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The Ticker
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 [...]

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8 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
9 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
13 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 [...]

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Report: Cavs Get Jamison For…Nothing; Salmons On Way Out

The big news of the day: Those of you worried about the Cavs getting Jamison are going to be even angrier about how they got him. The Cavs and Wiz took advantage of the Clippers’ cheapness/smart desire to get far under the cap for next season and roped them into the a three-teamer, according to Yahoo!

Cavs receive: Antawn Jamison, Sebastian Telfair

Wizards receive: Al Thornton, Brian Skinner (expiring), Zyndrunas Ilgauskas (expiring, likely to be waived), Cleveland first-round pick, the rights to Emir Preldzic, Cleveland’s second-round pick in last year’s draft.

Clippers receive: Drew Gooden

So, if you wondering what it took for the Cavs to land Antawn Jamison and his 20.5 points per game, it took this: A late first-round draft pick and Ilgauskas, who may return to the Cavs in a month. J.J. Hickson remains a Cavalier, giving the Cavs a pretty healthy stable of power forwards once Leon Powe returns. 

This is mostly possible because of the Clippers. 

The Clips shave another $5.5 million off of next year’s payroll by ridding themselves of Thornton and Telfair (who held a player option), putting them about $20 million under the projected cap. You better believe they are going after LeBron guns-a-blazin’. 

The Clips also provide a semi-promising young-ish player (Thornton, who recently turned 26) to entice the Wiz to pull the trigger without Hickson in the deal. 

You have to admit: This is a pretty genius deal for the Cavs. Danny Ferry did well here…unless LeBron signs with the Clips in a few months. And the Clippers are either unbelievably cheap (they’ll likely save about $700,000 this year) or smart and forward-thinking (the aforementioned cap space). It’s not like Thornton and Telfair could be considered super-promising at this point. Bassy is Bassy, and Thornton, though he averaged nearly 17 per game last season, has never had a PER as higher than 13 and has intermittent shot selection issues. 

• In other news, John Salmons will not play tonight at New York, apparently because the Bulls are trading him, according to Marc Stein. No word on where Salmons is going, but it’s not a surprise. Chicago, like the Clips, is positioning themselves for this summer, and Salmons has a $5.8 million option he’s sure to exercise for next season. 

I’ve always thought Salmons would fit well in Boston and have mentioned him here often. We’ll see where he goes.

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