Tuesday, June 26, 2007

Jermaine O'Neal Does Not Play Basketball as Frequently as He Ought To


This is sort of just a follow-up to Tim's previous post, though my thoughts are lengthy enough that submitting it in "Comment" form wouldn't make much sense. So as Tim notes, ESPN is abuzz with rumors of a convoluted four-team trade (really, in the NBA is there any other kind?) that'd send KG to LA, Jermaine O'Neal to Boston and a whole bunch of shit a whole bunch of other places as well. Rumor has the C's giving up the #5, Theo's contract, Gerald and/or Telfair to Minnesota (or maybe some of them somewhere else... who fucking knows).

In all honesty, I'm not a Jermaine O'Neal fan. Back in 2003, when the C's beat the Pacers in the first round of the playoffs, he struck me as a bit of a bitch, and in 2004 when the Pacers swept us he managed to strike me as even more of one. He fought like a little girl in saddle shoes during the Malice in the Palace, and I always thought that the way he let Ron-Ron hijack that team spoke volumes about his lack of leadership and charisma. But the biggest problem is his utter lack of durability. Do you know how many times in his (already 11-year!) career Jermaine O'Neal has played in all 82 games? The answer is none: none times. In fact, for the last three seasons, JO's games played totals look like this: 44, 51, 69. According to the invaluable Windows calculator, that averages out to less than 55 games a season during that span. So if Jermaine comes to Boston, prepare yourself to see him frequently resembling the photo above (post-dress code, of course).

I feel somewhat odd advocating for the Celtics to keep Gerald Green, since I've spent so much time joyfully slamming him in this space, but giving up both the #5 and Gerald for O'Neal strikes me as maybe a little too much. I don't care too much about Ratliff's contract--as mentioned before, it exists for situations like these--and I would trade Telfair for a pair of his cousin's low-priced sneakers at this point. And I'd feel a lot better about giving up Gerald if we could at least bleed another first-round pick out of this deal, but that's probably unlikely. Anyways, these are my hesitations. You may now re-commence the eternal Jeff Green-Corey Brewer debate.

2 comments:

Tim Grimes said...

chad ford somehow suggests we try to get odom and bynum without having to give up either pierce or jefferson. i don't see how that's possible, and needless to say would do it in a heartbeat. also julian wright is (perhaps) dropping....wild times.

Anonymous said...

In regards to Tim's comment, I thought about dropping Indiana out of the 4-way deal last night. That way, we would still send Theo, the #5, Gerald and Ba$$y to Minnesota, KG and Hudson still go to LA and then instead of having Bynum and Odom go to Indiana, they would come to Boston.

Then I wake up and read ESPN.com and see that Chad Ford thought the same thing. I think that's the best move we could make other than just getting KG without having to give up Al Jefferson.

To pair Bynum and Jefferson together for years would be huge for the Celtics and having Pierce and Odom would be a nice duo. To send out a lineup of Rondo, Pierce, Odom, Jefferson and Bynum would be a big lineup and I'm not sure how many teams could match up to that.

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