Tony Allen received interest from several teams, most notably the Oklahoma City Thunder (formerly the Seattle SuperSonics). Allen visited Thunder officials in Seattle and Oklahoma City. The Thunder, however, opted to sign Jazz restricted free agent guard C.J. Miles to a four-year, $25 million offer sheet. Miles averaged 5 points per game, 1.3 rebounds, and .9 assists last season while Allen averaged 6.6, 2.2, and 1.5. Allen eventually signed with the Celtics for 2 years at $5m ($2.5 per year). Miles is 21, Allen 26.
I remain impressed by the Celtics ability to run a tight ship, despite shouldering the burden of three huge salaries. The Thunder offered CJ Miles a contract twice as long as Tony Allen's for five times as much pay, even though many NBA observers would take Allen over Miles in a heartbeat.
Danny's also paying Kendrick Perkins on the cheap, three years for $12m. You can talk all you want about his chronic shoulder problems, but he played 78 out of 82 regular season games last year and 25 out of 26 playoff games.
That is borderline iron-man.
By contrast, Brad Miller is making $12m per season, while Erick Dampier is making $10m. Miller's offensive numbers are slightly better than Perkins, but Miller is weak on defense while Perkins, is, well, a beast. Dampier's overall numbers are about the same as Perkins'. Notably, both Miller and Dampier played fewer games than Perkins. Most Celtics fans, and, I would imagine, all Celtics players, would prefer the Beast over either of the other two.
Same for T.Allen over CJ Miles.
Another hats off to Mr. Ainge for keeping costs down on the balance of the 15-man roster.
3 comments:
Perk is one of the biggest bargains in the league. Look at what even servicable big men are getting paid around the league. Perk was crucial to this team last season. It may not have shown up in the box scores but, it sure showed up when he wasn't there for game 5 of the finals. Perk is so underrated and in my book, underpaid.
Yes, Danny does seem to get the most for his money. But then, so did Red before him.
I agree, FL, that Perk is underrated. I'm surprised to see people still disparage him, and by people I mean celtics fans who follow the team closely. His defense is great.
Obviously KG's greatness helped Perk but I think Perk's presence was a great boon to KG as well. I can't remember if it was a writer or KG himself, but somebody pointed out that KG never really had a big, physical player before to back him up (guys like Ervin Johnson, Joe Smith, Rasho, Kandi, Dean Garrett, I'm probably missing someone but none of them could take that physical heat off KG like Perk can).
As for Tony Allen, I'm hoping this is his year. I've been a believer, but he's got to prove it out there; we (and more importantly, Danny) can't wait forever.
I like Perk and all but I'm sorry but I don't think Perk is better than Brad Miller yet.
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