Is Jermaine O’Neal one of the offseason’s worst signings?
One of the worst signings? I think not.
Britt Robson ranked the Jermaine O’Neal signing among the worst moves of the offseason. Really? (Sports Illustrated)
After O’Neal shot 9-of-44 from the field (20.5 percent) and was outplayed by the Celtics’ big men in Miami’s first-round playoff loss last season, Boston GM Danny Ainge was impressed enough to fork over the full mid-level exception for the 14-year veteran. As O’Neal moves to the slag heap side of the team’s pile of proud veterans with bad wheels, one wonders why the Celtics didn’t make a run at Juwan Howard, or spend the mid-level money on a pair or even trio of playoff-tested vets — a million or two apiece for Joe Smith, Kurt Thomas and Fabricio Oberto — or maybe even force the Heat to match mid-level money on restricted free agent Joel Anthony, who was better at defending the paint than O’Neal for Miami last season and subsequently re-signed with the Heat for $18 million over five years.
With Rasheed Wallace set to retire and Kendrick Perkins recovering from knee surgery the first part of the season, staunch defense down low should be the priority. Playoff clanks aside, O’Neal shot a career-best 52.9 percent during the regular season and had his highest scoring (13.6) and rebounding (6.9) averages in three years. But his blocked shots (1.4) were his fewest in 10 years, and if he, Glen Davis and perhaps Brian Scalabrine (a free agent who hopes to return) are supposed to hold down the fort until Perkins returns, there could be some more playoff series on the road for Boston next year.
So first Robson advises that the O’Neal signing was terrible, even though he had a pretty damn good year last year. THEN he mentions that the Celtics would have been better off using their mid-level exception on signing Joe Smith, Kurt Thomas and/or Fabricio Oberto (when those are all minimum guys they could probably sign anyway). THEN he tops it all off by suggesting that the Celtics also would have been better off offering the entire mid-level to Joel Anthony, who happens to be pretty horrendous at basketball. Memo to NBA owners: Don’t ever consider Britt Robson for a GM position.
Related posts:
Celtics Blog, Featured | Jay King | July 20, 2010
Boston Celtics, Danny Ainge, Jermaine O'Neal, Joel Anthony, Kurt Thomas
What a retard, this guy’s articles aren’t fit to use as toilet paper, never mind fill the pages of SI.
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You mean you ddidn’t want to spend the whole MLE on Joel Anthony?
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guy is an ass—like perk said—”dont use that 1st round performance against him, Perk makes every post player look bad”
If you want to sign a veteran SF with bad knees, and im not talkn about tracy mcgradyyy
How about johnaton bender—can shoot the 3—and very long —29 years old—you could sign him for the minimum—and he has had 3-4 years from playing on those knees—-Had tremondous upside when he played on pacers with jermaine
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Had tremendous upside… before his body completely broke down.
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What a moron…
Everyone always has something negative to say about the C’s moves in the offseason.
When he got the big three it was, “They won’t be able to build a bench around them!”
When it was Sheed it was, “He’ll be worse next year than he was this year”
Now Jermaine who was once one of the best Center’s in the game and still only 31 it’s, “He’s the worst MLE signing so far! Er…um…aside from the fact that he had a great year in rebounding scoring and post D. But Joel Anthony would have been a better option…or they could’ve overpaid Kurt Thomas and Juwan Howard…the ancients of days! Or better yet, you could give Oberto half your MLE!!!”
Frikin idiot! How did this guy even get a job?!
A word of wisdom here Britt…when you lose your job for writing S like this, don’t submit this as a sample piece for your next interview. Just a thought!
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Hahah. Well put.
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Wish I could get paid to write crap and get it printed in SI. This guy knows nothing about hoops.
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This guy probably paid a ten year old to write the article for him and handed it to the editor and the editor said, “This is good stuff!”
Not only Britt but whoever else let’s this crap reach print should be fired, then shot! LOL!
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I think the editor is Joel Anthony’s mother.
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