Ainge may not be able to wiggle out of this

There have been two problems, both involving veterans. After receiving the big money, Mark Blount has been about 60 percent of the Mark Blount of a year ago. And then there was the resident star, who has played much of the season in a pout and who simply has not been willing to give his full support to the new way of doing things.

Is the team talented? Yes. Is the team mentally fragile? Yes. Is the team maddeningly inconsistent? Yes. But is the team essentially lovable and rootable? Oh, yes, absolutely.

So into this you bring Antoine Walker? I don't get it.

With this move, Antoine becomes a trivia item. Baseball buffs know that a catcher named Harry Chiti was once traded for a player to be named later. When the season was over, guess who the player to be named later was? Harry Chiti. Well, Antoine now falls into an auxiliary category. Not even a year and a half ago, Antoine Walker was the central figure in a trade with the Dallas Mavericks. Now he's boomeranged his way back to Boston. What gives?

If you recall, Ainge had a lot to say when he traded Antoine. The primary issue was supposed to be money. Antoine was looking for a maximum contract and the new director of basketball operations didn't think he was worth it. But it didn't end there. Ainge had made it clear when he was still broadcasting games for a living that he had no use for Antoine's basic game.

Pardon me, but has that game changed since we last saw him?

He is taking fewer threes, which is a good thing. They also say he has cut down on the Antoine wiggles, which would be even better. We can verify the 3-pointer thing by looking at the stat sheet. We'll have to accept the anecdotal evidence about the wiggles since the league hasn't allowed the Hawks anywhere near a national television crew this season.