Gary Washburn of the Boston Globe caught up with the principal owner of the Celtics, Wyc Grousbeck, who gave his take on the Celtics bringing back the core players (and coach) and we've seen these last few years. Here's one interesting nugget that I took out of it:
"This is a very, very proud bunch of guys, the champions from '08. And now with Jermaine and Shaq and Delonte, who haven't been champions with us, this could be a good group. We've got huge challenges but we reloaded this summer."
First off, Wyc's pretty modest throughout the entire article. He downplays how good his team could be this coming season (again, heavy modesty at work), and he didn't bite when asked to compare his club to the new-look Miami Heat.
However, in the above quote, I'm sure you noticed him grouping Delonte West in with two of the club's other key free agent signings - Shaquille and Jermaine O'Neal. With reports surfacing earlier in the week that the C's were working out a small collection of players, including Rashad McCants and Adam Morrison, there was talk about whether any player currently under contract with the club is in any sort of jeopardy. The only player with a non-guaranteed contract besides Oliver Lafayette and Tony Gaffney (longshots to make the roster to begin with), is West, who signed for the Veteran's Minimum a few weeks ago.
Coming back to players who might be in jeopardy of not making the club, I've read some comments and spoken with a few people who feel West might actually be on the hot seat. But then I see Grousbeck's quote in that article, and to me it suggests that he feels West could play something of a significant role for the club this season. Now, I never want to risk reading too much into a single portion of a single sentence of a single article, but Wyc is a very involved NBA owner, who's always in tune with what's going on with his team, so reading this reinforced my belief that West is all but a guaranteed lock for this coming season's final roster. I suppose my rationale is an intelligent owner like Wyc won't just drop a player's name when he's discussing some of the important additions the club made to give itself a better chance at a title this coming year just for the sake of dropping it.
So, what do you think? Maybe Wyc's quote didn't instill in you a further confidence in West the same way it did for me. But do you see West making it through training camp and playing for the Celtics this coming season?