Ravi - Original rebuilding plan 5-7 years?

[Sean Giovanello]

Kind of revisionist history by Jackie M.  Ainge obviously did not like
Walker and from the moment he took the job it was clear Walker was gone.
Further, rather than make a bad deal to pick up Raef, Ainge could have
showed some patience and kept Walker till the deadline and dealt him for
more.  Patience is hardly a word to describe Ainge.

On 7/30/06, Eggcentric at aol.com <Eggcentric at aol.com> wrote:
>
> Another useless post reprinted from "Celticsstuffgroup" for the
> list lurkers' daily entertainment during this quiet period -
> ----------------------
> < It appeared when Ainge arrived that the original plan was to
> rebuild through the draft and trades, building the talent base to
> lay a foundation for a championship run 5-7 years down the road.>
> -Ravi
>
> Dear Ravi - I appreciate your realistic view of our present
> team, but wonder where you originally got this 5-7 year
> rebuilding idea.
>
> I can't conceive of any newly-hired El Jefe, including Danny,
> admitting to or even inferring that it would take that long
> to rebuild his team. For what fan could get excited about their
> team with that kind of a pre-announced, elongated rebuilding time
> frame? Would any of us buy a stock now if we thought it wasn't
> going to increase in value (become a legitimate contender)for 5-7 years?
>
> As Danny enters his fourth season, I remain incredulous as
> to how many Celt loyalists have conveniently and patiently stretched
> his original three-year rebuilding plan into five, six, maybe seven
> years. Even more amazing, as one disappointing season fades into
> the next, is how so many of these same loyalists refuse to hold
> Danny accountable for the unbalanced mess that is our present
> roster. Will relying upon twelve low first-round and second-round
> "sleepers", plus signing several undrafted rookies as well as
> ineffectual vets such as Googs. Scal, and Dickau, prove to be
> the surest path to our next banner?
>
> < If, as team officials claim, the calls regarding Al Jefferson,
> Delonte West, Kendrick Perkins, Gerald Green and Ryan Gomes
> were truly overwhelming, something would have happened.
> As one league personnel boss recently noted, "what (the Celtics)
> have found out is that other teams don't think as highly of the
> young guys as (they) do." > - Mark Murphy, 7/30
>
> As I impatiently await the promised glory and the dream, I realize
> it is not the meat but the appetite that holds poster's interest
> in this low-protein team.
>
> Below, a Jackie Mac column from 2003.
>
> Egg
> --------------------------------------
> Ainge takes 'step back' shot from upstairs
> By Jackie MacMullan, Globe Columnist, 10/21/2003
>
> Now that it's done, you can see why this move was inevitable.
>
> Go back to the initial comments of Celtics basketball boss Danny
> Ainge when he was hired to revamp the franchise. He vowed to be
> proactive yet he promised to be patient.
>
> Turns out he meant both.
>
> Ainge dealt team captain and three-time All-Star Antoine Walker,
> along with Tony Delk, to the Dallas Mavericks for center Raef
> LaFrentz, guard Jiri Welsch, salary-cap throw-in Chris Mills, and
> Dallas's first-round pick in 2004. On the surface, it looks like a
> lopsided deal that favors the Mavericks, who have designs on an NBA
> championship this season.
>
> That's because for this deal to pan out the way the Celtics hope it
> does, it will require the passage of time. Consider your local
> basketball team on a three-year plan.
>
> "That's about right," Ainge said yesterday.
>
> Ainge was careful to avoid the word "rebuilding." He said he believes
> after a short adjustment period, his team will still be competitive,
> and battling for a playoff spot this season.
>
> I'll believe that when I see it. Of course, if you are Ainge, and
> your team's owners have just jacked up ticket prices, you'd best
> avoid the "R" word at all costs. There's nothing paying fans hate
> more than taking that proverbial "step back" to move forward.
>
> But that's what is happening here. Ainge determined very quickly that
> the Celtics could not win a championship with Walker and Paul Pierce
> as the cornerstones. The team needed more, but the weighty contract
> of Vin Baker left Ainge with no flexibility.
>
> Baker is untradeable. Pierce, in Ainge's estimation, is a legitimate
> building block. So Walker had to go -- particularly since all the
> team would have gotten if it let him walk as a free agent in two
> summers is the mid-level exception, worth about $5 million.
>
> So now the Celtics have three years to reposition themselves as
> legitimate
> contenders. Now rookie point guard Marcus Banks, who doesn't appear
> to be quite as far along as Boston thought he would be, has three
> years to figure out this up-tempo system. Welsch, who may well turn
> out to be the key to this deal, has three years to acclimate himself
> to the league. In three years, Pierce will be 29, his former college
> teammate LaFrentz 30, and Baker will be gone. Baker's money will
> remain, as a calling card for the missing piece to pull this whole
> thing together.
>
> Ainge always has been bothered by Walker's poor shot selection and
> even poorer shooting percentage. As a broadcaster, he wondered why
> Walker didn't venture into the post more, then discovered, when he
> became the Celtics' head of basketball operations, that Walker isn't
> effective on the block because he doesn't have the strength or lift
> to execute power moves against larger power forwards. In other
> words, he's no Charles Barkley.
>
> But you knew that already. Mavericks coach Don Nelson knows it,
> too, but that's not what he was looking for.
>
> "I wanted a point forward, and I got one," said Nelson yesterday.
> "I think Antoine needed a change."
>
> Asked if there would be enough basketballs to go around in Dallas
> with a potent offense that now includes Walker, Dirk Nowitzki,
> Michael Finley, and Steve Nash, to name a few, Nelson answered,
> "There's plenty of balls to go around if [Walker] is willing to
> pass -- and I think he is. If he wants to shoot all those threes,
> there won't be enough balls. We're not going to keep him out there
> shooting eight threes a game."
>
> Nelson declared this trade good for both teams. Celtics fans will be
> skeptical, wondering why their team couldn't get more. Walker is
> only 27, but our league spies tell us that even Pacers boss Larry
> Bird,once a vocal Walker supporter, had soured on his game. The best
> offer for Walker the Celtics could muster up during the summer was
> Knicks forward Kurt Thomas and point guard Charlie Ward.
>
> LaFrentz and Welsch make more sense. Welsch, the 16th pick in the
> 2002 draft, played in his native Czech Republic, then logged two
> seasons in Slovenia before landing with Golden State last season,
> showing all sorts of promise.
>
> "I love Jiri Welsch," Ainge gushed. "He's a 6-foot-7 guy who is a
> shooter, a passer, a dribbler, a thinker. And he's a tough kid. I
> fell in love with him last year when he worked out for Phoenix before
> the draft."
>
> Ainge liked him so much that he badgered the Warriors, who
> acquired his rights from the Sixers, to deal him. But the Warriors
> wouldn't part with the 22-year-old guard until Dallas insisted he
> be part of a nine-player deal in August that netted Golden State
> Nick Van Exel. Welsch averaged almost 12 points a game in
> preseason for the Mavericks playing shooting guard.
>
> "I hated to lose him," Nelson conceded. "He can shoot, almost like
> Dirk. He can make the pass. He's a little turnover-prone right now,
> but he won't be in a couple of years. He's tough, too. I think he was
> my leading rebounder at guard. I wanted him, but we're going for it
> now. I had no place to get him time."
>
> Nelson said the same thing doomed LaFrentz, a high post 3-point
> shooter who plays center but, according to Nelson, couldn't defend
> the more rugged Western pivotmen like Shaquille O'Neal.
>
> Ainge points out that LaFrentz was second in the league in blocked
> shots two seasons ago and hits 40 percent from the 3-point line.
>
> "And I think we can use him in the low post," Ainge said. "I've seen
> him have success there."
>
> Asked if LaFrentz could be a legitimate threat down low, Nelson said,
> "I didn't put him down there, but he has a baseline jumper from the
> right box."
>
> Ainge insists that he knows LaFrentz is a piece to the puzzle -- not
> the piece. No kidding. LaFrentz has been one of the biggest teases
> in the NBA. One night he'll haul in 20 rebounds and block 5 shots,
> but the next he'll play so listlessly you wonder if it's the same guy.
> He's a near 7-footer with a perimeter game. You think Antoine
> Walker drove you crazy? At times, this kid will give you different
> kinds of fits.
>
> "But he'll help the Celtics," Nelson predicted. "He can shoot the
> three. We had Dirk at his position, so he couldn't get enough time in
> our lineup. He's not strong enough at any one thing to [displace]
> our guys. They'll get more out of him than we did."
>
> They'd better. The three-year plan requires LaFrentz to
> pull his weight in the middle. He doesn't have to be a
> three-time All-Star, but he does need to be a key
> contributor.
>
> That's what Antoine Walker was, warts and all.
>
> - Jackie Mac
> ----------------
> PS - When Battier became available on the market, I
> would have jumped at the chance to trade our #7 pick
> (even the terrific Roy) and cap fodder for him rather
> than for the troubled/NY playground-style/combo-guard/
> zoot-suit Telfair.
>
> Battier would have been a terrific start for our
> character/defensively-challenged team. His assets
> comprise all the stuff that Danny and Doc Brain have
> curiously overlooked in their quest to bring us
> the next Michael Jordan brain type, sans his
> talent and IQ.
>
> Egg
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
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