My biggest nightmare: A Celtics team with four Jeff Greens
Warning: this is a rant. I have finally gotten over The Trade. Or, I had. Then the Celtics front office lied to us, again, and elicited disgust from somewhere deep within my soul. The monster rests temporarily, but Danny Ainge and now Wyc Grousbeck know how to shake it back alive.
A short while ago, when Danny Ainge called Jeff Green Boston’s most efficient player in the playoffs, I cringed. Then I checked the stats and, lo and behold, Green wasn’t even close, at least by any normal measure of efficiency. Now, Wyc Grousbeck says the Celtics didn’t need Jeff Green this postseason; they needed four Jeff Greens. (WEEI)
When asked about the trade of Kendrick Perkins, Grousbeck said he felt Perkins was not the difference in losing to the Heat. “I love Perk, but I don’t think our issue was guarding their 5 spot,” he said. “Our issue was guarding their 2, 3 and 4. So, not only did we need Jeff Green, we needed about three more of him.”
Was Perkins the difference in the Heat series? No, at least not directly. The center position wasn’t their problem; the problem was that Miami was younger, more athletic, and owned the NBA’s two best players. Then again, if the Celtics had never made the trade, maybe they would have won home court advantage or even the one seed, and then maybe things would have been different.
If you’re a fan of the trade, please tell me: what did the Celtics ever get from Jeff Green or Nenad Krstic, besides a couple points per game and a few black eyes? If the Celtics had played with four Jeff Greens on the court, the result would have been a 48 minute layup line for Miami, a 67-8 rebounding deficit each game for Boston, and five broken television sets that I either A) kicked, B) struck with a baseball bat, or C) tossed out the nearest window.
Don’t worry, though, folks. The Celtics are prepared to ink Green to an extension this summer.
“At this point now, we have the rights to Jeff Green that we will pick up and extend,” said Grousbeck.
Here comes the television throw. Wait, he’s restrained himself. Maybe this is a new Jay King. (Or, maybe he doesn’t have any televisions left because he’s already damaged them all.)
As if saying the Celtics needed four Jeff Greens against the Heat (ugh) wasn’t enough pro-Celtics propaganda, Grousbeck also said Perkins had rejected the highest offer Boston could give him and thus wouldn’t have returned to Boston. Either Grousbeck really doesn’t know the rules, or he’s flat-out attempting to mislead Celtics fans. Probably the latter. Yes, Perkins turned down the highest extension Boston could offer him during the season. But he could have signed up to a maximum deal in Boston this summer. The Celtics would have been risking losing Perkins, but re-signing him wasn’t a lost cause. Actually, all signs indicated that Perkins would return to Boston.
“I think about this every day,” he told me in February. “I tell my wife that I just can’t picture myself anywhere but Boston.”
A couple weeks later, Perkins was traded. Months after that, the Celtics are still trying to convince us the trade was a good one, despite a lot of evidence saying it wasn’t and almost no evidence saying it was. When the trade was made, the Celtics were the Eastern Conference’s number one seed and a title favorite. Now, they’re spending time fishing and watching the Eastern Conference Finals on TV. Oh, and they’re trying to re-sign Green long-term, and they’re trying to convince anyone gullible enough that doing that actually makes sense. (In all fairness, it could make sense. But only if his market value is low. Because Jeff Green, unless he uses this offseason to become someone he has never been, is not the type of player you want to commit real money to.)
Before I end this post, I’ll leave you with one more Grousbeck gem:
“Where the plan fell short is Shaq not being able to come back,” he said . “We thought he could.”
Yes, because it’s always best to entrust the season’s success in the hands of a 350-pound, 39-year old, oft-injured player who was already down with an injury at the time of the trade.
Four Jeff Greens. Imagine that.
Just let the monster rest, Celtics. Your lies and propaganda aren’t convincing anyone.
Related posts:
Celtics Blog | Jay King | May 25, 2011
If we can’t manage to find Jeff Green x4, then I suggest an off-season shopping spree that includes,. the virgin – AC Green, Danny Green, Ricky Green, Gerald Green, and maybe even Tom Green. Cause you can never have too much Green.
If mgmt gives this guy anything more than something like 4/24M, I will go nuts. Hopefully, somebody like Washington will come around with an offer sheet that not even Wyc could match
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He was so soft they are in love with his athleticism, PLEASE DO NOT SIGN GREEN NO HEART, BIG MISTAKE BIG MISTAKE . HE HAD WORST DIFFERENTIAL OF ANY REGULAR ROTATING PLAYER IN THE NBA PLEASE NO.
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[...] here to read the rest: My biggest nightmare: A Celtics team with four Jeff Greens … This entry was posted in Celtics, Uncategorized and tagged all-your, and-more-, boston-celtics, [...]
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When asked about the trade of Kendrick Perkins, Grousbeck said he felt Perkins was not the difference in losing to the Heat. “I love Perk, but I don’t think our issue was guarding their 5 spot,” he said. “Our issue was guarding their 2, 3 and 4. So, not only did we need Jeff Green, we needed about three more of him.”
WHAT? Not having Perkins made a huge difference…on both ends, the owners and Ainge are out of touch on this. Not only are they wrong here but everyone loved the chemistry and they would have done much better had no trade been made…This is the worste trade ever
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Oh f’in god here we go again with the ‘trade’ and Perk was a f’in god talk. Where’s paul? He’s got to be loving this. “Worst trade ever” are you f’in kidding me? So glad he is gone and just look at his OKC stats in the playoffs and you’ll realize (well not the Perk lovers so what’s the point) he is a mediocre center at best and got by with KG’s stellar defensive help. ENOUGH already about Perk and the trade.
morey…his 5.8 pts and 5.8 rebs in last year’s Finals are not good enough for a championship team. he NEVER averaged 10 rebs and only came close by getting 8.2 previously. And to say his offense in your statement “Perkins made a huge difference on both ends” is unbelievable considering his travels, inability to bring the ball up on lay-ups and constantly getting stripped because he would not play with the ball above his shoulders, as great centers do. What the hell are you smoking ’cause I want some. Sorry everyone else for chiming in for the 500,000th time on this. Go Cs…
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Jay…you’re right about the max they could offer during the season but there was no way they were going to give him the $55M he wanted (like Rondo got) so to say they would’ve paid him more after the season while technically true that they ‘could’… it just was never going to happen as they’re light years over the luxury cap. I would again defend the trade to answer you, but you and everyone else has read my comments since that day so I hope this is the last ‘trade’ post ever!. How’s your book coming??? Go Cs…
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green or no green?.>!! whatever ok… the trade should NOT have happend ,, what does the celtics brass think us fans are dumb or what ???lmao at them ,, why??? ,, boston should have kept perkins and after this season was over TALK with perk and agent and see IF theres a way to keep perkins in a celts uniform ,, then if NO YOU LET HIM GO and then you wheel and deal ,, cuz no matter what its the same senario for green basically ,,, llol if the Cs dont sign green then hes GONE ,, SO with all that said ,, instead of SCREWING UP THE CHEMISTRY of this team with only one third the season left anyways and perkins was playing good when he came back for those few games ,, FOR SURE THE CELTICS WOULD HAVE GOT 1ST IN THE EAST AND THE DIVISIONok ,, and home court all the way even the finals the way it looks with lakers gone and SPURS GONE ,, the celts could have had a shot at the finals and either dallas or OKC lmao in the finals this year !!! BUT NO matter how they cutt it up THE CELTS WOULD HAVE DID WAY BETTER THAN THEY ENDED UP DOING this season in the playoffs !!! so DONT listen to the BRASS and AINGE and all the B.S. from them on this STUPID TRADE AT THE WORST TIMMING EVER !!! AND YES THE WORSE TRADE THE Cs EVER MADE BY AINGE !!! now he needs to admit it or leave the Cs mr ainge be a man and stand up to a mistake that YOU MADE at the worse time of the season!!! the entire team was OUT OF WACK DUE TO THAT TRADE AND THE TIMMING OF IT !!! PLAIN AND SIMPLE ,, IT WAS STUPID!!!! IM A CELTS FAN BUT I SAY IT LIKE IT IS !!! now GO CELTICS GET SOME AWSOME FREE AGENTS OUT THERE AND TRADE THAT BENCH O U T !!!
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look you cant say what perk is doing in OKC now is what he wouas a celtic !!?? lol NO WAY pal ,, lol ,, perkins is playing a diff role for OKC ,, hes use to the doc rivers WAYS of playing his role ,, remember the Cs got perk out of high school ,perk is 25 and been playing 7 seasons ALREADY going on 8 ok !!! also both the Cs and perk was shocked by the trade that it affected them and perkins alot !!! i guarentee that if perkins did not get traded the Cs would have been right there with all the remaining teams right now ,, also the Cs after the trade 19 games and PLAYED like CRAP the entire rest of season AND in the playoffs looked BAD !!! WENT FROM 1ST PLACE in the east and the 2nd best record in the nba till after the TRADE OK thats not a fluke people SO WAKE UP Cs FANS i know i did !!! look hey they traded perk for green and kristic oh also we sent NATE out there to so we gave more than they say ok …. but regardless my problem with the Cs brass and ainge is they will NOT ADMIT TO MAKING A BIT OF A MISTAKE WITH THIS TEAMS CHEMISTRY BY TRADING BIG PERKINS OK LMAO THATS WHAT I DONT RESPECT ABOUT THE BRASS !!! ADMIT THAT THE TRADE WAS S T U P I D OK BUT THEY THROW EVERY EXCUSE ABOUT THE TRADE EXCEPT THE TRUTH THAT IT WAS # 1 STUPID AND #2 BAD BAD BAD BAD … TIMMING WITH ONLY 30 – 32 GAMES LEFT IN THE SEASON HE TRADED ALMOST THE ENTIRE PLAYING BENCH AND WANTED DOC TO TEACH GREEN AND ALL THE REST THE Cs SYSTEM AND FOR THEM TO MESS TOGETHER WHILE TRYING TO GET HOME COURT AND GET THEM ADJUSTED TO THE TEAMS WAY OF PLAYING AND WITH THE BIG 3 ,, WITH RONDO 4 !!! just to name a few things that doc had to do in just 30 games ??? lmfao COME ON !!! LOL BE FOR REAL WHAT THE —– WAS MR AINGE THINKING PEOPLE !!! SO ALL I SAY IS ADMIT IT TO US FANS THAT YOU MADE A BOO BOO AND WE ALL GO ON AND DO RIGHT THING IN OFF SEASON WITH SOME YOUNG ,, FAST ,, TALENTED PLAYERS AND WE CAN MAYBE WIN ANOTHER TITLE ??? LOL its all good though im a true Cs fan and i feel they could have did so much better if the team was LEFT ALONE till the end of the year !!! god bless all !!
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I think I am legitimately going to have nightmares about four Jeff Greens
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jj…how is Perk playing different with OKC? Isn’t he supposed to rebound, defend, and score? How is that different then when he was with the Cs??? The fact was that he wasn’t and we had better centers but they ended up injured. DA didn’t have a crystal ball to tell him that when he made the trade, but all the naysayers sure have one apparently. This whole line of thinking – that if we had Perk we would have won the homecourt and then the title – is utter bullshit. The Cs lost to sub .500 teams when they were at full strength and that’s what cost the seeding. And then we lost the playoffs due to injuries and not because we were missing Perk’s AWESOME stats. And no GM will ever say they made a mistake in public. Why cut off your own nuts? Go Cs…
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Jay…way to come back from your hibernation and stir things up!!! Love it. Feed tonight??? Need to get paul involved in all this again. Go Cs…
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A surprisingly negative post from you Jay. You’re spending way to much time thinking with your heart and not your head on this one. You’re a smart basketball guy, no doubt, so I won’t pretend to say you know nothing about it, like some comments above.
But I think you’re having a hard time separating emotions here, understandably so. First of all, you’re whole “Celtics would have gotten home court if Perk was there” doesn’t really hold water, obviously either side is speculation, but there are plenty of reason to think without the trade the C’s could have lost even more games, such as:
1) Right after the trade, Krstic went on a tear, and the Celtics shot off 6 straight. Without that production from Krstic, do the Celtics still win all those games?
2) Wafer went down with the the calf injury, and if the trade wasn’t done, the team would have been left with only the FA pick ups (Pavlovic most likely, unless they grabbed Parker without the trade happening) as the only wing players coming off the bench. Color me less than optimistic that they could have done much, and this would have meant even more reliance on Pierce, tiring him further for the playoffs.
3) Rondo was still playing awful. And I’m sorry, I don’t buy the whole “depression” thing for his bad play, and I think injuries are far more the culprit. I don’t think Perk being there would have suddenly cured his plantar faciatis, or numerous ankle, shoulder and back problems he was having. And Rondo’s play was the biggest reason they were losing games.
So there are plenty of reasons to think that Perk’s presence, not only wouldn’t have made a single difference in the standings, but actually could have led to even more Celtics losses, were the trade not done. And none of this is getting into the business side of the deal, which I guarantee you in 3 years, when the league is cued into the fact that Perkins was made in the Boston system, and wont be very good outside of it how much of an absolute swindle this deal was for Danny. Two talented, relatively young players, and a valuable first round draft pick for a guy who’s really only useful in your system, and only moderately at that?
Pretty good deal if you ask me.
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The Celtics did the wrong trade at absolutely the wrong time. With Perkins, their championship window would have been extended at least a couple of more years. Now the window is all but closed and the Celtics will be forced to think about rebuilding after just four years of the Big Three
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James… Looks like you’ll never rid the world of speaking about the trade. Unfortunately, hahaha. But in all seriousness, I agree. Let’s drop it. Its done.
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You are a moron. Just cuz you are buddies with Perk doesn’t mean he is the greatest ever. You call yourself a fan of the Celtics? A fan? If you’re a fan, you wouldn’t hate Jeff Green as much as you do. You obviously root against him, meaning you are not a fan. You are pathetic. You recycle opinions from the media. Your jokes are lame. You’re still talking about a trade that had minimal impact. You are the stereotypical Longmeadow rich preppy douchebag. You have no imagination, individuality. You have no understanding of how other people live you stuck-up piece of trash. Your writing skills are just like your basketball skills. NONEXISTENT. Why don’t you go make out with your buddy perk you stupid idiot
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P.S. You say we coulda had Perk back, have you ever considered we DIDN’T WANT perk back. Yeah 9 mill a year for a mediocre center who had always killed our offense with his suckiness on that end. Did you not see how great our O was with a halfway decent option in Shaq in there?? Great plan dumbo. You have no idea waht you’re talking about and are a disgrace to all REAL Celtics fan.
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Benji, tell me how you really feel.
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Geez, and I thought paul had angst! Go Cs…
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Damn…
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Wow you are still hung up about this trade huh? GET OVER IT ALREADY! Nobody knew Perk would have resigned even if he proclaimed he was a Celtic for life. It makes no difference because he was a “ROLE PLAYER”. Please read the caps if you are too ignorant to do so.
Jeff Green had half a season to learn the C’s system so GIVE HIM A BREAK! Sometimes I wish I didn’t watch basketball because fans like you make me wanna throw up in my mouth. Quit blaming one player and blame the whole team for not winning. There’s no “I” in team remember that unless you are one of those fans who like to point the finger when a team loses.
In a side note I like Jeff Green he needs a off-season and a training camp to get comfortable with this team. If you were a true Celtics fan you wouldn’t be bashing him instead of looking at it from all angles instead. GO C’S!!!!
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Perk played in 4 games this year, I hate that everyone thinks that when he was traded we struggled because we didn’t have him, because thats BS! First off we had a group that gelled and understood everyones habbits because they have been together for a year. No one talks about the 10 points Daniels and the 10 points and energy Nate Robinson brought to the table, or the Semih Erden going after every rebound hustling in every play with heart. No one talks about this stuff. A bench that knew each other and worked well with each other, also statistically speaking was the best bench allowing the fewest points when on the floor compared to any other team. Like I said Perk played in 4 games, did he really have an affect on the court in the previous games to the start of the year. Lets talk about Rondo, he plays almost the whole game every game. He is human, a man wears down after being physically drained. Oh and he had plantar fasciitis! Which is painful making cuts and fast movements, also when his play started to decline who would have subbed in for him? No one, West couldn’t run plays because he didn’t know the system. You would have probably moved Paul Pierce to the PG position then put green or west where pierce was and run the offence through Pierce but then again the nebies still didn’t know all the sets. Plus Doc isn’t a fan of just throwing people in thus the first few games starting only 9 players after the trade!
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I believe Green and West will be great for us next year, but I also believe we need another big man like Semih Erden back or try to get a Nene or Chandler, or make some kind of trade and we also need someone to drive the ball to the basket. You need to create foul trouble to win and help finish games which we didn’t do last year in the Finals, thats how we lost, the Lakers got to the line and made there shots and thats how you close out games. Pierce can’t go in everytime like early in his carreer so who is going to drive the ball? Ronod is good at it but doesn’t do it enough, West can do it but again doesn’t do it enough. Need to score points in the paint. A few things happen when you do that. You either get the easy 2 points and maybe get fouled or you don’t get it and get fouled or you don’t make it but may get tipped in. We are a jump shooting team and thats why we are struggling at the end of games and near the end of the season. Marquis Daniels worked on his jump shot by shooting 1000 jumpers a day and stepped up his game, Dwight Howard learned how to play offence this past off season, my point is why can my boy Rondo not hit a free throw? Its called free throw for a reason. Dirk hit like 24 straight in a game the other night! Pierce hit 21 in a row one year, Ray Allen has a rating of over 90 percent at the line why are they not working on that part of his game with him. He’s my favorite Celtic but I think thats the only thing he needs work on,well that and still work on the jumper, he would be unstoppable if he did those two things.
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I hate the fact that you are the only writer in the Celtics blogiverse worth reading. But I just have to respond to THIS flaming bullshit. I KNOW you know better than this crap:
“Was Perkins the difference in the Heat series? No, at least not directly. The center position wasn’t their problem; the problem was that Miami was younger, more athletic, and owned the NBA’s two best players. ”
So nauseating to read that. You know damn well that the point about Perkins was that he ANCHORED OUR DEFENSE. He is very dedicated about that. And the fact that he did that for us meant that our other brilliant defenders could play harder, play tighter, gamble more, etc.. And if you want to bitch about his difficulties with the Thunder, quite apart from the fact that he’s played well for the thunder, even though he’s only at 60%, his problems there had a lot to do with bad rotations by other players. When he takes on the driving guard, SOMEONE has to rotate to cover the center he has left near the basket. The Cs knew that. The Thunder occasionally knew that.
So it’s NOT just a matter of us needing Perkins to defend against the Heat’s center, and you KNOW it. It was a matter of us needing him to to make all the other defenders better, more effective. DAMN IT. You KNOW that what I’m saying is true, Jay. I don’t expect any other writers to be honest about it, but you damn well should be. You KNOW that our two best defenders, KG and Rondo especially, like to be very aggressive. Having Perk as a defensive anchor freed them to be aggressive. Perk was the difference between a strong defense and a freaking killer defense.
I’m not saying anything you don’t know.
As for your comments about the age and athleticism, there too you know how false what you are saying is. You know that what made the difference was the Celtics’ ‘ubuntu’. They had a level of cohesion they could go to that no other team could match, and THAT is what made them play much younger than their ages (or, in Rondo’s case, older). A lot of the cohesion was lost when Perk was traded, and THAT put lead in their feet.
And please stop apologizing for talking about The Trade. The Trade is part of NBA legend now. People will be talking about it for years.
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To be fair, you did say “not directly”
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