Re: '01 draft revisited and O'Brien's culpability

[CeltsSteve@xxxxxxx]

In a message dated 5/31/03 10:57:55 AM Pacific Daylight Time, 
damekmo@teleport.com writes:

> Steve, I don't think it matters what O'Brien wants anymore. Danny's in 
> charge of acquiring players now and O'Brien will just coach and shut up. Ainge 
> said the team needs a point guard and they're getting one. I can only imagine 
> that O'Brien convinced him that he could coach and fully utilize a point 
> guard. That seems to be the only way extending O'Brien's contract makes any sense. 
> Maybe Danny already knows where the pf is going because he can't expect 
> O'Brien to tear the ball out of those hands and come away from that confrontation 
> alive. But then again, maybe the pf gave him the same line about running 
> with a point guard and Danny bought it. -  Paul M.> 
> 

Paul, You may very well be right on the money with your assessment that DA is 
now in charge and the C's new operational paradigm mandated by DA to O'Brien 
and the coaching staff will be that as VP of Bball Ops, he'll be responsible 
to get the players and O'Brien will be responsible to coach and develop them. 
No ifs, ands, or buts. End of discussion. And furthermore,  the offense 
henceforth will be run in a traditional manner vis a vis by a true PG and NOT feature 
a point-forward or as some label it a DE-facto PG approach with either Pierce 
or Walker as the main distributors. I wouldn't think anyone should a problem 
with that.

The point I'm trying to make is that looking back at the 2001 draft and 
blaming O'Brien for drafting Forte at #21 instead of  a PG - be it Parker or even 
Tinsley - conveniently ignores the fact that Kenny had two years left on his 
contract and was still owed some $15M at that time and thus a rookie PG would 
have seen little immediate PT because of that very fact. 

Additionally, from the POV of a GM, history tells us PGs are readily 
available every draft. This year is no different. To blame O'Brien for not drafting 
Parker two years ago is definitely a reach.                
    
CeltsSteve