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5 hours ago

Jason Terry’s 2012-13 Final Grade

  Acquiring any player, whether it’s via trade, free agency, or the draft, comes with an air of uncertainty. The NBA has no guaranteed covenant and all sales are final, no matter how talented, proven, or productive the player may have been in year’s past. But these memories—especially recent ones—often clouds the judgment of a [...]

3
9 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
9 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
10 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 [...]

94
11 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
14 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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Kevin Garnett “Lost Ray Allen’s Number” And Other Revelations From Media Day

Media day festivities just wrapped up in here in Waltham and the highlight of the day was Kevin Garnett speaking for the first time since the team dropped Game 7 in Miami last June. Consideration of retirement as well as the departure of Ray Allen for Miami took place over an eventful summer and Garnett touched on both those topics.

On considering retirement: “I did give it some real thought. With free agency coming up, I didn’t want to think about another team or anything like that. My retirement, obviously, would have been a personal decision, based on family and whatever reasons I have. My No.1 reason for coming back, obviously, was Doc. Doc being here is huge. I enjoy playing for him. The guys, the city, the fans here are by far the best fans that I’ve ever been a part of.”

On Ray Allen’s Decision: “When a guy makes a decision based on him and his family, you can’t ever get upset at that. My personal feeling, I won’t put into it. The only thing I’ll say is I wish Ray the best and that’s where it’s at.”

Have they communicated? “I have not. I don’t have Ray’s number anymore so I’m not trying to communicate. I’m just being honest with everyone in here. It’s not wishing him less than or whatever…..it just is what it is.”

Why not communicate? “I choose not to. That’s a choice I personally made. You know, I am very close to Ray and his family. I wish them the best. I’m just making a choice on my own, that’s all.”   

On moving forward without Allen: “I’m focusing on Jason Terry and Courtney Lee, the new guys that are here, I wasn’t going to come here and answer a bunch of Ray Allen questions, I was going to answer one time and then focus on what’s right here in this gym, what’s present. And that’s where I’m at.”

Quite revealing stuff from the veteran power forward. Pregame handshakes before the start of the opener should be interesting to say the least.

Every single member of the Celtics roster spoke with the media today, as well as Doc Rivers, Danny Ainge and Wyc Grousbeck. We will have full transcript of their quotes, but here’s a few quick hitters for the interim to keep everyone informed.

Chris Wilcox calls himself at 90 percent health-wise in his return from heart surgery, although he is having trouble with his wind.

Darko Milicic spoke for the first time as a Celtic after the team officially signed him to a contract this morning. Quote of the day via Jimmy Toscano of CSNNE.com, asking Darko how he felt coming into the season: “Strong as shit.” He should be fun to talk to for the next few months.

Avery Bradley expressed his confidence level at “the highest its ever been.” He’s ahead of schedule in his recovery, but is nowhere near close to ready in returning.

--Jeff Green and Wilcox spoke at length on the strong bond they shared during the past season after their similar heart ailments.

–Jason Terry stole the show with his response on replacing Ray Allen? “Who?”

Much more on the way in the hours to come……

 

 

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