Bulpett is reporting that the team is in the process of signing Pruitt and Davis, but after that they are done.
Asked if there were any other moves to be made, Danny Ainge shook his head and said, "Probably not."
The director of basketball operations then laughed and added, "Don’t you think we’ve done enough for one summer?"
I know that's a rhetorical question, but my short answer is no. There's still one more move to make, but it looks like we won't be making it. I hate to sound like Bob Ryan, but that's not good enough. This forces Doc to be creative with the bench, something I'm not sure I'm comfortable with.
It also starts the flood of excuses and rationalizations that we've heard around here every single year that we haven't had a good point guard mix (which has been just about every year). Here are some now:
"Here’s the thing with point guard," Ainge said. "You know how much we love Rajon, and that’s really important, but Ray Allen wants to play minutes at point guard, and Tony Allen two years ago, when he had a chance to play point guard, played fantastic. Our offense was more efficient with Tony Allen playing point guard than with any other guy during that stretch.
"And we think Gabe Pruitt can help us there. Even though we don’t want to count on Gabe as a rookie coming in and playing a major, major role, we feel very confident with him (in that) role in case of an injury. We think he can help us there as his game evolves.
"And then Eddie House has played the point, and we think Eddie is actually a very good fit playing alongside Ray or Tony," Ainge continued. "So we think we have five guys more than capable of playing the point."
Wait. There’s more.
"We also feel like we have big guys who are able to get out on the perimeter and handle the ball and make good passes," Ainge said. "I think KG (Garnett), Scal (Brian Scalabrine) and Big Baby (Davis) are going to really help us with their ballhandling and passing. Those guys will be able to come back and help breaking pressure. We have (power forwards) that are great passers and ballhandlers in their own right. So I just don’t think point guard is going to be an issue for us this season."
Ainge may sound convinced, but his statements also rely a great deal on hope. After all, the Celtics did investigate a number of veteran point guards before arriving at this point. And, if the club has trouble getting into its halfcourt offense during the season, they will no doubt be on the hunt again.
So it is Rondo and "a lot of guys who can play there." Why do I feel like the team just invested in an expensive sports car but chose to buy a used tire for the front right wheel?