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When Celtics General Manager Danny Ainge traded for Antoine Walker, giving up next to nothing, a friend said the move was Auerbachian.
Since Ainge has taken over the Celtics, he has made intelligent moves to give us the championship long overdue.
When he took over the team, the Celtics were led by a legitimate superstar in Paul Pierce and a lacksadasical shooter in Antoine Walker. Role players like Waltr McCarty and Tony Battie rounded up a second-rate contender in the Boston Celtics, who were swept in the second by Jason Kidd and the New Jersey Nets.
We were nowhere near ready to contend. After Walker's horrific performance in the playoff, he was a liability. We had a team of a superstar, an overrated scorer and aging role players, we needed a change.
It got a lot worse before it got better.
We got rid of players like Antoine Walker and Eric Williams and we got back decent but flawed players like Raef LaFrentz, Chucky Atkins and the wildly inconsistent Ricky Davis. Meanwhile, we got young projects like Ryan Gomes, Tony Allen and the now all-star calibur player Al Jefferson.
In his first two years, we made the playoffs and were defeated in the first round. The next two years, we were lottery bound. Then, all of the baggage, in the form of players like Mark Blount, Ricky Davis, Sebastian Telfair and others were traded away for hall-of-famers Ray Allen and Kevin Garnett. the rest is history.
This last season, when we didn't win a championship, due to injuries, and this ensuing offseason has shown even more diligence and brilliance. We let Posey go, knowing he would ask for a lot more and he wasn't getting any younger. We didn't make too any panic moves and exxentially preserved what we had and we still may have won if not for Garnett and Leon Powe being injured.
This offseason, we needed to address some big concers: lack of height up front and backup swingman. Ainge heavily pursued Rasheed Wallace and got him. Then we got Marquis Daniels, a career started and solid player, who is coming off the bench!!!!!
I am not saying that Ainge is the next Red Auerbach, he's got about 15 more to get before he can, but for now, I think it is safe to say his moves are Auerbachian.
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