Thats not to say that our bench is responsible for a potential 6 losses this season, but that our starters, given more time in certain games would have been able to pull them out…

for dpoy: i just want people outside of detroit to bring up sheed’s name. this award usually goes to weakside defenders with gaudy block stats. but i don’t know if there’s a better one-on-one defender in the game, including garnett, than rasheed wallace. and as far as communication and leading on the defensive end, i honestly believe there’s no one better. how many times have we seen sheed lock down a guy on d and even after a series of up-fakes and quick pivots, have sheed send his s*** right back? when i think of the tough 4 or 5s that we may run into in the playoffs, my next thought is always, “no worries. sheed’s got that under control.” the only difference to me of why garnett will get the dpoy is that he changed the mindset of an entire team.

I’ve always looked at the Garnett trade as something of a conspiracy. While I don’t doubt there was genuine interest in making some sort of deal between Boston and Minnesota, or Minnesota and anyone, I don’t think McHale or Ainge had the balls to pull this off on their own. Sure, Minnesota needed to trade Garnett, and Boston needed a big change, no one needed this trade more than David Stern himself.

In light of the worst playoff ratings in history– Stern was delivered a coup de grace by the Tim Donaghy gambling scandal. Take away the Boston Blockbuster and Stern would have been sitting in one steamy, stinky stew all season. How bad could it have gotten? Reasonably worse– ratings could have sunk further, fans could have turned away, this season could have gotten pretty ugly.

Enter the Big Ticket, Danny Ainge and Kevin Mchale, and Donaghy was largely forgotten. Sure, Boston and Minnesota needed a change, but no one needed this trade worse than David Stern.

It could be suggested that the NBA’s reputation needed this trade, not David Stern. I think there were other ways of solving it– while this is a pipe dream, a new commissioner would have been beautiful. Someone who would sell the NBA as a team sport, not a player sport…

Danny Ainge/Kevin McHale”

Lmao

Why should I give the award to Ainge? That was a Kevin McHale Green Light Special. I have no respect for under the table deals, and this was one of them. Ditto the Lakers, since it’s clear to me Jerry West left Memphis and pulled the strings for the Lakers behind the scene, using Kupchak like a puppet. You can’t give either executive the award for basically accepting gimme deals from idiot executives.

No, Joe fought the screams and hollers from media and fans, who called for this team to get blow’d up. Both Stuckey and Afflalo were hits. Ratliff was a way better last-second choice than Chris Webber ever would have been. Trading Mohammed’s noose of a contract for Primoz and Herrmann, then Primoz for Dixon? Outrageous! 59 wins, 2nd best in this conference, 2nd best in the NBA. No gimme deals done. It’s Joe’s.

But, yeah, Hedo’s a good choice.

Danny Ainge/Kevin McHale