Daily Links 7/15

What a terrible end to the summer league except of course for one bright spot. Davis looked like a man playing with boys out there for the most part. Only once concern and that is he gets his shot blocked around the rim a bunch. Wait until he gets better players down there. Like Powe he does often get it right back up there so hopefully that will continue at higher levels. He should be a nice player when that second team comes in to be able to score on the block.

GG was absolutely terrible again on offense. He seems to not handle the ball very cleanly and is fumbling the ball into is shot or drive which causes him problems. When he catches that on the curl he has no other thought than to launch it. That’s likely why he barely averaged a half of an assist per game in all those minutes. Definitely looks less and less like he will ever be the star we thought he would. His Defense seemed a bit better, but he overplays his defender and gets beat easily.

Allan Ray was in a major shooting slump and without his shooting he isn’t worth much. He’ll be gone with Pruitt and Wallace taking his spot. Here are a few locks from the summer league to have a spot:

Wallace
Pruitt
Davis
Powe
Rondo

That combined with PP, Ray, Big AL, Perk, Gomes, Scal, TA and possibly Raliff and Telfair give us only one slot for the 15 max. Unless we make a trade, it looks like they could fill that with a big or a point. If we get a point they will probably ship out Telfair and sign a big. Kandi might stick around because no one is left! I think we will see another trade though and lose Gomes and or GG.

At what point do we say GG is a bust? The kid just can’t play basketball. He is gifted athletically, but not a gifted basketball player. Can’t dribble, can’t shoot, can’t create his own shot, can’t/won’t rebound, mediocre players shutting him down, etc. etc, etc. etc…..

Like I said before, Gerald chose the wrong sport.

Of what value was SL? I think it was of great value. It told us that Glenn Davis has NBA skills as a point forward (if only he could shed another 20 lbs.). It told us that drafting Gabe Pruit was a mistake if we entertained him being a reliable option at PG. It helped us find Brandon Wallace, a SF with NBA skills and IMHO it helped us discover our PG replacement for Gabe Pruit, Sebastian Telfair and Allan Ray. I’m referring to the multi-skilled Jose Barea.

I was at first concerned with Jose’s size 5’11" until I realized that his “twin” was Mike Conley (also 5’11"). Jose has similar athleticism to Mike and displayed a remarkable skill set as a prospective NBA PG. He could be another “sleeper” steal that emerges from this SL. I would sign him to a partially guaranteed 3 year contract and dismiss Allan Ray, send Gabe Pruit to Europe or the D league for seasoning at the PG position and find a “final” resting place for Sebastian Telfair. Jose already IS what Sebastial Telfair was supposed to be!

Mike Conley is bigger and far more athletic than Barea. He is also much quicker than Barea.

Brick; Barea has better perimeter offensive skills. While both players are listed at 6’, both are 5’11". Mike Conley "may"be 1/2" taller but both players have enough hops to dunk the ball.

Mike Conley has the hype but Jose Barea currently has a better all around game. It serves no purpose to argue the better PG in 3 years but my objective was to call attention to another good option at PG IF we could induce Dallas to trade him.

I agree with you about getting Berea. Baby Nash! I already started a thread to trade for him. I wanted ainge to pick him up last year in the 2nd round. I don’t just like him for his SL performance, I saw him play with Dallas last year. That kid is “electric” and makes things happen when he’s on the floor. Great court vision and passing ability. Great scorer and clutch shooter. I can’t imagine Dallas giving him up, but I’d love to have him. He’s better than Rondo right now.

Compared to the Mavs, who probably had a better team, the Celtics looked totally disorganized, a rag tag bunch. The more I see of Pruitt the more I miss West. Based on his scoring and fg% in college I couldn’t and still can’t understand why Pruitt is supposedly a scorer and shooter.

With Big Booby and Wallace in tow, if Veal ever again (as he assuredly will) steps onto the court in Celtic Green, it will be one time too many.

No way does it look like Gerald is making Big Al type development leaps. This makes him very marginal in regard to using Pierce/Lewis and trying to get the crown now. Our only big chip to trade and get super quality back is Big Al.

Five years from now, Big Al is in his prime, but we are rebuilding again. IMO our bloggers don’t have the respect for the talent of other teams. Big Al may be a top 10 player for all we know, but there will still be much better teams that we are trying to rebuild and catch (Bulls, Magic, Raptors, Cavs, Heat) with quality superstars.

We are in a prepetual rebuild mode. Danny better use whatever resources he has and get the best available vet he can and do it soon. It’s now or never time. The Eastern championships are there with one more great talented vet. I want to make the charge now.

There are going to always be rumor after rumor: now it is Jack, last week it was Yi, Joe Smith, how about Darko, etc, etc, etc. Lots of baby pieces which maybe gets you a few more wins; but nothing to make you Eastern conference champions.

There is only one big fish out there that makes us instant favorites this side of the Mississippi River; Danny needs to seal the deal. Interesting SI article, rating the GMS, Danny was rated #22, McHale dead last #30.

Boy, am I EVER releived to hear that McHale likes the Ray Allen trade. It does WONDERS for my hopes for next season.

Considering he really never played the point, as an emergency PG Pruitt isn’t a bad option. If he is your backup then it isn’t great. I felt he showed flashes of being a very solid all around guard. I’d dump Ray for him right now.

Barea is definitely a solid PG and if we could get him it would put some serious competition at the slot. It is tiring to hear everyone dwell on players that we aren’t going to get though. Duncan would be a nice upgrade at PF or C but why bother discussing.

Conley shot 36% from the floor in the summer league, so why so down on Pruitt (44%)? He does look like a player that has good upside, but let’s not make him the standard by which all PG’s are measured!

With the obvious skills of Davis, all of a sudden the trade for he and Ray Allen for #5 Delonte Wally isn’t looking quite as bad. If Ray stays healthy that is a steal! If all you watched was the summer league, you wouldn’t pick Green or Davis at this point! (That’s why all of this summer league talk doesn’t mean much.)

Ray Allen and Glen Davis for #5, Delonte and Wally is looking better thanks to Baby’s SL play. If you still believe in G.Green (I do) then we did not need any more youth. Ray is better than Wally and Davis’ skills more needed than Delonte’s.
As for G.Green, he does have a stroke, he is dunk champ and he is 21 yrs old, 3 years out of HS. He was not shooting well but his defense looked better. With Ray here and hopefully T.Allen back, Green’s minutes aren’t needed so lighten up everybody. We cannot have such raw talent flourish somewhere else. Plus a kid like that can learn more from Ray Allen than he could from Pierce.
If Ratliff can play…a big IF…I think we’ve got a promising roster. I agree with all opinions about Barea but who says he isn’t committed to Dallas. Dallas didn’t have their eyes closed all week. He does look like a young Nash. Pruitt was not impressive at the point but had a nice looking shot and is good sized. Too early to write him off. He and Telfair battle it out for back up PG. That’s OK with me. Alan Ray does not look a fit for us. He shot it like G.Green but is 7-8 inches shorter and had several college years.

We didn’t need the trade with Seattle to grab Davis at the 35th slot. We could have had him at the 32nd and still have West instead of Pruitt Who else besides the Celtics was interested in Allen? Ainge bid against himself.

JB, Al wasn’t as terrible as GG though. Al just needed to stay healthy and learn how to stay out of foul trouble. GG has yet to learn the game. Sad.

Last summer Al was playing while in need of surgery. GG’s value must be so low just now that it would be pointless to trade him.

I’m ready to close the book on Gerald Green. As for the other summer league guys, who knows? I’d like to see Pruitt, Wallace, and Davis sent down to play together on a D-league team, where they can try to learn to play their new positions of pg, sg, and pf, respectively.

Maybe the most important question mark for the Celtics is, can Ratliff give them back-up minutes at center this season?

Finally, why is anyone suggesting Jose Barea could be signed by the Celtics? Though he’d be a very nice addition, I thought he was under contract to Dallas.

Sorry, for Wallace, I meant sf.

mcpu40,
2001 is ancient history. Unless you have a time machine, Ratliff isn’t bringing that kind of effort and production this year.

True, Barea would have to be obtained by trade but his skill set would justify that acquisition. I hope all of you GG truists are proven correct on his possible “break-out” year, but as for myself I already have him listed as a disappointing BUST. I hope I’m wrong!

Gerald will be fine. He is only 21. I don’t understand people “closing the book” on a guy in his 3rd year out of high school when he averaged double digits in points his 2nd year out of school and was twice the player he was the year before.

soap07,
I don’t think people are closing the book. I think people are discouraged by what they see. He averaged double digits on a terrible team, so that really doesn’t mean a whole lot. And when you say he was twice the player, that’s kind of an open-ended statement. He scored a lot more, but his game is really one-dimensional right now.

The issue I think a lot of us have is that he doesn’t seem to be putting the effort into rounding out his game, improving his ball handling and passing and anticipation and positioning and movement without the ball. We’re not writing him off; we’re just commenting on what we observe as a lack of progress in developing as a rounded player.

Good things just don’t seem to happen when Gerald is in the game. He still takes a lot of bad shots. He still commits a lot of turnovers. He still misses a lot of free throws. He rarely gets any assists. He still loses his man on defense quite a bit. Reyshawn Terry of the Mavs looked way better than him. Summer League did nothing to help his trade value. Someone needs to play behind R. Allen and Pierce. Barring any other acquistions, right now I’m hoping it will be Gomes and T. Allen (assuming he’s healthy). I just don’t think Gerald has the basketball IQ. Sad.

I’m not ready to write GG off— or to annoint him. I’m cautiously pessemistic.

McHale may rate poorly as a GM but in the last two drafts he selected Randy Foye and Corey Brewer, two players the Celtics could have and should have selected. The Bucks will rue the day they passed on Brewer to select Yi.

I watched a couple Sonics games and was quite impressed with the play of Jeff Green. This was a draft the Celtics should have stayed in. Despite the addition of Ray Allen, their point guard play and defense will make them a playoff bubble team at best.

amen, lemonadesky