WEEI

[Kestutis Kveraga Adv04]

No, this is not a hot trade rumor.

This AM, with my usual radio fare quite unstimulating, I tuned to WEEI for the
first time in months on the off chance that they might be discussing the
Celtics. And, miracle of miracles, they were. They had Ian Thompson of SI on
the line and he made some interesting points about the local outfit. He noted
that while the Celtics have great draft scouting and Ainge knows an NBA player
when he sees one in the draft, they are the worst in the NBA when it comes to
scouting players that are in the NBA, including their off-the-court  and injury
issues. I think he said they have no pro scout (not an advance scout who scouts
opponents, but a player scout whose job is to scout and research the background
of potential acquisitions). He made it sound as though this willful blindness
is a widely known issue with the Celtics front office and asked rhetorically
how it was possible for an NBA front office not to know about Telfair's issues
before trading for him. Thompson added that this is why the only trade that
sort of worked for Ainge was getting a player that he already knew - Antoine -
back. The rest backfired in one way or another.  He contrasted it to Ainge's
record of getting NBA players out of his last 9 draft picks. 

This echoes, I think, some of what Egg has said in the past, if Ainge's very
disparate drafting and trading records weren't indication enough. So, pray for
the other teams/stars to save us from themselves in any trades Ainge is
attempting to consummate, for the chances that we'll be had are excellent. 
Kestas