Had we traded one of the Brooklyn picks and a couple of non-key players, we could have potentially brought Ibaka and Carmelo to this team, and this playoff run would have been very, very different.
i've been saying it all season long.
1. We need another volume scorer who can take the pressure off Thomas - he's 28 years old and is a 5'10" PG who plays a very aggressive style of game - if we don't get some pressure off him, he's going to burn out and we will run the risk of him getting a serious injury.
2. We also need a starting PF who is healthy enough to play more than 20 MPG, and preferably one who can rebound.
Until we can get those two things, we're not getting past the first round.
Signing Horford was a horrible, horrible mistake. It was obvious the previous season that it would be a bad move, it was obvious at the time of the signing (the instant Durant signed with Golden State) and it's even more obvious now. It was a very poor decision driven by Ainge's pure blind hope that it would be enough to convince Durant to come here.
Horford's inconsistency and his tendency to get outplayed by sub-star players is concerning for a guy making $30M a year. He seems to only ever play consistently well if he's up against guys who are both smaller AND less talented then he is...and that is not the sign of a guy worthy of a max contract. A max contract guy should be somebody who is going to go out and make an impact every night, one way or other, and a guy who will dominate his match-up more often then not.
Now we're screwed. We only have enough talent for a first round exit, and Horford's contact is going to restrict us from signing a true max contract guy potentially for the next 2-3 years. We have nowhere to go unless we trade Horford, which I know Ainge will never do because doing so would be admitting hi made a mistake...and Ainge would never do that.
Horford is a very good player, but yes, for a max contract big you want 20/10. He's at about 75% of that.
Honestly, I think you are being generous by calling him a very good player.
I've seen far too many terrible games from Horford this year (I'm talking like 7 point, 3 rebound, 4 assists games) and that's not acceptable from a guy who is supposed to be an All-Star or even borderline All-Star player.
I don't by any means expect him to go out and give you 20 and 10 every night, but I do expect at least 10 and 7 or 7 and 10 on a bad night - by that what I am trying to say, is that if he has a terrible offensive night, I expect him to make up for it by dominating the boards. If he has a poor rebounding night,t hen I expect him to put up big scoring numbers.
If you are going to invest this type of money into a player, especially one who is 30 years old, then it has to be a guy who you know is going to contribute every single night - in one area or other.
I look at a guy like Dwight, and he will have some stinker offensive games. But when he does, he almost always grabs 13 or 14 rebounds. If he only grabs 6 rebounds one night, then he almost always scores 20...and he's not even on a max deal.
If you are making $30 million a year give or take, then you can't be going out there having nights where you get 6 points, 4 rebounds and 4 assists. That's embarrassing and totally unacceptable.
The season Horford had this year was barely good enough to qualify as a starting calibre season. His numbers were genuinely no better then Sully's overall - and that's really concerning since we apparently could have had Sully for next to nothing and then gone in to this season with max cap space.
I honestly have no doubt in my mind that if we started Olynyk and gave him 30 minutes a game, he'd be putting up all round numbers no worse then what Horford averaged this year. I would put money on it...and his advanced stats would probably be at least on par too.
I'd be surprised if Sully couldn't put up similar numbers in 26 or 27 minutes a night.
Ibaka? We could have had him for the cost of Terry Rozier and some disposable late 1st rounder, and he would have easily put up Horford-esque numbers.
Danny made a massive mistake by signing Horford to that deal. It was obvious at the time, and it's clear as day that the only reason that deal happened was out of fear KD would walk if he didn't sign Horford...so he signed Horford and KD walked anyway.
Ainge got bullied and got outsmarted, and now our cap situation will be screwed for the next 2 or 3 years.
