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[sabino]

>>>...The optimists expected a real breakout last season, with the maturing of several of the youths.  Alas, they was injured along with Paul and Wally.  Give us a relatively healthy squad this year, and with the addition of Allen & Davis, a decent vet at pg, and we'll be back on track--say, 46 or so wins minimum.  We're also the conservatives, in that we hesitate to swap a developing star (Al) for a older, proven star (Garnett).  Short term fixes bother us conservatives.  We are more content with evolution than revolution.  Now, where's my McCain button?  Gene <<<

Gene, just curious; since you are hesitant to trade developing stars for older stars, how did the Allen trade sit with you?  Generally speaking, I can say I was in the same camp as you; and to be frank, I was not against trading in the #5 pick for a vet.  I did not like trading #5 for a 32 year old SG though.  I would have been content to grow the thing slowly.  In the past, when Danny talked about trading for vets, he specifically said he didn't want guys on the wrong side of 30.  I wholeheartedly agreed with that.  

What's done is done, but having traded for your 32 yr old SG, and not yet having addressed your two most pressing needs in a big and a vet PG, well, it seems to me that Ainge has indeed opted for the short term quick fix.

I guess I supported Danny when I agreed with the perceived philosophy, and what I take to be yours as well.  My perception is that Danny sold that philosophy out with the Allen trade.  Yeah, we get the better end of the deal in years 1 and 2 following the trade, but thereafter, when Allen is into his mid thirties, I think we come out short, as all humans decline athletically when hitting their mid thirties.

I'm a bit of an apostate these days.  Feel like Danny Jim Jonesed me.  I know I get to be rather a broken record about this, but really, if you're picking up a Ray Allen who'll be 32 when the season starts, don't you really have go for a championship by surrounding he and Pierce with the necessary vet pieces to make a legit run at it?  If you don't do that, it seems clearly a move to get you to the playoffs, and maybe the second round at best, but not even close to true contention.  The exact thing he professed, upon taking the job, was not good enough.

Ainge may still try to pick up said quality vets to make the run.  I hope he does at this point.  It'll restore a little faith in him for me.  I'll then think he had a plan and is committed to executing it.  Thus far, he's added Allen, and we still have a boatload of unproven youth.  Seems like he made the necessary move to appease Pierce (and presumably Pierce is appeased, though we haven't heard from him first hand), but not the necessary follow up moves that he said were coming.  I realize the signing period just started last week, but most of the interesting free agents have been snapped up, and we needed to probably add our backup PG via free agency, while trading for the big, in my view.

Who knows, maybe he'll still get that stuff done.  Color me disappointed in this off season thus far.  It just all seems like a giant Pierce appeasement panic move to me, and I realize he was in a tough spot with Pierce's mouthpiece agent making noises prior to the draft.

I have a strong feeling that Wyc had a LOT to do with how this summer's moves have panned out thus far.  I think Danny, in a vacuum without Wyc, Paul, and the more impatient of the fan base pressuring him to get something done immediately, knows that the Allen deal was not what's best for the franchise.  Unfortunately, he lives in no such bubble, so here we are, in my mind, sort of back to a situation similar to the Twan/Pierce days, only with Pierce/Allen instead (and Pierce no longer a young buck), and with a much shorter window to make any real hay within Allen's window.  I'm kind of pissed off about it, to tell you the truth.

[/Harangue officially over] ... Sorry about the War and Peace post.