Crazy NBA Draft Night Moves.
June 30th 2007 04:15
Draft day came and went with a few surprises, such as China’s next big thing, Yi Jianlian being drafted by the Milwaukee Bucks after the player had snubbed off the city and Danny Ainge, head of basketball operations for the once storied franchise Boston Celtics making the perplexing choice of giving up a slew of decent youngsters for Ray Allen.
What on earth is Boston thinking? Picking up Ray Allen on paper seems like a good deal for the Celtics because he’ll be sharing space with another All-Star in Paul Pierce, but this is far from ideal for Boston. In fact they’re heading backwards in acquiring Jesus Shuttlesworth!
Ray-Ray comes off surgery for both of his ankles, while fast approaching 32 and is an All-Star back in the day, but no more. Allen would have been an excellent pick for a contending team that is one hot scorer away from an NBA title, not a team that is about as far away from a championship as Dick Cheney is to Allen Iverson.
Boston doesn’t immediately get better at all and in fact they gave up a good guard in Delonte West and the number five pick for what? A veteran that will be a short term fix to stop Paul Pierce from going postal.
This was a desperate move from Ainge and the Celtics front office that has turned the most
successful NBA franchise in history into the basketball version of Guantanamo Bay.
Let’s be fair though, Ray Allen isn’t a basketball hack, but he isn’t an elite NBA baller anymore either. With two bad wheels and the lack of capacity to play any type of defence after the ankle surgeries, Ray-Ray will either marginally improve the team in the dreadful Eastern Conference, or it will be more of the same.
The other confusing move for a franchise on draft night was that of the Bucks picking up Yi as mentioned at the start of this posting. Jianlian’s handlers wanted their man to go to a city that has a big Asian-American population and let’s just say Milwaukee isn’t that city. In fact we can safely assume that the consumption of chicken feet and shark fin soup isn’t very popular in Milwaukee at all.
In fact so desperate where Yi’s managers and the Chinese officials that he go to a larger market that they gave the Philadelphia 76ers, who had the 12th pick, got a look at their man, whilst completely ignoring Milwaukee. Perhaps most intriguing of all is that most of the Bucks management hadn’t even really laid eyes on the kid before and now run the risk of him never playing for their franchise.
Crazy.
Finally, Isiah Thomas and his horrendous Knicks made a somewhat good move by acquiring Zach Randolph from the Trail Blazers whilst getting rid of malcontent Steve Francis and his massive contract. The downside is that Randolph also has a history of being a head case, albeit a more talented one than the player formally known as The Franchise.
We may have spent most part of today’s post bagging out Ray Allen’s move to the Celtics, but it isn’t a diss on him but rather the franchise. Jesus Shuttlesworth is still a handy player with the sweetest stroke out there. Coincidentally enough today’s video is of Ray-Ray teaching us mere mortals how to hit a sweet jump shot.
What on earth is Boston thinking? Picking up Ray Allen on paper seems like a good deal for the Celtics because he’ll be sharing space with another All-Star in Paul Pierce, but this is far from ideal for Boston. In fact they’re heading backwards in acquiring Jesus Shuttlesworth!
Ray-Ray comes off surgery for both of his ankles, while fast approaching 32 and is an All-Star back in the day, but no more. Allen would have been an excellent pick for a contending team that is one hot scorer away from an NBA title, not a team that is about as far away from a championship as Dick Cheney is to Allen Iverson.
Boston doesn’t immediately get better at all and in fact they gave up a good guard in Delonte West and the number five pick for what? A veteran that will be a short term fix to stop Paul Pierce from going postal.
This was a desperate move from Ainge and the Celtics front office that has turned the most
Look out New York! Here comes Zach Randolph. (Image from cnnsi.com)
Let’s be fair though, Ray Allen isn’t a basketball hack, but he isn’t an elite NBA baller anymore either. With two bad wheels and the lack of capacity to play any type of defence after the ankle surgeries, Ray-Ray will either marginally improve the team in the dreadful Eastern Conference, or it will be more of the same.
The other confusing move for a franchise on draft night was that of the Bucks picking up Yi as mentioned at the start of this posting. Jianlian’s handlers wanted their man to go to a city that has a big Asian-American population and let’s just say Milwaukee isn’t that city. In fact we can safely assume that the consumption of chicken feet and shark fin soup isn’t very popular in Milwaukee at all.
In fact so desperate where Yi’s managers and the Chinese officials that he go to a larger market that they gave the Philadelphia 76ers, who had the 12th pick, got a look at their man, whilst completely ignoring Milwaukee. Perhaps most intriguing of all is that most of the Bucks management hadn’t even really laid eyes on the kid before and now run the risk of him never playing for their franchise.
Crazy.
Finally, Isiah Thomas and his horrendous Knicks made a somewhat good move by acquiring Zach Randolph from the Trail Blazers whilst getting rid of malcontent Steve Francis and his massive contract. The downside is that Randolph also has a history of being a head case, albeit a more talented one than the player formally known as The Franchise.
We may have spent most part of today’s post bagging out Ray Allen’s move to the Celtics, but it isn’t a diss on him but rather the franchise. Jesus Shuttlesworth is still a handy player with the sweetest stroke out there. Coincidentally enough today’s video is of Ray-Ray teaching us mere mortals how to hit a sweet jump shot.
| 64 |
| Vote |
Add To: 
subscribe to this blog
Comment by charles
ZCars
Ponderous
*hahahahaha*
It does seem a bizarre choice! Maybe they want him to find his feet in the NBA away from the pressures of playing for a club in a city where there is a large Asian population?
Charles.
Comment by Stanley
this pick is most confusing because it seems such a wasted one from the bucks. don't be surprised if yi is in different nba colours.