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Celtics Notes (February 22, 2004) 
If Danny Ainge's plan for the 2003-2004 season was to lose as many games as possible, he has done a
brilliant job. The new-look Celtics are sinking faster than Kevin Costner's career. A Celtics team that
included Antoine Walker, Eric Williams, Mike James and Tony Battie would not have competed for a
championship, but they certainly would have been competitive enough to contend for a 5th or 6th seed
in Eastern Conference Playoffs. That would have at least kept Celtic fans interested. Danny Ainge
claims to have a plan, but it is a hard plan to follow. Ainge's first major move was trading Antoine
Walker. I was not totally against trading Walker, but taking on Raef LaFrentz for another six years
and $60 million didn't make a whole lot of sense. Ainge was never a fan of Walker's often out
of control, sometimes selfish, bad-shot-hoisting style. This made some sense until Ainge traded away
two pretty decent players - Williams and Battie - for Ricky Davis. Davis, a less-talented, more
selfish version of Antoine without the rebounding ability. Last week Ainge officially threw in the
towel by trading starting point guard Mike James (and Chris Mills) for Chucky Atkins, Lindsay Hunter
and Detroit's first round draft pick. This doesn't seem like a big deal until you realize that the
Celtics acquired another $8.7 million over two years on Atkins' contract. The other players involved
are off the books after this season. Ainge claims to have made the deal because of the draft pick,
but Detroit is likely to pick in the mid-20's, especially if 'Sheed Wallace can keep himself under
control.
Of all the bad moves that Danny Ainge has made, the worst was forcing out Head Coach Jim O'Brien. Ainge
and O'Brien couldn't work together because the two men held such different opinions on the direction
that the Celtics should take. Apparently Ainge did not agree with O'Brien's strategy to win
basketball games and play strong defense. Jim O'Brien took over three years ago during one of the
low points in Celtics history. Rick Pitino had squandered several high draft picks, traded away
talented starters, made a mess of the Celtics salary cap situation and squelched the team's desire to win.
Jim O'Brien immediately changed the team's attitude and made the Celtics respectable during the
second half of the year. The following season, O'Brien took the Celtics to within two wins of the
NBA Finals. Unfortunately, Boston ran into the New Jersey Nets, the one team in the Eastern
Conference that the Celtics could not match up with. Last year, the Celtics upset a significantly
more talented Indiana Pacer team in the first round of the playoffs. O'Brien coached circles
around Isiah Thomas. Once again, the Celtics were forced to play the Nets and they lost badly.
If Jason Kidd had never been traded from Phoenix to New Jersey, there is a good chance that the
Celtics would be the two-time defending Eastern Conference Champions. Under O'Brien this season,
the Celtics were playing .500 basketball, even without Walker. It almost seemed like Ainge was
purposely trying to torpedo O'Brien (he traded Williams and Battie while the team was on a five-game
winning streak). In the end, O'Brien couldn't deal with Ainge so he quit. O'Brien will surely have a
job by next season and that team will have Danny Ainge to thank for their good fortune.
There often comes a time in a very bad NBA season where you begin to root for your team to lose.
In the NBA, first round draft order means everything so you reach a
point where losing will actually benefit your team in the long run. Of the six
most important Celtics at the start of training camp, only Paul Pierce remains. Antoine Walker,
Vin Baker, Mike James, Tony Battie and Eric Williams are no longer Celtics. The team that remains
is losing night in and night out and that isn't likely to stop anytime soon. Without Antoine or
a presence in the paint, Paul Pierce hasn't been able to play at his typical All-Star level. The
playoffs are no longer a strong possibility so it's now time to root for the Celtics to lose. My best
guess is that the Celtics will finish with the sixth worst record in the NBA. As of today, they
hold the seventh worst record but Cleveland is improving rapidly and should leapfrog the Celts very
soon. The other five teams - Phoenix, Atlanta, Washington, Chicago and Orlando each have five or
more fewer wins that the Celtics so it is unlikely that any of those teams will win enough games to move
ahead of Boston in the overall standings. With the sixth worst record, the Celtics would have a
6.4% chance of getting the #1 pick and a 22% chance of getting one of the top three picks.
Unfortunately, there is no LeBron James this year and there is little chance of landing a Carmelo
Anthony with the third overall pick. UConn's Emeka Okafor will undoubtedly be the first player
taken (he would be a godsend for the Celtics).
After that, it is anyone's guess. Because of the Walker and James trades, the Celtics will also
have the first round picks of Dallas and Detroit. Based on today's standings, these picks would
be 22nd and 24th. Please take a look at NBADraft.net's
2004 Mock Draft if you would like to
see some draft predictions.
The Vin Baker saga with the Celtics finally came to end last week - at least we can hope so. Sadly,
Baker is losing a battle with alcoholism that began five years ago while he played for the Sonics.
Though I feel sorry that alcohol ruined Baker's career, much of my sympathy disappeared when
the NBA Player's Union filed a grievance against the Celtics for terminating Baker's contract
(which means that the Celtics will not have to pay the remaining $36 million of Baker's contract over the next 2 1/2 years).
Baker signed a seven-year, $87 million contract with Sonics in 1999 (after his drinking problem began).
Baker immediately put up three subpar years for the Sonics. Last season with the Celtics, Baker was
virtually useless. This season, he played about 20 decent games before again succumbing to his
alcohol problem. It is absolutely sickening that the NBA Player's Union would paint the Celtics as
the bad guys for terminating Baker's contract. Baker has been paid close to $20 million by the
Celtics for what amounts to 20 solid, though unspectacular games earlier this season. The Sonics
shelled out more than $30 million to Baker who played at a level well below his contract value.
Essentially, the Celtics have paid Vin Baker $2 million per month to get drunk. The NBA Player's
Union apparently believes that a player should be able to get loaded and show up for games unfit
to play and still get paid millions to do it. This is one of the most outrageous things I have
ever seen in sports and typifies why people often hate professional athletes. If anything,
the Celtics should be suing Baker to get back the money that they paid him last season. People
say that Vin Baker is a nice guy and a good person but if he's going along with the Player's Union
in filing this grievance then he is clearly a very bad person. If Baker wants another chance in
the NBA, he should agree to play for the league minimum for the rest of his career.
Is the news all bad for the Celtics? Not exactly. In addition to having three picks in the first
round of the 2004 NBA Draft, it looks like the Celts have a budding young superstar in the person
of Jiri Welsch. The 24-year-old Czech has been getting more minutes lately and has shown
abilities in several areas. First, he is a great shooter. Welsch has connected on 42% of his
three point attempts which has helped push his scoring average up to 9.2 points per game. He has
also shown the ability to get to the free throw line, rebound and pass. Like
most young players, Welsch is painfully inconsistent but right now he's the one reason
not to hate the Antoine Walker trade.
Celtic fans should also be happy about the improvement of
Mark Blount. Blount, who is 27, has improved in nearly all areas this season. With increased
minutes, his points per game has increased from 5.2 to 8.6 and his rebounds are up from 3.4 to 5.6
per game. Most importantly, Blount's field goal percentage has increased from 39.3% in 2002-2003
to 55% this season. |
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