Daily Links 6/17

Yuikes, what’s with the purple links?

GOTTA LOVE PERRKKK !!!!!!!!!!!! i hope Gerald green is not slacking, anyody hear he is working out to improve his game this summer???

FLCeltsFan, I love the job you do with the links! Congrats! The sneaker is great. Is that a preminition on the #5 pick with it being a gator snout??

i don’t have espn insider

can anyone tell me what chad fraud’s 3 way trade involving the c’s/lakers/chicago is?

Thank you Celty86 – You know, I hadn’t thought about that. I do like Noah a lot for the Celtics, but wouldn’t be disappointed with Jeff Green, either. I just love that sneaker pic. It should become the Celtics trademark this season.

I love Perk. I said last season that he would break out. But then he was hampered with the foot problem. I truly believe that he will break out this season. He is certainly putting in the work necessary to improve his conditioning and his game. Perk embodies what Celtics Pride should be.

I hear you on Green. Given the chances of either Brewer, Noah or Horford, the sneaker is pretty cool!!! :)

Perk’s work ethic embodies the “soul” of a true Celtic, but let’s not get too hyped about his actual performance at the “5” position. So far Perk’s performance, like that of Leon Powe’s, has been inspirational but hardly adequate for a starting center in the NBA.

I like Perk but I also feel that our team desperately needs size and more athleticism at the “4” and “5” positions. Al Jefferson can’t do it alone.

Moskqq, we need to take the best player at #5, don’t you agree? That may not be someone with size.

I agree celty86…emphatically. But we have at least #32 and perhaps we can get another 1st or 2nd round selection and start looking at BIGS. It’s also quite possible that a particularly desirable PG is there at 32 and we’d have to consider that too.

At some point we need to obtain ROSTER BALANCE and either draft, sign a free agent or trade for size inside. Scal may be O.K. as the 12th man off the bench because he has size and a high IQ but he doesn’t have the desirable skill level for the role he filled last year.

Powe may surprise because he has hops and long arms and plays bigger than his size but he lacks NBA experience and the necessary defensive skills to play big minutes.

Moskqq, I agree we need an additional big that can be a rotational player either via draft or trade. I think at #5, Ainge needs to get what he will view as an asset, either for the C’s or for a future trade. I don’t think he views some in the “top 8” that way and that will be how he narrows down his choice.

Ainge seems to favor three of the eight based on current projections by recent authors. I don’t know how reliable their information is but I gather that Horford is high on their list (and unlikely to be there when the Celtic’s draft) and then it’s a toss-up between Brewer and Green. I suspect he likes Green more than he’s admitted in the press but that’s only a guess.

While Yi seemed originally to be his favorite (and may still be) emphasis in the press seems to be shifting more to the other three previously mentioned. At this late stage it’s common to praise all the top draftable players so conjecture is fraught with misleading assumptions.

I have read other draft experts list their “predictors” for NBA success (like size, athleticism, lateral movement, elusiveness, skill level both offensively and defensively, handles, court awareness and basketball IQ etc.) but my favorite predictor deals with hand-eye coordination. Ted Williams had it, Larry Bird had it and Dennis Rodman had it. It allowed them to react a split second before their peers did (and thus gave them an "edge").

 In Williams case he saw the ball earlier and his 20/10 eyesight allowed him to follow the ball rotations better.

What Larry Bird lacked in raw athleticism he made up for it in speedy reaction time. Larry Bird almost always got to loose balls first, which also explains why both he and Dennis Rodman were excellent rebounders. In their case size and hops were less important than hand-eye coordination.

I haven’t seen enough of the top eight to make a call on hand-eye coordination but the scouts should. Indirectly, one can assume that a player has this gift if he excells when logic suggests that he shouldn’t.

Every now and then someone writes a “priceless” quote and this month’s honor goes to ….stillacelsfan… …“"Perhaps the ‘gauntlet’ that Perk ‘throws down’ is one of the gloves of buttered stone that he wears during games.”…

Kudos!