Nick Kaufman said:
Agreed. Although truth be told, I expected him to have better numbers and be more aggressive on this year's team.
I agree as well, and while I wish he would be a touch more aggressive, he is who he is. Stevens should focus on getting the most out of Jeff NOT changing who Jeff is, as the latter is far riskier and unlikely to have a positive impact on him.
It was Green or nobody, whoever doesn't believe that needs to review the CBA, salary cap, and state of the C's two summers ago. Yes
they may have overpaid for him, the overpay isn't egregious as many poster would have you believe. It is reasonable strategy to pay more for your workers to create a positive work environment. Ainge may missed evaluated Green's market, may have been employing a strategy to create a sense of support and belief in Green - we will not know. At the end of the day, if we pay him 7.5 a year it is a bargain and 9 a year is an overpay, so we are discussing a 1.5MM window with an inflation overlay, and no way to leverage the initial investment in another manner (salary cap), and likely no way to leverage the 1.5MM overpay in any reasonable way now.
At the end of the day I don't care about his aggressiveness or under-performance because I don't care if they win this year. I want Ainge and Stevens to continue to build a balanced team of multifaceted, unselfish 2 way players (I believe KO and Sully will develop as smart team defenders, to compliment Bradley, Rondo, Green). Sure there needs to be a go to scorer, but that person doesn't need to be the highest pair person on the team I(or even the third highest paid person on the team). They are developing assets, and they are putting themselves in a position to acquire some rookie scale talent to compliment there roster.
A turn around wasn't going to happen in a single season, and it will take longer without Bradly and Green. Yes they should flip Bass and Humphries, if only for future seconds or rights to swap first round picks. Wallace is likely on this roster for the duration of his contract, and the sad part there is there are a ton of kids who will grow up thinking he is and always was a stiff - but when he came on the scene he was a warrior. I always felt the biggest mistake with Antoine was him being the top dog on a terrible team without any veteran leadership. I keep in the back of my mind what he could have become, with someone as intense as Garnet or Wallace gunning for him in practice on a daily basis.
The next six months are going to be interesting for this team. We are likely to be surprised, excited, and disappointed, and tat may be on a single deal. Tighten the seat belt and enjoy the ride -