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5 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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6 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 [...]

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7 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 [...]

92
7 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
10 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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11 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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From ESPN: CelticsHub goes 5-on-5

The four of us at CelticsHub fielded five questions on the C’s for ESPN today (along with the esteemed Chris Forsberg of ESPN Boston).

Here’s our answer to #1:

1. For which Celtics player is the 2011-12 season most important?

Hayes Davenport, CelticsHub: Rajon Rondo. He’s lived off potential for a long time, but probably not for much longer. If he doesn’t emerge as the team’s best player and cultural co-leader this season, he’s unlikely to be capable of carrying the Celtics beyond a low playoff seed in the post-Garnett era.

Ryan DeGama, CelticsHub: Rajon Rondo. Last season, the league’s view of Rondo seemed to shift away from his proficiencies as a defender and passer and toward his failings: consistency, willingness to attack the basket and free throw shooting. That’s problematic for the self-styled “best PG in the game.” Is he a franchise player or not? Time to sort that out.

Chris Forsberg, ESPN Boston: Kevin Garnett. He’ll turn 36 this season and there’s a ton of miles on those tires (the regular-season minutes odometer stands at 43,915, 15th-most in league history). Garnett has acknowledged the finish line might be near, but he’s still vital to the Celtics’ championship hopes, even as his body struggles to withstand the rigors.

Brendan Jackson, CelticsHub: Rajon Rondo. The Celtics’ point guard is the heir apparent and the only future of this team. If he doesn’t solidify himself as a top-tier player on his own (i.e., dishing to JaJuan Johnson and Jeff Green and not Ray Allen and Kevin Garnett), then his legacy (and trade value) will plummet.

Brian Robb, CelticsHub: Rajon Rondo. With an aging Big Three that can struggle to create its own offense, the C’s All-Star point guard will be instrumental in creating regular easy opportunities for his teammates. Consistency has always been the biggest issue for the up-and-down Rondo, and that problem must be overcome in order for the Celtics to remain a contender.

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Also, John Hollinger scouts the Celtics today (insider). An excerpt from his look at Kevin Garnett:

Where Garnett really shines is on defense. Opposing power forwards sometimes got numbers on him, but that was because KG was busy shutting down other players with his help defense.

The Celtics, already a great defensive team, gave up 6.19 points per 100 possessions fewer with Garnett on the floor, according to basketballvalue.com. His Synergy numbers sparkled (among power forwards, only Chicago’s Taj Gibson outrated him) and the more advanced “regularized” adjusted plus-minus metric estimated he was worth more than six points per 100 possessions to Boston’s defense — the most of any player in the NBA last season.

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Programming Note: beginning tomorrow, we’ll be looking at the holdovers on the roster, beginning with Avery Bradley.

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