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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 [...]

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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
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 [...]

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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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The Cast Is Off….So When’s Delonte West Coming Back?

In the midst of a countless assortment of news last night coming out of TD Garden, the presence of Delonte West in the locker room after the game after he recently had the cast on his right arm removed easily stood to the forefront. Mark Murphy of The Boston Herald, gets us caught up with Danny Ainge and West as he talked to reporters after the game:

Delonte West had the cast on his fractured right wrist removed. General manager Danny Ainge said that it’s reasonable for the guard to aim for a return next month.

“I think (the All-Star break) sounds about right,” Ainge said. “He just got his cast off, so we have to see how it takes from here.”

West, though, simply wants to savor the short-term rewards for now, without looking too far ahead.

“It feels stiff, but it’s not painful,” West said. “I got great news from the doctors (yesterday, when the cast came off). They said maybe three weeks of rehabilitation, and then I can start doing more. I started working out, conditioning, ballhandling.

“Fortunately I’m left-handed, so I’m able to get shots on my left hand. It’s just a matter of time before I gain game strength in (the right) one.”

For now, though, West would rather not venture any thoughts about the All-Star break.

So what can you take from this Celtics fans? Well to start, three weeks is a lot different than the All-Star Break (post February 20th) at this point. I’m going to go ahead and make the not too crazy guess that Ainge is painting the more accurate picture here regarding West’s potential realistic return date.

You may remember reports from earlier last month where West insisted he would be coming back sometine in January, far before we could have expected. While I don’t doubt he’s way ahead of schedule, it still takes a good 2-3 months at minimum to regain enough strength in your wrist to handle playing a contact sport, much less an NBA game.

Take it from the wrist expert (me), a guy who has broken his right wrist 3 times altogether, including once after returning to an athletic field prematurely from, you guessed it, a broken wrist. I learned my lesson. And believe me, I’ll pull Delonte aside if I have to and warn him to take his time with this.

With the Celtics short on depth in the backcourt, they will be taking no chances here. And after a pretty brutal break like the one West endured in November, it will take several weeks of rehab to build up that strength again in what is luckily his non-shooting wrist.

A return around the All-Star break though and a chance to cut Rajon Rondo’s minutes once again while giving the team a legitimate backup point guard, will be news to Doc’s ears.

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