Pure Energy

and it would be truer. So, we’re good.

Both Eddie and Billy are FAs after this season. Theoretically, they could both end up right back in Boston. Ya never know…..

The Celts could re-sign Walker, but after receiving no opportunity with Doc, he may want to avoid Boston if he has other offers (from the Knicks for instance). If I felt we could bring him back with a snap of the fingers, I ’d have no qualms about the deal since Nate better fits the Celts present needs.

The question becomes will it bite the C’s down the road. If the deal was nate for Eddie/Giddens, this is a clear win for the C’s even if this turns out to be just a 1/2 year rental. but with Walker producing in NY (I don’t want to hear the excuses why he’s making more noise there than here, he just is and he’s looking like the first proof for those of us that think Doc avoids playing youth unless he’s forced to), if nate isn’t resigned after this year, it could be a net loss for the C’s.

Only if you look at this as a zero sum game – as if our loss is their gain, which is not the case. One thing that is not in dispute is Bill Walker is getting minutes and playing well in NY. But I would caution against using that as proof his talent was ignored in Boston, or that Boston lost out on him. The coach is not the only person interacting with these players, so you would have to assume all the assistant coaches, as well as, the general manager chose to ignore Walker’s talents, assuming he displayed enough of it to warrant consideration for significant playing time. This is something that I find hard to believe, because you don’t draft players, sign them to contracts, and then hope to see them fail.

As an entrepreuneur I see such situations all the time, you place someone in a department and they are average, but you move them into another department or different location and they shine in some way. And yes, I’ve wondered if the supervisor had something to do with it, but more often than not, you find there are other reasons. For example, someone smply wasn’t mentally ready, or something in their life changed, or they had been taking thigns for granted, or their level of motivation and maturity had not reached critical mass, or the change itself was a wake up call, or a combination of all these factors and more. Another major overlooked point is the effect of your co-workers; they can act as a catalyst to either bring the best out of you or intimidate you into mediocrity. Sometimes being around high performing co-workers can negatively impact an average person’s confidence, as they see the performance bar set so high. On the other hand, being around people of similar talent and experience can do wonders for your own confidence. Point is, human capital development, especially in sports, is not as dependent on talent and athlecism as it might seem.

In a lot of these cases, we find that the person’s improved performance in their new environment owes a lot to the training and experiences from the old envirionment, especially if coming from a great organizatrion such as the Celtics, where core values and the work ethic necessary for success are in abundance. The benefit of having Ray Allen, KG, Paul Pierce as team mates is incalculable. It is that recognition that makes internships and work study programs so popular in the real world.

Bottom line is, Walker’s performance on the Knicks is not a reflection on the Celtics organization, as long as they gave the guy a fair opportunity, which they did. This is not Rick Pitino impatience, walker gog the benefit of the Cs for two years. He may well owe his success (premature) with the Knicks to what he learned on the Celtics.

Why would he, or any relatively young player, wanna come to Boston, now known as the Rookie Graveyard of the NBA.

… to conclude several important things:
- The Cs have the talent and physical ability to dominate, as in days gone by.
- There is no insurmountable impediment visible right now.
- KG keeps improving. He seems headed right toward 100%, or very close thereto. That’s huge.
- Paul, who prior to tonight seemed like he might have entered a permanent decline, has not, and showed last night that he still has it all. Another huge factor.
- Everybody else, except Sheed, is doing fine-to-great.
- Nate’s shaping up into a terrific addition, a team-changer even.
- And finally, if they stay HEALTHY (key point), they’re ABLE to play at the highest level, and can beat other team in the world. This game effectively proved that it’s a matter of will… and after all they’ve been through, I think the will will peak at just the right time… for the playoffs.

You just can’t help that Sheed has given us a peek of what he can really be in the playoffs with those long post up backtothebasket bankshot of his is money as far as im concern…and I hope he shows up more in the box come playoff time…we’ll see….

I never worried about their motivation, focus, et al. I always figured, from the beginning, that they just don’t care very much about seeding, and that they’ll muddle through this long grind of a season, but that they WILL have the fire when they really need it, for the playoffs… but not much before then.

I got really worried about their PHYSICAL abilities though. KG, Paul, Ray, Perk, Sheed, Quis, Davis… ALL those guys have had physical problems off and on this season, and there was reason to worry about each of them. What last night’s game showed was that they’ve put all that behind them… that they’re physically ready. And that was a huge relief.

he’s most likely going to have his option picked up for next year.

even if that were not the case, why would he come back here just to have Doc sit him on the bench again? On top of that, all the C’s have to offer him financially is the vet min. what’s his incentive to return?

we all saw little bits of what he could do, so did the C’s (they did buy his draft rights for 3 miliion) no he did not get enough playing time, not even last year when he was getting decent minutes was he getting quite enough.
But it comes to maybe he just didnt show it enough in practice, mayber he really was our 12th best option. they only play offense in NY, a completely different game than we play. I was sad to see him go, but he had to to make the numbers work with nates byc.
lets see nate get acclimated more and more and see what he can do here before we start regretting losing both house and walker for him

… but I don’t really care if they don’t do much better than .500. The only thing that matters now is health and readiness. If they have those, the seeding is unimportant. And last night they showed that they are indeed quite healthy and quite ready.

tis true no 4th seed for us, thanks man made my day
right now that puts us against the Raptors 1st round, and the hawks vs cavs 2nd round

Walker is a good fit for D’Antoni’s run and gun offense. He was not such a good fit here, because Rivers’ offense is much more dependent on the ability of the wings to shoot the trey. Walker does not have that kind of range. (Neither does Tony Allen, which is why Tony struggles at times in this offense).

As for Robinson, he’s had two good games. Let’s hope he keeps it up. The Celtics have three patsies on tap, then Memphis (no longer a patsy) and then Cleveland.