I think Lue would be the right fit chemistry-wise, but not the right fit regarding size. We need someone like Cassell who could play together with Eddie House. Otherwise, really nice articles Steve. Keep it going!

Well, 2001 was a while ago… We don’t have many chips to trade for Lue, so we’ll see how this whole story pans out.

Lue’s defense is pretty soft. It fell downhill quickly when he landed in Washington. It makes an odd appearance these days but by and large it’s missing in action and can only be described as weak. Especially on screens, Lue doesn’t fight through screens and regularly loses his man on them.

I agree with Mahoney_jr too, he’s not the type of defender the C’s need. They require a big point who’s physical enough to handle Billups and Larry Hughes.

………

Not sure he’s an upgrade over House or Tony Allen. I’d love a true backup point but he’d need to be a clear upgrade to affect the rotation. Not sure Ty Lue is that. I think TA and Eddie offer more than Lue.

Either way I don’t believe Lue’s acquirable, not with what Danny has to offer.

Also, Petrie isn’t the type to swiftly kick a guy out. He adds players because he believes them to be talented and believes they can make his team better. He’s also very patient. This is going to be a trial run for Udrih/Lue/AJ with at least one likely to return and Petrie won’t make his mind up on who that is until he sees them over time. He’ll make a trade only if it improves his team, Danny doesn’t have much to offer on that count. Expect Petrie to keep all the guys he’s acquired until the summer at least.

I think Lue is a good fit for the C’s. As said above Petrie would give Lue a chance, but Lue could just declare he won’t return next year as a free agent. Why would Petrie keep him for a half season and take time away from guys who would still be there. As to Lue’s defense, if he comes to the C’s he will play defense if he’s physically able to do so. I’ve heard nothing to the effect that he’s not healthy. He’s probably a better ball handler than House or Tony Allen and it’s his natural position. I think he could make House and TA better by allowing them to do what they do best. He could also help to reduce Ray Allen’s minutes. I think he could be gotten for very little, perhaps even dollars or a 2nd round pick.

good job steve. i appreciate your info and opinions across the league which helps us c’s fans who stay focused on 1 team only. i have always liked lue’s game. 1. he’s a true point. 2. tony will guard the big points, i.e. billups. 3. he’s scrappy. 4. rondo is the man and lue will know that and is an insurance policy. 5. his contract and ego are do-able. 6. with limited time, as TrueGreen notes, he will pick up the defensive intensity.tom t will see to that.7. he has the ring-been there, done that. sam cassel is more a defensive liability and more shopworn- and more of an ego that needs assuaging.

Well, Lue is certainly a prime candidate for being cut from Sacramento…Petrie isn’t going to be giving him a chance at anything but expiring, but that’s beside the point…Lue is exactly the type of veteran who gets waived by a team as courtesy in order for him to sign with another team for the playoff push (this happens all the time and is good business from a PR standpoint-the teams look good and the bulk of the player’s contract has already been paid by the former team)

However, while Lue might be an option, I’m pretty sure the team is primarily focused on what happens with Sam Cassell…the difference here has nothing to do with defense-neither one of these players is a preferable option to Tony Allen defensively at the one against Billups/Hughes or whomever anyone wants to obsess over…

…the main advantage of Cassell is what Danny meant when he said “impact player” acquisition…Cassell is still capable of taking over games for a stretch of time and knows exactly when to do this…during the playoffs, at any given time, one or more of GPA will be struggling to get into an offensive groove and THAT is exactly the time that a savvy former All Star like Cassell knows when to go on a scoring/playmaking binge for 7-10 minutes…

Lue is steady and certainly an option from a ball-handling/spot-shooting perspective, but he isn’t capable of stepping up and making a major impact in the playoffs on a consistent basis-Sam does just that…

If Lue comes here it will only be after Sam is no longer an option for this team…

I thought you made some solid points, Steve, which is the description I would apply to Lue based on what I’ve seen. Admittedly, that’s not a whole lot since his stint with the Lakers. I rarely watch the Hawks other than when they play the Celts or the Spurs, but when he gets minutes Lue always seems to have a positive impact. For that matter, Anthony Johnson has been a solid NBA vet as well, whether in the uniform of the Nets, Pacers or Hawks. I wouldn’t be unhappy with either of them backing up Rondo the rest of the way. How one would get here belongs to the desire and creativeness of Danny Ainge.

BillfromBoston, you mention in your post that Danny wants an “impact player”. I don’t think he’s looking for an impact player now. We need a veteran role player at pg or center. Danny got us the impact players we need. Now we need to not upset the chemistry and get us a security blanket. I think Lue fits that role, I didn’t think Stoudamire would and definitely don’t think Cassell would.

I don’t think Lue is a capable defender. The 2001 finals (in which Iverson averaged about 40 ppg) were seven years ago. Lue is too small.

The Celtics need a big point guard who is steady and who can guard Chauncey Billips. The perfect fit is Kevin Ollie, not Tyron Lue.

Brickowski, Ollie’s a nice fit. Is he available?

The perfect fit is Kevin Ollie[/quote]
Yeah I agree with that too. He can be 3rd string, the present rotation can be kept and he can be called upon when the team needs more ballhandling and defense. Spot duty.

[quote]Ollie’s a nice fit. Is he available?

He has an expiring contract. Right now that’s very important to Ed Stefanski as seen by his Kyle Korver trade. Ollie is likely available for any expiring deal and whatever miniscule add on offered, say a low 2nd round pick.

I do not see how the Celtics can get Ollie. The Celtics have no tradeable assets other than Tony Allen, and I certainly wouldn’t let Tony go for any of the veteran pgs currently rumored to be available, and that includes Cassell.

Cleveland has the same problem. They also need a pg but don’t have anything that anyone really wants other than Daniel Gibson, and they obviously don’t want to trade him.

I still believe that if Cassell isn’t traded before the deadline, he WILL wind up in Boston, quite possibly by this time next week.

If that doesn’t happen, though, I don’t even think Lue would be my first choice among veteran, potentially-buyout-candidate PGs who were part of the Bibby-to-ATL trade. I’d rather have Anthony Johnson, who’s also expiring, isn’t considered as good a locker room leader as Lue (which would seem to be valuable to a younger team like the Kings) and is more redundant with the Kings bigger combo guards (particularly Salmons, who has enough PG in him to run the offens when a shooter like Douby is playing next to him in the backcourt).

Johnson can supposedly be a bit “gruff”, but he’s a bigger defender (not “good” exactly, but better than Cassell, and a better change-up from Rondo or House than Lue, who as Brick points out isn’t all that great defensively, regardless) and he’s run teams in the playoffs before.

I just don’t think Lue provides enough benefits compared to House to downgrade the outside shooting, which is the primary skill either of those two guys bring or would bring to this team (or that Mighty Mouse would have; I’d rather play House than Damon at this point, too).

http://www.celticsblog.com/index.php?option=com_smf&Itemid=64&topic=14725.0

  Delonte`s Trade Exception

 ;D

Steve, it would have been nice if you could have suggested a possible trade scenario here. Since there really isn’t one that makes sense, you should have prefaced your whole article with “if the Kings buy out Lue.”

That said, I really like the little guy as a second string PG. He is better at running a club than House, and is almost as good a three point shooter. Defensively, they are about even. One thing I really like about Lue is that he’s able to make big shots in crunch time, something that House hasn’t been able to do yet here in Boston.

I also like Anthony Johnson, who might be a buyout candidate. I don’t believe that the Cs can use a “Delonte West trade exception” for either of these guys, but I might be wrong.

Here’s how I rank the possible buyout candidates at PG:

Cassell
Lue
Johnson

They all are better than House, and would really help spark that second unit, which really struggles when House isn’t hitting his shot.

(In CelticsStuffGroup, I am musty celtic Joe; in here, I am jamori9

< Back in August, when it was first reported that Lue helped convince good friend Kevin Garnett to willingly come to Boston, I half-jokingly suggested the possibility of the Celts pursuing Lue over the summer. The jest was that Lue had to be a cool dude if he was friends with KG. The not-so-funny part was the stability he would provide at the point guard position.

At the time, however, Celtics Nation didn’t know exactly what the need would be at point guard for this team. Well, with the exception of loyal reader MikeDfromNP, that is, who to his credit has at no point wavered on his unconditional love of Rajon Rondo. For those of us without the self-proclaimed resident Rondologist’s foresight (in the case of any confusion over tone here, the preceding phraseology is meant wholly as a compliment to Mike), what Rondo would give the Celts remained an enormous question mark going into the season. Maybe the Celtics would need a veteran back-up. Maybe they would need an entirely new solution at the position. > (from CelticsBlog, writer Steve Weinman)

BUT, it isn’t that nobody among many in Celtics forums , include this CelticsStuff Group-a Yahoo group, was taking a very proactive view before August, reference the situation specifically Rondo and a possible Rondo backup point guard . Back in early July 2007, here is pasted a post in a discussion reference what Greg Dickerson, Celtics Courtside Reporter, was saying. And this was referenced as we had obtained Ray Allen, and the thinking naturally had focused on what Ray, guard, and Paul, guard-forward could be into accomplishing together. I put this here, to reflect even then, “we didn’t seem, still, to be getting it”, where our point guard (Rondo) was figuring into “the plans” To me, who is high on Rondo-Rondo WAS the plan. Then, the point was first, get proactive about how we’d play with two all stars on the wing(s), but (to me) try to “remember” the point guard. (quoting) :

(July 5, 2007 post) :
>

Now, this above is to “build upon”, in the time line. For, it can be seen at an early July dating we still had no predictability on obtaining Garnett. I can , with posts now, going back into late July ’07 posts in this group, show how we were already laboring the point about getting a good backup point guard to back up Rondo. And further, as we all know, we labor this point to today, to this minute. I included a possibility of Tyrone Lue in a post just hours ago. So, with respect I just wanted to kinda “set the records straight” :-)

No Lue, no Cassell.This ship is 41-9. Why play with it? If I were Danny, I’d be too afraid of disrupting the chemistry. Let it be.

TripleOT,

click the link.
There`s also the possibility for a sign and trade (McLeod and Kandi)

gustusias said:
  No Lue, no Cassell.This ship is 41-9. Why play with it? If I were Danny, I’d be too afraid of disrupting the chemistry. Let it be.

I agree with you about not upsetting the chemistry. Lue wouldn’t, Cassell could. Lue would just be insurance. He wouldn’t be the one to start if Rondo went down. He’d play 10 minutes or so with House or TA and let them do their thing without having to think of setting up others. It’s short-term. It’s cheap.