Open Topic: Gabe Pruitt

I like Pruitt. He’s smooth and quick. He can shoot. He will play this year. The Backup job is his to loose. This kid is going to be solid. If he plays well, he can play on the court some with Rondo.

Pruitt is up and coming (Hopefully) and Sam is down and going. Pruitt is a smooth fluid player. I’ve seen him play a bit and I think he will be a player. He has a good handle and can shoot and defend. I think we’ll see quite a bit of him in the fall.

I think that the Celtics should re-sign Eddie House and roll with Gabe Pruitt as their #3 PG. We know that there will be plenty of games this season where it will be a blowout in our favor, so I think it would be great for Gabe to get some serious minutes in those situations.

With that said, Doc needs to be on Gabe’s case just like he is with Rondo. Doc was a former PG and needs to have Pruitt out there trying to get his teammates involved rather than shooting at every opportunity. Like his scouting report says, he’s got great size and athleticism and range on his jumper. If he can learn to hone his PG skills, he and Rondo could be a great 1-2 PG duo in this league for a long time.

If Gabe does indeed get the minutes in the blowouts and shows he can’t produce like we would have liked, then we can go out and find a veteran PG to bring in for the stretch run.

Graciously show Cassell to the door and then sign up Tyron Lue. The C’s can keep Pruitt around as a 3rd pt. guard project. But I’ve no expectation he’ll ever be any much more of a ball-handler than Eddie House. Those skills aren’t something you can develop by the time you reach the NBA.

“On the other hand, you could ask why fellow rookie Big Baby was able to find room while Gabe couldn’t crack a rotation that was desperate for point guard help.”

Well, BBD was being asked to play his usual position and role, while Pruitt was in the middle of learning a new position. And were we really desperate in going 66-16? ;)

I like the mix of what Pruitt brings to the table — size, speed, offense and defense — but he was very inconsistent last year. We didn’t really see him after he got back from the NBDL so it’s tough to know how much that helped his game. I think we’d still want a veteran PG on the roster, but Gabe certainly has the raw skills to challenge for the primary backup spot if he focuses on his ball-handling, and learning the offensive and defensive sets.

We brought Cassell in to be a competent veteran ball handler and creator who could also hit some big shots. He turned out to be a shaky ball handler and created almost no shots for anyone other than himself. He shot poorly overall and he was also a significant defensive liability. We hoped he could do things that House can’t, but he didn’t.

Cassell is very, very old by NBA standards, and cannot be expected to cover the better big guards any more.

Pruitt is a second round draft choice who has shown some promise in practice and the D league, but has barely played at all. Cassell got some meaningful minutes. Pruitt hasn’t. It’s much more fair to judge Cassell by his performance. It may turn out that Pruitt doesn’t create shots for other players either, but we can’t judge that yet.

Pruitt is big, athletic and quick, as well as having a nice shooting stroke, so he holds promise for giving the C’s a player who complements Rondo offensively and defensively. We all are hopeful that he might fill a significant need at a very low cost, but I don’t see any outrageous expectations here. The C’s have shown a talent for finding and developing nice role players with second round choices. We hope it happens here. We can only find out by playing the kid for 20 games or so as a second or third point in the rotation.

If Pruitt pans out, he gives the C’s things House can’t. Cassell won’t do that, and he’s only a short term player at best.

Pruitt has it made. As a young prospect, he has the chance to earn some regular season PT by playing well in the summer league. I say we resign Eddie and keep Gabe on the active roster. That will give us three solid options at the one. Rondo needs to spend the summer shooting 1,000 15-18 foot jumpers a day.

Pruitt will be fine, he just needs a chance.
From what I saw of Gabe last year, he did not have any real problems setting the offense.
Is he a classic PG with great ball handling and passing skills? No.
But he can shoot, which helps spread the floor (similar to Eddie House).
The key will be his defense.
I don’t think Tyrone Lue would be a bad option for a vet PG if House cannot be signed.

I find it extremely humorous that everyone is so high on Pruitt and so low on Cassell.

Pruitt plays defense. Good old Sam, not really.

Every time I saw him, he looked like a deer seeing headlights on the court. I personally have not seen any reason why we would miss him if he did not come back next year. But there are positives. He’s been under the system for a year, less chemistry to develop etc… So it can’t hurt to keep him. I guess anything positive we get from him next year would be a plus, but we should not expect this guy to be an impact player.

I’d love to see him get some burn in close situations of meaningful games. Gotta throw a young guy in the fire a couple times and see how he reacts in my opinion. He seems to have the skills, but needs the reps.

BrickJames – Are you Sam Cassell in disguise posting on here?! I think Sam is the only one that thought Sam did a really good job for us since he signed. I’m betting his own mother shakes her head about is horrid performances 90% of the time with us. Of course he had 3-4 games that were decent. One or two of those might even rate at really good. The rest however were downright terrible.

Considering Gabe is a young smooth player with “potential” and Sam is an over the hill “has been” with nothing left in the tank, I think we are all justified in being curious as to what he might turn into. Sam is just turning into dust before our very eyes…

Big Ticket said:
  I’d love to see him get some burn in close situations of meaningful games. Gotta throw a young guy in the fire a couple times and see how he reacts in my opinion. He seems to have the skills, but needs the reps

Fully agree. Doc should do it at the start of the season to build the young player’s confidence and to build the team’s confidence in the young player. Then if he needs to throw into the fire for whatever reason in April/May/June there’s at least some experience to fall back on.

Larry Bird did exactly that when he was coaching Indiana. I loved it.

Not enough coaches do this

Rondo was the starting point guard on a Championship winning side. He has enough experience now. I’m not worried about having so much in reserve behind him for next year.

I’d like to keep Eddie or to replace Eddie. A player like that who’s the opposite of Rajon offensively to combat cheating defenses.

Pruitt should be the 3rd string. If he’s not the third string next season, then he’s just in the way and Danny might as well dump the kid or at least give the kid a chance to earn his place in the league elsewhere. It will be a crappy thing to do putting Pruitt in the exact same position as last season. I’m very comfortable with Pruitt taking over that third string role.

In response to Brick:

People were not mad b/c binky House lost minutes. They were mad at the way Sam was playing and the fact that the team had played better all year with House, and yet Sam is inserted without even learning the offense ahead of House. Personally I think the backup Guards (i.e. not Rondo, Ray, or a SF out of position) were a weakness on this team. And the best Doc could do is guess. I think Sam gets a bad rap generally – because there were a few games that we don’t win without him chucking in 5-10 points in a few minutes of PT.

Additionally there is no comparison Sam to Pruitt. We know what Sam is and is not. He’s also 38 and on the way down, although I can see him being productive for a few more seasons regardless. Pruitt on the other hand is a complete unknown – and I think most people expect him to take on a role like Who described – backup ball handler when that is needed – much like Pollard was mostly deployed only when the other team had enough height to make Powe and/or BBD a liability. If the team lets House and/or Tony Allen walk (assuming they both get low $ value deals that the C’s could handle), then its a pretty clear sign that Danny has faith in Pruitt.

Re-sign Eddie, invest some time in Pruitt. Don’t crowd things with another draft pick or….are these blogggers joking?….Tyron Lue.

It’s quite obvious that most bloggers reporting here have a very “shallow” understanding of the PG position, especially since they seem so anxious to sing Pruitt’s praises. Management learned quite quickly that Pruitt was not an NBA ready PG and therefore sent him to the DL. His summer league performance will prove nothing since NBA defense, talent and matching athleticism won’t be seen in SL so there will be no real basis for evaluation.

SL competition will resemble that found at larger colleges and we already know that Pruitt can perform against that level of competition. Big Baby saw NBA P.T. because he had a far better basketball I.Q than Pruitt and because he was fundamentally more accomplished.

i can see pruitt as a throw in for trading purposes. i prefer him to scal as a bottom benchman.

That’s an old scouting report. Pruitt was drafted after his junior year at USC.

It was frustrating to see Sam play ahead of House, but I think the C’s may also be conscious of how they treat late-in-the-season FA signings, as they will likely want to go to that well again. That said, I don’t want Sam back any more than anyone else on this board does.