http://www.boston.com/sports/basketball/ce..._little?mode=PF So I guess Antoine's knees are worse than we thought. Maybe that's a big reason why Ainge really wasn't that interested in offering him a deal. We already have Raef, who's getting better but I'd still consider his knees a problem, and we've seen E-Will and Tony Battie traded away after showing signs of chronic injuries. Based on our on-floor philosophy and current roster state, signing Antoine to a long term deal would've been a huge risk. He's both talented and a good vocal influence, but a likely knee injury could set us back even further than losing him does. It also helps explain why his trade value was so low -- he's damaged goods.
hmmm...thats not very good, but since it looks like he will be coming off the bench he won't work them as much as if he were starting.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting playmaker14:</div><div class="quote_post">hmmm...thats not very good, but since it looks like he will be coming off the bench he won't work them as much as if he were starting.</div> Yeah, from a Miami standpoint, he's worth it. He gives them something that will help them win a title. They're trying to win right away, not building for a few years from now. They also lucked out because they got to adjust the deal down to 30 million over 4 years, saving them big money because they obviously won't be picking up his option for those last 2 years at 8-9 million per. For us, Antoine being on our roster isn't going to make us good enough to justify the risk. By the time the team is good enough to contend for the title, we won't even need him. And any money we pay him to sit on the bench, or nurse his knees, is just going to take away from what we can offer to Al Jefferson and the rest of the young guys.
That explains a lot. That trade really had me puzzled. I'm glad Ainge got rid of Walker knowing that he was hurt. Walker wouldn't have been able to give 100% and that would have only hurt the team more than having a Walekr at 40 or 50%. At least we don't have to deal with him now. Looking at Walker through a Heat fans eyes I'm very happy about this. Walker will be able to contribute at a position the Heat are weak at. But if he was in Boston it would hurt The Celtics because he would be hindering Jeffersons development and we would have to depend on him as much as we do Pierce.
