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20 hours 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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1 day 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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2 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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4 days ago

Garnett’s Wondrous 3-point Rant

Via ESPN Boston’s Chris Forsberg, who knows a great, playful rant when he hears one, here’s Kevin Garnett discussing his not-so-newfound aptitude for three-point shooting after the C’s took down the Grizzlies. “When I walk around the streets, y’all stop acting like y’all shocked that I can shoot 3’s. Everybody in Boston, everybody in the [...]

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4 days ago

5 Questions With O.J. Mayo

I talked with Memphis guard O.J. Mayo prior to the Celtics-Grizzlies, Super Bowl Sunday game at the Garden.  Here is what the 4th year man out of USC, who is averaging 12.5 points, 3.1 rebounds, and 2 assists per game had to say. 1. You started every game your first two years in the league, [...]

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The 20 Best Players of the Decade

Wayne Winston, the author of Mathletics and Mark Cuban’s personal stat guru, became instantly popular in these parts when he argued on TrueHoop last week that a) Kevin Garnett was the most productive player of the last decade; and b) Lamar Odom was more important to the Lakers success last season than Kobe Bryant. 

Winston, the author of the new book Mathletics, relies on an adjusted plus/minus formula that seeks to find which players and which line-up combinations work the best (or don’t work at all, such as any line-up Cleveland used against Orlando in the playoffs that involved Ben Wallace).

Laker fans (and others) responded so emotionally that Winston felt the need to clarify his findings in this post on his personal blog, waynewinston.com. What’s interesting for our  purposes is Winston’s list of the 10 most productive players of the last decade, according to his formula. Here are their average adjusted plus/minus (per 48 minutes) marks per season over the last 10 seasons:

Picture 37And lookie who pops in at number 10. Winston explains that ‘Sheed averaged about a +10 rating every year from 2001-06, so he’s dropped off considerably in the last three seasons for his overall decade average to be +7.5. But still—Sheed’s presence here suggests that his unique combination of long-range shooting from the four spot, defensive rebounding and heady post defense makes him more valuable to his team than traditional box score stats suggest. 

Winston then tosses us this tidbit:

By the way, Paul Pierce and Ray Allen are #17 and #18 for the decade, so it looks like this year’s Celtics have 4 legitimate Hall of Fame Candidates (although they are all probably past their prime).

Obviously, putting together a team with all four of these guys in their primes would have been nearly impossible under the salary cap. But it’s refreshing that the Celtics have stocked their team with guys who understand the game is about winning above all else.

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