Speaking of Pritchard, I bet he's smiling ear to ear after seeing what Jarryd Bayless did to the Nets tonight. Coming out party? As for this Al Jefferson vs. KG stuff. Those familiar with me here know I absolutely despite KG yet even I have to admit they don't win the title without him last year. Not only is he perfect fit (especially defensively) but he lit a fire under Pierce and all those other guys. They carried themselves with the type of swagger I would kill for the Rockets to have. You know, that "Bring it. You can't beat us" type of confidence and intimidation. Did McHale get ripped off? Hell no, the package he got for KG was more than adequate. Now Al Jefferson gets to be the perennial loser in Minnesota putting up monster numbers that people make excuses for. Call it a "changing of the guard", if you will. All the same, Jefferson isn't a "win now" player like KG is and despite the good numbers Jefferson could have put up on that hypothetical "Just add Ray Allen" Celtics team -- they aren't a championship team and they certainly aren't "better" either. I'll reserve my "wow" for a more ridiculous argument but this one is pretty damn close to warranting it.
I myself live in boston now so i follow the celtics a ton, that said KG is a superior defender but the celtics were awful in 06-07, in 07-08 al jefferson,rondo and perkins would have matured another year, ray allen would've added outside scoring,they added posey which was huge, they added a healthy tony allen he missed most of 06, they added glen davis and pj brown, and ryan gomes if he werent traded incase you havent noticed he has averaged over 10 ppg the last 3 years so KG alone did not propel them So truly it isnt as wow as you say, it was a pretty damn even trade and the east was weak and im telling you me and plenty of friends up here wish we still had Al,ryan,and gerald. Somewhere down the road Im sure sebastian will be good too. KG is great but Al is right there with him and if we had al last year same rresult, guaranteed, pierce doesnt need anyone to light a fire he just needed to be on a good team.
Jordan couldn't take that Minnesota cast to the playoffs, though they have been playing well of late, thanks to Foye. I think the bashing of AJ on the part of Celtics fans who compare him to Shareef Abdur-Rahim ("he's a loser who only pads his stats!") is just blind hate.
