Re: The Ainge Thing

[Hironaka <j.hironaka@unesco.org>]

OzerskyJA wrote:

> I'm just not sure I believe in Danny as a basketball mind;  I mean, it's not
> like he was a great student of the game during his playing days.  He was an
> athletically gifted, fundamentally sound shooting guard and that's it.  I
> don't know if he's ever actually made a trade...I wonder if he would keep
> Chris Wallace as GM.  Or would he be the GM?  In either case, I think that
> he's not much of an upgrade as GM from Pitino, at least in terms of
> experience in the league.  Boy, do I wish we could get Kevin.
>
> Josh Ozersky
> Marketing Communications Specialist
> Corning Museum of Glass

I would have voiced a lot of the same concerns about Bird when he first went
from the golf links to pro coaching. Even compared to Bird, I think Danny Ainge
is plenty smart and a very good student of the game. BTW, what else is there
besides "athletically gifted" and "fundamentally sound"? ;-) That pretty much
covers all the bases.

Obviously Ainge can't automatically win the same respect of the players as a
Larry Bird would on the sidelines, but I do think he can teach players and
evaluate NBA talent. For example, he'll be smart enough to know that our
starting power forward had 13 more "lucky" assists last night. ;-)

I don't think it is a foregone conclusion that Antoine will be traded by Ainge
or anyone else (the Mike Fine article was incredibly vague), but if you are
hoping he'll stay then you want Larry Bird around to help him become the player
he deserves to be.

The difference between Jalen Rose and Antoine Walker isn't age, it is coaching.
Coaching matters. Jalen is a noticeably weaker dribbler, without question an
equally erratic shooter, smaller and much less powerful or durable. And yet
right now he's probably (deservedly) considered a lock for the next Dream Team.
If Bird saw great potential in Rose three years ago (good passer, tough kid),
then he must be positively salivating over Antoine Walker.

In his first two seasons in Indy, Rose averaged barely over 8 points, 2 assists
and 2 rebounds in 20 mpg. That isn't production. Rose may have had raw passing
skills and surprisingly good court sense like Toine, but his numbers back then
were those of a mid-twenties journeyman. Dee Brown would be ashamed to post
those numbers.

The Celtics need Larry Bird back. Aren't there any mid-life crisis billionaires
out there who see a winning combination in bringing Bird back to Boston? Even
though it looks bleak I'm hoping my prayers are answered one more time, since I
hardly dreamed the Poultrino system would be gone before the All Star break. In
general, whatever Will McDonough writes the opposite always tends to happen. So
I'm still optimistic. But the problem with Gaston is that (understandably) he
probably has nothing much better to do than own the Celtics.  And it will be
embarrassing for him to sell the team now and go down as the worst owner in
terms of team performance that Boston has ever had.

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