Why not take a chance?

Multiple sources have come out saying that the Boston Celtics will wait until the end of the summer to choose the right head coach for them. This way, Ainge can draft the players he wants, and he can get a chance to see assistant coach Jay Larranaga run the summer league team. By then, most of the top head coaches with experience should be gone. This could bode well for him. Why not take a chance on someone like that, like the Nets are doing on Jason Kidd? Clearly, we are not going to be a contender for a few years, at the very least, so we don’t need to waste money over paying an amazing head coach.

Better yet, why not try having a player coach? David Cowens and Bill Russell have done it. Yes, I’m being serious. Why not have Kevin Garnett try it? Pay him one salary, give him a few good assistant coaches, and who knows, downloadpeople may want to come play for him. He already came out saying he admires Bill Russell more than anyone and shapes his game to be like him. I mean, he’s the greatest champion in all of sports. He won two titles as a player-coach after winning 9 others. Clearly, the Celtics aren’t in the same position to win any titles but there are some pro’s to this extremely, extremely unlikely possibility:

  • KG is one of, if not the best, defensive mind in the game. He knows exactly where to be at all times, and often barks out orders to others so that they get their act together, and move around correctly.
  • Let’s face it, whoever coaches this team, is going to have to put up with Rajon Rondo, assuming we keep him. That’s no easy feat. KG already has been able to help mold Rondo into a better leader and this is someone who Rondo can respect. The last thing we need is someone like Stan Van Gundy coming in to ruin things (like he did in Orlando by driving out Dwight Howard).
  • KG probably does not want to play for anyone but Rivers due to his extreme loyalty, and that seems almost impossible now, seeing as the league vetoed it. He probably wouldn’t mind playing for himself though, and since we are not going to be in line to win a championship, he can decrease his minutes and mold the younger guys, like Sullinger, into a KG 2.0.
  • Everyone respects him. Most people have said that he is the best locker room presence there is. Why take that away? He brings the championship mentality to the court every night. Just because he can’t do it himself anymore, doesn’t mean we should allow that to get away.

Let’s get one thing straight: In no way do I think this will happen. I just think it is an interesting way to look at things. In a time where we are rebuilding, why not take a shot on someone like him. It could make Danny Ainge the smartest man around. Red Auerbach did it when he retired as coach and moved into the front office, and that played out quite nicely for the greatest coach this game as ever seen.

Celtics new additions

In case you missed it over the weekend, the Celtics made a couple of new acquisitions in order to add more depth to their bench. First, they added 6’9djwhite” Power Forward DJ White. White has played with both the Thunder and the Bobcats during his 4 years in the League. He was formally a 1st round pick out of Indiana and averages 6.8 PPG and 3.6 RPG during his career. He played the first part of this season in China where he averaged 21.6 PPG and 9.7 RPG on the season for the Shanghai Sharks. He has signed with the C’s for a 10 day contract.

Next, they went out and signed 6’10” Shavlik Randolph who shavlikplayed for Duke 5 years ago. I’m guessing we signed him to this 10 day contract strictly for his size. He has only averaged 2.4 PPG and 2.4 RPG over his career and has never racked up many minutes no matter where he has played. At least he can add some size to the line up after we traded Collins last week for Crawford. We don’t need him to score, just to clog up the middle a bit and maybe grab some boards in the mean time.

Most importantly, the Celtics offered hardworking guard/forward Terrence Williams to a multi-year contract. T-Will was on a 10-day contract with the Celts but will now be here to stay. Good for him! Even though he has only averaged 3.3 PPG, 2.3 RPG, and 1.5 APG, Terrence gives us a spark off the bench and has proven that he can score when he needs to. The Celtics will travel to Philly on Tuesday to take on the 76ers.twill

C’s make trade at deadline

The Celtics made a deal right before the deadline for Washington Wizards Guard Jordan Crawford. In return, the Wizards will get injured Guard Leandro Barbosa and Center Jason Collins. I like this trade. I feel bad that we traded another injured player who was actually playing well for us before the injury, like we did with Marquis DanNBA: Atlanta Hawks at Washington Wizardsiels a few years back, but Danny Ainge knows that this could be our last shot at a title. At least we didn’t end up trading Garnett or Pierce! They deserve to retire in Boston, especially Paul.

Crawford, a 6’4” 2nd year player out of Xavier (27th overall pick in 2010), was starting for Washington while John Wall was injured, but his minutes were minimized once their star returned. This season, Crawford is averaging 13.2 PPG, 3.7 APG, and 3.1 RPG. Those are great numbers, but he will be coming off the bench, so the numbers are sure to drop a little bit. Hopefully, he can provide the same kind of spark that Barbosa did off the bench. On a side note, now that we don’t have a Center behind Garnett, the Celtics could bring up Fab Melo and give him some light minutes against the other big Centers in the league. Do you like this trade?

Celts Sign Swingman Terrence Williams

The Celtics have signed Terrence Williams, 25 years old, to a 10-day contract. After being picked by the Nets (#11 in 2009), Williams has been on a few different teams. He is a 6’6” Small Forward who can handle the ball. He is the only player in Louisville history to record two triple-doubles. He is known for his athleticism and defense, but can also score the ball.Terrence Williams

I like this signing , especially with Barbosa out. I mean, who knows if we will keep him, but it’s still a good plan to have someone who can handle the ball off of the bench. It’s becoming more obvious that this team is going to stay intact after this Thursdays trade deadline, so they need some inexpensive, outside help. After leaving the Nets, Williams signed with the Rockets. Houston then released him. This may scare some people. However, do you know who else the Rockets have released? Jeremy Lin. Then they realized they made a mistake and resigned him this offseason. I’m not saying Williams will cause some new-age Lin-sanity, but you never know. This guy also loves to dunk, and has won many contests in other leagues. He should be fun to watch, assuming the Celtics give him a chance.

Celtics Win Triple OT Thriller

The Celtics were up by as many as 10 during tonight’s game against the Denver Nuggets. However, the Nuggets, who were on a 9-game winning streak coming into tonight’s game, made it a game late in the 4th quarter. The Celtics seemed to have the game wrapped up when they got robbed by a call. At least that’s how it looked on every spierce-nuggets-20130210-440x352ingle replay that they showed. It looked like two Denver players clearly knocked the ball out of bounds. This would all be okay If they didn’t review it. But they did. They spent two minutes looking at a play from every angle and it still seemed like they got the call wrong. Denver then tied it up with 0.8 seconds left on an easy layup.

In the first overtime, the Nuggets got off to an early lead. However, Jeff Green made a clutch 3-pointer from the corner to tie it up at 99 a piece with one minute remaining, eventually forcing a second overtime. Pierce made an unbelievable 3-pointer with 5.2 seconds left in the 2nd OT to tie it up yet again. However, it was really close as the officials reviewed where his foot was, and it was about a centimeter from the line, thankfully. Eventually, the Celtics were able to win the game 118-114 and extend their win streak to 7 games. They are now 27-23 on the year.

Pierce led the C’s with 27 points, but also was only 7-of-20 shooting from the field.. He was also able to add 13 rebounds and 8 assists. The bench played huge for us. Jeff Green gty-154249437-3_4_r536_c534scored 17 points and played amazing all around. Jason Terry has stepped it up as of late, putting in 26 of his own. JET made five 3-pointers in the contest. He also had 15 against the Lakers the other night. Avery Bradley played great defense as usual and scored 13. Garnett was off early, but really stepped it up in overtime adding 20 points and 16 rebounds.

The Celtics now have only two games until the All-Star break next weekend. They will travel to Charlotte tomorrow to take on the league’s worst team—the Bobcats. The Bobcats are 11-39 this season and allow 103.0 points per game. On Wednesday, the C’s will take on the Bulls who are 30-20 (4th place in the East) even without their MVP Derrick Rose. With Rajon Rondo injured, Kevin Garnett will be the only Celtic player represented at the ASG next Sunday.

Rivers Wins 400th with Celtics

Doc Rivers is one of three Celtics coaches who have reached the 400-win plateau. He is third behind Tommy Heinsohn (427 wins), who is now the very colorful commentator for Celtics games. In first place is the greatest coach of all-time, Red Auerbach. Red’s record won’t get touched seeing as he has 795 wins, and could have probably reached 1000 if he didn’t decide to step down as coach and move into the front office. Still, he is responsible for bringing Parish, Bird, and Mchale imagestogether after he was done coaching, so he should get credit for those years as well!

Doc is 400-288 with the Celtics over the 9 years he has been in Beantown. He won 171 games as a coach of his hometown Orlando Magic. Doc was also an NBA player beforehand, and is regarded as one of the best, if not the best players’ coach. He was also voted as one of the best coaches at designing set plays from out of bounds. That was from a poll taken before every season. The Celtics have now won 5 straight games.

Sullinger Out For Season

Well… so much for wearing my Sullinger shirt all season. The breaking news is that Rookie Jared Sullinger will be out for the rest of the season after re-injuring his back. The reason why he fell so far in the draft was because teahi-res-158984834_crop_exactms didn’t think that he could get past his injury. I guess they were right. Apparently, he will be perfectly fine after he rehabs, but you never know. This happens less than a week after we found out that Rajon Rondo would miss the rest of the season as well.

Sullinger has proven himself to be one of the better rookies in the league, and by far the best one the Celtic’s have brought on board in years. Jared averaged 6 points and 5.9 rebounds in just under 20 minutes per game. These aren’t outstanding numbers, but as of late, he has been on of our most solid contributors. The Celtic’s have called up Fab Melo from the Development League, and he may see some time.

C’s Versus Kings

The Sacramento Kings (who probably won’t be known as that for long) come to the Garden tonight to take on the Rondo-less Celtics. We are better than them in every category except rebounds and points (barely), even though we are going to miss Rondo’s 11.1 Assists Per Game. After beating the Heat in double OT on Sunday, this should be an easy game, but ya never know.NBA: Miami Heat at Boston Celtics

There has also been speculation that we were trying to acquire their hot-headed star Demarcus Cousins for Bradley and Sullinger and maybe something else. I hope this doesn’t happen since I would then be stuck with a Ray Allen and Jared Sullinger shirt and nothing to do with them. Anyway, tune into our Twitter (https://twitter.com/BostonSB) tonight for periodic updates and follow us on Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/BostonSportsBlog)

Kings Celtics
W-L 19-29 21-23
Points Scored 96.9 95.1
Points Allowed 103.2 96.5
Rebounds 40.5 39.6
Assists 19.9 23.1
Turnovers lost 14.7 14.6
Turnovers forced 14.8 15.8

C’s Struggling Again

The biggest loss this past Sunday had to be the Celtics dropping a game against the Pistons 103-88 right? That’s the only game I am willing to remember. The C’s fell to 20-20 after losing their 3rd straight game. They also lost against the Bulls on Friday in overtime, but at least that was a hard fought game. We also got to listen to the ugliest player in the NBA, Joakim Noah, complain about how dirty of a player KG is again.chin011813celtbullspt10-3406.r

The C’s will look to bounce back against a struggling Cavaliers team on Tuesday night in Cleveland without one of their best players, Anderson Verejao is out for the season with a blood clot in his lung. However, they still have Kyrie Irving who is proving himself once again as one of the top players in the league, without a lot of help around him. The Green will also take on the Knicks on Thursday and the Hawks on Friday before hosting the Heat next Sunday. Should be a tough road ahead, but at least we have something to watch with no football!

C’s Streaking

What a great weekend for Boston sports fans. Pats win, Peyton loses, and the Celtics extend their win streak to 5 games with a win over Houshi-res-6928264_crop_650x440ton, 103-91, on Friday night. For now, let’s just focus on the C’s. When I wrote this article a little over a week ago, we were on a 4 game losing streak and playing some of the toughest teams in the league.  Now the Green and White are riding the hot hand going into a game against a 9-27 Charlotte Bobcats team on Monday night.

On Friday, the Celtics were ready to play. Garnett scored 17 points and grabbed 8 boards. Pierce shot lights out for 23 points while Courtney Lee dropped 14 of his own. Once again, Jared Sullinger came up huge, scoring 14 points but grabbing 11 boards off the bench. He only missed 1 shot and is developing into an amazing role player. Sullinger is leading all rookies in +/-.

Rajon Rondo has been a little off recently. I mean he is playing great basketball for anyone else, but according to his high standards that we have come to know, he isn’t that great. He only had 8 assists last game and 8 the game before, bringing his league-leading average down to 11.1. Once he gets going again we should be able to put up some serious points. The return of Avery Bradley on the defensive end has been huge as well, as he covers the opposing teams best player in every game.