“So many calls are made for financial reasons,” Ainge said. “The trade world is just so different than any fan has any comprehension about. A lot of teams want to make deals that either free up money or cut their payroll just for cap or luxury tax reasons.”
- 5/30/07; Ainge on hoping to make trades this offseason
Actually, I think most fans, especially avid fans, understand this perfectly well. We understand that our owners (like a majority of NBA owners) don't want anything to do with paying the luxury tax. We understand that Theo Ratliff's expiring contract is an appealing trade asset since other teams are looking to avoid the luxury tax. Unfortunately, we also understand that because of our current financial state, we can't use this asset because adding salary in a Ratliff trade and re-signing Al Jefferson will likely put us over the luxury tax threshold for 2009. We got that this was the reason we had to dump Raef Lafrentz's contract last year. (Of course, the Celtics tried to sugar-coat this fact by asserting that Telfair was better than any available talent at the #7 pick. Now, of course, they admit openly that the deal was done, primarily, for financial reasons.)
"I honestly don't pay any attention to that," the Celtics' hoop el jefe said last night. "I feel our basketball staff, the players, the ownership, all understand completely what we did and why we did it. And I am satisfied with that. I understand that fans don't comprehend all the details, so people react without even knowing."
- 10/22/03; Ainge's take on the negative reaction surrounding the first Lafrentz trade.
The salary cap/luxury tax issues confounds the fans no more today than it did when Ainge first started. We understood the ramifications of adding long term contracts when Danny added salaries like Raef Lafrentz and Wally Szczerbiak. We comprehended while Danny Ainge sat around and laughed at us, stating that cap space is overrated.
Being an NBA GM is not brain surgery. It's not even graduate level economics. It's simple planning and common sense. While GM's bitch and moan about fans not getting it, more often than not, GM's are the ones exhibiting a lack of comprehension. Phoenix is one of the better run franchises but how many people thought a team nearing (and fearing) the luxury tax was better off signing Marcus Banks to 4 million dollars a year as opposed to drafting Marcus Williams, Rajon Rondo, Sergio Rodriguez, Kyle Lowry, Daniel Gibson or Dee Brown for 1 million or less? Who thought a team run by miserly Donald Sterling should, after investing too much money in Cuttino Mobley, pay big bucks for serial-slacker Tim Thomas? The problem isn't that fans don't comprehend the financial ramifications of trades, its that NBA GM's time and again defy this comprehension.
Fans understand the financial aspect of the "Trade World" of the NBA. Ainge whining about the financial straits the team is in makes no sense when it was Ainge who put the team in this situation. He doesn't have Vin Baker's contract to complain about anymore. All of the contract that Ainge inherited would have been off the books already. Celtics fans are painfully aware of where we stand and how we got here. This is Ainge's team. This is Ainge's mess. He'sturned the Celtics into a laughingstock and I don't think insulting the intelligence of the fans is the best way to turn things around.
Comments
Nice post. I entirely agree. Baker's contract was the last vestige of the previous regime; Danny's now in a cap-Hell of his own making.
Poor Phoenix. D'Antoni is clearly overmatched as GM. With the Banks signing, he seemed to be saying, "My system can make a player out of anybody." Hey, it made a 2-time (should have been 3) MVP out of Nash, playoff hero out of Tim Thomas, a valuable role player out of Bell, a Joe Johnson near-equal out of Diaw, and it made 54 wins out of a team with no starter over 6'8". But it didn't do much good for Marcus Banks, and that was totally predictable. And the fact that he gave up both Rondo and Rodriguez and then didn't have a backup point guard all season was absurd.
Unfortunately, unless we trade Niednagel to the Rockets for Morey (and can Danny), I think we're stuck here.
Posted by: Don Bocologist | May 31, 2007 06:56 PM
More "I'm smarter than the rest of you" from a guy who has, aided and abetted by "Thanks, Daddy" Grousbeck, run the Celtics into the ground.
This is a fairly simple deal: If the Two Idiots pick the Chinese Hank Finkel and throw him on the scrap heap as the only addition for next season, then we're going to see the Grousbeck BS Machine running full force again - on the way to about 28 wins.
Or, the Two Idiots can try to con Memphis or another club into a Green and #5 package, along with a bag of Danny's trash, for an actual player to - gasp - improve the product on the floor.
I'm betting Option 1 is the one chosen by the Abbott and Costello of NBA management.
Posted by: Jungle Jim | June 1, 2007 06:07 PM