Via the Herald:
The long wait for Marquis Daniels is nearing its end. According to sources, the Celtics expect to sign the 6-foot-6 swingman tomorrow to a contract for the biannual exception.
The delay in getting Daniels officially into Green was caused by the team trying to work out a sign-and-trade that would benefit both the Celts and Indiana, the club Daniels is leaving.
Two things of note here:
1) This means, as we’ve noted before, that the Celtics now have 14 players guaranteed money for next season. As you know, that leaves one free roster spot—a spot many teams are opting not to fill given concerns about the bottom line. Of course, when you’ve already committed about $97 million to luxury taxes and player salaries, what’s another $2 million for Lester Hudson or Carlos Arroyo or whomever else you’d like to see in that spot?
The bright side: All of those expiring deals–Giddens, Scalabrine, Tony Allen–remain appealing trade bait for a team looking to unload someone under contract through 2011 or longer.
2) One thing to keep in mind that seems so obvious I’ve (wrongly) neglected to say it before: The Celtics will not be able to use a bi-annual exception next season if they indeed use it on Daniels now. They’ll still have the mid-level and vet’s minimum exceptions, but not the bi-annual.
More proof this is the year to go for it all.
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A Closer Look at Carlos Arroyo
August 29th, 2009Carlos Arroyo is ready to return to the NBA. However, the Puerto Rican guard, who last played in the NBA with the Orlando Magic, won’t reveal the names of the teams that are allegedly having talks with his agent — not until the FIBA Americas Championship in San Juan concludes.
“There are some opportunities that we’re considering. Negotiating a contract is a pretty slow process,” Arroyo said. “But my focus is totally on Puerto Rico’s national team. My mind and heart needs to be here.”
According to several sources, Arroyo, represented by Leon Rose, is in talks to join either the Boston Celtics or the Milwaukee Bucks. However, both teams told ESPN.com’s Chris Sheridan that they have had no contact whatsoever with Arroyo or his representatives.
On Saturday, El Nuevo Dia, a newspaper out of Puerto Rico, reported that Arroyo was close to signing a deal with the Chicago Bulls. According to the report, the agreement would be for one season and $1 million.
Arroyo guided Maccabi Tel Aviv last season to an Israeli Premier League Championship and was named MVP of the finals.
The news of the C’s potential interest in Arroyo is an encouraging situation for me, for a couple reasons. First and foremost Carlos Arroyo, despite being out of the league last year would be a significant upgrade talent wise over any of the remaining alternatives on the point guard scrapheap.
Before we go any further though, let’s first get up to speed on the Puerto Rican point guard currently playing for his nation in the FIBA Championship. Arroyo has bounced around to five teams over his seven year NBA career showing flashes of brilliance along the way. The 30 year old guard was anointed John Stockton’s heir apparent back in 2003 while showing terrific distribution skills and a nice shooting touch on his way to a career year of 12.6 points and 5 assists a game for the 2003-04 Utah Jazz.
The honeymoon ended quickly for Arroyo in 2004 who began to earn a questionable reputation around the league by butting heads with coach Jerry Sloan. This turmoil led to Arroyo being shipped out of town to the Pistons for virtually nothing (Elden Campbell) midway through the 04-05 season.
Arroyo served adequately as a backup point guard for that Pistons team and the Orlando Magic through the majority of next couple seasons. During his 07-08 campaign Arroyo lost the backup job in the early months of 2008 to Keyon Dooling in Orlando, as once again another coach appeared to lose patience in him. In this case it was Zach Lowe’s favorite whiner Stan Van Gundy.
If you can get past his off the court antics, Arroyo’s career numbers show a guy who is only one year removed from bring an extremely capable backup in the NBA. The guy can stroke the long ball at a decent clip (35% during 07-08 season, 32% for his career) and has also been characterized as a skilled passer with good vision. Arroyo has averaged 3.3 assists for his career in only 18 minutes per game, an impressive number given a lack of heavy playing time. Defensively, Arroyo’s play is reportedly below average but sustainable in a backup role from most accounts.
Arroyo’s success last year leading his Israeli team to a Championship and earning the finals MVP would seem to indicate his skillset has not fallen off too far last season, all though the playing level between the two leagues are not exactly a good barometer.
One bit of concern I had when looking through his scouting reports is Ben Q Rock’s from Third Quarter Collapse concerns over his on the floor decision making. Since Ben has watched the guy for the better part of three seasons with Orlando, I looked at his take quite closely when he profiled Arroyo earlier this offseason for the Magic’s backup point needs. An excerpt from his report:
Part of me thinks Arroyo would be a solid, safe choice. The other part of me recalls his at times poor decision-making–we’re calling Hedo Turkoglu-esque levels of befuddlement here
Questionable on the floor decisions are admonished by Celtics coaches, brass, and fans so a susceptibility to this kind of play could force the team to think twice about bringing a guy like Arroyo in, who has been a headache for his teams in more than a few locations. All things considered though, I’d love to see the team take a flier on the guy. More thoughts on how Arroyo could fit in after the jump » More: A Closer Look at Carlos Arroyo
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Posted in Commentary, Offseason