Daily Links - 2/12

Doc’s remarks and the Wolves win says a lot about how we’ve ended up where we are. After the 2005 season and the flop in the first round of the playoffs, there was an organizational decision to have an ***hole free locker room. That’s fine as a goal, but this is the NBA not Duke (or Texas Tech for that matter). The reality is, the league is populated by guys like Ricky Davis and Mark Blount who have NBA talent, but who need to have their personalities managed.

I hate it. You hate it. Everyone wishes it could be like Hoosiers or Glory Road. But most kids in this league have had their butts smooched since grade school. If you spend your time looking for or trying to develop everyone on your team into Shane Battier and Tim Duncan, chances are, you’re going to lose a lot.

For the record, though, Blount’s actually been pretty consistent for Minnie. He scores. He shoots a high percentage. You’d like him to rebound better, but he is what he is. And Ricky has a boatload of talent, but he’s high maintenance.

So yeah, Doc’s right. It’s not easy to work with players like that. That’s why he gets the big bucks. And how easy is 2-23?

Blount is what he is but not worth $40 million. Giving that contract along with thinking that Raef’s knees were any good are what got Ainge and the Celtics to this point. Every other bad deal Ainge has made has been trying to make up for those mistakes. Granted the Celics are not going anywhere but hopefully to the top of the lottery but neither is Minny. If Davis and Blount were worth their salaries Minny would be a contender. If you can’t win when you are playing with KG, are you really any good?

Great post, dawg. I’m sick of them making trades for chemistry. We need talented players, not good guys! Give me an a$$holes any day of the week that can play over good guys like Wally that’s only good for the locker room but doesn’t help you win games. West is a nice guy, funny and hustles, but he sucks at playing the point and he’s selfish to boot. Scal is another good guy they brought in for chemistry reasons, but he sucks too.

On the other side of things, Tony Allen has legal troubles, but I want him on my team because he has talent and he’s good! Ricky Davis was high maintenance, but he produced on the court.

I seem to remember Bird and McHale not getting along that well in the locker room. How did that work out?

I’d trade West and Wally and replace them with hard nosed ‘healthy’ vets that know how to win.

Why is everyone talking about Blount? Garnett and Davis were the players who won the game for the Wolves. Garnett hit at least 4 of those unstoppable fallaway baseline jumpers. There is nothing you can do when that shot is falling. And we all know that Ricky Davis can get hot, and that’s what happended in the fourth quarter last night.

I say West is selfish because he tries to take over point guard duties from Rondo and even calls for the ball when he is not supposed to be running the point. He goes 1 on 3, or even one on 4 on the break, taking it himself and never passing it (ala Wally), missing the shot most of the time. Sometimes he gets fouled in that situation, but at the expense of making the extra pass and getting the easy two. West also claims he can’t play the 2, because he can’t get his shot off (even though pubicly he claimed he didn’t care where he played), even though he has been playing the 2 in college and the first 2 years in the NBA alongside Banks and OGreene. All of a sudden he can’t do it anymore? Yeah, right. And when he wasn’t playing point he was sulking on the bench, while others that don’t play, like Telfair & Allen are constantly cheering their teammates whether they get to play or not. Looks like selfishness to me.