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5 hours ago

5 Questions With Josh McRoberts

I talked to Los Angeles back up big man Josh McRoberts prior to the Celtics-Lakers game Thursday night at the Garden.  Here is what the former Duke Blue Devil, who is averaging 2.9 points and 3.8 rebounds in his first year in LA, had to say. 1. How have you guys been able to deal [...]

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6 hours ago

5-on-5: Predicting All-Star Reserves

I was a panelist on the 5-on-5 today at ESPN, choosing reserves for the Eastern and Western Conference all-star teams. I took two Celtics, as noted below. Hit the link to read the rest. 1. Which East and West point guards should be chosen as All-Star reserves? Ryan DeGama, CelticsHub: East: Deron Williams, Rajon Rondo [...]

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2 days ago

Greg Stiemsma’s Contract To Become Fully Guaranteed

The C’s gave their 26-year-old rookie a vote of confidence before Tuesday’s game. By not waiving the seven-footer, Stiemsma’s contract will become fully guaranteed on Friday, allowing the shot blocker to breath a little bit and perhaps unpack some boxes for good in Beantown. Here’s Chris Forsberg of ESPN Boston with some reaction from Stiemsma and [...]

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2 days ago

5 Questions With Kemba Walker

I had a chance to talk with Bobcats rookie Kemba Walker prior to the Celtics game against Charlotte on Tuesday night.  Here is what the UConn star, who is averaging 12.3 points, 4 rebounds, and 3.6 assists per game had to say. 1. How much communication have you had with Michael Jordan this year? Walker: [...]

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3 days ago

I Am Awesome!

Yes. This is a “pat myself on the back” post because a) I’m a jackass and b) I predicted something correctly. Back on January 8th, I predicted that the next ten games will tell us everything we need to know about this Celtics’ team. If they struggled, it was time to blow it up. If [...]

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3 days ago

Pierce Wins Eastern Conference Player Of Week

One day before he’s scheduled to pass Larry Bird for second on the Celtics’ all-time scoring list, Paul Pierce won the Eastern Conference Player of the Week award. Pierce averaged 22 points, 6.3 assists and 5.8 rebounds in four Boston wins, playing point forward in Rajon Rondo’s absence. Pierce is only 9 points behind Bird [...]

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Your Celtics Hub First-Round MVP: Rajon Rondo*

*Actually, this is just my personal opinion.

Let’s completely rip off Third Quarter Collapse’s Eddy Rivera and use some stats (along with some good old-fashioned observations) to choose the Celtics’ first-round MVP. Here’s how the “new Big Three” fare with some of the best metrics we’ve got to measure player contributions.

PER

Rondo: 23.0

Allen: 20.7

Pierce: 14.0

Basketball Value Adjusted Plus/Minus *

*(This stat adjusts for the quality of the other players on the floor in order to take away credit a mediocre player who plays with stars might get in raw plus/minus or reward a productive player stuck with a sub-par bench unit).

Rondo: +5.74

Allen: +11.28

Pierce: -0.61

Win Shares:

Rondo: 1.4

Allen: 1.3

Pierce: 0.4

Offensive Rating:

Rondo: 118

Allen: 126

Pierce: 101

Defensive Rating:

Rondo:  103

Allen: 108

Pierce: 107

The stats are unkind to Pierce, huh? He actually ranks below Davis and Perkins in both PER and offensive rating. Of course, with a small sample size of just seven games, all of this needs to be taken with a pile of salt–Perkins, for instance, rates a dismal -11.28 in adjusted plus/minus, easily the worst on the team. I’m not sure why that is. 

So, who was the MVP? You could safely go with Rondo or Allen, but I’ll give Rajon the nod here, because he manufactured points for the Celtics whenever their offense wobbled in the first five games. In that span, Rondo averaged an insane 24-11-10 triple-double. The Celtics would not have been in Game 1 without his 29 points and they would not have won Game 5 without his team-high 28 points. Ray Allen was a minimal factor in both of those games; he was 1-of-12 from the floor in Game 1 and fouled out after just 26 minutes on the court in Game 5. 

We had never seen Rondo score like this before. That was the revelation of the first five games. We knew he could pass and rebound, but for him to average 24 points a game–Danny Granger numbers–for five straight games? Nobody could have expected that. And the Celtics needed those points. They don’t win this series without them. 

It’s sort of amazing to award the MVP to someone other than a shooting guard who averaged a team-high 23.4 points per game, saved the C’s season with a game-winner in Game 2 and put on one of the all-time great shooting displays in Game 6. But Rondo was there in all seven games, doing everything. His scoring took the inevitable dip back into single-digits in games six and seven, but he dished 30 assists in those games to just 4 turnovers. In 96 minutes of play. Incredible stuff. 

So, congrats, Rajon. Now do it again against the Magic!

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