Jermaine Has Surgery

Responding to no one in particular, I think Danny displayed a very innovative approach to a serious dilemma defined by absences and availabilities:

Absent: Your starting center and a major element in your defensive scheme

Absent: A rock solid, affordable replacement

Affordably available: Healthy guys on the order of Mikki Moore

Affordably available: Shaq and Jermaine

So Danny scratched his head and said, hmmm. I wouldn't feel safe with Shaq as my full-time center. I wouldn't feel safe with Jermaine as my full-time center. A light bulb flashed overhead as he concluded: I'll go with center by committee until Perk returns. I'll hedge my bets by getting both Shaq and Jermaine; and, for good measure, this seems like the right time to see what Semih really has to offer. And, among that trio, maybe we'll even wind up with enough back-up capability to give us a competitive advantage at the position for the playoffs.

It's extremely difficult to scare up a solid center in the NBA without coughing up some of your major personnel assets in return. Will someone please tell me which personnel assets Danny had to sacrifice to gain the aggregated equivalent of one very serviceable center to help the team compile an enviable record until Perk returned?

No, neither Shaq nor Jermaine nor Semih has accumulated all-star credentials this season. Think for a moment what havoc might have been visited on team chemistry if they had both felt equipped to be #1 centers. Now we have three guys who are perfectly comfortable as backups and who add depth in numbers.

And I haven't even mentioned the guy who's the best Celtics center in the clutch—Glen Davis.

As for NYCelt's knee, now I know why—the first time we met—he came running up breathlessly and screaming, "Hey, wanna see my knee? Wanna see my knee?" A nice enough knee, but I've seen nicer.

Sam

Some on the board seem to have written JON off this year, if not for ever, but I have not. Let's say that things go real, real well for him. It's possible that he could be back in time to make a real, albeit small, contribution if the C's get into the second or third round... A small contribution in game 7 last year and banner 18 is waving in the breeze right now as I speak.

mrkleen09 wrote:NY

you know as well as I do that big men are a commodity that is in short supply and high demand in the NBA. The fact that DA has had some failures in his “mining” – speaks more to the fact that it is a volatile part of the business more than his acumen in selecting centers and power forwards.

If anyone wants to put forth a GM with a better record for picking from the big man scrap heap, do so. But I would be willing to bet my paycheck that DA is right in line with the league average of win some / lose some

Kleen,

Perhaps you meant to address this to someone else since I wasn't debating this and agree with you.

I'm not sure what this is even about, but would be happy to talk about sharing your paycheck!

Regards

sam wrote:As for NYCelt's knee, now I know why—the first time we met—he came running up breathlessly and screaming, "Hey, wanna see my knee? Wanna see my knee?" A nice enough knee, but I've seen nicer.

Sam

Yeah, my wife tells me I've got to stop doing that...