I’m not going to link to every season preview, simply because there are too many. But ESPN’s C’s training camp preview from Chris Sheridan has some nice tidbits that add new details and round out what we already know about the team. The following are from his five observations from camp. I highly recommend the whole thing as well as his general team preview. He’s got some (small) details I haven’t seen elsewhere.
• On Rondo’s offs-season:
General manager Danny Ainge has acknowledged discussing possible Rondo trades with other teams early in the offseason (one proposal that was floated but never gained traction was a multiplayer deal that would have included Devin Harris of the New Jersey Nets)
Whoa….Devin Harris? I don’t think I had heard this before, but I could have missed it during my European vacation/Internet detox. Harris would be an interesting building block to a fair Rondo trade.
• Rondo on his contract status:
“When you start thinking about contracts, you play selfishly — you might not think about it, but it’s in your mind to get the most money you can, and it becomes where it’s not a team effort. If we win, I think I’ll get more money, so my main focus is to win, don’t go outside my role — get those guys the ball and get out of the way.”
We like this quote very much.
• Marquis Daniels will be your back-up point guard:
“I think it’ll be easy,” Rivers said. “Marquis handles the ball all the time, Eddie will still handle the ball, but you could see with Eddie [in practice] today how easy it was with those two. We’ll have some growing pains early, but I think it’ll be an easy transition because Marquis has played point before.”
This will be an issue to watch, obviously.
• Lester Hudson’s contract is guaranteed to some degree. (The Globe has called it a one-year contract, though the exact terms are unclear).
The Celtics have 15 players with guaranteed contracts, and 16 players in camp. The odd man out is former lottery pick Michael Sweetney, who remains quite overweight…
Thanks for coming, Mike! There’s always a chance the team will cut Hudson to free up a roster spot, but it’ll cost them something, apparently.