Wednesday, August 8, 2007

10 things on a dog day in August

1) Steals Of The Draft: Every year about this time, the internet is abuzz with "steals of the draft" talk. There are somewhere between 25 and 35 steals of the draft right now. Quite a few teams have two or more. This will quickly be whittled down when many of these stealy types either sit on the bench and don't play, or play and look like they ought to be sitting on the bench.

Do the Celtics have a Steal Of The Draft? Probably not. I dunno.


2) There won't be much chance of any steals of the draft in Phoenix in this or in coming years, because the Suns owner keeps giving draft picks away for canvas bags with cartoon dollar signs on them. This is what happens when you're a measly multi-hundred millionaire and all your pals are billionaires. You know what it's like to be in that position? Well I'll tell you- It sucks. You feel bad. You just don't have enough money.

Life is filled with ironies like that.


3) The August 5th Shira Springer article in the Globe breaking down the timeline of THE TRADE was a great one. Tyronn Lue (who I just recently spoke of here as having a great relationship with Doc Rivers) was instrumental in influencing Mr. Garnett to consent to the move. Lue is entering the last year of his contract. Here's a prediction: If Doc is here the season after this one, Lue will be too.

This is the type of thing I hoped would happen when Rivers was hired. He really is well liked everywhere, and that's a plus in drawing players provided the team is winning.



4) Also mentioned in that article: "The Timberwolves expressed strong interest in point guard of the future Rajon Rondo throughout the process, but they could not pry him from the Celtics' grasp..."

This is exactly the same circumstance as happened in Seattle. Presti pushed hard for Rondo, but the Celtics wouldn't budge.

Let me state this another way... It appears that giving up Rondo was a potential dealbreaker in BOTH the Ray Allen trade and Kevin Garnett trade... something to think about for those fretting about point guard performance.

I'm not worried about point. Other teams need to worry about Rondo.


5) Scalabrine and Doc Rivers are two overly maligned figures who, in my humble opinion, are about to show why they were hired in the first place. I'm looking for big years from both, and I'm also looking forward to reading "We CAN'T trade Scal!" comments by mid year. That would be funny.


6) Someone recently brought up the subject of that hideous winter night when Garden patrons chanted "MVP" to Kobe Bryant. It appears the real fans had stayed away allowing cretinous celebrity groupies to buy tickets and howl their morbid chant...

...although I do have an alternate theory: I believe that it was actually loyal Celtic fans calling out "MVP" that evening, but that they were referring to Most Virulent Personality.

At any rate, those repellent days are behind us and the new Celtic juggernaut will steamroll the Lakers for a while, leaving little purple and gold puddles behind after each contest.


7) A difference between the Szczerbiak trade and the Garnett trade: After the first trade Minnesota and Boston fans hated each other's teams. After this trade they love each other's teams.

8) An entire generation of Boston fans only has word-of-mouth knowledge of great Celtic basketball. They've never seen it- never felt it. That fool's gold Obieball Eastern finals run a few years back was their peak experience. This coming year is huge for the younger fans. The older fans will have their flame rekindled; the younger ones will finally have something to hold on to aside from stories.

9) The quote by Ainge that Garnett will play some center this season makes sense. It means that center will sometimes be a sure strong spot, and opens up the possibilty of minutes for Big Baby and Powe, should they earn them.

10) Chicago and Toronto fans as well as some of the dark sorcerers of the Boston Globe seem to be hanging their hats on the theory that depth will overcome a trio of great stars. I'm here to tell you nice folks, that hardly ever happens.

As eloquently written by Realgm's Elrod Enchilada many times: Teams with depth but without great players usually fall short; while teams with the best players usually win.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi Gant. Great observations

Just wanted to write in and tell you that I stop by this site quite often. I really enjoy reading the Blog. Keep it up!

Gant said...

Thanks! This is an AMAZING offseason. And now look (maybe): Reg-gie! Reg-gie! REG-GIE!

Anonymous said...

Once again an excellent read.

I always enjoy your posts and love your comment about Rondo, certainly something to think about.

Thanks for the thoughts.

Cheers

Aussie Celtic

Gant said...

Youre welcome Aussie Celtic!

This is going to be great fun for Celtic fans all over the world. We've all been waiting a long long time for what's happening now.