Daily Links 7/8

thanx for the links, much appreciated.

That article about Brandon Wright would explain why he wanted to work out only against chairs. He was hiding a hip injury.

thanks for the links….gotta agree with may on his column though. don’t see the celtics making any kind of a run in the playoffs this season.

The analysis by May was on target. I still wish the trade had never been made. Yi Jianlian is going to be a fine NBA player. He’s looked better than both Oden and Durant in summer league. That’s not to suggest he will be better than both those players, just that someday he will make the Celtics wish they had not pulled the trigger. This has Joe Johnson, part two written all over it.

I don’t know why, but the fact the Allan Ray’s option date got pushed back gets me real excited that Danny is feeling good about a possible trade for a big guy. If Danny gets Kirilenko, Darko, Camby or whomever, then we will probably have to give up Telfair and other wing players. If we trade 2 or 3 point guards/wing players then Ray becomes more valuable to the Celtics.

Postponing the option date is Danny’s way of saying that an upcoming trade is going to make Ray Allan more valuable to this team than what his current value is, which is not much.

“Postponing the option date is Danny’s way of saying that an upcoming trade is going to make Ray Allan more valuable to this team than what his current value is, which is not much.”

Oops. Allan Ray, not Ray Allan. Gosh, this is going to happen a lot this year. Sorry, guys!!

How come everybody is ignoring Yi’s 2 – 14 stinker yesterday? He’s also incapable of stopping anyone on defense. The leader of the Chinese team is Wang Zhi-Zhi who did nothing in the NBA.

Jianlian looks like he could be a solid player but I’m not sold on him being a great player or even the 5th best player in this year’s draft.

A few more games like that by Yi and not even Milwaukee will want him.

I love the headline: “Pruitt Makes Alan Ray Expendable”. LOL, it’s Alan Ray who makes Alan Ray expendable.

“a lot more including May’s usual inaccuracies”

Oh yeah? Name one.

Right on Meyer and Lemonadesky.

The only inaccuracy I can find with May’s piece is that the Celtics really did struggle on offense last year with Pierce, Wally, and Allen out of the lineup. But look at the year before, when Pierce was healthy. The Celtics were one of the top ten offensive teams in the league and that’s before the emergence of Big Al.

May’s point was right on. The team loses because it defends opponents the same way the Red Sea defended the Israelites. They also have been one of the worst teams in the league for a couple years running in terms of turnovers. Rebounding is better, but still pretty weak. Allen helps with none of this.

At the end of the day, Danny’s quote that great shooting compensates for a lot of deficiencies is really all you need to know about why we are where we are. Danny’s built a team in his own image and likeness. He thinks the Celtics will win a title if they just had someone like HIM on the team. As long as that belief is driving the development of the Celtics, offense will get overvalued and the team will continue to fumble between mediocrity and ineptitude.

Well, the alleged inaccuracy was the statement that the Celtics exercised their option on Allan Ray on July 1. Bulpett reported that the option exercise date was extended until August 1, without actually saying that the money was not guaranteed on July 1.

How much do you want to bet that the “veteran assistant” quoted in the article was Dick Harter?

Kudos to May for telling it like it is. Time for Boston media to stop the free passes to WYC, Danny & Doc.

Totally appropriate to call May on his inaccuracies. But how much more spot-on could the man be about the problems with this franchise. You can tell Ainge’s comment that this was a playoff team before the injuries just STICKS in his craw! It’s kind of funny to watch May beat his dead horses (remember the trade that delivered Detroit Rasheed and the title? He REFUSED to let that one die).
But he’s also correct here; the Celtics are a long ways away from being a serious contender for the Eastern Conference title. I would say that, had the C’s been healthy, they probably would have benefited from a strong finish and maybe finished .500 — maybe the seventh seed? In that case, sure.
They improve by adding Allen, but they do lose West and Wally who, when healthy, provide what May said: about the same points. So I see this team as a .500 team with the chance to be slightly better.
So, what, the 5th-6th seed, then?
May’s right: This team still has a long ways to go. It just bugs him to hear Ainge’s gall on a daily basis, and I don’t blame him or his grumpy prose.