New Scorecard

Rondo was great tonight! I hope he can keep it up. Never should have been out of the rotation. He doesn’t like to pass the ball much though. lol

Powe! He was our best big man tonight.

Did we find another player in Allan Ray? The guy has a little bit of game.

Rajon was great…who said he couldn’t shoot?! Once he can consistently bury a jumper he will be the starting PG.

I actually used to like TJ Ford. Too bad…oh well!!

I thought it was hilarious how after that interview gorman said something like “I guess we will cross TJ’s name of the perspective interview list”.

I was really happy with Powe and Ray. Rondo’s performance made me feel vindicated. I’ve been banging away with my opinion that he is our best point guard for a while now, providing every stat I could think of to back my case up. In only 30 minutes tonight, he was our best player by far. If Doc does not start him tomorrow, something is seriously wrong with his brain. I like Bassy, and think that he is a talented point guard, he just isn’t as good as Rajon. That doesn’t make Bassy a bum, it just means that Rajon is special.

Personally, I think that they play well together and are unselfish. I never get the feeling that Bassy is trying to ice Rondo, or that Rondo is trying to sabotage Bassy. I get that feeling whenever I see West out there with either of them. It says a lot about the character of two young players who are competing for limited minutes that they would not engage in that kind of detrimental conduct.

I also appreciated how our guys fought all throughout the game. They tried hard, they are just young and many of our best players, and almost all of our vets, are injured. They did not mail this game in, and you could see that Toronto was feeling the pressure in the fourth quarter. They won, but it wasn’t easy and they knew it.

Mike, if you watched summer league, that is where the bond between Bassy and Rondo was formed. It was even mentioned in a few of the broadcasts. They work very well together and don’t compete against each other. Give these guys some time and I think they will be a pretty good tanden. I could care less which one starts, I just want to see both of them play and blossom. I really like these two kids. But you’re right, Rondo is special.

I love Powe too. I would be perfectly comfortable with Powe if Gomes was traded. I think he has a higher ceiling than Gomes as far as an undersized PF goes. He will NOT be pushed around in the post! I really like that kid.

we now lokk for rays of hope instead of victories. rondo is a keeper- speed, d, passes, and presence. powe is an animal. a step back for big al tonight- held onto the ball too long and let the defense come to him. at least there was energy.

It’s the same ole, same ole. At some point this team needs to get new blood with the coaching. Fro the rest of the year, despite loses mounting up, Cs need to play focused aggressive D- both man to man and team D. Fundamentals need to be matered, switching on the pick and roll, etc. Doc is not the best man for the job. By season’s end this team needs to be more “grizzled” and guys like Green, Al, Rondo need to have consistent good games every night.

A 20 W turn around next year is plausible provided we make the coaching change needed now and we get a rock solid top 3 or 4 draft pick which seems more and more likely each passing game.

This is a “lemon” season. Let’s make the coaching change and start making lemonade because this year’s kool-aid taste awful!

The only thing worse than watching Doc, has been reading the pure unfiltered nonsense from some of the folks here who didn’t get how good Rajon was, when they never ever could have possibly actually watched a game in person. Yeah I am pissed because I think it all matters. Danny and company stick with telfair and it doesn’t help to have fan support. Obvious keepers all along and its always looked like it to me: PP, Rondo, Powe, Allen, Al..hguus who just have to get the heck out of here for my own sanity: Bassy, Perk, West, Scal, Wally…we have to get these bodies out of here

Rondo A
Ray B- (good in a few spurts, but that was it)
Powe B (some tough rebounds)
Telfair B
Perkins F (pretty much invisible and useless)
Jefferson D
Gomes C-
Kandi C
Green D

Overall, very disappointed in the guys that are supposed to be stepping up — Green, Perkins and Jefferson. The more I watch Perkins, the more it becomes clear that he will be a career backup center. Gomes is too small to play the position he plays, but we all know that now.

I hope this team can get to 25 wins, but I doubt it.

Jeff, on a few points:

1) It is sad that the “did anyone get hurt tonight question” has to be raised in evaluating your club’s performance. No other team has that kink of worries.

2) It is important to see how Al and Green do because they are the 2 most important players on this team after Pierce when talking about the team’s potential. As I have posted in the past, give Al 15 shots every single game, even if he has an awful game. On Green, stop with the 3s, okay to take one or two a game, but that boy needs to go hard to the rim more often then he does. This is the time for the 2 to have minutes and develop their complete games.

3) More important catagory instead of “if somebody stepped up” would be, is somebody consistently stepping up game in and game out like Gomes did last year. In something like 5 of Rondo’s last 7 games or so, he has gotten maybe 3 points or less. Can Rondo get 10 in 5 of the next 7 games is a more important factor than just one game.

4)In regard to how Doc is doing, that catagory is too late to matter much. We are depleted, he has no choice to give playing time to the ones that can play. The big factor why you can’t give Doc a good grade is because the only way most teams that face adversity, or lack talent, etc can compete successfully on a regular basis is by having 1) good aggressive defense and 2) playing good fundamental basketball. I know we are young and in some instances it is on the players, but a better coach would have us much further along the path and overachieving.

The best thing that can come out of all this right now is to make the coaching change and get this team playing better ball for next year.

Yeah TJ Ford just became. Biggest moron in the NBA next to Damon Jones for me.

They both act like Puff Daddy or somthing. Its bizare and annoying

Maybe I’m stating the obvious here, but what peeves me most about this administration (coaching & management included) is their insistence upon pushing and sticking with certain guys with a complete disregard for actual results. Is this a basketball team, or a political party? Just because you sign a guy to a contract extension (Perkins) or trade for him (Telfair) doesn’t mean you stick with him at all costs, especially when your team isn’t exactly playoff caliber.
To me, it’s been a complete shame that Rondo hasn’t gotten more playing time this year, and he proved that tonight. The logical next step would be to start him next game, or at least give him significant minutes again. But I’ll be shocked if that happens…I fully expect him to get only about 5 minutes.
Also, I understand why the C’s would want to wait to search for a full-time replacement coach until the offseason…but Doc is such a complete train wreck, and that excuse is a total cop-out. Hasn’t Danny Ainge ever heard of an interim[/i] coach? Get rid of Doc ASAP, and hand the reigns over to Tony Brown, Dave Wohl, Clifford Ray, [i]anyone. This is awful.

“3) More important catagory instead of "if somebody stepped up” would be, is somebody consistently stepping up game in and game out like Gomes did last year. In something like 5 of Rondo’s last 7 games or so, he has gotten maybe 3 points or less. Can Rondo get 10 in 5 of the next 7 games is a more important factor than just one game"

I could say some VERY unkind things about a post like this. I wonder if BCCeltfan is aware of the minutes column on a stat sheet. Here are Rondo’s minutes and points in the last 7 games before this one.

12/29 – 3 minutes, 0 points
12/31 – 28 minutes, 12 points
1/1 – 12 minutes, 2 points
1/3 – 7 minutes, 0 points
1/5 – 6 minutes, 0 points
1/7 – 1 minute, 0 points
1/10 – 13 minutes, 7 points

The only games in which he took more than 1 shot were the 12 and 7 point performances. He was often limited to playing only the 2, and so was unable to actually direct the offense. In all of these games, he was playing his usual brand of defense. In tonight’s game he was finally allowed to play in the meaningful minutes of a game, against a top point guard, and he was outstanding. Will he always be this good? Probably not, but if he is allowed to play, he will usually be pretty darn good.

Actually there are at least two other teams that have been just as hard if not harder by injuries than the Celtics. Milwaukee has four starters out of the lineup – Simmons, Redd, Villanueva and Williams. And NO/OK is down their three best players – Paul, Stoyakovich and West.

The best news tonight is the most of the teams the Celtics are truly in competition with won. Philadelphia, No/OK, Atlanta and Charlotte posted W’s. Memphis just fell short in its comeback against Minnesota. The C’s are still 5th in the standings but the gap has narrowed.

Anyone care to enlighten me/us what TJ did/said? Thanks!

I don’t understand why everyone is calling for Doc to be fired right now. It is not going to be good for this team, we are not going to find a coach for the future until the offseason (Adelman?), it doesn’t make sense for our young guys to make the transition for an interim coach, and then immediatley adapt to a new system for whomever else is hired, it will only confuse the players and possibly delay their development.

For those that are on the Fire Doc posse, here is a great article on what they say is the hottest College coach in the game. Jerry West (Grizzley)and Rod Thorn (Nets) are his biggest fans. But they are West Virgina Mountainer alumni. Plus West’s son is there on a scholarship. The coach: John Beilein check it out, good read.

http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news;ylt=AoWaZilfCov7YC3wY.tyo.8vLYF?slug=aw-beilein011207&prov=yhoo&type=lgns

Just to give you a taste of the article and the offense he created:

Beilein developed an offense described by one ex-assistant as a cross between Pete Carril’s Princeton and Tex Winter’s Triangle, a two-point guard set that is forever freeing shooters on drive-and-kicks, forever beating defenders backdoor for layups. What’s more, they say his practices are the most brilliant tutorials on shooting and catching and passing anywhere. That’s how the system works because the parts are freakish fundamental fits.

Think that would fit with our team? Telfair and Rondo?

Boston stayed close enough to win if they could’ve just stopped Bosh from scoring down the stretch however if it wasn’t Bosh it would’ve been one of the other big men on Toronto, they had a big line up against the little C’s.
Jefferson is making things hard on himself when he holds the ball too long before making his move, then when he does that cross over move with the ball in front of the defender he’s putting the ball too far out from his body and nearly gets it taken away or he hits the defender with the ball ! Then when he goes up to shoot against one of those big men he’s not faking them enough.
Perkins doesn’t need to be on the floor he looks slow and useless, besides Powe is doing a much better job on the boards and defending the opponents.
Telfair is playing like he really doesn’t have any IQ on the court he doesn’t know when and how and where to use his speed against the opponents. There were a number of times he should’ve taken his man to the rim or shot the ball but he passed as though he wasn’t interested in scoring.
Gerald looks like a big kid on the court he looks completely scared to take his man off the dribble and he is passing the ball much too much to be a scorer, he better take note of what Allen Ray did on the court, Ray played like he is a scorer and that’s what Boston needs on the court someone to take charge of scoring.
Rondo was great from start to finish and he deserves to start ovre Telfair for his overall play

The small lineup give the Cs the better chance of winning. Rondo and Powe have to play more. AL and Perk can’t play together as Perk’s man just doubles down on AL because he knows Perk won’t shoot from the outside. This version of the Cs is no different from other versions we have seen this season. If they play better
defense and rebound and don’t commit a bunch of stupid turnovers they have a chance to win. But they must run and press.

Unfortunately Telfair’s defense continues to be woefully inadequate. He made both Tinsley and TJ Ford look like all-stars.

Also, the idea that the Celtics did well by “going small” is inaccurate. There were always two big players in the game along with the guards. The lineup that was successful in the second quarter was Olowokandi, Powe, Ray, Telfair and Rondo.

I know he’s young and inexperienced but does it drive anyone else crazy the way Gerald Green has a tendency to take “high school” shots? At least once a game (and he had several last night), Green gets caught driving to the hoop out of control and then he gets stuck in the air with no where to go, and no good shot to take, so he just ends up chucking it at the hoop. Oftentimes its a shot that he takes with his back completely to the hoop. They’re the kind of shots you take playing in a driveway pickup game.

As we have seen previously with BigAl, Tony, GG. and Powe, only Doc can stop Rando (a Ford can not). Playing time is what Rando needs and not just 6 minutes a game.

We need to remember that Rondo has only done what he had to do, work on his shooting. The article in the Herald highlighted this. Playing time will continue to expand as his consistance expands. Making players earn thier minutes, makes them work all that much harder on the things they need to. Rondo will be a force in this league, if he continues to work on the things he needs too. And his comments and actions seem to reinforce that he’s on the right path.

The thing with Rondo that, in my mind, virtually assures that he’s going to be a very good player is that he has incredible instincts and feel for the game. Telfair never really seems entirely comfortable out there, and he doesn’t have particularly good vision. In contrast, Rajon just seems to have an innate sense of when to push it up, when to slow it down, the exact moment to deliver the ball to a guy, etc. For those of you who watched the game, for example, Rondo made a fantastic one-handed low bounce pass accross the lane to a cutting Ray (I think it was Ray) that Telfair NEVER could have made (and very point guards in the league can make). I don’t hate Telfair, and in fact I think he can be a nice player in this league, but probably as a back-up point guard that will give you points in spurts and who can shift to the two if necessary. That should be his role (ala Barbosa or Boykins, for example). And as for Rondo’s jump shot, it’s certainly no worse (and is probably better) than that of a young Jason Kidd or Gary Payton. So that will come.

Situations like this that the Celtics are in are terrible. Its not a growth opportunity for these kids, because they are forced to do things they wouldn’t, couldn’t, or aren’t capable of. This is a real test for Doc to let these kids flow and accept the results instead of winning the game on their own.
   I agree with the poster above who suggested Powe and Al play tegether some. Perk doesn’t seem capable of being more than he is. And Telfair has been a huge disappointment to me. His defense makes every PG a star and puts all the bigs in foul trouble.

Mike, answering your post about Rondo not scoring much. I do realize too it is due to a lack of playing time that contributes to this. This has been one of my beefs. Guys like Wally and Scal getting major minutes over a guy like Green. Playing a hurt West over Rondo, etc, etc. If Rondo does get minutes (which in no certainty with Doc’s coaching rotations) he needs to bring it consistently. If he does, great; if not then it is one of those situations where he just happened to have a good game. I like Rondo, I think of the 3 (West, Telfair, Rondo) I lean towards him, especially if he can play anywhere close to the level last night.

The thing is, every game at least one of our guys is likely to have a good game. Who knows, maybe Gomes goes off for 18/11 next game. The main thing is, a guy like Rondo, AL, or Green needs playing time. They need to be coached up properly which isn’t happening.

Gerald Green for example should be emmulating Paul Pierce’s game who has made a career of taking it to the hoop and getting to the line. I see more of Green sitting outside and shooting long range jumpers and in essence becoming more of a “poor man’s Wally” than the quality player he could be using his skills like Pierce does.

On firing Doc as coach, there is a good article in Yahoo sports website about the West Virginia college basketball coach and how he would be a great NBA hire. Lookey here, Red could come back from heaven (assuming that’s where he went) and coach and we aren’t making the playoffs unless there is a terrorist attack at the New Jersey/Toronto basketball game and Isiah starts acting more like Isiah.

Look around at professional sports and the good coaches and managers can get their teams from even below average at times to be good teams: Tigers in baseball, Jets and Saints in football, Jazz and Bulls, etc.

This firing should have been done a long time ago, the $5M that Doc is making has stopped this from happening. If and until the revenue declines due to a lack of support for a 12-23 club, Doc probably still hangs on the rest of the year. With the insanity, I wouldn’t rule him coaching next year but common sense says he goes.
I don’t know all the assistants, etc, but get the best basketball mind available and rid of Doc now.

This was in a recent column by Kelly Dwyer of CNNSI. I found this part very applicable to this years Celtics (injuries aside)

• Hoops fans who has suffered through a season with their favorite team habitually underachieving can understand what Kevin Arnovitz of ClipperBlog.com is dealing with. After bashing your head trying to come up with easy answers behind a team’s lousy play (a coach who should know better, a knucklehead scorer who doesn’t know a thing, a GM who refuses to get to know some other team’s All-Star trade bait a little better), you start to step back after a while. Your team is 16-19, it recently lost to the Hawks and the simple answers just aren’t making any sense. They rarely do.

Enervated, you realize that maybe the talent on hand isn’t as hot as you once thought; the falloff from the venerated vets has been steeper than expected; the uptick from the young talent hasn’t been decisive enough; and perhaps your favorite team isn’t underachieving at all. That they are what they are, and where they are ain’t where you want to be. Bummer.

Okay, I think most of us realzie now that the Celts were never a playoff team to begin with (unless we somehow backed our way into it winning the Atlantic which may be possible with a sub 500 record).

Where do we go from here. Get the best basketball guy you can at this point. If the team shows great strides in developing, I’m not opposed to keeping the interim guy. If not, try to get a better one when the season ends. The idea that this team can’t adjust to a new coach is horsey pooh. We have a coach now in Doc where there are times a player is doing well, and Doc will sit him for a 20 minute stretch; or a player that has a fine game and gets only 5 min. the next. This team needs a fundamentally sound coach to at least get us back in the right direction.

Bankshot…“He doesn’t like to pass the ball much though.”
———————————————————————————————————-
Passing, court vision, and IQ are his strengths. They are working with him to take outside shots and take it to the basket. This is his opportunity to work on those things.

If Rondo had scored 0 points all game, he would have been hands down more effective to have in the game than Telfair; That is how poor Telfair’s defense was. I knew his defense was poor, but watching him last night was a complete eye opener.

There’s 1 reason the Celtics were in this game with a few minutes left… because Doc was forced to play some of the players that we have been saying to play all along (Rondo over Telfair, Powe over Scally, etc.). Both Rondo and Powe create shots and opportunities off of missed baskets, fast breaks, steals, etc… in other words, where there weren’t opportunities before.

Anyone else prefer to see Kandi over Perk at this point? I know I do.

I love the fight they had.. made the game worth watching.

I am wondering what is going on with Perk. I felt he could have been an 8/8 guy for us. First of all, please don’t rush him back; if he isn’t 90% and over the injury, I want him on the bench. Secondly, why isn’t he getting tutoring from Clifford Ray too? Seems like AL is making progress. Ray was a good defender/rebounder in his time. I expected more from Perk this year like we all did from Allen early on. I’m not ready to toss Perk on the junk pile until we can get some solid answers to why he has regressed this season.

as far as what “we were all along” we know more but I bet a lot of us think we are way better than we appear and its the idiot coach who is the main problem. And now we are destroyed by injuries and maybe that is a good thing as we are now probably going to get a high pick and maybe a new coach. If the new coach is not an idiot too, and Danny can make a trade next year we have someting like this as an 9 man rotation: Pierce, Rondo, Al, Allen, Draft pick, Powe, Green, Perk, Player traded for. (Hopefully these bums will be gone: Bassy, West, Wally, Scal.)
I really don’t give a darn if everyone else can’t see it because they couldn’t see how good Tony and Powe and Rondo and Al were. Those now down on Perk are goofy too. Perk is a VERY useful back up for heavans sake and that is all he was ever going to be. We need him to be an animal for 20 a game. Tony can/will still be a star. PP is a star. Rondo can/will be a star. Gerald can/will be. Al can/will be. Powe can be a SOLID career back up. Gomes is too small and is not a back up on a great team. We still need a good back up point. Bassy won’t do EVER. We are close to being great, we need another big man from this draft a back up veteran point and to take out the trash and have a fine game coach

question: its obvious to me and many others who needs to be in the game, even if it took a long time for it to be obvious to the majority, it was obvious to those of us actually AT the games. We have a core group that needs some help, needs health, and some guys are just going to always suck(Bassy). Given how otherwordly lousy Bassy is, can we trust Danny to finish the job here, ie, get veteran point help and draft a very good big man?

I am not sure. I wish I was sure.

I’ve noticed that I watch most of the game, and then turn it off for the last two minutes because I know what the outcome will be. Used to be I wouldn’t mind missing a few minutes at the start, but NEVER miss the end.

Master,

I wrote here that I saw Powe, heck I dunno I must have seen him a dozen times in college. I see a lot of games. It was brilliant to get him. But then Doc of course don’t play him. And Rondo, I didn’t see Rondo much BUT I saw him some and he is wildly gifted, there is NO WAY to miss it! I promise you, watching him even twenty minutes is enough and seeing him shoot in practice. Doc is blind. And what it was about Tony was just looking at him physically, likewise with Al. Al seemed even taller than Perk and can jump higher so why not center. Doc is just an idiot, that is the problem. We already have pices that would evolve to a 55 win team, I know that sounds crazy but PP, Al, Allen, Powe, and Rondo are that good. But we need another quality big and a back up point who can play some d

You guys are missing the best news of all last night: Almost all of our competitors in the Greg Oden-Kevin Durant Sweepstakes (Seattle, Atlanta, Philly, Charlotte, New Orleans and Miami (don’t put it past Riley to tank) all won last night, which means they lost. Only Memphis lost (won). Yippee.

newyorkceltics, after the game dickerson was interviewing tj ford and he said you just played against rajon rondo can you give me your scouting report on him, ford responded he’s pretty good he’s long has a unique playing style but it’s not about boston it’s about us baby, dickerson said it is about boston here in boston and then went on to ask ford about bargnani, then when he threw it back to gorman gorman said well i guess we can cross tj off the prospective interview list after that little performance

Based on last night’s performance, GG has a long way to go before he deserves to start for us once we are healthy. I was very disappointed in his ball handling skills in the open court. As much as we would often criticize Tony Allen for dribbling more than twice, he has a much better handle than Gerald. That, to me, is the weakest part of Gerald’s game, and why he struggles taking it to the hole. The more he plays, the more I understand why Doc has been hesitant to play him alot of minutes.

I think we all need a little perspective when evaluation how these players (Powe, Rondo, etc) are producing in these games. They both played well last night, but in the coming weeks we can’t just look at the box score and say, player X had X # of points, rebounds assists, etc….therefore he should have been playing all along and Doc is an idiot. I say this because the problem with that logic is that the C’s are short handed. Therefore somebody has to play, and I agree, it might as well be the young guys because the “vets” sure haven’t made the C’s a winning team. However, the obvious result of the young guys getting the majority of playing time, is that they’re going to produce numbers. There’s no way that they can’t. In the course of any game there are going to be missed shots, so somebody, even if its by default, is going to grab rebounds. The same is true with assists and points. They’re going to come from someone in the course of a game, so if the young guys are playing a lot of minutes, reason argues that they’re going to produce numbers. In evaluating the young, I think its best if people take a broader view and not simply point to the box scores and then use that as justification for calling Doc an idiot. While the latter may be true, you can’t just use the former as proof. Now before everyone flies off the handle, I’d like to say that I am a Rondo fan, and I like Powe and I think they played quite well last night. I just think in general a lot of people out there are too quick to point at increased minutes and the increased production that coincides with it and use that as proof that a certain guy should have been playing all a long.

Well, I watched most of the taped game last night and about Rondo: He has very quick hands and can swat the ball away from the enemy, mostly from players he is not directly guarding; Thats fine; the more he does it, the better. Guarding his own man, like TJ; well, Im not so sure. I saw TJ drive past him like Rondo had cement feet and just laid the ball in the basket.Rondo could not keep up with him. He has to learn how to avboid getting stranded at picks, cause thats what he is going to see all the time. At times he was no better than Bassy on defense – so you know what I mean. I have to wact the last Q to see how he did there, but apparently he had his best game yet – 23 points is a lot for a guy that has no jumpshot. Nice – He can only improve -IF THEY PLAY HIM? READING THIS, DOC????

I’m no Doc fan (the sooner we see the back of him, the better in my opinion), but you’ve got to at least give him credit for keeping Rondo in last night once he caught fire.

Gerald is playing like a high school kid against professionals.
He’s playing nervous, and uncertain, at times too fast and other times too slow, he doesn’t seem to know when to be aggressive from when not to be aggressive, he passing the ball too much to be a reliable scoring guard.
I’m surprised that Doc or some coach hasn’t told him to look for the catch and shoot shots and to take his man to the basket when he can.
He’s pitiful to watch at times, and other times a little entertaining, he has a while to go to be more assertive. He needs to be in the attack mode on all offensive plays.
Al Jefferson is playing a bit clumzy when he has to face up his man, he’s putting the ball too far out from his body and trying to beat his man off the jump to score instead of faking his man up and then moving for the score. Lately the big defenders has been blocking his shot because Al is trying to quick jump on them, but their tall enough to still block his shot.
Still Al has a wonderfully soft touch and will eventually be a consistent scorer when he applies himself mentally.
Telfair is a natural scorer as a point guard but he’s caught up into just being a point guard and not a scorer first.
Telfair isn’t playing with fire in his heart he’s playing by the instructive commands of Doc Rivers and its stiffling Telfairs aggressiveness and creativity.
He’s not sure when to be aggressive and as a point guard he should always scout the floor for a weakness in matchups but he hasn’t been doing this at all. With his quickness and driving ability he should nearly always go into the paint to see if he could get someone to come off their man so he can pass the ball to them. Jefferson would benefit the most from Telfairs drives and dishes. But seldon does Telfaird does so and Jefferson isn’t getting the ball as much as he should.
At this point of the Celtics dilemna these 3 players are going to have to step up their games by leaps and bounds in order for the C’s to stay competitive.
Allan Ray knows what should be done as a shooting guard I’m just not sure if he can get the job done until the main calvary comes back.

Rondo can play. He will be better than Telfair. He has a better feel for
the game. Powe will help the team by getting O rebounds and by getting fouled as he gets put backs and puts the other team in foul trouble.
His defensive rebounds will help trigger fast breaks. But he can’t do this if he doesn’t get meaningful minutes. We all know he is playing because Scal is hurt. I hope for Powe’s sake he plays well or it will be back to the pine for him. I think he can be a very good player. He and AL would work well together, I firmly believe.

After tonight’s Pistons game I want to chime in on what has been said since last night:

Point 1: I said I want to see if Rondo can put up # like 10 pt in 5 of the next 7 games, and play the type of ball he did last night. Well, he saw 17 min. and shot 2 for 6 from the field, had 5 boards, 3 assists, 2 turnovers. I don’t expect him to be getting 20 a night, but this is his opportunity with West & Wally out to step it up and prove he deserves the playing time.

Point 2- I’m not picking on Rondo, I think he should be our PG. As I said last night, these youngsters need to individually bring it game in game out. I made the comment Gomes could get 18/11 tonight (and came close to that) and every game at least one guy out of the seven (not counting AL or GG) is likely to have a good game. So again the barometer is not who stepped up tonight but how consistently they step up.

Point 3- I’m curious as to why Perk has regressed. I’m aware of the injury but still he was about a 6/6 guy last year and showed all the signs of going 8/8 for us. Any ideas?

Point 4- Gerald Green and Big AL are both a work in progress. At this point in both their careers and with the Cs all banged up, no reason why you don’t play both 35 min. every night. I realize AL still has his momoments of struggles out there, but still I want him taking 15 shots a game. I also know Green too really lacks the experience at times and it shows, but let him play through that. He’s going to have 4 for 14 nights and 10 for 20 nights like he did against the Pistong. Morrison for Charlotte has had a 1 for 14 or 1 for 15 game and I think he was something like 6 for 38 or some ungodly # during a stretch. Morrison has played through that and I’m sure it’s helped his confidence. Green needs the opportunity to do the same.

Point 5- I can easily live with a lose to the Pistons at Detroit the way we did tonight. If the rest of this season isn’t devoted to developing the youth, then this franchise doesn’t have a clue.