Celtics Latest Trade Most Preposterous says D'Alessandro

[wayray@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]

"latest trade was most preposterous... makes you nostalgic for
Paul Gaston."

Staten Island Advance
Dave D'Alessandro

Celtics find the wrong scapegoat Blaming ex-assistant coach Dick Harter for team's woes is misguided 
Sunday, February 22, 2004

It's become fashionable to blame Danny Ainge for Boston's wretched existence -- and poor Danny certainly deserves much of it, as he continues on his lame but earnest quest to spit-polish the Celtics Legacy. 
The Pitino Celtics Legacy, it would appear to be. 
But we decided to let Ainge off the hook this past Thursday night, at least temporarily, when we read a statement attributed to Wyc Grousbeck. If you don't know who Grousbeck is, he's one of the Celtics' owners, and a man whose head is so thick we could tie the Titanic to him. 
Grousbeck was enumerating all the problems that have befallen his team this season, noting that three were especially difficult for the Celtics to deal with -- Raef LaFrentz's injury, Vin Baker's demons, and Jim O'Brien's resignation, though by the time O'Brien left the team was already in flames, and Grousbeck was too blind to see it. 
But then the owner came up with this scholarly statement that sums up his knowledge of the game: "The reason for the resignation was that Jim felt he wasn't the coach for the kind of offensive-minded basketball that Danny wanted to see on the court," Grousbeck said. "And Danny didn't think we would win a championship with the Dick Harter defense." 
He added that the former Celtics assistant coach's defensive style was too "all-consuming" and didn't leave players enough time or energy to focus on offensive improvements in practice. 
As they say in New England, that's an awful load of codwallop, and anyone who has watched the Celtics the last three years know it. 
Those of us who know Harter very well know that he does not resent criticism -- even when, for the sake of argument, it parts for a time with reality. 
But this is the reality: Ask Chuck Daly what Harter's defense meant, because if memory serves, he didn't win any titles in Detroit until Harter showed up. 
Ask Pat Riley what Harter's defense meant, because it merely transformed the Knicks from a dead franchise into one that -- for better or worse -- changed the league forever. 
Ask Celtics legend Larry Bird what Harter's defense meant, which elevated the Pacers from just a nice team into an NBA finalist. 
And ask O'Brien, whose defense -- rebuilt by Harter -- was the No. 1 reason why the Celtics made the Eastern Conference finals just two years ago. 
You know what's happened since then. Ainge came aboard -- local hero on a white horse -- and he's made blunder after blunder, exacerbating one bad trade with another. . . and everyone who remembers how we advocated the Antoine Walker deal can just shut up. 
The latest trade was his most preposterous, however: He traded away $7.2 million in cap space and his starting point guard (Mike James), getting back an alleged shooter (Chucky Atkins, or Mr. .386 to you), a 12th man (Lindsey Hunter), and a draft pick that should fall around No. 24. All Ainge accomplished with this deal was to convince Joe Dumars that he's a really, really nice guy for facilitating his acquisition of Rasheed Wallace. 
Still, it's laughable that an owner would think this is somehow Dick Harter's fault, but then, this is the same ownership group that includes Stephen Pagliuca. He's another guy you've never heard of, but he likes to be heard -- the same guy who was heard by visiting scouts seated nearby telling his rich cronies how he was telling O'Brien which players to play, a guy who once went to the Portsmouth pre-draft camp and came back with hand-written notes on the great prospects he saw there. 
It all makes you nostalgic for Paul Gaston. 
Anyway, it's all come apart, and this is precisely what Grousbeck deserves. He even has a superstar totally desensitized by the carnage. 
"I don't think it really matters at this point," Paul Pierce sighed after the latest trade fiasco. "It's not surprising. Our goal is to make the playoffs, but we understand that we're rebuilding. We're trying to get ourselves ready for the future with draft picks and having leverage." 
Good company line. Now he has to convince cranky Celtics Nation that they haven't leveraged their way into the lottery for the next five years.