Ainge

[Peter Delevett]

Why is blaming Ainge the "easy" answer? Isn't Ainge
the guy in charge of basketball operations? Hasn't he
assembled the roster? Hired the coach? Kept defending
the coach?

Didn't he send off Walker and Payton with no plan for
how to replace them? Didn't he give a 5-year contract
to Brian Scalabrine? Didn't he unload the bad LaFrentz
contract that HE traded for, for the almost-as-bad
contract of a guy who wasn't healthy?

Why blame the owners or luxury tax for Ainge's
decision to pass up Roy (or, for that matter, Rudy
Gay) and instead trade the 7th pick for a kid who had
been chosen 13th two years before and done nothing but
get benched?

Look, I give credit to Ainge and Wyc for cleaning up
the Vin Baker mess, but Baker rolls off the cap after
this season, and his cap hit this year is less than
half of Ratliff's or Szerbiak's - another Ainge
acquisition who for the past two months has averaged
12 ppg and shot a sparkling 34% from the floor. 

And yes, the injuries are a fair point, but don't
forget the Celtics were already well under .500 when
Pierce got hurt. A more central question is, where is
the team's long-term strategy? What's the vision? Are
we going to tank the rest of the season? Do we have a
plan for what to do after that? Is anybody confident
Ainge can do anything with the cap room created when
Baker's deal expires?

I can't wait to tell my bosses next time I screw
something up that blaming me is the easy answer. 
 

>>>Instead of the easy "it's all Ainge's fault" the
better answer is the entire
conglomeration is full and faithful contributors to
our current situation.
Ainge's failure to sign contributing free agents (and
yes, not pick Roy this
year - a very compoundable mistake that has really
killed THIS year in
particular), owners who will NOT go into full luxury
tax territory to sign
perennial all-star free agents, a very poor cap
situation left from the
previous regime including the Vin Baker contract, an
under .500 coach who is
probably better suited to the NBDL then the NBA with
no better replacements
readily available - the list of idiocy is more then
one deep.  Add in
injuries, which I guess we can blame on the trainer
(DAMN YOU ED LACERTE!
DAMN YOU TO HELL!!!!) and this isn't an easy "if only
we got rid of Ainge
this would all be better" answer. 



 
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