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7 days ago

Painful Reminders (Part I): The Celtics Drafted JaJuan Johnson Instead of Jimmy Butler

On June 23rd, 2011, Brian Robb and I stood around a high top bar table in Tommy Doyle’s in Kendall Square.  Before us lay one of the biggest mounds of buffalo chicken wings I had ever endeavor to make disappear.  These 25 cent flappers- one of the few indulgences afforded to the participants of our [...]

19
7 days ago

Chris Wilcox: 2012-13 Final Grade

There are a number of contextually-appropriate ways to craft this post. One would be to forgo words entirely, and represent Chris Wilcox’s entire season with a series of videos. That would involve one part of this: For every eight parts of this: Note the headline on that second clip. Someone was so amused/enraged by Wilcox’s [...]

12
8 days ago

Rajon Rondo’s 2012-13 Final Grade

Here’s a sweeping general statement involving super specific statistics that may or may not mean anything: In the 1423 minutes Rajon Rondo played this season, the Boston Celtics were outscored by 1.3 points per 100 possessions. When he sat (including all contests after he tore his ACL), Boston was better than their opponents by 1.8 [...]

93
9 days ago

Avery Bradley Elected to NBA All-Defense Second Team

Avery Bradley has been a standout defender for the past couple seasons…in the regular season anyway. Now he has a trophy to prove it. The NBA announced this afternoon that the third-year guard has been elected by coaches around the league to the second-team all-NBA defensive team for the first time in his career. Bradley [...]

13
12 days ago

Paul Pierce’s Contract: Dispelling The Myths and Stating The Facts

The first domino to fall this offseason is Paul Pierce’s contract. Until Danny Ainge figures out what he’s doing there, little else matters. As we wait for this decision, we also must face the rest of the offseason, which means it is also rumor season. With that time of year, comes plenty of information floating [...]

42
12 days ago

Final Grade: Avery Bradley (C+)

In his third year in the league, in which promising players often make brash leaps from benchwarmer to starter, from starter to star, Avery Bradley took a big step back. But his regression might be deceptive. When he returned to the Celtics’ lineup on January the 2nd after two in-season months recovering from offseason shoulder [...]

9
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Two Things about Rajon

One reassuring, one not-so-reassuring:

• Rajon has played 40 minutes or more in 23 regular season games since entering the league in 2006-07, according to Basketball Reference.

Six of those 23 games have come since Dec. 22 of this season, including a career-high (for the regular season) 50-plus minutes at Miami in last week’s OT classic.

I know he’s a young guy, but he has been carrying a heavy load for the last three weeks.

• Rajon has now played in 34 games this season, and if you break his season in half you see some positive trends from the foul line.

First 17 games: 9-26 (34.5 percent) on 1.5 foul shot attempts per game.

Last 17 games: 50-74 (68 percent) on 4.4 foul shot attempts per game.

To me, the attempts are more important than the percentages. Barring some sort of bizarre Steve Blass/Steve Sax/Rick Ankiel thing, Rajon was not going to shoot 40 percent from the foul line over the course of the season. Now, 68 percent is not what one might call a good free throw percentage. You want your guards shooting 75 percent or better from the line, especially if they handle the ball as much as Rajon. (And if you want to play Small Sample Size Theater—and who doesn’t!—Rajon is 21-of-26, or 81 percent, from the stripe in his last five games).

But 70 percent is progress, even if it’s progress we all knew would come fast. (And it would be an improvement over his 64 percent mark last season).

The lack of attempts early was more problematic, and it had Kelly Dwyer and I (and most sentient Celtic fans) speculating that Rondo wasn’t driving to the rim aggressively late in games because he wanted no part of the foul line.

I think we can put that fear to rest—for now.

If Rajon averages about 4.4 free throw attempts per game, it will put him into the upper echelon of guards in that category, according to Basketball Reference. That per-game figure would rank about 22nd in the league among guards, right with Chris Paul, Jason Terry and Will Bynum, guys not exactly known for being shy around the rim or (in Terry’s case) at the end of games.

Progress.

Now, let’s get the kid some rest tonight on the second night of a back-to-back, Doc. How does 38 minutes sound? What about 35?

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