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14 hours ago

Rondo Replacing Johnson on All-Star Team

The Herald got it right from Rondo’s agent. According to his agent, Bill Duffy, the Celtics point guard has been named to the Eastern Conference All-star roster, presumably to replace Joe Johnson, the injured Atlanta Hawks guard. This would be Rondo’s third all-star appearance. Nice birthday present for RR, who probably should have been selected [...]

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3 days ago

Comments Deleting?

We apologize if your comments are being deleted (provided that they are not offensive). We are looking into why this is happening. We also want to apologize for the lack of a game thread for last night’s game.  We had a premonition that the Celtics would play that poorly and thought if we pretended the [...]

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7 days ago

5 Questions With Greg Monroe

I talked with Detroit star forward Greg Monroe prior to the Celtics-Pistons game on Wednesday night.  Here is what the 2nd year big man out of Georgetown, who is averaging 16.4 points, 9.7 rebounds, 2.5 assists per game had to say. 1. Just your 2nd year in the league, but playing so well, were you disappointed [...]

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8 days ago

Call for Responses: 5-on-5

Readers! Last week’s responses to the 5-on-5 questions were really, really great. We had way more qualified answers than we were able to use. So we’re going to keep doing it! FOREVER. Here are this week’s questions: 1. Are you concerned about Rondo’s media boycott this week? 2. The trade deadline is less than a [...]

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11 days ago

5 Questions With Ronnie Brewer

I talked with Chicago starting guard Ronnie Brewer prior to the Celtics-Bulls game on Sunday.  Here is what the 6th year man out of Arkansas who is averaging 7.6 points, 3.1 rebounds, and 2.1 assists had to say. 1. You guys have a lot of the same players back from last year’s team which was [...]

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13 days ago

5 Questions With Josh McRoberts

I talked to Los Angeles back up big man Josh McRoberts prior to the Celtics-Lakers game Thursday night at the Garden.  Here is what the former Duke Blue Devil, who is averaging 2.9 points and 3.8 rebounds in his first year in LA, had to say. 1. How have you guys been able to deal [...]

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Doc Rivers: Players Knew About Kendrick Perkins Deal Before It Was Made

Doc Rivers joined Dennis and Callahan on WEEI.com this morning and discussed a variety of topics, highlighted by more talk about the trade of Kendrick Perkins to Oklahoma City.

Steve Bulpett had a report in the Boston Herald last Saturday, noting that the “stars approved and aligned” behind the deal, a statement that was openly questioned and dismissed by Yahoo! Sports NBA reporter Marc Spears, after the players somber reaction to the deal. Turns out, according to Doc, that Bulpett was right.

“I think they do [understand the deal],” Rivers said. ”I think our guys knew that from the beginning. Listen, everyone was upset. But we talked to our players — at least three or four of them — before we made that deal. And they all thought it was a good move, but they all knew it would hurt if we did it. And it did.”

Now who do you think those three of four other players might be? Perhaps the other three or four members of the starting lineup?  Some commenters scoffed about this development when we reported it intitally. Why does it matter? What’s the difference now that it’s over?

I’ll tell you why. That’s a veteran locker room in there, probably the most experienced onE in the league. Big trades like the one last week usually don’t go down, unless they are approved by the guys that mattered.

Surely, it hurt to lose Perk but the C’s understood they needed help and healthy bodies, especially on the offensive end. And going forward, as far as team chemistry goes it’s a lot different to have a team with new guys that your future Hall of Famers approve of, rather than a team that had the rug pulled out from under them unexpectedly with this move by Ainge.

The trade is still a risk, a very calculated one, but I feel a lot better knowing the starting five gave the go ahead to Ainge on it before it was made.

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