Finley A No Go For The Juice Man

Ladies and Gents the Juice Man....... I actually REALLY like Michael Finley.  He did something that not even the great Jason Kidd could do back in the mid-90s.  Finley helped turn around a struggling franchise.  Yes, you hear about Dirk Nowitski and some still remember Steve Nash, but Michael Finley is the forgotten man.   Finley got a Mavs organization in disarray.  The only other real quality player, until the other previously mentioned guys, was a guy named Nick Van Exel.  He was a great shooter and scorer.  He could drive to the hoop and he could even rebound if you asked that of him.  He played pretty good D on top of that.   But notice that I said all of this in past tense.  Finley is not the same player he was from 1996-2005.  He's been on a decline the last 4 years and this year in particular has been steep.  Finley has got a lot of minutes on those legs.  Infact, in 1999, he set a record for most average minutes played over the course of a season.  He didn't even miss a single game that year.   This year, however, has been particularly hard for the 36 year old G-F.  He's more of a forward now because he can't move with the guards anymore.  He just has trouble really moving.  His shooting percentage this season is the worst of his career.  Even his Ft% is way down.    Finley is simply at the end of the road, or at least, he could use a season off to recooperate from injuries and such.  The Celtics are banged up enough and you're going to bring in a veteran who probably doesn't have much left.  Danny Ainge made sweeping changes to the roster just before the trade deadline, and it's anybody's guess as to who really benefitted from these trades.  Once again, another drafted player Ainge selected in the 1st Rd (Giddens) gets traded after hardly being used.   If Ainge is signing Finley, then clearly he is in panic mode.  It just shows me, once again, Ainge has no idea what direction he wants to go in with a suddenly AGED ball club (just 3 seasons ago, they were the youngest in the NBA!)  Finley wouldn't bring up the average age and most likely would be a DNP-Coach's Decision almost nightly... even when the club is banged up.  What's the point?  Depth?  Leadership?  Because you're certainly not getting much skill out of it.  Hopefully the Celts are smart and will let Finley ride off into the sunset... like he should, of course.   ~Juice