Celtics Player Preview: Paul Pierce

Posted on September 27, 2012 by christoph131

Next up for our player preview is Paul Pierce.

Brandon Bass | Courtney Lee | Paul Pierce

Our captain has been around for 14 years, and stuck with the team even when we sucked. Nicknamed The Truth, Pierce is still one of the most clutch players in the league and one of the best players in Celtics history, and that’s saying a lot. Bleacher Report came out with the all-time best Celtics and made a starting line up. Pierce was chosen for this accolade along with Bill Russell (11 titles), Bob Cousy (6 titles), John Havlicek (8 titles), and Larry Bird (3 titles). Other than the fact that he only has 1 title, Pierce deserves to be up here, and is behind only Havlicek on the scoring list all time. He is still about 4,000 points behind him, though.

Pierce was recently ranked as the 29th best player in the NBA. Pierce’s assists and points numbers have gone up last season compared to what they were in the past few seasons.

He is still one of the best players on this team and some say this may be his last season in green, but I’m willing to bet that we re-sign him, and he deserves it after all that he has done for the organization. He deserves, more than anyone, to retire as a Celtic, and Danny Ainge will most certainly feel the same way. His number 34 will be retired in no time. His stats are below, but i only put the last few seasons, since the former big 3 was formed and he was forced to take on a smaller role.

SEASON	TEAM	GP	GS	MIN	FG%	3P%	FT%	OR	DR	REB	AST	BLK	STL	PTS
’07-’08	BOS	80	80	35.9	0.464	0.392	0.843	0.7	4.5	5.2	4.5	0.5	1.3	19.6
’08-’09	BOS	81	81	37.5	0.457	0.391	0.83	0.7	5	5.7	3.6	0.3	1	20.5
’09-’10	BOS	71	71	34	0.472	0.414	0.852	0.6	3.8	4.3	3.1	0.4	1.2	18.3
’10-’11	BOS	80	80	34.7	0.497	0.374	0.86	0.4	5	5.4	3.3	0.6	1	18.9
’11-’12	BOS	61	61	34	0.443	0.366	0.852	0.6	4.6	5.2	4.5	0.4	1.1	19.4

Celtics Player Preview: Courtney Lee

Posted on September 26, 2012 by christoph131

Next up on the list of starters is Courtney Lee. Although he is a great player, it is expected that when Avery Bradley comes back in late December-early January (hopefully), he will take back his role that he beat Ray Allen out for last season. But you can still expect a lot of minutes off the bench for Lee.

Brandon Bass | Courtney Lee

Courtney was recently ranked as the #117 best player in the league (Bradley was 106). Lee is best known for his tenacious defense which should make the duo of him and Rondo tough to beat. He will be a good match up on Dwayne Wade since we will not have Avery to shut him down like he did last season.

At the bottom I have listed his stats for his 4 years in the NBA since he left Western Kentucky. He averages exactly 10 PPG in his career and can score off the dribble. He needs a little bit of practice distributing the ball, but that should be easy considering he is now on a great looking team, not the Houston Rockets. I think he will score in the double digits again this season and will be a go-to defender in big games. Look for him to be a big factor on this team now that Ray Allen is gone.

SEASON	TEAM	GP	GS	MIN	3P%	FT%	OR	DR	REB	AST	BLK	STL	PTS
’08-’09	ORL	77	42	25.2	0.404	0.83	0.2	2.1	2.3	1.2	0.2	1	8.4
’09-’10	NJ	71	66	33.5	0.338	0.869	0.9	2.7	3.5	1.7	0.3	1.3	12.5
’10-’11	HOU	81	1	21.3	0.408	0.792	0.6	2	2.6	1.2	0.2	0.7	8.3
’11-’12	HOU	58	26	30.3	0.401	0.826	0.5	2.3	2.7	1.5	0.4	1.2	11.4

Celtics Player Preview: Brandon Bass

Posted on September 26, 2012 by christoph131

Since the Celtics begin camp on Friday, I thought we’d take a look at each of the projected starters that should be suiting up for the Green and White this season. First, we will start with the Power Forward position: Brandon Bass.

Brandon Bass had a breakthrough season for the Celtics in 2011. Danny Ainge went outside the box and traded Glen Davis. Although many people barely heard of Bass prior to the trade with Orlando, he quickly made a name for himself on the Celts. I think it was the most underrated move we made last season.

John Hollinger of ESPN has predicted that he will score 15.7 PPG and 7.8 RPG. He was recently ranked as the 97th best player in the NBA.

Below are Bass’ stats for his 7 seasons in the NBA. Brandon averaged the most points, rebounds, assist, steals, blocks, and minutes played of his career.

SEASON	TEAM	GP	GS	MIN	FT%	OR	DR	REB	AST	BLK	STL	PTS
’05-’06	NO	29	1	9.2	0.632	0.6	1.7	2.3	0.1	0.2	0.1	2.3
’06-’07	NO	21	3	7.7	0.75	0.6	1.4	2	0.1	0.1	0.1	2
’07-’08	DAL	79	1	19.7	0.822	1.5	2.9	4.4	0.7	0.6	0.3	8.3
’08-’09	DAL	81	0	19.4	0.867	1.6	2.9	4.5	0.5	0.7	0.3	8.5
’09-’10	ORL	50	3	13	0.825	1.1	1.5	2.6	0.4	0.5	0.2	5.8
’10-’11	ORL	76	51	26.1	0.815	1.8	3.8	5.6	0.8	0.7	0.4	11.2
’11-’12	BOS	59	39	31.7	0.81	1.6	4.6	6.2	0.9	0.9	0.6	12.5

Trip In The Time Machine

Posted on September 6, 2012 by christoph131

Some people are still getting rich off of the merger that happened in 1976. For those of you who don’t know, this was the year that the ABA merged with the NBA. While many teams from the ABA folded, four teams moved on: Nets, Nuggets, Spurs, and Pacers. (See more on this subject in the movie Semi-Pro)

While most people know this happened they may not know the details. In 1970, when the merger began to be hyped up, there was an antitrust lawsuit challenging the NBA, filed by St. Louis Spirits’ owners Ozzie and Dan Silna (pictured below). They won the case, by the time the merger happened, because the judge decided that they were unfairly left out of the new league. That judge passed away last year.

The deal states that the brothers will make money off network television deals for those 4 teams. For all of you out there working, you will be happy to know that they sit around and have compiled over $240 million over the past 36 years. They are now bringing the case back up to a new judge saying that the NBA should have to pay them for international deals as well. The NBA has never failed to pay them, they put it in their budget each year, and this pisses off the owners for obvious reasons. What do you think?

NBA Round Up

Posted on July 17, 2012 by christoph131

Jeremy Lin

The Knicks have until 11:59 tonight to match the Rockets offer to new sensation Jeremy Lin. Many fans would probably say that New York would be crazy not to sign Lin after last season, but there’s a lot more to the story. They were ready to match the $25.1 million offer until they saw that the third year offer was worth $14.8 million. This would mean that they would have been over the line for the luxury tax and would have to pay an excess of $43 million dollars for the 2014-15 season. This isn’t bad for Lin seeing as he made under $800k last year.

The Knicks have now signed Raymond Felton who was part of a deal that brought Carmelo Anthony to New York just a few seasons ago. So it seems as though Lin will be going back to the team that only kept him around for two weeks of training camp last season.

Howard talks Getting Annoying

There has been speculation that Dwight Howard’s agent and the Lakers have been talking about a trade that would bring the big man to Los Angeles, while Andrew Bynum goes to Houston, and Orlando gets some young players and picks. However, Howard said that he would only sign with the Nets for a long term contract, so that might change the Lakers minds.

Jason Kidd fitting in in The Big Apple

After leaving Dallas where he could probably drive around in fields and not be seen, Jason Kidd has been charged with refusing a breathalyzer at the scene of a crash and failure to stop, just days after being traded to the New York Knicks. His escalade hit a telephone pole and ended up in the woods. Probably should have called for a cab and paid the 10 bucks after you just inked a deal for over $10 million.

The Mavericks Sign Mayo

O.J. Mayo, who averaged 12.6 PPG off the bench last season with the Grizzlies, has signed a contract with the Mavs. He will most likely be the starting Shooting Guard for them, seeing as he averaged over 17 points in both seasons as a starter before moving to the bench the last two seasons. If not, he can have Jason Terry’s old role as the sixth man now that Terry has signed with the Celtics.

Piggyback Anyone??

Posted on February 17, 2012 by christoph131

At Century High School in North Dakota last week, plenty of fans were in attendance to watch their schools’ basketball teams go at it. One man, who is 5’8 240 pounds, named Sherwin Shayegan, decided to get a little more into the game. He showed up in a full uniform of the visiting team, acted like he was handicapped, and got water for the team. He even began to give the players back massages.

After the game was over, Sherwin went out to celebrate with the team and asked for a piggyback ride. One player actually gave him one! In fact, this is not his first rodeo (no pun intended). He is known as the “Piggyback Bandit”. His piggyback rides can be traced back to 2008 and have happened in Washington, Oregon, Montana, North Dakota, and Minnesota. How has he not gotten in trouble yet?

He has even tried to pay for piggyback rides too. He gets close to them by playing it off like he has an illness, writing term papers, acting team manager, and even just used the crowd to blend in as an every day fan.

Celtics Bulls Preview

Posted on February 16, 2012 by leibo4

The Celtics (15-13) look to take on the Chicago Bulls (24-7) in a rematch of last Sunday where the Celtics came on top 95-91. The Celtics are coming off of a surprising loss to the Detroit Pistons last night while the Bulls are coming off of an easy win over the Sacramento Kings. The Bulls are likely to be without both Richard Hamilton and Derrick Rose. Rose has missed the last four games with a back injury. With Derrick Rose out, C.J. Watson, Carlos Boozer, Joakim Noah, and Luol Deng have all taken over bigger scoring roles. The Bulls are 6-2 this season when Derrick Rose does not play. For the Celtics, Kevin Garnett, Mickael Pietrus, and Jermaine O’Neal are all day-to-day, while Brandon Bass is out until after the All-Star break with swelling in his knee. Both Pietrus and O’Neal played last night. Kevin Garnett sat out last night with a hip flexor, although Doc did say that he looked great in the morning shootaround. The Celtics are 4-5 on the road this season while the Bulls are 10-1 at home. If the Celtics are to win, expect Rondo to have another big night. He had 35 and 32 points in the last two games while pushing the pace for the Celtics to create somewhat of a new identity for the team.

Tune in at 8:00 tonight on TNT to watch the Celts take on the Bulls.

Lin It to Win It

Posted on February 16, 2012 by jtulz07

Linsanity is sweeping the nation, no doubt about it. Cliche “Lin” words aside, us here in Boston find ourselves with a soft spot for this guy from the Knicks. Who doesn’t love an underdog story? Even Doc Rivers had kind words for Lin, stating, “It’s a good thing; It’s a good lesson for everyone: If you want some attention, go win.”

Nons wrote an article on Lin yesterday (I know, surprise right?) titled “A New Tebow”, although he never really compared the two. But that’s my point. They shouldn’t be compared. They’re two completely different stories. The sole thing they have in common is that the media is going crazy over them, making them the topic of conversation every three minutes on every sports network in the country. Tebow won two national championships in college. Lin barely made the Harvard squad. Tebow’s form and mechanics in pretty much every aspect of the quarterback position have been in question from day one of his professional career, probably even prior. Lin has a mixture of speed, knowledge, and a court vision that makes him a great point guard. Not to mention a jumper that makes him a threat from the outside, leaving defenders on their toes at all times. You don’t see anyone complimenting Tebow on his skill set at the QB spot. Before last week, no one knew who Lin was. A true underdog. Now, he’s making national, even global headlines in the NBA. As a Boston fan I’m eager to see Lin’s progress moving forward against the likes of Miami and Chicago. And you might want to mark down March 4th on your calendar. Lin and the Knicks are shipping up to Boston.

A Familiar Sight

Posted on February 14, 2012 by christoph131

It’s great for me to watch the Lakers falling apart at the seams. Sure, the Celtics have been criticized of being in the same boat, but you can be assured that it has nothing to do with the players that are under Doc Rivers’ watch. Metta World Peace, formerly Ron Artest, is causing quite a panic in the locker room for the LA Lakers. He is shooting and scoring career lows, and is wondering why he is getting less playing time. Are you serious? It’s cause you suck and you have the worst name known to man.

Three Laker players who wanted to remain anonymous stated their displeasure with him already. They all seem to agree that without him there, they would be a much better team. I mean, he is even dissing his new coach Mike Brown. Give it a few weeks and he may be punching fans in the face again like he did when he was with the Pacers. I love to watch the Lakers lose, but I hate to see anyone put up with a player like him.

Now for a classic Ron Artest Clip. Below is a video of him pantsing Paul Pierce during a game while he was with the Pacers. Classic.

College Weekend Review

Posted on February 13, 2012 by christoph131

Just as I expected, #2 Syracuse toppled UConn by double digits, while Senior Guard Scoop Jardine managed to score 21 points against the Calhoun-less Huskies. #4 Mizzou also beat #6 Baylor, while #5 UNC ran right over #20 Virginia, and #16 UNLV upset #14 San Diego State. Unfortunately, I was wrong about one game, and that was when #3 Ohio State was upset by defensive-minded #12 Michigan State.

#7 Florida was also upset against unranked Tennessee by 5 points. #15 Creighton lost their third straight game Saturday against Wichata State. You can guarantee that they will not see the top 25 come Monday morning.

Games to watch for this week:
#2 Syracuse vs. #23 Louisville (Monday @ 7)
#5 UNC vs. Miami (Wednesday @ 8) Miami beat Duke last week
#12 Michigan State vs. #22 Wisconsin (Thursday @ 7)

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