Simmons column on Ainge and the Celtics

["Berry, Mark S" <berrym@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

This is a superficial evisceration of Ainge. I think the main point he
makes - patience - is Ainge's best quality. We can argue the Antoine
trade forever. Some say let him hang around till his contract is more
valuable, then trade him. Others, me included, say you couldn't do that
because he would have prevented serious change in the approach to
basketball - change that was desperately needed. The legitimate
criticism of that trade is the LaFrentz contract. If you're talking
about a guy you'd expose to the expansion draft because you don't care
if he's chosen since it would take his salary off the cap, then you
probably shouldn't have traded for him in the first place. BUT, when the
trade was made, Vin looked unmovable for two more years, eliminating any
potential cap space. Anyway, hindsight is 20-20, and I can't criticize
Danny for that deal. Dallas was trying to dump Antoine at the deadline
and couldn't find any takers. I think we're seeing a pattern ... Anyway,
Danny got Raef, Jiri, Chucky Atkins and two No. 1 picks for Antoine.
That's three contributors and two No. 1s. I don't think that's bad.



What else has Ainge done? He selected Kendrick Perkins, a move that
definitely shows a willingness to be patient. Every trade has added
younger players - Jiri, Raef, the picks, Ricky Davis and Chris Mihm -
and that shows a willingness to be patient. He insists on developing
young players - patience. He's talking about using his first-rounders on
high schoolers or Euros - patience.



The Grizzlies? Am I missing something? They have a nice team and nice
players, but is that roster dramatically better than the Celts? They've
been together a few years and have a great coach. Does anyone think the
Celtics couldn't be in the same position within two years - maybe even
next season? Both teams have a quasi-star player (Pierce/Gasol), both
have young, talented big guys with reasonable contracts (Mihm/Swift).
Both teams have a surplus of good, young swingmen (Miller, Posey,
Wells/Welsch, Davis). Decent point guards with questionable contracts
(JWilliams/Atkins). I don't know. I like what West has done there, but
are they really that flexible? Aren't they were the Celtics are?
Tradeable assets, no cap space, solid talent base. They're still several
moves from contention.



Denver? Is that the model we want? Strip it bare, go in the lottery,
hope for Carmello Anthony? They made some nice free agent signings, but
unless they get Kobe, does anyone really think the Nuggets are
championship contenders? They're still a few moves away. Like the
Celtics. And the Nets??? He says the Nets matured??? They added Jason
Kidd! That was it! There was no maturing. They added Kidd, drafted
Martin and Jefferson, and they were there.



I don't know. I just think this is years of justifiable frustration
(with ML, Pitino, Wallace) boiling over and burning the wrong guy
(Ainge). Personally, I think the Celtics could be Milwaukee next season
(right behind the "Big Three" in the East), and contending for the
Finals the year after. It will take some astute moves, drafts and a
little luck, but I think it's possible.



Mark




How hard is it to run an NBA team?
By Bill Simmons
Page 2 columnist







Editor's Note: This column appears in the March 15 edition of ESPN The
Magazine.

Hours before the Celtics traded for Chucky Atkins, I caught wind of the
deal and suffered a total meltdown. I banged a table with my fist,
pushed over a chair, dropped a few F-bombs. I may as well have been
wearing a Rasheed Wallace jersey.

As my dog, Dooze, scurried for safety, I stomped over to my laptop and
whipped up an angry e-mail to a friend, in which I detailed every reason
the trade shouldn't happen. The gist: thanks to Danny Ainge, we were
already headed to the lottery, and, as the NBA teaches us every summer,
cap flexibility matters over everything else. So why target a mediocre
guard with two-plus years and $9 million left on his contract? Was a
lame pick and some cash really worth that? I was dumbfounded. Three
hours later, the trade went through.

Of course it did.

And that's when I realized I should be running the Celts. Since Bird
retired in 1992, I've watched five different guys wreck my team over
three presidential terms. We signed washed-up stars like Nique, Pervis
and The X-Man, shelled out insane contracts to stiffs like Dino Radja
and Vitaly Potapenko, imported career losers like Todd Day and Ricky
Davis. We traded for other team's expensive mistakes -- Kenny Anderson,
Vin Baker, Raef LaFrentz -- with no thought to the cap ramifications. We
gave up on future stars like Chauncey Billups and Joe Johnson, and gave
away solid vets like Rick Fox, Eric Williams and David Wesley. And we
blew so many picks, they could be living in a reality TV house right
now. Look out, Joe Forte just pulled a fork on Jerome Moiso!

Now it's 2004, and yet another Boston exec is defending decisions that
made no sense in the first place. I, for one, have learned a valuable
lesson along the way -- just like you learn stuff watching the last 75
minutes of Scarface or by clicking on David Caruso's imdb.com page. It's
a lesson that instantly qualifies me to run the team. (Drumroll,
please.)

Patience.

Examine every Boston mistake, and that word, or rather its absence, is
at the root of it. For instance, Chris Wallace used Denver's 2001 pick
to take Kedrick Brown at No. 11, wasting the option to keep rolling over
the pick until Denver had one of the first three selections. At the
time, my dad went crazy: "Denver always stinks and they're in a good
conference. We can't waste that pick now!" Two years later, the Nuggets
fell apart -- of course they did -- and landed Carmelo at No. 3. The
entire course of events took between four and six months off my dad's
life.

Now, look at Ainge. He routinely killed Antoine Walker on TNT, never
imagining he'd be running the Celts someday. So once he got the job,
instead of hashing things out with Toine, he frantically shopped the
All-Star all summer in a buyer's market. For godsakes, everyone loves
their team in September! Eventually, Danny panicked and took Jiri Welsch
and $60 million worth of Raef LaFrentz, even though Boston's doctors
warned Danny about Raef's knees. Raef went under the knife within two
months. I had to keep from lighting myself on fire.

Twelve years. Five regimes. Five disasters. But incompetence isn't the
sole property of the C's. Research the recent histories of the Warriors,
Hawks, Wizards, Clippers, Cavs ... it's a murderer's row of
helplessness. It's the rare GM who displays even rudimentary foresight.
Kiki Vandeweghe stripped Denver's roster like an old Corvette, then
added pieces -- Carmelo, Andre Miller, bench guys like Earl Boykins and
Jon Barry -- while maintaining cap space. Now, compared with some of the
dummies running other teams, Kiki looks like Stephen Hawking. And this
is the guy who drafted Nikoloz Tskitishvili over Amare Stoudemire.

Really, can it be that hard to run a team? Look how Jerry West
transformed the Grizzlies. Instead of blowing things up, he built around
young guys already there, then brought in Hubie Brown as his Mr. Miyagi.
Now West has one of the most enviable situations around -- a quality
young team with tradable pieces, led by a Spanish metrosexual. Now
that's how it's done.

If I were a GM, I'd give my roster a chance to jell -- like Sacramento
or New Jersey did, so I knew exactly what I had. I wouldn't take on
other teams' mistakes. I wouldn't clog my cap except for a sure thing (a
rule for any aspect of life, by the way). I wouldn't pay two half-decent
guys $15 million apiece when I could earmark it for one superstar. I
wouldn't give up on young players unless I had a legitimate chance at a
title. I wouldn't roll the dice with drunks, druggies and gimps. In
short, I wouldn't panic. Look, it's as easy as making a stew -- throw
everything in a pot and let it simmer.

Patience, patience, patience.

Note to the Celtics' owners: You have my number. I can be there in 24
hours. Just say the word.