Most Celtics observers were filled with more questions about this year

The Celtics finished off their preseason schedule with a 101-100 win over the Cavaliers at the Garden. Paul Kenyon and Steve Bulpett have brief recaps of the game. Mark Murphy looks at Justin Reed showing some offense last night for the second string Celtics. Peter May has Doc Rivers saying that he has his roster all figured out. Lenny Megliola feels he can make a pretty good guess as to what the roster will look like as well, along with who is going to play and how much. Bulpett notes that the Celtics could have five second round picks on their opening night roster. The trend seems to fit as Doc Rivers was himself a second round pick. (As was Danny Ainge)

Mike Fine says that Gerald Green (Who hit the game winning shot last night) is going to play somewhere. Whether that is with Boston, or down with a NBDL team remains to be seen. Murphy reports on a November 15th hearing date for Tony Allen. Bulpett looks at the continued struggles of Dan Dickau on the defensive end, a weakness that is going to cost the guard playing time. Bulpett’s notebook reports that the team’s decision on whether to use the NBDL is still up in the air.

David Scott reports on the FSN Celtics Media lunch, an event which I also attended.

The Celtics, despite letting a 20 point lead get away in a 118-116 OT loss to New Jersey last night, still had a pretty good night. Their regulars were strong and outplayed the regulars of their division rivals. Steve Bulpett has a short report on the game, noting that the OT experience was good for the young players.

One area which is becoming more clear is the point guard spot, where it seems that Delonte West and Orien Greene will get most of the minutes. Shira Springer has a piece on West, who appears to have won the starting position with Greene being the first guard off the bench. Mark Murphy has a mini-feature on Paul Pierce, who is successfully working at repairing his image after his playoff performance and is growing into the role model that this young Celtics squad really needs. Bulpett also has an article on Brian Scalabrine, who went back to his old haunts last night, and played pretty well. The article gets Nets President Rod Thorn’s thoughts on the forward, and how he’ll do in Boston. Jackie MacMullan reports on NBA deputy commissioner Russ Granik announcing his retirement effective at the end of the season after 30 years with the league. Inside Hoops has a question and answer session with rookie Gerald Green. Bulpett’s notebook has more on the point guard situation, and has Doc Rivers giving his players a lesson on Rosa Parks.

Steve Bulpett reports that the Celtics will probably not pick up the fourth year option on Marcus Banks, which would make the UNLV product a free agent after this season. Shalize Manza Young has a look at rookie Gerald Green, who has a lot of work and maturing to do before his time comes on the court. The youngster has worlds of potential and talent, but has a ways to go still. The older guards are working him hard in practice, teaching him lessons for the future. Mike Fine, meanwhile has a piece on Orien Greene, as the second round draft pick continues to make a name for himself in the preseason. Shira Springer looks at Brian Scalabrine, as the forward continues to attempt to carve out a role for himself on this club. Bulpett documents some allegations made against center Mark Blount in a NY court room yesterday. The person involved was a former coach of Blount, who testified that someone else took Blount’s SAT and later injected him with steroids to bulk him up. This same person had sued Blount back in 2001.

Bill Reynolds has a piece on former Providence College and Boston Celtics player Marty Conlon. Young’s notebook has coach Doc Rivers standing in support of Tony Allen and hoping that the second year forward will finally learn from his mistakes off the court. Bulpett’s notebook has more on the ups and downs of Gerald Green during camp.

John Molori’s Media Blitz has Mike Gorman talking about the upcoming Celtics season, and also talks to Jon Wallach, who is strongly pushing to become the permanent host for the WEEI evenings. John Howell looks at Donny Marshall joining the FSNE Celtics broadcasts.

Shira Springer and Steve Bulpett each look at rookie point guard Orien Green, who has been turning heads in camp and the preseason with his heady play, strong defense and crisp passing. If you missed his second quarter fast break bounce pass to Al Jefferson Saturday night against the Nets, you missed something special. Bulpett also looks at Brian Scalabrine as the new Celtics forward continues to find a role for himself with the team Bulpett’s notebook looks at Justin Reed losing playing time on Saturday night because of a wardrobe malfunction. More to the point, he didn’t have his complete wardrobe on, lacking a game jersey. Zach Rocha is looking ahead to the Beijing Olympics, and already his team put together.

Bob Hohler has a piece today on how the Celtics and Bruins are aiming to keep up with the Red Sox and Patriots when it comes to charity work.

From yesterday, Shira Springer has Tony Allen talking about his arrest and situation for the first time. Bulpett also looked at Allen rejoining the team after his arrest. Peter May had his NBA notes, with a look at Allan Houston’s retirement, and suggesting that if Danny Ainge wants to take another run at Robert Swift, now might be a good time. Bill Reynolds weighed in on the NBA dress code.

by Jon

Three exhibition contests are now in the books, and it now seems that the 2005-2006 Boston Celtics are now coming into focus. This evening

By Mark

I hated Ricky Davis, and may have hated Danny Ainge more for making the trade to bring Ricky Davis to town. The trade that involved sending a personal favorite, Kedrick Brown, to Cleveland. Try and read that last sentence and still hold an open mind to the message. It’s not easy, I admit.

Ricky Davis was, in my mind, anathema to the mold of a Celtic. Davis was a “me first”, stats-driven prima donna. The poster child for a minimum age in the NBA. He shot on his own basket to get a rebound for a triple double!!!!! He was almost universally despised by the entire State of Iowa, which is not easy to do. Those plains-staters are easy going.

When the trade went down, we were treated by our local NBA experts to literally weeks of “What the hell is Ainge doing?????”. The yahoo calls to WEEI started, and now we were treated to “Ricky Davis is a thug”. One particularly short radio man with a Ned Flanders flavor-saver deftly fanned the flames of the Ricky Davis pyres while appearing to keep his proportionally tiny hands singe free.

I bought it all hook shot, line and sinker. Jim O’Brien, who at the time was a legend from this quarter, resigned six weeks after the trade went down. It was pretty clear That OB wasn’t buying into the program. As the name coming to the C’s in that trade Ricky suffered more slings and arrows from the yahoos, both amateur and professional.

A funny thing happened during the mob rule, Davis did the two most important things a Celtic can do 1) played his butt off, 2) kept his trap shut. His offensive numbers dropped slightly from what they had been with the Cavs, but not significantly.

Last year, Davis conducted himself as a consummate professional. He was the Celtics’ sixth man when clearly he had the talent to be a starter. Ricky barely squeaked about coming off the bench, even when Jiri Welsch was ahead of him in position and went through a scoring outage that resembled the great NYC blackout of 1977. Davis brought with him an infectious energy level that could even ratchet up the energy level of the starters.
Somewhere along the line, I started to look at Ricky as a player and as a man instead of some media construct. I realized, fairly early in the 2004-2005 season, that RD was playing his tookus off and more importantly playing the Celtic way. I don’t think it’s a stretch to say that Davis may be in a unique position amongst Celtic players to exploit the up-tempo game with his physical skills. No Celtic last year adapted to the system in a more seamless fashion. Not Pierce. Not Banks. Not Tony Allen or Al Jefferson.

And guess what?? It turns out that Davis is a decent person too. He spends a ton of time off the court with his kid. He does some good charity work, and doesn’t pimp his involvement the way so many athletes seem too. He’s made more of an effort to reach out to the fans than any Celtic in recent memory (a big shout out to the boys of the Get Buckets Brigade who know what I’m talking about).

In summation, I think that the whole Ricky Davis episode has shown me the true power of the sports media here in Boston and nationally. Warts and all. And believe me there are plenty of warts. The local scribes and disembodied talking heads decided that Davis was bad and that became the story. The story was repeated in print, on TV, on the radio and before you know it perception has become reality. I am here to bear testament to the value of thinking outside the box. Plus, it’s basketball…..so it’s fun.

by Jon

I was trying to think of some other things we can do with the Full Court Press, and while we are getting to be known for our lengthy columns, perhaps some topics don’t require the “Simmons Treatment”. So, in that vein, we’ll run a “Fiddles and diddles” column every so often to give a quick take on some of the topics of the day.

The last of our five part series looking at the Celtics roster addresses what may be the single most scrutinized position on the team, shooting guard. Our final contribution comes from a long time reader of the Full Court Press who has jumped behind the keyboard himself and add his two cents on our favorite guys in green. I hope everyone joins me in welcoming Steve to the FCP family, and I certainly hope if any of you have any questions about this or any of our previous previews that you use the link on the left and contact us.

Shooting Guards
By Steve

Paul Pierce
One thing I think most NBA fans do every year is plot out a scenario under which their team could next win the championship. Even if there is no plausible way that this could occur in that particular year, fans still tend to muse about a timeline and think,

Small Forwards
By Tom

Disclaimer: This list is somewhat interchangeable with shooting guards, so you might see a couple of names and ask,