Potential Big Men For the Celtics

Posted on March 21, 2012 by leibo4

After the season ending injuries to Chris Wilcox (heart) and Jermaine O’Neal (wrist), the Celtics are in desperate need for another big man. Kevin Garnett and Brandon Bass have been playing well as of late, but the Celtics need to find depth for the two injury-prone big men. People were split whether or not Danny Ainge should have made a move for a player during the trade deadline, but I am personally happy that he didn’t. These players are on the Celtics radar for late season pick-ups before the deadline this Friday.

Josh Powell

C – 6’9” – 240 lbs. – 29 years old – North Carolina State

The well-travelled Powell has played for six teams in six seasons in the NBA, the last coming with the Hawks last season. John Hollinger says that he is an effective pick-and-pop forward much similar to Brandon Bass. On shots over 15 feet he shot 43% for the season. He is a good team defender who would fit well with the Celtics but can be overmatched in one-on-one situations. Powell had the second-worst turnover ratio for power forwards. He does not get steals or blocks as he ranks in the bottom five for both categories. He is not a bad rebounder and would definitely help the Celtics on the glass for the rest of the season.

Career Stats (per game)

MIN

FG%

FT%

REB

AST

BLK

STL

PTS

315

12.5

.439

.743

1.1

1.9

3.0

0.5

0.2

0.8

3.9

Powell is an inexpensive player who fits into the regular offense with his pick-and-pop ability. He also helps with the interior rebounding and the Celtics mantra of team defense. While his athleticism is not great, he will be able to get up and down the court with Rondo.

Ronny Turiaf

C – 6’10 – 245 lbs. – 29 years old – Gonzaga

It has been a tough season for Turiaf as he has only played four games due to a broken hand suffered on New Year’s Day. He was thrown into the Nuggets – Wizards trade to balance out the deal. He was then cut to make room Wilson Chandler who came back from China to resign with the Nuggets.

Turiaf is a high energy player who is a great defensive player and hustles all around the court. He like any other Celtics big man has injury problems and struggles with rebounding. He ranked 63^rd out of 67 centers in rebound rate last season. He is extremely unselfish and is known as a one of the best big man passers in the game. While he does not shoot that often, he shoots around 40% from 10 feet or more. Defensively he is the polar opposite of Powell as he ranks high in both blocks and steals per minute but struggles with rebounding.

Career Stats (per game)

MIN

FG%

FT%

REB

AST

BLK

STL

PTS

362

17.9

.529

.680

1.1

2.7

3.8

2.7

1.4

0.8

5.2

Turiaf would obviously be help for the Celtics as he would provide another body that can space the floor. His passing and intensity would help, but he seems a little too similar to the other players the Celtics have signed so far. He also wants a good contract and guaranteed playing time.

Ryan Hollins

C – 7’0” – 240 lbs. – 27 Years Old – UCLA

Hollins is the most interesting player on here. He would be great in the open floor with Rondo as he stands 7 feet tall and can jump out of a building. But as it is with every big man on the market, he is a terrible rebounder. His rebounding stats are worse every other frontcourt player other than Andrea Bargani and Brian Cardinal. Per 40 minutes played, he would only average 6.6 rebounds. Rondo standing a full foot shorter averages 5 per 40 minutes. He’s not too bad of a pick and roll man, and also he is an above average defender who can go out and hedge against pick and rolls with his athleticism.

Career Stats (per game)

MIN

FG%

FT%

REB

AST

BLK

STL

PTS

299

13.1

.554

.658

1.3

2.2

4.2

It would be an interesting signing and definitely fun to watch Hollins run up and down the floor with Rondo. But he would have to work on his rebounding. The Celtics get outrebounded almost every game; this would add another 7 footer who doesn’t like to rebound. I wouldn’t hate the move, but not going to be the difference for the C’s.

Kyrylo Fesenko

C – 7’1” – 280 lbs. – 25 Years Old – No College

Honestly, I haven’t figured out why the Celtics haven’t made a move for Fesenko. I love everything about him as a backup center. He struggles with foul trouble and isn’t the greatest offensive player (or really average player for that matter), but he brings size and defense to the Celtics that hasn’t been seen since we sent Perk to Oklahoma City. John Hollinger says that Fesenko’s defensive stats were the best kept secret in the NBA. Last season, the Jazz were almost 12 points better per 100 possessions with Fesenko on the floor.

Career Stats (per game)

MIN

FG%

FT%

REB

AST

BLK

STL

PTS

132

8.3

.498

.398

1.3

2.3

I would love for the Celtics to add Fesenko. Teams have been playing just the tip with him this whole season and almost signing him, but I would love for the Celtics to give him a shot. He’s not afraid to do the dirty work and right now, we need a guy who can just do that. KG needs a guy to back up his talk like Perk used to. I want Fesenko on the Celtics. Obviously his offensive game is horrible (see free throw percentage) but can he be much worse than Shaq was with no legs last season?

Other Possibilities

Boris Diaw – Overweight, great passer, who looks like he is going to sign with either the Spurs or the Dallas Mavericks. The Celtics aren’t a great fit as Diaw’s skill set doesn’t fit too much with their plans.

Chris Kaman – Everyone thought that Kaman would be bought out and heavily pursued by both the Heat and the Celtics. But Kaman is still on the Hornets and actually had 20 points with the game winning shot against the Nets. It’s looking more and more like he is going to stay with the Hornets for the remainder of the season.

In My Opinion

The best two moves for the Celtics would be to sign Turiaf and Fesenko. Hollins isn’t a bad fit either as he would get up and down the court with Rondo, but Turiaf and Fesenko are two defensive minded players who will set picks for Ray and Paul and bring some toughness back to the Celtics. The Celtics need to reestablish their identity and these two signings would be the beginning to bringing back the toughness to the Celtics.

March Madness Quick Facts

Posted on March 21, 2012 by jtulz07

With the Sweet Sixteen tipping off tomorrow, and our college writer on spring break, I figured I’d share this NCAA tourney infograph from CSB Sports. Enjoy.

A New Savior in Denver

Posted on March 20, 2012 by jtulz07

In the past six months the sports world has been overwhelmed with two triumphant stories of individual athletes who defied the odds. The most notable coming from the NFL in Tim Tebow and most recently in the NBA with Jeremy Lin. Each has caused a media frenzy that I don’t think any of us have seen before. Tebow Mania, Bronco’s Savior, Linsanity, Super Lintendo. The list of puns and corny titles go on. But the two “Cinderella” stories have since died down. We all know what happened to Tebow when he stepped foot on the turf at Gillette Stadium in the playoffs and the hype around Jeremy Lin has since settled down, as the Knicks have been on a skid. But once again, Tebow finds himself in the headlines in a much different way.

At the end of the Bronco’s season, John Elway announced that Tebow would be the team’s starting QB heading into next year. Sorry Timmy, but I don’t exactly see that happening any more. With Peyton Manning now heading to Denver, I think even Tebow knew to start packing his bags. In a way, you gotta feel bad for the guy. Then again, it’s pretty funny. Tebow spent all season winning games in the most unlikely ways, gaining an immense fan base in no time, and redefining the phrase “becoming a household name”. But it has to be rough with all the progress he’s made and what he did for the Denver organization to be put in a position to expectedly get ousted in a heartbeat by Manning. Although painful, I’m sure Tebow won’t even argue with his replacement, I mean who could? Don’t get me wrong, I can’t hate on Tebow. He’s clearly a good guy and he showed he could win (some games) but the Pat’s certainly put him in his place in the playoffs, so no hard feelings. Nothing definite has happened with his place in Denver or potential trade, but I’m sure once things begin panning out as to where he will end up, Tebow will once again be the sole topic of ESPN.

Snowman

Posted on March 20, 2012 by amazze

The B’s put an absolute beatdown on the Toronto Maple Leafs last night in more ways than one. Four goals in the first, three in the second and one in the third equaled a snowman and showed the fans that this team may have just got its offense clicking again. Over the last few games each line has been playing well. They are causing turnovers, supporting the puck, and capitalizing on the other team’s mistakes by putting the puck in the net. Rolston is starting to get in sync with Big Z at the point on the powerplay and it is paying dividends. Pouliot and Caron have been playing their asses off lately and both have been showing up on score sheet as a result.

In addition to the scoreboard beatdown, Milan Lucic handed old sparring partner Mike Komisarek one uppercut after another in an all too familiar fashion. It was good to see that 6’4” 240lbs Komisarek is still as soft as he was when he was with Montreal.

Let’s see if the Bruins can keep this thing rolling. Tim Thomas is playing with confidence, the offense may have just lit a spark under itself, and they have a little motivation now with Ottawa seriously in the picture (a wake up call when they passed the Bruins in the standings).

Gronk’s Going Viral! (Again)

Posted on March 9, 2012 by christoph131

For those of you who haven’t seen it yet, Patriots star Tight End Rob Gronkowski has made a YouTube video to make his case for why he should be on the cover of Madden 2013. I guess he couldn’t care less about the Madden curse.. He is going up against one player from every other team, but also going up against Wes Welker. Anyways, this video is hilarious and just describes Gronk in full. Take a look!

Finally…Center Grades

Posted on March 8, 2012 by leibo4

Player	Points	Rebounds	Assists	Blocks	Steals	+/-	PER
Kevin Garnett	15.1	8.3	2.6	1.12	.94	+136	20.4

Up until last week, KG would have been placed with the power forwards, but with the injury to Jermaine O’Neal, KG has been moved to center and thrived. KG doesn’t have the quickness that he used to in his prime but understands maybe better than anyone else in the NBA how to use his body defensively and to be in the right position.

Positives: By all accounts KG, has not Pierce or Rondo has been the Celtics best player this season. He has the highest PER on the team as well as the best +/-. As I said up above, KG just understands the game. He is still quicker than most centers and gets to good position defensively and the five game win streak was correlated to KG being switched to center. His jumper from outside is still pure as ever. He stretches the floor just like Bass does, and allows room for Rondo, Ray, and Paul to drive the lane. He is still the heart of the Celtics and he brings the intensity to every single game. Last season according to Synergy, KG was the second best defensive power forward in the game, behind Taj Gibson.

Negatives: He has lost the quickness and the ability to jump that he had as a youngster and it shows on both the offensive and defensive ends of the floor. Quicker players just go right by him as he helplessly looks on. Also, KG doesn’t seem to want or feel the need to box out. If he stuck a body on some players he would have saved at least 30 offensive rebounds this season for the Celtics. His knees are also a constant worry for the Celtics and his minutes need to be monitored.

Grade: B+

Player	Points	Rebounds	Assists	Blocks	Steals	+/-	PER
Jermaine O’Neal	5.0	5.4	.4	1.72	.32	+26	9.7

Positives: Jermaine O’Neal is the rare NBA player who has completely transformed his game. Long gone is the high-flying center that would sky for dunks on one end and have highlight reel blocks on the other. He still blocks shots now, but it is completely due to his great positioning and timing instead of athletic ability. He is also the rare player who has the ability to not only block shots, but be in position to take charges. Before his injury Jermaine was up and away leading the NBA in charges taken this year. He is also one of the Celtics best rebounders and provides much needed big man depth for the team.

Negatives: His offensive game has much to be desired. He has a decent 10-15 foot jumper, but outside of that, does not bring much else to the table. He is constantly hurt and his latest wrist injury, may keep him out for the rest of the season. Poor guy, because his body just doesn’t seem to be able to hold up anymore. On top of the wrist, his knees are farther gone than KG’s.

Due to the uncertainty with his wrist for the rest of the season. The Celtics may look to cut Jermaine O’Neal to open up space to sign another big man for the playoff run. They also were looking to trade his expiring contract. While I love Jermaine and his passion, I am not sure that the Celtics are going to have him on the roster past this season.

Jermaine O’Neal Update

Grade: C+

Player	Points	Rebounds	Assists	Blocks	Steals	+/-	PER
Greg Stiemsma	1.7	2.3	.3	.89	.25	-82	11.1

Positives: The steamer has been a fun player to watch this year. Burdened with big expectations after a big preseason, Stiemsma has played well in some situations and looked lost in others. He is averaging almost a block every 9 minutes and has shown great defensive ability. He also has a better than expected 10-15 foot jump shot that he’ll hit every once in a while.

Negatives: He is not always ready to play and will sometimes just look lost or confused out there. He takes chances defensively going for the big block and can look silly out there. Other than a few jumpers, he is extremely limited offensively and has terrible hands. You gotta love the steamer though.

Grade: C

Power Forward Grades

Small Forward Grades

Shooting Guard Grades

Point Guard Grades

Throwback Thursday

Posted on March 8, 2012 by jtulz07

Here’s a new addition to the Boston Sports Blog…Throwback Thursdays. Each Thursday we’ll post a few historic events in Boston sports or other interesting events that occurred at this time years ago. Enjoy.

1939 – Boston Bruins won the Prince of Wales Trophy, clinching the NHL regular season championship. Marked the first time the trophy was awarded for this reason.

1954 – NBA raised the basket from 10 ft to 12 ft for an exhibition game between the Minneapolis Lakers and the Milwaukee Hawks.

1955 – Baseball commissioner Ford Frick said that he was in favor of legalizing the classic spitball.

1982 – The NCAA college basketball tournament selections were televised for the first time.

1995 – Dominique Wilkins of the Boston Celtics became the ninth NBA player to achieve 25,000 career points.

And why not use this post to give a little old school tribute to the B’s in the video below.

76er’s Blow Out C’s

Posted on March 8, 2012 by leibo4

After winning five in a row after the Celtics didn’t seem to show up at all against the 76er’s. The Celtics were coming off two overtime games in a row and it clearly showed against the 76er’s. After starting out the game down 14-11. The 76er’s opened up the game with a 30-10 run off of turnovers and bad transition defense by the Celtics. During the run the Celtics shot 4-27 from the floor and were just missing easy open jumpers. The 76er’s were led by Evan Turner who turned his first start into 26 points on 11-19 shooting. He also grabbed 8 defensive rebounds and was huge in starting fast break after fast break for the 76er’s who ran the Celtics into the ground. The rest of the scoring for the 76ers was pretty even as Elton Brand had 18 and Lou Williams had 15.

The Celtics were led by Pierce with 16 and Garnett with 12, honestly not much to talk about the Celtics tonight. The offense was some of the worst that I had seen in the time with the big 3. The 33 first half points were the least, since Danny Ainge traded for Garnett and Ray Allen. I’m going to attribute this loss to some old legs playing a back-to-back after an overtime game.

The Celtics play the Blazers Friday night at the Garden at 7:30.

Extra Notes:

Celtics bench got a lot of play tonight, only Marquis Daniels played under 13 minutes for the bench as Doc played all 13 players; Ray Allen was 0-5 from the field and had his only 2 points from the line; Celtics only had 11 turnovers overall most of them coming during the run, and then 2 more by Marquis late; Tony Battie and Craig Brackins also started but only played 15 minutes total.

Avery Bradley Alert:

Avery had one big highlight of the night for the Celtics, stuffing Jrue Holiday’s last second shot to the ground and leading a fast break which ended up in the hands of Brandon Bass for the dunk. Other than that he was pretty quiet from the field shooting 2-3 and making both of his free throws for 6 points on the night. Lou Williams did put a fade away three right in Avery’s eye; I’m not sure how he could have played better defense, pretty great shot by Williams.

Can UConn Strike Twice?

Posted on March 8, 2012 by christoph131

Since UConn has been my favorite team since I can remember, I figured it would be a good idea to write an article since everyone is talking about their back-to-back wins, just as they did last year en route to a national championship. They ran over Depaul, which they should every day of the week, and then barely snuck by West Virginia yesterday in overtime. This was due largely in part to Shabazz Napier’s 26 points and Jeremy Lamb’s 22 points. Luckily for the Huskies, WVU only shot 34.7% from the field. They did, however, out-rebound UConn 40-24.

Next up is their toughest test. They will be taking on #1 in the Big East Syracuse. Syracuse has been chosen by many, including me, to win the Final Four. As much as I do not think UConn can beat the Orange, I will not count them out completely because I began to do that last year and we all know how that turned out. At the beginning of February, UConn got blown out of the water by them 85-67. However, by the end of the month, they only lost to them 71-69. I think it is possible for them to stir up an upset but is going to be tough. I mean this is the same team who has lost against Providence and Rutgers, both awful teams. Maybe we will be lucky enough to see another 5 overtime game like last season. Unfortunately, the Huskies are missing one key component from last year’s team—Kemba Walker.

Peyton Manning Press Conference Reaction

Posted on March 7, 2012 by leibo4

LeBron James take notes, Peyton Manning just showed you how to make yourself a legend in a place after your gone. He left with his head held high, while reminiscing on all of the good times he had with the Colts and Irsay. Instead of throwing the Colts organization under the bus, Manning went out of his way to praise the Colts, Irsay.

The Colts keep saying they want the best for Peyton. They are saying that they are doing a favor for Peyton by releasing him because they didn’t have the pieces that they had in 1998. I mean if they had the same pieces in 1998, would they have cut Peyton then to save him the trouble. There not doing it for the cap, there not doing it because Andrew Luck is the first pick of the draft, but because they want what is best for Peyton. Yeah right.

To me Irsay is the quintessential girl who says one thing to your face, and then would go behind your back to say things to other people or in this case the media. After all that Irsay has said, I found it ridiculous that he started crying and said it was over. To me it seemed like a total PR move, people were offended at the way the Colts had been treating Peyton so far and everything about the conference from the Colts point of view went perfect. During the question and answer section, Irsay stood next to Manning awkwardly while Manning was asked questions. It was awkward and only served the purpose to show how sad that Irsay looked.

Back to Peyton, I couldn’t have been more impressed than he left me. There’s many ways that Peyton could have handled it, but he carried it with class and a level of sophistication rarely seen any more in sports. Peyton said in the press conference “the contract and the money were never a factor”, which was not true at all. The Colts by doing this today avoid paying 28 million bonus. Within the next few moments, Irsay was talking about how it would save the Colts cap room.

The biggest thing was the way that Peyton connected with his fans. He mentioned how he is separated from the Colts but not from the great city of Indianapolis. He told them how he loved being their quarterback. There was no mention of taking his talents anywhere. He’s not going to South Beach; he is going to keep working out in Indianapolis. He even went to say that he had not been able to think about playing for another team yet. He showed the blueprint on how to leave a team, it was the opposite of the decision, maybe because it was made for him, but the openness and vulnerability shown was good to see in the business-driven world of sports.

How Not to Treat a Legend