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8 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
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
10 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
13 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 [...]

9
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Paging Nate Robinson’s Jumper

Has anyone seen Nate Robinson‘s shooting stroke?  It’s currently missing and about to be plastered on every milk carton this side of I-495.  Okay, so maybe that is a bit premature.  The season is only 3 games old, the Celtics are 2-1, and they have 79 more games to go.   There is plenty of time for Nate Robinson to get it together.

Right now, Robinson is last in the league in three point percentage for players who play at least ten minutes a game.  Dead last shooting a meager 1-for-9 from distance.  Luckily for Robinson, he’s in good company.  Joining him on that list is are such high profile players in Brandon Jennings (2-for12), Baron Davis (1-for-6), and Chris Paul (1-for-5) (HoopData.com).  Of that little list of early under-achievers, Nate Robinson ranks first (or last.  Whichever means worst) in True Shooting Percentage (TS%, a field field goal percentage that takes into consideration the weighted values of free throws and three pointers).

The season is young but the backup point guard position is going to be under a pretty intense microscope.  The Celtics have not had a solid backup point guard since they acquired Tony Delk to backup Kenny Anderson for the 2001-2002 season.  That’s a long time.  The list of players the Celtics used or attempted to use since that season include Marcus Banks, Delonte West, Dan Dickau, Orien Greene, Tony Allen, Stephon Marbury, Allan Ray, Sebastian Telfair, Sam Cassell, Gabe Pruitt, Lester Hudson, and Oliver Lafayette.*  Needless to say, the Celtics have not had a reason to be excited about the backup point guard position until this season.

While Robinson’s shooting is the biggest early season surprise, his decision-making is also a cause for concern.  He is playing much freer than he did to finish last season which is a good thing for this Celtics bench.  Coach Doc Rivers has made it known that he feels the Celtics are at their best when they get out and run and the bench unit has the personnel to do just that.  However, getting out and running does not mean driving coast-to-coast and trying to finger-roll a contested layup at full speed when you have a ready and waiting Marquis Daniels underneath the hoop.

In the preseason, Robinson was 13-for-38 from three and 30-67 overall.  Three games is three games and I have no doubt that Robinson will be fine.  Still, I find this slow start very interesting.  In the Celtics lone loss this season, Nate was 1-for-6 from the field and 1-for-3 from distance.  Here’s hoping he gets back on track with a big game against the Pistons tomorrow night.

*I purposely left off Eddie House as for all intents and purposes, he was a shooting guard.

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