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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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C’s Ownership Supports Big Three Trades


Mitch Lawrence of the New York Daily News has a source inside the Celtics confirming ownership has recently given Danny Ainge approval to move any of the Big Three:

But with Paul Pierce dealing with heel issues, Kevin Garnett fading, Ray Allen still effective shooting threes but headed for his 37th birthday and the Celtics 5-8 entering the weekend, the team’s owners gave GM Danny Ainge the official go-ahead to move any member of the troika.

“We’ve got to move on,” said one Celtics official. “Let’s face reality.”

When the lockout ended, Ainge and Doc Rivers believed they could squeeze one more title run out of their nucleus. But it hinged on a couple of other players. If Jeff Green played and they could sign David West , the Celtics figured they would help lighten the regular-season load for Pierce, Garnett and Allen.

But Green needed heart surgery and West, who had expressed an interest in signing in Boston, changed his mind when he wasn’t offered a deal that would have made him among the highest-paid players on the team. The offer would have made him the fourth-highest paid Celtic and West instead signed with Indiana.

Without Green or West, ownership finally conceded the team doesn’t have the quality reinforcements to make a deep run. Ainge says he won’t hesitate to trade off any member of the Big Three in the right deal. If he can find any takers.

If the Celtics counter this assertion, it wouldn’t be a surprise. And if no appealing trade presents itself, that would also be unsurprising. But the above appears to suggest that Ainge was ready to move on earlier and ownership was holding out to see if the Celtics could turn things around. And only recently has Ainge been given the nuclear launch codes.

As Brendan detailed earlier this week, the Celtics are in the soft part of their schedule with multiple games against Cleveland, Toronto and Washington (and Phoenix!). If they’re going to get things turned around, it has to be now. Because with their longest stretch of home games over (the C’s went 3-6, with all but one of those games being at the TD Garden) things only get uglier as the season goes on. Even if the Celtics get better.

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