The Expendables

We started this year thinking it was just going to be a "development year".  A year where we see if Rondo had fully recovered, a year where we hoped Jeff Green would finally ascend to his athletic level of talent on a consistent basis, whether Sully and Kelly would take a step up and if Brandon Bass would even be here.  What little did we know...If Chris Babb gets a chance to play, he will set a Celtic record for most players getting minutes in a single season.  Danny has already set a single season record for most players on the roster in a single season.  A clinking, clanking, clattering collection of caliginous junk, according to their previous GMs.

FLCeltsfan, in her blog on celticsgreen.blogspot.com, referred to this year's team as "The Island of Misfit Toys".  I understand her metaphor, but these are some aggressive freaking dolls.

1.  Isaiah Thomas - odd man out in a 3 guard offense in Phoenix.  They went out to sign him and then didn't know what to do with him.  "Thomas for Thornton?" Danny said, "sure, but you have to throw Cleveland's 1st round pick in 2016 to take him off your hands for you".  Phoenix said "ok, we don't need him, he's not fitting in here".  Now, he's a leading contender for NBA 6th Man of the Year.  Not everybody was so sanguine, at the trade deadline, with ESPN ranking it as one of the worst trades at the deadline.

http://espn.go.com/video/clip?id=espn:12350121


2.  Brandon Bass - Nobody wanted him.  Danny was offering him for a 2nd round pick and a TPE and there were no takers.  He didn't shoot 3s enough, he was short for a PF, and now he is a steady starter on a playoff team that surged in the 2nd half of the season to the 3rd best post all-star game record in the league.  Danny considered him expendable, just give him a pick he doesn't have to commit to keep and pay.

3.  Tyler Zeller - A throw in to make the numbers work in Cleveland's pursuit of LeBron James.  "Help us Danny!".  "Sure" he says with a glint in his eyes "but you're not using Zeller for anything, he's only averaged 15mpg for you last year.  Let me take him off your hands for you?".  "Why not?  He's yours".  More superfluous NBA debris tossed Danny's way.  Was the decision to include Zeller in the trade a good one for Cleveland?  Yep, they got the best player on the planet, but he wasn't highly regarded there, as evidenced by his minimally rotation minutes.  In the pursuit of LBJ everybody is expendable but players whose minutes have dropped from 26mpg to 15mpg especially so.

4.  Marcus Thornton - Also a throw-in on the LeBron deal.  "Take his $8M contract off our hands!", cried Brooklyn, "you've done this before for us with Wallace and we want Jack and Karasev!".  Jack is having a fine year, all in all, but is 31 years old and the ready-for-the-Finals crew that Billy King traded Danny for in the summer of 2013 aren't there anymore.  Karasev is averaging 16mpg and is shooting 40% and under 30% from 3.  When oh when will Billy King learn?  Marcus Thornton begat Isaiah Thomas.  Why?  Because Danny Ainge is no Billy King.  He realizes one person's garbage is another person's solution.  

5.  "You want to bring 34 year old Tayshaun Prince home to Detroit?  Not a problem, just let me take those two mutts in your dog house off your hands.  They're expendable, right?".  Jonas Jerebko has shown himself to be a legit NBA player who deserves, and is receiving, solid rotation minutes and Gigi Datome is, according to Brad Stevens, one of the best shooters on the Celtics.  They jumped for joy when they were traded here because SVG didn't see why they might be keepers.  Jerebko's mpg were down from the previous year's and Gigi's couldn't get much worse.  Jerebko and Datome, both with expiring contracts, for a 34 year old who thought he was going to get bought out?  Can you get much more expendable than that?

6.  Mark Cuban, nobody's fool, thought he was getting the steal of the century trading Jae Crowder, Brandon Wright, Jameer Nelson, a 1st round pick and a 2nd round pick for Rajon Rondo and Dwight Powell.  In the 2014-2015 season, Jae was averaging only 10.3mpg with Dallas.  That was down from the 20.1mpg he averaged the year before.  He'd gone from a regular rotation player to a Rick Carlisle afterthought with the acquisition of Chandler Parsons.  Who took Crowder's minutes?  34 year old Richard Jefferson, averaging 16.8mpg, a lot more than Crowder was getting.  Wright was another player whose minutes in 2014-15 were down from his previous year.  Jameer is past his shelf-life.  Trading those replaced-and-now-expendable assets for Rondo must have triggered a Pavlovian drooling reflex in Cuban.  Ainge's view?  "No problem.  I'll take them off your hands and find the ones I don't want a good home.  You don't worry about a thing".  And Cuban thought he had just pulled off the coup of all coups.  Rondo?  His numbers, per 36mpg, are down across the board with only a small bump up in ppg but way down in apg and rpg.  His ft%?  Fuggetboutit.  45%.  He's having trouble fitting in with Carlisle and might not be in Dallas next year.  Expendable Jae Crowder, on the other hand, I'm willing to bet will sign a multi-year contract this summer with the Celtics.

There's almost half your playoff-bound Boston Celtics, right there, if you exclude the virtual non-entities which are James Young and Chris Babb and 5 of your top 10 players.  Expendables.  With no loyalty except to each other.





This is just the trailer.  The 2nd season starts on Saturday or Sunday. 100% of all the teams that do not make the playoffs do not win the Championship. You aren't mathematically eliminated until you are mathematically eliminated.



bob



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I expect Danny's detractors will say all of this is happenstance and will cite a mistake Danny made in tying his shoe while a kid as "proof" of how inept he is.  But the fact is that Danny has the ability to see what many of his peers miss in players; and he has the smarts to know that not every player move must be a blockbuster in order to rebuild a team.

Sam

While I have in the past questioned Ainge and some (many) of his moves . Especially in the trader Danny days ( I guess trader Danny was back this year), he did a GREAT job since the KG, Pierce trade.

they forgot to point out the Low ball deal for Turner as a Free agent and the coaches put him in position to succeed as a point forward here after the Rondo trade. After Green and rondo left, EVERYONE on the team was expected to hustle when on the floor. I know, I know....we can't EXPECT NBA stars to hustle like that this isn't college ball after all... Well maybe they should.

he not only got  players to fit his long term signed head coach, but he has added future assets in draft picks AND set the team up to be below the salary cap for the first time that I can remember.

and that head coach turned the hard working bunch into one of the best teams in the NBA after the all-star break.

many will say you need stars in the NBA and maybe they are right. But many times stars are MADE in the NBA playoffs. I'm not saying this will happened for us this year, but this team, these players, this coaching staff...have much more respect NOW, by making the playoffs.

no one is laughing at the hapless Boston Celtics, like they were at the beginning of this year. And THAT makes this year a rousing success  to me!

DA sat with tommy and mike during the game and said he knew IT was good but IT has played even better that he expected.

Who would have thought that IT, Zeller, Turner and now even Crowder would make game winning shots?

dboss

kdp59 wrote:While I have in the past questioned Ainge and some (many) of his moves . Especially in the trader Danny days ( I guess trader Danny was back this year), he did a GREAT job since the KG, Pierce trade.

they forgot to point out the Low ball deal for Turner as a Free agent and the coaches put him in position to succeed as a point forward here after the Rondo trade. After Green and rondo left, EVERYONE on the team was expected to hustle when on the floor. I know, I know....we can't EXPECT NBA stars to hustle like that this isn't college ball after all... Well maybe they should.

he not only got  players to fit his long term signed head coach, but he has added future assets in draft picks AND set the team up to be below the salary cap for the first time that I can remember.

and that head coach turned the hard working bunch into one of the best teams in the NBA after the all-star break.

many will say you need stars in the NBA and maybe they are right. But many times stars are MADE in the NBA playoffs. I'm not saying this will happened for us this year, but this team, these players, this coaching staff...have much more respect NOW, by making the playoffs.

no one is laughing at the hapless Boston Celtics, like they were at the beginning of this year. And THAT makes this year a rousing success  to me!

kdp,

You're right, I forgot about Turner. I was just looking at it from Trader Danny's perspective. Another "expendable" from Indy.

And yes, Trader Danny was in full roar this year, with a record number of players in Celtic uniforms and tied with the record for most Celtic players getting minutes. If Babb plays tonight (unlikely) he will set a new record.

bob


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kdp59 wrote:While I have in the past questioned Ainge and some (many) of his moves . Especially in the trader Danny days ( I guess trader Danny was back this year), he did a GREAT job since the KG, Pierce trade.

they forgot to point out the Low ball deal for Turner as a Free agent and the coaches put him in position to succeed as a point forward here after the Rondo trade. After Green and rondo left, EVERYONE on the team was expected to hustle when on the floor. I know, I know....we can't EXPECT NBA stars to hustle like that this isn't college ball after all... Well maybe they should.

he not only got  players to fit his long term signed head coach, but he has added future assets in draft picks AND set the team up to be below the salary cap for the first time that I can remember.

and that head coach turned the hard working bunch into one of the best teams in the NBA after the all-star break.

many will say you need stars in the NBA and maybe they are right. But many times stars are MADE in the NBA playoffs. I'm not saying this will happened for us this year, but this team, these players, this coaching staff...have much more respect NOW, by making the playoffs.

no one is laughing at the hapless Boston Celtics, like they were at the beginning of this year. And THAT makes this year a rousing success  to me!

KDP

on the way home last eve I was listening to FOX SPORTS RADIO and the idiot Jay Moore was harping on the weak east and laminating about the woeful Celtics that were WAY BELOW .500......... I wanted so bad to inform him that a then 38-42 record is NOT in my opinion way below .500.

Screw the "star" mode...down the stretch last evening there were 2 fouls, one on Turner and one on Zeller on his layup where there was significant contact, perhaps a STAR, gets those call. Certainly appeared refs just looked the other way. Did Turner or Zeller lose there cool? Nope not one bit ........and to me that is again a reflection of the Coach. Calm cool and calculating.

Perhaps we get swept, games might not be close. The fact we are even there is astounding in itself. Stevens is a master planner and will have all this time to develop a schemes to have us in the best position against the Cavs...... if the league allows and the refs call it fair, I think we stand a chance.

beat

This thread makes me feel as though I'm lying on a sunny beach in Tahiti and this beautiful native girl named Leanilunabigabust comes along every so often and drops grapes in my mouth.  Each grape is delicious, but I just can't get enough (thank you Leanilunabigabust) of them.

I especially appreciate the perspectives on stars vs.role players (oh you don't have to do that Leanilunabigabust; my wife's right here—well okay, maybe for just half an hour) and the fact that there are many types of stars, including some who are former role players.

The observations about the Celtics not losing their cool down the stretch are also right on target.  It's been absolutely amazing to see these mostly young guys gain so much poise so quickly.  And (I'd go with the green thong Leanilunabigabust) I have to give most of the credit for that to Brad and his own demeanor.

Gotta go now.  I just swallowed a grape the wrong way.

Sam

sam wrote:This thread makes me feel as though I'm lying on a sunny beach in Tahiti and this beautiful native girl named Leanilunabigabust comes along every so often and drops grapes in my mouth.  Each grape is delicious, but I just can't get enough (thank you Leanilunabigabust) of them.

I especially appreciate the perspectives on stars vs.role players (oh you don't have to do that Leanilunabigabust; my wife's right here—well okay, maybe for just half an hour) and the fact that there are many types of stars, including some who are former role players.

The observations about the Celtics not losing their cool down the stretch are also right on target.  It's been absolutely amazing to see these mostly young guys gain so much poise so quickly.  And (I'd go with the green thong Leanilunabigabust) I have to give most of the credit for that to Brad and his own demeanor.

Gotta go now.  I just swallowed a grape the wrong way.

Sam

sam,

Just to be clear, those were green grapes I was dropping in your mouth.  Time to wake up and smell the river...

Can't help it.  I'm a hopeless optimist and a big-time homer.

I've never been to Tahiti but I've been to enough tropical islands with beautiful women wearing next to nothing except their smiles to be able to conjure up a nice picture of one, huh?


bob


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