Anywhere But Here
By Mike
There I was, minding my own business on a sunny Sunday afternoon, trying to maintain a weekend-long news blackout to avoid the Super Bowl hype machine, when the phone rang with a call from my father.
After catching up on each other’s comings and goings since our last talk, the conversation took its usual turn to the Boston sports scene. Now that we had spent a couple of calls dissecting the second half of the Pats-Colts game, it was clear that we would be moving on to a new topic. My Dad has become a “call me when they’re relevant” style Celtics fan, an approach I can’t really question based on recent results, so I was half expecting a reasoned argument about why the Red Sox should tell Schilling to quit negotiating through the media. Instead, he wanted to talk about the foundering Cs.
“Did you see Peter May’s column today?”
“No, I didn’t. Let me guess, he’s preaching patience for the Celtics.”
Pause. “What?” Apparently chalking my sarcasm up to a bad connection, he moved on. “He thinks Ainge put together a team of stiffs. No guys on the rookie-sophomore all star teams…No heart to win a close game or two…They still can’t figure out how to defend a pick and roll…”
As he continued listing the deficiencies of a team he doesn’t watch very often I considered asking him if these were his thoughts or May’s, but I held off. Not because I’m not interested, but because from a several years of reading May’s work I have a certain level of confidence about what he would write even without reading it. For me the only question would be whether the Curse of Tony Parker would be mentioned, or if instead May would stick to lamenting The Day the Music Died. I guessed the latter.
I was wrong. While trying to avoid the Super Bowl pregame photo essay on The Year Class Came Back to Miami, I pulled up May’s column and read it. Wonder of wonders, I found myself nodding in agreement.
I agree with May that the rising tide of losses have concealed some modest improvement among the Celtics young players. They aren’t stars, and they will probably wind up helping a better team more effectively in a smaller role than they will carrying the unfamiliar heavy loads they have been with Paul Pierce and Wally Szczerbiak nursing their respective injuries. This team is Not Good right now, and they have earned that title.
But after my initial surprise passed, I read further and found myself back in my familiar position of questioning May’s underlying argument.
May seizes on a quote that Ainge made to Chad Ford about how he “never envisioned having this many young players on the team at once” to ask incredulously, “[Ainge] drafted them. He traded for them. If he didn’t envision it, who did?” Now, if Ainge actually was trying to pass responsibility for the makeup of this team to some unnamed Architect, I would be right there with May on this one. (And before I go too much further, I have not read the Ford article nor have I ever subjected Ainge to a lie detector so the following is simply my educated guess as a long-distance follower of the team).
But I think instead what Ainge was trying to illustrate was that their “plan” (a word that has taken on far too much meaning for both Ainge’s supporters and detractors) was to develop their young assets in order to be in ready to put a trade offer together to bring a veteran all star or other package of players in that would both improve the team’s overall talent level as well as add experience. Commendably, in my view, they have kept their powder dry and have not offered too much (yet) for players of questionable marquee value like Pau Gasol. At the same time Ainge has reportedly been very aggressive in his pursuit of Allen Iverson, which I believe was doomed from the start because of the all-too-predictable outcome of Iverson destroying his former team from within their division. No GM wants to give a competitor like Iverson such an easy path to retribution after things went sour in Philly, much less a guy like Billy King who was unwinding an extremely expensive mistake in Chris Webber at the same time.
Based on those rumored trade talks and his historic willingness to shake things up with potentially unpopular moves I think it’s difficult to argue that Ainge has decided to stand pat with this group of players on purpose. Pierce’s extension over the summer gave the team a three year window in which to develop a winning combination around him. I think it’s pretty safe to say the team’s management knows that this group is not it. But you can’t make trades if you don’t have a dance partner, and as several news outlets have noted in recent weeks there aren’t too many good looking prospects at this year’s NBA square dance anyway.
Many fans are already several weeks into the chase for the lottery ping pong balls, salivating over every gaudy stat line put up by the presumptive top picks. However, with Pierce coming back the team’s efficiency at losing will diminish somewhat. While they certainly were not a league power at the time, the team had separate winning streaks of five and three games while Pierce was healthy. Not exactly stop the presses material, but on the other hand last year’s team never challenged for the worst record in the league and never achieved either of those marks. If the jump in numbers over the past 6 weeks for Al Jefferson, Ryan Gomes and Delonte West was due to their improvement as players and not solely due to their added minutes, this team may have more fight in it than people expect.
So, this is shaping up to be an intriguing two and a half weeks leading up to the deadline. Unlike most years, when a team is a buyer or a seller but not both, the Celtics can go any number of ways. They could look to package their much-discussed assets (including Theo Ratliff’s contract) to seek some veteran help that can stabilize the team as it moves forward beyond this year, possibly looking to grow further by keeping their pick in a draft that is deeper than just the two names at the top. At the other end of the spectrum, they can seek to assure the best odds of the top two picks and find an offer for Pierce that provides them with younger players who can join the core of the future team built around Greg Oden or Kevin Durant. Or they can choose a less drastic option and find a pretext for sitting Pierce down for some or all of the remainder of the season.
While all of those options have good reasons for and against, the one path that holds the least promise is to remain on the course the team is on. Allowing Pierce to come back full time and full speed serves only to vaporize a few more of the team’s ping pong balls with every win he helps these youngsters eke out. The lottery odds are risky enough without the specter of other, more “motivated” teams doing more to improve their chances while the Cs obliviously pick up a win or two down the stretch.
I don’t know about anyone else, but it’s time for me to let my inner Gary Tanguay out, and give every internet trade rumor or pained facial expression from Pierce more credence than it deserves, rooting fervently for any stoooryline that takes the Cs to a different path.
It may not be as fun as watching the ’86 Celtics, but it beats watching the Pro Bowl.
