Bill Simmons Unloads On Ainge, Celtics Writers, Baker, Walker Trade

[wayray@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]

Thanks to Jen for paraphrasing Simmons who appeared on The Zone

"Bill paraphrased:

He does not understand why no one was raising an eyebrow as to why Baker's stats had so significantly declined in the last month. Wasn't there anyone wondering what had happened to his level of play? It is hard to believe that this decline went on so long unquestioned. It is weird that no one recognized it or said anything about it.

When asked if it was the case of giving a good guy a benefit of the doubt, Simmons said that question infers that someone is actually covering the team. He reads the AP reports of the game and the team, as opposed to local ones.

Baker has been terrible and he hoped it had been the bad knees, but he was so slow as of late, that obviously something must have happened. For not one person to question it is amazing. The coverage of the Celtics is a lot different now. Someone should have raised the question about the decline. They wouldn't have had to make it about drinking, but about what happened to make his performance so different. Bill's bummed out, as he thought Baker's return could be a good comeback story.

Baker's last good game was December 5th. The following game, where the decline began, was December 10th, against Seattle. Coincidence or did something happen?

It is a really sad situation, as Baker was the second best guy on the team at the beginning of the season. Expanding his role was a reason for trading Walker, which was a disaster of Biblical proportions. There is no hope for the C's for the next couple of years as half of their payroll is tied up in someone with a drinking problem and in someone with bad knees. They are in worse shape than in the Pitino days.

The Davis trade was okay, although he doesn't like him or want to cheer for him. The Walker trade was terrible, particularly since Ainge admitted to knowing about Lafrentz's bad knee. How could he trade for that, knowing he'd need surgery? Ainge should have waited, as teams will do a lot of dumb things as the season goes on. He could have gotten more for Antoine, but just did not want him here.

NOTE: If Bill happens to stumble across this, I did my best to capture what you said."