Over-reactions!

There wouldn’t be so many people over-reacting to O’Bryant’s first preseason game (in a positive manner) if there hadn’t been so many who had negatively over-reacted to his signing in the summer. Remember, O’Bryant was dog-meat, a lazy stiff who couldn’t possibly make it in the NBA, and in fact, couldn’t hold his own against mediocre college forwards. Every action produces an equal and opposite reaction.

You can’t cut Scal. He currently brings one thing to the table; a $3 million salary to throw in to make the salaries work if and when the Celtics decide to trade for a veteran backup PG or Center. Hopefully, the young guys will continue to get better and can be showcased a little bit. Ainge can then package a couple of them up around the trade deadline to get a veteran to come off the bench. But to do that, you have to get the salaries to match and none of the young guys make any money. That is where Scal, whose deal will be expiring after next year, comes in.

Many things to analyze and every night young players will look a little different. The Celtics starting 4 from last year have better passing skills then last year they know where each other will be on the court and the offense will be even better. I was impressed with House, O’Bryant, Miles, TA and Walker. I thought O’Bryant will do better with KG on the court and hope he is not just a 2nd unit guy all the time. Perk plays around 1/2 the game so that gives him the other minutes to share with Powe. The Celtics won’t have to play KG at Center this year unless they want the best shooters in the game to score more points. Miles looked like he was in a championship game he was so focused to do well I cannot imagine being out for 2 years and trying to get your timing back against NBA talent. House is becoming the leader of the second unit and at times I would like to see Perk there to help them out and interchange O’Bryant and Perk between both units depending on the team they play. Walker will be great it will take time but in the next few years he will be able to watch the best in Pierce and play D against him in practice sessions.

Walker R.O.Y?- with Oden and Beasley, PLEASE.

First of all, Scal singlehandedly lost that pre-season game last night, and IMO looked like the only sure cut…I mean he was out there with rookies and they were looking to scal for veteran leadership….what a disaster! and what is with the mocking cheers and chants for this guy? its over-the-top and needs to stop.
I was very impressed with POB, I think hes a total steal and he more then addresses the loss of PJ Brown.
Still iffy on Darius Miles but his size directly reminds me of james posey.
Bill Walker is a total beast, i mean this guy has shocked me throughout camp and that facial on theo ratliff was just senational..
JR…havent seen anything out of him but I like his enthusiasm on the bench.. Pruitt looks like he’s put on some muscle but not sure if he’s ready for consistent minutes in the NBA.
Now..the Big 3 looked great no complaints there at all

Only complaint is that they lost and should’ve won, I know it’s a pre-season game, but seriously how did philli win that game? Elton Brand was invisible as was most of their starters (minus Thaddeus Young) and Our guys looked fresh and in rhythm…our guys off the bench held it down until scalabrine hit the floor, i mean seriously WTF is with Brian

I’m not sold on Philli from that one game last night…Sure, they won the preseason game but Elton Brand was about as good as Leon Powe… he was the least impressive player on their team…Our Starters clearly outplayed their starters

Now that Martell Webster has broken his foot, I wonder if Ainge can put together a package to pry away one of Portland’s surplus point guards.

When will people stop worring about exhibition games? As I recall, their exhibition record was lousy last year, and then they went on to win 66 games.

JohnK70 is right (see above). Scal can’t be cut. I think it should be Cassell; offer him a coaching deal.

This is just the first game I guess. But the bench looked lost. The Posey factor (or lack thereof) was felt. You notice Eddie House trying to pick up the slack, but he’s more of a motivator than a calming effect like Posey was when it came to settling down the second unit. Maybe that is why Sam Cassell was signed. Tony, Baby, Leon etc… are good players. But someone still has to be there to show direction. I guess that is where the Luxury of having a Big Three comes in.

As regards JR Giddens’ 4 minute- stat filled -performance, hardly invisible, if admittedly brief. Yet impressive enough to have earned one of the very few post game compliments by coach Tom Thibodeau. Strange that Giddens had one of the more impressive performances last night facing REAL competition yet seemed to underwhelm critics during practice!

For the record, in his post game comments re JR Giddens, Tom Thibodeau specifically cited JR’s impressive DEFENSIVE performance.

The only concrete information that we got from last night’s exhibition game is that Tony Allen really seems like the X Factor to Banner 18

Hey Brick, wouldnt it be a hoot if we ‘traded’ Miles back to Portland to save them a few million? A package that netted us Steve Blake and change would be nice.

Then we could use Eddie as a two guard. 8)

For some reason my dish lost it’s signal so I saw none of the first half. My only real observation of the second half is that for somebody as strong and sturdy as Powe, he falls down way too much after contact. And “contact”. Both offensivelyand defensively. If he keeps flopping, he’s going to be like Big Al was and not getting any calls. If I recall Big Al’s second year, he was whining about getting fouled and every time he got called for a foul. Eventually he wasn’t getting any calls even when he was getting clobbered.

Philly is going to have home court in the first round. I’ll still predict a 2-seed.

I think it’s way too early to predict cuts on the team (didn’t Scal actually play decent in a starting role for like 5 games or so when KG was out last year?) but Scal sure did look awful last night. I wouldn’t mind sitting the big 3 for at least a couple games or so during this preseason so we can see more of the bench players. I wouldn’t mind starting the season with Cassell as a coach then at some point if needed or when/if Scal and someone else is traded then add him to the roster.

Lastly I’m surprised there isn’t more love for Rondo last night. Great fake layup then going up with his left hand, great cross court pass to Ray on the break, and mostly that steal on Brand. Tommy is right. It’s hard to think of another point guard in the league that makes a steal like that. I’m very encouraged he is going to take his game to the next level next year.

Finkelskyhook, let’s start by recognizing that last year Powe didn’t get anything extra in the way of calls. Secondly, Powe’s unlikely to turn into a big whiner; it’s not in his makeup. Besides, when Posey was flopping last year, we were all complimenting his heady play. So if Powe’s doing it, we’ll just chalk it up to Posey’s legacy.

And if you had to miss a half, yesterday’s second half was the one to miss. Most of the fun stuff was in the first half. That was before O’Bryant started to run out of gas, and after the Sixers started paying more attention to that crazy Bill Walker.

We’ll see how the rest of the preseason plays out, but I think the C’s have adressed one of their weaknesses from last year. The bench could shape up into a younger, athletic lineup that can push the tempo. Last year’s bench (Pose, House, Cassell, Brown) wasn’t going to do that.