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Green turn to Red Claws
Posted on June 29, 2009 by mfine
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In a move that’ll make shuttling young players to and from the NBA Development League a whole lot easier, the Celtics have signed a deal to affiliiate with the expansion Maine Red Claws, who’ll begin playing next season in Portland.
It was a natural transition given the proximity, which will save the Celts the epense of sending players to Utah, and since the team’s new GM, Jon Jennings, is a former Celtics assistant coach.
Thee team will also be affiliated with the Charlotte Bobcats.
“We are excited to announce our affiliation with the Maine Red Claws,” said Danny Ainge, President of Basketball Operations for the Celtics, said in a statement. ”Although our recent partnership with the Utah Flash was an extremely positive experience in every respect, having our NBA Development League affiliate just a short drive away from Boston will be an invaluable tool in the progression of our players as they strive to perfect their game and contribute at the NBA level.”
The NBA D-League continues to be a springboard for elite basketball talent, with more NBA players than ever boasting NBA D-League experience. Twenty percent of NBA players on 2008-09 end-of-season rosters had NBA D-League experience, while 29 of 30 NBA teams featured players with NBA D-League experience last season. Over the first four seasons of the NBA D-League’s assignment system, NBA teams have assigned 116 players a total of 175 times to play in the NBA D-League.
Celts select Hudson
Posted on June 25, 2009 by mfine
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The Celtics have selected a 6-2 guard named Lester Hudson from Tennessee-Martin. Almost 25 years old, Martin came from a tough upbringing and has turned himself into something of a scorer, having gone for 27.5 points per game last season, second in the NCAA behind only Stephen Curry.
He’s not exactly a point guard, but a shooter who’s good with contested shots and makes a pest of himself defensively. Prediction: he’ll never see the light of day in Boston.
“I like who he is,” Ainge said. “I like his toughness, his ability to score. He’s got strength and he’s long and one of those guys who knows who to score the ball. I think his strength is as a scorer, but he can handle ball and create off dribble. I think he can play with ball in hands, like as a scorer.”
Ainge says Hudson can score over people, that he “instigates,” both with and without the ball. Bottom line, though, is that he was a 58th pick and will be trying to make a team that’s two years removed from winning the championship. He does do a little more than Eddie House, who’s strictly a spot-up shooter, but he also has no experience.
In one respect, he’s more like Leon Powe, a young man who grew up under almost tragic circumstances, living with his grandmother because his mother’s Memphis house burned down. He didn’t even graduate from his high school, but eventually got himself together.
One thing’s certain: he is not the big man the Celtics would like to get, but that wasn’t going to happen through the draft.
Danny loves Rajon
Posted on June 23, 2009 by mfine
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Celtics GM Danny Ainge indicated this morning that rumors about a Rajon Rondo trade were just that. “I’m not sure why his name keeps popping up,” Ainge said. “I’ll tell you this: we love Rajon. I’m not gonna comment about whether trade rumors are true.
“I’ve heard speculation that we’re dissatisfied with him or his attitude. That stuff is so false…he showed up late for a playoff game so we’re going to trade him…none of that is true. We love the kid and we think he’s got a very bright future and I don’t anticipate any trades happening in this offseason regarding any of our core players.
“It doesn’t seem like you have to have any source any more. It becomes a little frustrating at times.”
Now, Rick Pitino said the same things about Chauncey Billups, but Ainge is a straight shooter.
Ainge also said he doesn’t anticipate making a trade to move up in Thursday’s NBA draft. The Celts don’t pick until No. 58, their latest-ever first pick. He said that the draft is very weak, which makes moving up untenable. Since the team already has several young players, including JR Giddens, Bill Walker and Gabe Pruitt it doesn’t make sense to move up, since these players are better than a draft pick.
On a housecleaning note: Kevin Garnett, who had knee surgery at the end of the season, will be ready for training camp, but Leon Powe probably will not.
Tony Allen recovering from ankle surgery
Posted on June 3, 2009 by mfine
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BOSTON, MA - The Boston Celtics announced today that guard Tony Allen underwent successful arthroscopic right ankle surgery and posterior tibial tendon repair today at the New England Baptist Hospital. Surgery was performed by Team Physician Dr. Brian McKeon and assisted by Dr. Mark Slovenkai and Jason Rand, PAC. Full recovery is expected with return by training camp this fall.
Surgery for KG
Posted on May 26, 2009 by mfine
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From the Celts:
BOSTON - The Boston Celtics announced today that forward Kevin Garnett underwent successful right knee arthroscopy and removal of posterior knee bone spurs today at the New England Baptist Hospital. The surgery was performed by Team Physician Dr. Brian McKeon and was assisted by Dr. Michael Belkin and Dr. John Richmond.
“After this successful surgery, Kevin can now begin to focus on rehabilitating his knee, returning to top physical shape and fully preparing for the 2009-10 season,” Celtics President of Basketball Operations Danny Ainge remarked.
Garnett appeared in 57 games this season for the Celtics averaging 15.8 points, 8.5 rebounds, 2.5 assists, 1.11 steals and 1.19 blocks in 31.1 minutes per game. Garnett became the youngest player in NBA history to have played in 1,000 career games when he played against the Bulls on October 31, 2008 at the age of 32 years and 165 days. Garnett was named to the 2009 NBA All-Defense First Team for the second consecutive season and his 10th consecutive season of being named to either the First or Second Team. The Farragut Academy product was named to his 12th All-Star game this past season and his 12 appearances are second-most among active players behind only Shaquille O’Neal.
“I expect Kevin to return to active duty in full force and be that consummate two-way professional that he has shown all of us throughout his fantastic NBA career,” Celtics Head Coach Doc Rivers added.
Celts were hurting
Posted on May 19, 2009 by mfine
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Given the way they performed in the latter stages of their playoff run, it was fairly obvious that some of the Celtics were hurting. This morning on WEEI, Doc Rivers confirmed that.
Rivers said that Ray Allen was hampered with a bad hamstring. He said that Paul Pierce will require surgery for bone spurs, as will Kendrick Perkins for his ailing shoulder. And we all know about Kevin Garnett’s knee.
Rivers also told John Dennis and Mike Felger, “We have to improve our team. There’s no doubt about that. We don’t have to make any changes, but we do need some additions. We need a small forward who can defend, who can make shots and give (Pierce) a blow.”
Thus, it ends
Posted on May 17, 2009 by mfine
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Thus it ends, with a 101-82 Game 7 loss to the Magic, in which the Celtics were outplayed on their own court.
Is it the end of the world? No, and the Celtics know that because they played the entire postseason without Kevin Garnett-and Leon Powe-and they know they’d have been a different team with them.
“I’m really proud of my team,” said Celts coach Doc Rivers. “Clearly tonight we didn’t play well. I thought we had the right spirit; we missed lay-ups, we missed free throws. But I told them, it’s my ninth, 10th year - I don’t know how many years this is coaching - and this is one of my favorite groups as far as how they fought. A lot of reasons for them, I thought, to give up, with the Kevin and the Leon thing , and they never did. So, really proud of them. But give the Magic credit; they were terrific. I thought they were terrific this entire series. And, so, give them credit.”
Even the Magic had to acknowledge the loss of Garnett eroding the Celtics’ chances. “I always loved playing against KG,” said the man who replaced him as Defensive Player of the Year, Dwight Howard, “He has been a role model for me my whole life, and to see him go down was sad for me. I just hope he comes back a hundred percent and I look forward to playing against him next year.”
Rivers didn’t want to use excuses, but who’s kidding who? The loss of Garnett was the difference for the Celts.
“Before he went down, we were the second-best team in basketball, record-wise. Obviously we missed Kevin. He was the defensive player of the year last year. But I thought the combination of those two (with Powe) - that was a big blow for us.
“Obviously I didn’t think it would happen,” Rivers said of a Garnett return in the playoffs. “But someone asked me that today and clearly that’s why we didn’t do surgery. I think that was not a secret. I still didn’t think there was any chance of it to happen. If we had won this series, I can tell you there was no way he was going to play the next series. But, you know, as reported as one point he was going to do surgery. And then we decided well, why? Just fate, hope, you never know. So we were hoping. But we didn’t - I didn’t think it was going to happen.”
Rivers said that Garnett would have surgery soon and should be fine for next season.
Meanwhile, the Celts just rued the loss of an opportunity.
“I think we learned a lot about ourselves as a unit,” said Paul Pierce. “Especially throughout the year with all the injuries and Kevin going down, Leon, Baby, Rondo, I mean we had a number of guys go down all year along and this team has a lot of grit, a lot of fight. Of course, you would like to see what kind of run we would have made with a healthy group but unfortunately that’s the way the NBA goes and throughout the year you have injuries each and every year it’s just unfortunate we had very key injuries but this team showed a lot of heart and we still felt like this was a team that could of went to the championship and still won regardless of who we had out there.”
“We won 62 games during the regular season and you can ask anyone in the locker room it felt like we won maybe 52,” said Ray Allen. “We were four games off the pace from last year and mentally I think sometimes we didn’t think we were as good so we fought even harder. That’s what it taught me. When you’re good you’re not that far from being bad but when you think your bad your not that far from being that good
“There are many nights, many games that we lost during the regular season that we definitely could have won. We look at the first round and there a couple games that we gave away and even this series two games that we probably should of won so it was a learning experience we had a lot of young guys out there playing and they got great experience so moving into the future we have a group of guys that have been there and like last year, people ask what is going to happen when you guys face some adversity we don’t have to answer that question anymore because we had a lot of guys fight through some trying times.”
No repeat for C’s
Posted on May 17, 2009 by mfine
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With 7:19 to go in the fourth quarter Paul Pierce got to the free throw line and missed both. The Celtics were down 17 points at the time and the Magic followed with a Rashard Lewis layup.
It was at that point that the Celtics 2008-09 season had effectively ended.
The Celtics, beset by injuries and severely undermanned, couldn’t play the kind of ball that won them a championship a year earlier. They went down, 101-82, on their own court, something that’s happened only four times in 21 Game 7’s at the two Gardens.
The Celtics had cut a onetime 14-point Orlando lead to just three early in the third quarter and five at the end, but the Magic came out with an 11-0 run to start the fourth. The Celtics didn’t have the answer. Even after narrowing the 19-point deficit to 12, the Magic followed with , they back-to-back 3-pointers by Hedo Turkoglu.
The crowd tried to stay in it until the end, but midway through the fourth, it was obvious that it wasn’t going to happen. With 2:30 to go they began abandoning the arena as Doc Rivers removed Paul Pierce (16 points) and Ray Allen (23).
One killer: the Magic made 13 of 21 3-pointers. The Celtics were limited to four of 16.
Relentlessly short
Posted on May 17, 2009 by mfine
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The Celtics started the third quarter with a run of four straight points, all by Glenn Davis (he missed two free throws), cutting the Orlando lead to 45-42, but the Celtics have been unsuccessful in stringing together any further runs.
Every time they scored, the Magic would eventually score again before they could string together any points. It allowed the Magic to increase the three-point deficit back to 10, but after Rashard Lewis missed two free throws with 28.4 seconds left, Rajon Rondo canned a long jumper over seven-footer Marcin Gortat at the buzzer. Coupled with his two previous free throws, Rondo’s four-point run pulled the Celts to within 66-61 heading into the fourth quarter.
Signs of a pulse
Posted on May 17, 2009 by mfine
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After going 14 points down with 6:55 left in the second quarter, the Celtics have bounced back a bit, although they’re still shooting just 39 percent. But after allowing the Magic to shoot 52 percent in the first quarter, they limited the visitors to 7-for-19 shooting in the second.
That allowed them to creep back in, cutting as many as 10 points off the lead before settling for a 45-38 halftime deficit.
One big development is the resurgence of Ray Allen, who’s got 13 points. Another is the third personal foul picked up by Magic center Dwight Howard, who’s got eight points and eight boards. Rafer Alston and Hedo Turkoglu have 10 points each.
What’s hurting the Celtics, though, is a lack of leadership. Rajon Rondo, who arrived at the locker room at 6:55 tonight-he did the same thing for Game 5-has only two points, two rebounds and three assists. It seems like there’s nothing there. Just before the half, he forced a 24-second violation by passing the ball at the buzzer instead of shooting.
Each team has turned the ball over 11 times, canceling each other out. The biggest difference in this game is 3-pointers. The Magic are 7-for-10, the Celtics 1-for-5.
keep looking »
