Out Like A Lamb

if rondo does not play over telfair next game its official we are either tanking or showcasing him

hey look on the bright side .. it cant get worse.

Once again we fail to make key defensive stops down the stretch.
On the bright side, Rondo played well overall and Al and Green played well offensively.

Well, for the good news – Charlotte has won a couple lately and both Philly and Memphis posted wins. The C’s are now 5th in the Oden sweepstakes and catching the leaders. Let’s hope Ainge helps out the team by trading Wally for a pick and telling Pierce to keep resting that foot.

Perkins has no go in his get up. He’s either still injured, or tentative because he’s out of shape or worried. We’d absolutely be better with Powe at this point. West looked intangibly bad. Wally is still out of his game (when he’s passing on open threes – it’s got to be bad.) Maybe Perk, Wally, West are still injured, but if that’s the case just play the healthy guys…

Great to see Rondo play with confidence. He got the Tommy Award and we’re back in 5th place! Yes! Things are looking up :)

The guy who disappointed me was Gomes, who I thought had turned the corner with a decent game against Golden State. Wilcox abused him at both ends.

West shouldn’t have been playing. He was moving at half speed. And when is Rivers going to figure out that Wally needs to come off the bench— permanently?

any news on pierce?

gotta keep plugging….this story will be told in the last 25 games…healthy Pierce,lottery pick and who has value with Theo’s contract for our next big trade…

well I was at the game. My thoughts:

There should never be any question about Rondo again. The kid is much better than Telfair who just doesn’t do anything well. Rondo knocked balls loose, tipped passes, protected lanes, cut off his man, twice guarded two of Seattles points(they went small too) as Telfair wandered away and guarded Ray Allen, who Wally was also on. West was so bad as to be absurd. So was Wally. Perkins was awful too, did nothing. Al is very good. Good d, good effort, is learning fast now…hope he didn’t hirt himself late when he grabbed his ankle and laid down with about 6 minutes left. Allen played within himself almost the whole time and racked up those big numbers anyway. Gomes did nothing and looked overmatched. Whon am I missing? Gerald. Gerald is just not doing much but he really did tend to create trouble becase they pay attention to him wherever he is.

I don’t know what else to say. Its clear to me that Rondo, Ta, and Al are going to make it. It seemed like that to me already and this game just seperates them from the rest of the group. West is much worse…I just don’t know what has happened to him. He seems like he has lost confidence just in where to be and he can’t shoot anymore. the fact that telfair, and Perk suck is no surprise and shouldn’t be to anyone who has watched in person. Gomes, like West though seems to have gotten worse. Gerald should be the next to become elite. Wally is just awful and serves no purpose when he isn’t shooting well.

I have seen this group a few times now in the last year. I have gotten animated before in arguing my defense of Rondo, Al and Allen and anti Telfair feeling. I think I’ll stop that nonssense now because after seeing this all again, its clear to me that those Bassy boosters and folks who don’t like Al, Allen or Rondo are actually not watching the games guys. There just is no way some of the posters are seeing the games and have the opinions that they have, so keep that in mind and calm down they have some other agenda or something.

oh, Doc did almost everything right. True story. I have a complaint or two. Al sat out too long with perk in in the 1st half. After Rondo kicked ass in the first half, he once again left DW in their until we were down by 16 late in the 3rd. These are significant mistakes but that was it

I wish Gerald would attack the rim like TA he has a more respectable outside shot so a pump fake and a jab step would get him to the rim with contact and at least put him on the line like Pierce…I think we saw it a couple times last night…Wally predictably didn’t deserve the start over Gerald….Ainge and Doc are now contradicting each other on Gerald Green…Danny has liked his play Doc has hated is decension in the ranks perhaps!

Someone mentioned Perk should be sent to the NBDL in another thread…well he can’t be but if they were really using the system like a minor league club they could at least send him down there to get into playing shape…geez hit the treadmill Perk I’m sure there’s one in the hotel

Jeff no mention on the Ainge article where he and Doc have conflicting views on Gerald?

more comments this am, those earlier ones I typed last night:

I go early and watch the shoot arounds. Last year this is why I was wild about Gerald and new Scal was nothing. Scal even missed 75% of his shots in practice. I am old enough to have sat and watched the warmups with Larry and Kevin and even back to Cowens and Jo Jo and Hondo. Good players do NOT miss most of their shots in practice. I have watched too much bb to argue with dummies about this. Last year Gerald was as flawless as anyone I have seen since Bird and Gervin. He made everything. I was horrified yesterday to see him miss often but he did make most of his shots and some long ones…and he is so smooth with his touch.

telfair couldn’t make uncontested 8 footers in practice. Has anyone else seen this? He didn’t make but maybe one of twenty. Rondo made way more than half his shots and many of them were from around 10 feet. I saw him take one twenty footer and he made it. His technique isn’t terrible but he comes off his shoulder too much.

Wally was missing a lot. More often than not. Allen and Gerald probably did the most as far as taking all kinds of shots and angles and have Candy stand in front of them. West was missing a lot too Gomes whose close in shot has been reliable was missing a lot.

The guys came out so tentative. I immediately thought: Rivers has just destroyed them. wests spacing was so incredibly bad. He was maybe 4-5 feet from Al when he tried to pass over his guy to Al!! Youd think he was in elementary school.

Important note. And this struck me last year about Al anmd this year about Allen. I thought last year Al looked BIGGER the Perk. I am usually in the 10th row and was in the 12th yesterday. I knew then by the way he played he should be our center. Weell I don’t know whet they list Tony at but he looks about as big as Gomes if not a tad taller…much thinner though. he shut Ray Allen down, and being there it was easy to see why. I am telling you when he was on him, he even knew he could play back because he was soo much bigger his hands could still blocks Rays vision.
He dwarfed him. Makes DW look like a midget too.

Well I don’t think Doc did everything right.
1. Wally should not be starting.
2. West shouldn’t have played at all. West couldn’t even bend over.
3. Where the hell was Powe? Gomes and Scalabrine were getting killed in the paint.
4. Why did he stay with Scalabrine, who missed EVERY shot he took?
5. Why was he afraid to play Rondo unless Telfair was also in the game?
6. Why did Tony Allen sit so long in the second quarter?
7. Why no timeouts to break momentum? Rivers just sat there while Seattle went on a 9-0 run, an 11-0 run… This guy is so bad that we just get used to his mistakes and we don’t think they are mistakes any more.

Sorry Jeff…just trying to help a brother out

Brick, I agree with everything you listed. I have seen him do worse and was amazed he kept Rondo in as much as he did and was pleased by it. I hate doc.

I have defended Gomes and West but its getting to the point that its ridiculous. And as I say, I really believe anyone who can’t see how good Rondo, TA, Al, PP, and Gerald are and can be, look, they are NOT watching. This is a no contest type of thing. Its not close, we have CLEAR seperation. What is interesting too is that these guys who are standing out are the guys who are physically superior: Al has incredible hands and is quick for his height. He caught a pass late in the 3rd I think it was that no human could catch. The other guys going for the ball too, their heads turned past his hand as if the ball was going to keep going and started leaning that way…but the ball was stuck in his hand like it was a glove. And he appeared as tall as anyone out there except for Sene. Rondo is not as small as Telfair and has a much longer reach, and also is freakish in his ability to snag the ball. As we all know he is lightning quick. He will never ever be outmatched out there with his hands, arms and speed. He dribbles as if the ball is part of his hand. Bassy looks at the ball too. Its friggin awful that a pro scout would ever think he would amount to anything. TA is never going to be undersized or not as quick as who he is on. And of course everyone must have seen GG’s elevation for a loose ball that got popped in the air in q3 or q4. It looked like he jumped on one of those tramplonies and got shot up. We got the ball because of it but I don’t think he touched it. gerald has a lot more muscle too. Wait until he is 30. You recall how small Jordan was as a college so? gerald is waaay bigger than MJ was at the same age

The punchline for me is I look at what we have and I want a PF. am more than happy to send Ratliff, Wally, Scal, Bassy and Perk away for anything we can get. I am less happy to get rid of Gomes, Powe, West, but West and Gomes might be tradeable assets. We should count our blessings that we seem to have 4 young guys who are going to be playing(Rondo, Al, GG, and TA) and four other young guys who we should be able to get something for(Perk, Bassy, West, and Gomes), but i am praying Ainge can finish the job

and its awful to say but if I understand our financial and draft position properly, we can realistically get a decent healthy free agent and also a high pick in the draft this summer. SAdd that too what i think is a core 5 and the ability to trade the 4 young odd man out assets and we are probably on to something. We don’t have to tank the season. Lets do the best we can but when anyone gets injured, makes sure we go without them until they are better. West should sit and so should Wally and PP for awhile right now.

Thanks wahz, great insight which is truly appreciated.

It is always nice to hear from someone who was actually at the game.

I found your comments about TA very interesting and I have always thought the guy just looks like an athlete. Great for the Celts that he has started to shine consistently.

I also love your point about GG at 30. Another example is Joe Johnson now compared to JJ with the Celtics. I have said on this site before, if we let these guys mature both mentally AND physically, we will have a team that will contend.

In relation to Ryan, I actually think he has hit the rookie wall. The guy has played non-stop since January last year. He obviously worked extremely hard during the summer and all the minutes, wear and tear has just caught up. He needs to find the balance between staying fresh and healthy versus not working hard enough. Again this is an issue that experience will resolve.

Thanks again, you have given me some much needed positive vibes.

A win against Portland would do wonders for this young group.

Fingers crossed.

Cheers

Aussie

P.S. Thanks to Jeff and the team for the great new site. Awesome.

They couldn’t play enough defense to win the game. They made Ridnour look like Steve Nash. Rondo will play well as long as it is an uptempo pressure the ball situation. He is less effective in half court sets unless they run the pick and roll with him. West shouldn’t have been out there with his back and Wally’s ankles are obviously giving him trouble. Scal is just taking time that Powe could use to gain experience.

They guy trying to guard ridnour was Bassy, fwiw. Rondo dominated the other guy, watson…this is the way its been all year, imho