SO WHO'S TO BLAME

Already the vultures are circling TD Garden and ESPN's Smith is stamping on Danny Ainge for what has happened to the Celtics and not appeasing the next generation of NBA Brats.  

I have sat back and thought about this for the last couple of days and I have finally concluded the real culprit in what happened to the Celtics was ..............THE NBA!

The Celtics just got caught up in A PERFECT STORM that lead to an exit by Irving and Horford.  So what is my POINT and why am I blaming the NBA?

Answer, the current NBA FREE AGENCY SYSTEM IS BROKEN!     The new NBA Post Stern is evolving into a gigantic school yard pick up game where player's are colluding with one another to stack specific teams like ............NY, Brooklyn, LA, SF to the detriment of the rest of the NBA cities so that they can win artificial NBA Titles. Just like school yard games where one team picks the best players and the other not so good, and the team with the best players ...play all night!  The school yard games were rigged................and now the NBA free agency system has allowed players to manipulate the system, and stack specific GO TO DESTINATION CITY while the rest of the league teams suffer.

We saw it early on with Shaq going to the Lakers which flew under the radar as it was new, then with Miami with La Bron, Wade and Bosh............and the latest with Golden State and Durant.

The NBA and Adam Silver have either been asleep at the wheel or is promoting such behavior to create a circus like atmosphere, but it is time I think that the rest of the NBA Teams need to stand up and raise hell with Silver for allowing this to happen.

Irving, plain and simple had no intentions of staying with Boston beyond his remaining 2 years of his contract.  I am convinced of that.  He may of said nice thing like, ya I want to re -up when my present contract is over, but in reality which has been born out, he was looking to put together his own stacked team............the only problem................Durant got injured and is out for 1 year.......and so he cannot join Brooklyn.  So you may ask, why could Irving not stay with the Celtics and form his own team here?  Simple, we could never bring Durant to Boston because we never had the CAP ROOM because of Hayward's near max deal and time remaining on his contract.  As for Horford leaving, I cannot blame him.  Al still commands big bucks $100M 4 year deal, which Ainge would never allow.  That is a suckers deal and by age 36 he is a ghost of his former self yet receiving $25 + Million per with no room for Ainge to bring other talent in.

Keep in mind that I am not bashing the Davis deal to LAL.  That was done fair and square through trades of players and draft picks.  However, LAL will seek to add another franchise player in free agency to create another BIG 3 super team that will win 3 or 4 titles in a row.  Do not for one moment think Irving and the LAL are not devising a strategy to create more cap space for him to rejoin LA Bron.

My suggestions to curb this abuse of the free agency system...............the NBA must establish some sort of fairness rule whereby a team looking to stack its team at the detriment of another team's star player or players must suffer some sort of penalty.  I will throw out two suggestions that come to mind, but please do not shoot me if there are other better solutions or if my ideas too far fetched.  I am down right PISSED OFF THAT THIS HAPPENED TO US!  IT NOW WILL SET US BACK 3-4 YEARS!

1) Each team declares 2 or 3 players as franchise players.  If any one of them leaves for free agency, the signing team loses its first round draft pick and a one time monetary payment to the former team.

2) No more then 1 designated franchise player can sign with a specific team in a given year.

In this way, you will begin to create parity throughout the league with more balance.  Fan's will get more excited and enjoyment when their team is not 10 - 15 games out of a playoff birth at the All Star break, but in the hunt for a playoff spot or actually battling for first place in their division.

So do not shoot Danny, it is the current culture existing among players and a Laissez - Faire attitude by the NBA League Governing body toward team stacking that severely hurt the Celtics. Mark my words, if the NBA does not deal with this sooner rather then later, the NBA Brand will suffer with fans turning off to the game itself!

112288

Your right but there's more. Adam Silver recently commented on how unhappy most of the players are. He said they don't want to play together and are jealous of each other. He called it a "pathology." People need structure, team building, comradery. Kevin Garnet not Durant. I feel sorry for Durant because the more power he wields the less happy he seems. I like the Warriors - Splash Brothers and Draymond Green. There's some team there - camaraderie. They could bring in Durant and mine his talent and manage his unhappiness. Now he's off to the next destination if and when he's healed up; likely angrier than before. I urge folks to read Adam Silvers comments; he doesn't hold back.

Why didn’t we read this post when Boston was signing Horford away from Atlanta, signing Hayward away from Utah or trying extremely hard to get Durant to leave OKC and have a superteam in Boston?
Toronto just won the title without having multiple superstars.
As for Kyrie, odds are he will sign with Brooklyn. There's a small chance he could sign with the Lakers. If not Kyrie, I would think a different all-star will be signed by LA. But, for years when the Lakers were on the down slide they couldn’t get a good free agent and lost Dwight who could have stayed with LA. The Lakers learned from the 2016 mistakes of Mozgov and Deng. They let a really good young player (Randle) walk, because they didn’t want to guarantee him a second year. That open cap space will probably be used in a couple of weeks. Without sucking for 6 years, the Lakers wouldn’t have had the young assets to trade for AD.
Boston spent their cap space on Horford and Hayward. Nice players, but not guys you want to pay $60m to.
The Clippers, Nets and Knicks all could potentially form a super-team because they have cap space. Those 3 organizations are 3 of the worst organizations over a multi decade period. But now they have a chance to have more than one star.
As for Boston, Kyrie is such an extremely odd guy that I’m not too surprised this blew up. I think he could also blow up in Brooklyn. The one I would worry about leaving is Horford. He’s such a good guy with a stable, mature personality. Why is he really leaving? How much of it is because of the culture in Boston? If he has bad things to say about Boston, they could have serious problems signing top free agents.
I think nothing will change with free agency.
Players and teams will want to form super teams.
Will it be our favorite team or somebody else’s favorite team?

While I agree that perhaps some changes need to be made with eh NBA salary cap, I am not going to blame players for wanting to play where they want.

Sports teams owners have had almost slave owners rights over player in sports for many decades. Players having more say is a good thing, as far as I'm concerned.

I would think a hard cap with each team allowed ONE franchise player and his salary to not be included in the cap, might see some of the changes that you desire here.

as to who is to blame for the failure of the Celtics to win?

for me its the same person who gets the credit when things are going well. Danny AInge.

HE signed Horford
He signed Hayward
He traded for Irving

IF we would have won the championship this year, Ainge would be called a god by Celtic fans. The fawning would be higher than in 2008.

but we didn't win and now the team, that Ainge built, is being torn apart.

Who's to blame......the same guy we would all be praising as a genius if we had won. Time to look in house if you want to place blame for the mess we are left with.

on to the draft!!

- Kyrie

Al and his wife wanted 4 years $100M. Period.

Honestly, there is nothing to criticize unless you blame DA for the Gordon Hayward injury. That injury changed everything.

Him, Kyrie, and Al plus all the young talent healthy would have ruled the East and challenged Golden State.

Things happen - time to remember we root for the name on the front of the jersey, not the back.

Patience.

There is enough blame to spread around to just about everyone in the Celtics organization after such a poor season that had been projected by all to be a season that could have ended with a new banner flying from the rafters.

My biggest problem was with Mr. Irving as he failed to lead the team in a positive manner. He came to the Cs when he wanted to be the top dog on a team after being the second banana in Cleveland. The "best player/leadership" mantle is not easy to fill, but Irving failed miserably. It was his responsibility to lead his teammates in a positive fashion no matter what. It is also very much the role of the team's best player and self appointed leader to lead the coach in many situations when dealing with the younger players on the team.

I think that, early in the year, he started to look at the money in his future and got confused about the best way to get to that money. His selfishness got to him and he got lazy, and things around him unraveled from that point. He may have realized that leading is not as easy as he thought that it would be, but probably should have wanted to work much harder (sacrifice) to make things work in Boston where he had the talent around him to win. He also knew that Boston could pay him the most money moving forward.

His season was very frustrating for me even though his statistical numbers were very good. He lead negatively by his actions on and off the court, and these actions are never the way a good leader handles himself or his situation.

Not trading him at the deadline may have been Ainge's biggest mistakes in his entire GM career.

the worst thing that we can do is get caught up in the blame game. This is just what reporters all over the place are dying for. I will agree with one statement, The Celtics got caught in "The Perfect Storm". Irving, with his lack of character, started this. I cannot blame Danny for not wanting to pay Al that kind of money, I cannot blame Al for taking it and running. Lastly, this too shall pass, we may lose a couple of more players that we have all become fond of, but, in some way, this will pass. One minute you are on top of the world and the next you are free falling into a hole. Sh... happens, that is all there is to it. Everyone has been all over Gordon's contract, what if we gave al almost the same. This board would have been lit on fire.

Patience is a virtue. We will have to wait and see what happens with the powers that be.

IT IS WHAT IT IS And we can't change it now

mrkleen09 wrote:Honestly, there is nothing to criticize unless you blame DA for the Gordon Hayward injury. That injury changed everything.

Him, Kyrie, and Al plus all the young talent healthy would have ruled the East and challenged Golden State.

Things happen - time to remember we root for the name on the front of the jersey, not the back.

Patience.

doesn't wash to me sorry.

Hayward was back last year and Irving and Horford were all playing.

Ainge went for it all signing two players not worth Max deals and then rolled the dice that Irving would stay. It all fell apart and you have to take the blame when that happens, just like you bask in the credit when things go well.

its a BIG BOY game Ainge is playing and Celtic fans needs to be honest about what he truly bring to this game now.

may just be time for the ownership to lower Ainges stress levels by letting him retire.

I know this is almost considered heresy around here, but might be time for some serious looking into the future of the team.

this is ridicullous

Very astute Wideclyde. Excellent analysis, but Danny could not trade Kyrie in Feb. He had to play out that hand which also anticipated an AD trade.

112288 makes an interesting suggestion and kleen knocks it out of the ball park as he may have identified the proximate cause of how we got here today (the GH injury)

Kyrie's attitude changed once he got some blow back on some things that he said. Kyrie cannot handle any criticism.

Horford remains the same mercenary as he was when he signed with Boston

TJ enlightens us with the hypocrisy of 112288 statement about FA being messed up. What is good for the goose is good for the gander.

I do however agree with 112288 about compensation to a team that losses a key player to free agency. However I do not think you can have 3 designated players on a 15 man roster. This is not the NFL. I say one designated player equal to a first round pick and a second designated player equal to a 2nd round pick. Further I would not impose those penalties unless the player was originally drafted by the team who is losing him to FA.

In the end much of the blames still falls on the shoulders of Danny Ainge. He put this Team together and now the team is disassembling itself right before our very eyes.

Let's all hold hands and pray that Danny does not F up the draft or trade away guys that he should keep.

The jury has spoken - and the trial hasm't even started yet.

swish

The team is reassembling, not disassembling.
Hopefully it will soon be resembling Celtics squads of the past, manned with selfless, hard working, team oriented players. We have a strong core. Patience grasshoppers.

kdp59 wrote:


doesn't wash to me sorry.

Hayward was back last year and Irving and Horford were all playing.

Ainge went for it all signing two players not worth Max deals and then rolled the dice that Irving would stay. It all fell apart and you have to take the blame when that happens, just like you bask in the credit when things go well.

its a BIG BOY game Ainge is playing and Celtic fans needs to be honest about what he truly bring to this game now.

may just be time for the ownership to lower Ainges stress levels by letting him retire.

I know this is  almost considered heresy  around here, but might be time for some serious looking into the future of the team.

Letting Ainge retire? Using a line like that pretty much invalidates everything you said before that.

Danny Ainge has a track record that most GMs would kill for. Suggestions to the contrary is strictly revisionist history.

Before winning this year, Masai Ujiri was seen as someone with good ideas and little to show from them, and what won him the title this years was in part BEING BOLD. He swapped DeRozen for Leonard, rolled the dice and it paid off. But if Leonard walks and Toronto falls back to the middle of the pack, was his deal long term smart? Guess time will tell.

Danny Ainge has always balanced being bold and being pragmatic. He got Kyrie for a bag of balls and a broken down player in IT. Big upside for little risk. That risk didnt pay off, so now you want to ship him out? LOL.

Plain and simple, winning cures all ills. If Hayward never got hurt and was a 20/10 guy, the Celtics would have been right there with Toronto and people would be kissing DAs ass up and down Causeway street.

True dat, Mr. Kleen.

mrkleen09 wrote:

kdp59 wrote:


doesn't wash to me sorry.

Hayward was back last year and Irving and Horford were all playing.

Ainge went for it all signing two players not worth Max deals and then rolled the dice that Irving would stay. It all fell apart and you have to take the blame when that happens, just like you bask in the credit when things go well.

its a BIG BOY game Ainge is playing and Celtic fans needs to be honest about what he truly bring to this game now.

may just be time for the ownership to lower Ainges stress levels by letting him retire.

I know this is  almost considered heresy  around here, but might be time for some serious looking into the future of the team.

Letting Ainge retire?  Using a line like that pretty much invalidates everything you said before that.  

Danny Ainge has a track record that most GMs would kill for.  Suggestions to the contrary is strictly revisionist history.  

Before winning this year, Masai Ujiri was seen as someone with good ideas and little to show from them, and what won him the title this years was in part BEING BOLD.  He swapped DeRozen for Leonard, rolled the dice and it paid off.  But if Leonard walks and Toronto falls back to the middle of the pack, was his deal long term smart?  Guess time will tell.

Danny Ainge has always balanced being bold and being pragmatic.  He got Kyrie for a bag of balls and a broken down player in IT.  Big upside for little risk.  That risk didnt pay off, so now you want to ship him out?  LOL.

Plain and simple, winning cures all ills.  If Hayward never got hurt and was a 20/10 guy, the Celtics would have been right there with Toronto and people would be kissing DAs ass up and down Causeway street.  

one championship in 16 years...and most GM's wild kill for that record?

if you say so....the legend of Danny Ainge simply doesn't hols up except around Boston.

Fair weather friends abounding. A curious psychological study in the making.

kdp59 wrote:
one championship in 16 years...and most GM's wild kill for that record?

if you say so....the legend of Danny Ainge simply doesn't hols up except around Boston.

Anyone in any job for that length of time has wins and loses, but this take is simply not based in reality.

Based on the way he got Tatum at #3, the KG, Ray supporting cast deal, and the subsequent dump of those veterans in the fleecing of the Brooklyn Nets - you have all you need to elevate Danny to the upper echelon of NBA GMs. Period.

Sounds like you are still hurt by the way the season ended and letting the sour taste in your mouth cloud your judgement, but by any reasonable measure - Danny Ainge is a very good GM.

I don't about fair weather friends and all or if that is a shot at me, i certainly hope not.

I think it should be fair game to ask or point out what one sees, even if most disagree.

but perhaps only blind belief is allowed, who knows.

Ainge made the moves needed to bring a championship to the Celtics in 2008. He deserves all the credit he got for that.

he decided to rebuild when he thought the time and deal was right, and we all understood and mostly supported it as needed.

he used the Nets deal to make moves and thought he had hit the goldmine to a second title when he traded for Irving. We mostly were on board and thought it was the right moves again

but it wasn't the right move ,we all know now.

I never said Ainge was a bad GM or a bum or anything like that. But everything and everyONE has an end date.

Blaming the NBA for the tear down of the supposed Championship team Danny built is foolish to me.

he gets credit when he's won, he needs to take the blame when he loses. Seems simple to me.

in the end one championship under his tenure is his legacy to date..not revisionist history or fair weather friend..just the truth.

We were 1 win away from making the nba finals last year. Two of the past three years we made it to the ECF. We won 1 NBA championship in 2008 and were key injuries away from winning 2 more back then. So in 16 years Danny took a cellar dweller to 1 NBA championship, three Nba finals, plus how many other ECF finals - four? So Danny's record is pretty damn good, and 1 disappointing season followed by two defections does not warrant the calumny heaped upon him, ergo the fwf remark.

I will be doing an interview with Danny up the road a bit.

My take on Danny is that he is one of the best GM's in the NBA in making trades and his Cap management has been solid. That's why he earned the nickname Trader Danny.

In my opinion. his weakness is centered in his inability to judge big man talent in the draft.

Danny has not made a solid big man draft pick in over 10 years.

If you are going to build a team primarily through the draft you have to be have an eye for talent 1-5.

Finding bigs is Danny's Achilles heel.