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1 day 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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2 days 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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3 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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I Want to Party Like It’s 2001

On the morning after A. Sherrod Blakely broke the news that Shaquille O’Neal signed with the Celtics, I was listening to 98.5 The Sports Hub morning show, Toucher and Rich, on my way to work.  While sifting through Fred Toucher’s endless complaints about taxes and government and Bret Favre and whatever else is sticking in his craw at that moment, I caught an interesting rhetorical question: Can you imagine if this was 2001?

If you’re a “what if” guy and a Celtics fan like I am, then you love this question.  What if this were 2001 and the same cast of characters were on this Celtics squad.  Fred Toucher posed this question to no one in particular so I pretended it was posed to me and decided to find out what this Celtics team would look like if the year was 2001.

I initially wanted to use the same extrapolative math John Hollinger used to estimate how many games this new-look Miami Heat team would win this season but unfortunately he didn’t explicitly state how he arrived at his conclusions.  I am not a math guy- hell, I’m not even a stats guy- so I decided to simply look at every one’s player efficiency ratings and draw meaningless, and probably merit-less, conclusions.

Behold, your 2001 Boston Celtics:

Ray Allen         22.9
Kevin Garnett         23.9
Paul Pierce         22.3
Rasheed Wallace     20.9
Shaquille O’Neal     30.2
Jermaine O’Neal     17.5

That right there is a diesel team.  You will also notice some glaring omissions.  No Rajon Rondo, no Marquis Daniels, no Nate Robinson, no Glen Davis…the list goes on.  These guys, of course, were not in the league in 2001 (and in Rondo’s case, not old enough to drive).  I thought about replacing these with veteran minimum type guys but I decided it wouldn’t really affect the end-game.

So what is the end-game?  To compare this team to other current teams that would have been great in 2001.  Here are just a few teams I researched:

2001 Los Angeles Lakers


Kobe Bryant         24.5
Paul Gasol         19.5
Lamar Odom         18.9
Ron Artest         13.6
Derek Fisher        14.0
Theo Ratliff         16.3

2001 San Antonio Spurs


Tim Duncan        23.8
Tony Parker        11.7
Antonio McDyess    22.0
Richard Jefferson    13.4

2001 Dallas Mavericks


Dirk Nowitzki        22.8
Jason Terry        17.3
Tyson Chandler    13.0
Jason Kidd        19.4
Shawn Marion        21.0
Brendan Haywood    13.7
Tim Thomas        16.4

The Celtics are far and away the best team (as in, have the best PER) but the Dallas Mavericks are not that far behind and have more options.

Some more food for thought: Tracy McGrady and Michael Finley will likely be added to a roster this season.  What were their additions mean to the 2001 teams?

Michael Finley 18.2
Tracy McGrady 24.9

The answer is “a lot”.

Have I missed any other team?

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