.
The analogy isn't perfect, but that's kind of like how we're feeling right now. At first we had no thought whatsoever that we'd get anything but another run with the Big 3 and a few fill-in pieces. Then the Chris Paul stuff started and we got kind of excited. That fell through and Plan B turned out to be David West. It was all but signed and sealed but that too fell apart. Now everyone's looking around like "hey, where's our pony?"
Personally I can't fault Danny Ainge for what he's done thus far this offseason (which has only been the last 2.5 days by the way - seems like it has been longer doesn't it?). I was raised in a home where I was taught that as long as you give it your best effort, that's the most important thing. I get that winning feels better, but sometimes things are out of your control.
You could absolutely make the argument that Danny put himself in this spot - and that's valid. I'm not trying to be an Ainge apologist. But so far this week, he's done a solid job of adding to the roster with some solid singles and maybe a double (with the Bass pickup) between swing-and-misses where he was trying to hit home runs.
With all that said, regardless of your feelings about Danny, the collective feeling is now: "ok, now what?" What is Plan C? That window is closing fast and the transactions are coming fast and Danny has to recover and react fast.
On a macro level, Celtics fans have raised their expectations. Banners mean everything, so anything short of that is a disappointment. Which means, technically the last 3 seasons (which 95% of other fanbases would die for) have been disappointing. So it only makes sense that when you start going after superstars and all stars and have to settle for Sasha Pavlovic, that's a little disappointing as well.
But the day ain't over yet and there's still time to do something. Ainge still has his $3M mini-mid level exception and there's still the option to trade Jermaine O'Neal if the fit is right. I don't really see us getting too seriously into the Dwight Howard sweepstakes, but I didn't think we'd be as serious as we were for Chris Paul or David West either. I basically won't put anything past Danny at this point. Of course I won't count on him getting everything he wants either.
What's next? What's Plan C? I guess we'll see.