Can Danny?

Old friend Antoine Walker got the debate roaring this morning with a little jab at the Celtics.

"If he wants to get to this level [and play for a title], he may have to move on. I don’t know if he can be that patient. To get to this level, you’ve got to be deep. Look at both our teams. We’re very deep teams. You’ve got to be talented. I don’t believe [Pierce] has that other piece yet. You can’t just do it by yourself. When you think of Boston, you just think of Paul Pierce solo.”

The biggest insult here would be to Wally Szczerbiak.  I doubt Antoine would have ever said this if Ricky Davis was still on the squad but since he has no connection to Wally One-Leg, the criticism rolls off the tongue much more easily.  But how true is it?  Does Paul really need to go?

If Pierce demands anything near a full max contract, then Antoine is right.  I think there are only a handful of players in the league that truly deserve the cap-crushing second full max deal (16 million to start, balooning to over 20 million at the end of the deal).  That contract limits cap space too much and makes absolutely no sense for a team that has ownership that is completely terrified of the luxury tax.  If Pierce goes for a more reasonable deal, like the contract Ray Allen signed, then it makes sense to keep him.  

But does he have enough to help him win? Well, right now I believe the Celtics have one of the deepest benches in the NBA.  The problem is that four of these role players have to start because we have zilch when it comes to legit starting talent.  While most of our youth is "servicable" as starters, we need improvement.  But we really aren't THAT far away.  Yes, Ainge has screwed us with some bad contracts but I think Gerald and Paul are the future of the swing spots, we can fill a need with this year's pick (be it drafting someone or in a trade) and in a couple of years we have Wally and Raef's expiring deals to maybe add some other pieces.  Will it be easy? No.  Will Ainge screw it up? Probably.  But it is possible.

On a side note, there's also the discussion of how good the Heat's future is.  I would say that it looks very bright but, ironically, the worst blemish on their payroll is... Antoine Walker.  Perhaps I was being too hard on Danny and didn't see the method to his madness.  Had Ainge not agreed to trade Antoine, he would have likely just gone to Miami for the MLE.  Instead, Ainge agreed to the deal and now Miami has Antoine on the ledger for more than 9 million per year for the next five years.  So while the Heat do indeed have a bright future, the last person who should be bragging about it should be Antoine because in a couple of years, he could be the guy preventing the Heat from adding the depth that he so admires now.