Blogging the NBA’s Most Storied Franchise

By Jeremy Gottlieb

It’s almost a new year, dear readers, and with the Celtics stellar, 19-game winning streak coming to a close yesterday in L.A., along with the most spectacular Celts annum in over 20 years about to end, it’s time for another list of observations about your favorite local hoops squad. So, without further ado…

1. IN THE GRANDER SCHEME, THE LOSS TO THE LAKERS MEANS NOTHING

Let’s have a show of hands – how many of you think the Lakers were slightly more fired up for yesterday’s showdown at Staples Center? If you didn’t put your hand up, you can go to the back of the room and sit on the floor. Look, it was more than obvious that the Lakes were the hungrier team. They felt like they had to prove something to themselves and their fans after their loss in the Finals last June and apparently, winning a rather meaningless, regular-season game smack in the middle of the schedule was the way to do it. Kobe Bryant wasn’t spectacular, but he did his typical Kobe thing, putting up a nice stat line, commanding double team after double team and generally hovering slightly above the proceedings like the superstar he is. Phil Jackson stopped needling the refs and any courtside spectators rooting for Boston (hello, Matt Damon and Mark Wahlberg!) long enough to coach his 1,000th career victory and even Pau Gasol, easily one of the softest, least physical players in the sport, showed a bit of moxie, carrying his mates on his back down the stretch with seven points in a backbreaking, 11-2 run. The Lakers deserve all the credit for the win and no, I will not enter the Tommy Heinsohn School of Analysis and just blame the loss on the officials. L.A. is an excellent team that is extremely well-coached and very hungry and yesterday, the displayed some mental toughness that was sorely lacking in the Finals. Does this mean the Celtics have much to be worried about? Nope. Does it mean that the Lakers might be better than Boston? Hardly. It simply means that the Celts, a great, great team that could be historically good, can’t win every game and shouldn’t be faulted for falling to a very close competitor on the road. Anyone who reads any more into it is thinking too much.

2. IF YOU REALLY WANT TO WORRY, WORRY ABOUT THE BENCH

No reserve played more than Tony Allen’s 16 minutes yesterday (more on him later), which was a sign of both the intensity level of the proceedings and the fact that the non-starters have left a lot to be desired recently. It’s not that big a deal, as nothing really is when you win 27 of your first 30 games, including 19 in a row. And when you get as far ahead as the Celtics get more often than not, then it’s ok if the numbers of guys like Eddie House and Leon Powe aren’t sensational, or even solid (though House’s 38 percent from three-land is just fine, his no-show yesterday notwithstanding) as long as the starters, particularly the Big Three, get some rest and can be somewhat preserved for later. But this is something that bears watching, especially in light of yesterday’s 5-of-20, 13-point performance. I hate to keep bringing him up every time I write, but this is one of the areas where James Posey came in so handy last year. He was a force off the pine, even when he wasn’t putting up numbers. His will on defense or his leadership or his ability to make a big play on either end when the team really needed one transcended statistics and there is no one here who can provide that with him gone – everyone left is too young (Powe, Big Baby), too limited (House, Scal) or too devoid of intelligence (ahem, T.A.). Again, I don’t think this is too big a deal either (though I would like to see Powe, who had no points and no shots in 10 uneventful minutes yesterday, get a little more consistent – everyone saw all through the Finals what kind of impact he can deliver when he’s feeling it). Other than seeing Gabe Pruitt get some more time just to see how the offense functions with a true point guard not named Rondo out there, everything makes at least some sense. But come playoff time, no matter how good the Celtics regular season record winds up, someone from the second unit will need to stand forth and bring it.

3. I’M NOT SURE HOW MUCH MORE I CAN TAKE OF TONY ALLEN

Seriously, what are we going to do with Donny Marshall’s favorite player? When I watch the Celtics, or read about them, or think about them, I simply can’t understand how a player so lacking in basic basketball IQ can function within this group. I know, the higher-ups, from Danny Ainge to Doc Rivers, love his athleticism and his defensive skills (sometimes) and the fact that from time to time, he can carry a team briefly, offensively. But at what point does the fact that he doesn’t seem to get it at all become a factor? I’m hardly blaming yesterday’s loss on him, but for a good stretch, he had the goat horns squarely on his head. At the start of the fourth quarter he had no points, three fouls and three turnovers. Every time he touched the ball, it seemed like something bad happened, whether it was a wild, out-of-control drive that resulted in an offensive foul, or a three-pointer in transition with 17 seconds left on the shot clock, or a bad foul away from the ball. There is no one on the roster as mercurial or inconsistent as Allen (House doesn’t count since he’s a streak shooter which automatically makes him mercurial and inconsistent). He’s now in his fourth year of having all the tools and not a clue how to use them properly, which begs the question of whether he ever will. I’m rooting for him to do it – it’s nothing personal and I want everyone on the team to do well. I’m just not sure it’s possible.

4. JUST WAIT UNTIL RONDO CAN SHOOT

Even the most casual of observers knows what all the starters’ capabilities are. There isn’t much more that Paul Pierce or Ray Allen or KG or even Perk can add to their respective games. But Rondo, who is on the threshold of being an elite point guard, can still supply even more and that’s a consistent jumper. For all of his attributes – the speed, the court awareness, the intelligence, the defensive prowess, and his newfound ability to almost always find the open man – he’s still missing the ability to consistently hit from 10-18 feet. As Rivers said a couple weeks ago, once he develops that skill, “it’s all over.” This is a guy who has played just about as well as anyone else on the team up to this point, and is still building his skill set and getting better. When that mid-range shot starts falling, watch out.

5. HAVING TO PICK ONE TEAM TO CHALLENGE THE CELTS, IT’S THE CAVS

Sorry, Laker fans. You may all think your team is better equipped to beat Boston in the Finals after yesterday’s regular season win, but let’s see if Gasol and Lamar Odom (a huge non-factor last June) show up the same way when the weather gets warmer. Nope, it’s Cleveland and the LeBrons who bear the most watching, if for no other reason than that besides having the best player in the world (sorry, Kobe), they simply know the Celtics better. Sure, the Atlanta series last spring was tough, but the only time all postseason that the Celtics were truly in danger was in round two against the Cavs. That series could very well have gone the other way – a play here and a play there (as well as the invaluable contribution of P.J. Brown) in Game 7 and Cleveland wins. This year, the Cavs are better, more experienced, have added a very good piece that wasn’t there last year (Mo Williams) and are poised to make another deal come mid-season. All this plus LeBron, who is scarier than ever and has naturally been the biggest key in Cleveland’s 25-4 record (just a game and a half worse than the Celts). Celtics/Cavs in the Eastern Finals will likely be the matchup last year’s series against the Pistons could/should have been. Don’t be fooled by the Lakers – it’s the Cavs who are the next best team after the champs, and that will spark the most interesting battle come May and June, 2009.

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Over in the Metro today, we’ve got a column outlining our five favorite benchwarmers from the 1980′s Celtics.

If these names don’t warm the cockles of your heart, then I don’t know what we’re doing in life:

1) Charles Bradley
2) Carlos Clark
3) David Thirdkill
4) Conner Henry
5) Ronnie Grandison

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By Jeremy Gottlieb

20 games down, a 10-game winning streak in the books means it’s time for another list of five observations we can make about your defending NBA champs (because both 20 and 10 are factors of five, of course).

Note: since there is so little to be critical/pessimistic/controversial about regarding the Celts, not only will this five-pack be brimming with good feeling, but it will also attempt to delve somewhat into the rest of the NBA. So without further ado…

1. RAJON RONDO IS THE MAN

Now before we all get ahead of ourselves, let’s remember that Rondo showed some similar flashes of excellence last season only to confound and confuse shortly thereafter with the occasional stinkbomb or at least mediocre performance. That being said, nothing positive that he did last year even came close to the stretch he’s having right now, which met a crescendo with his jaw-dropping triple-double (16 points, 13 boards, 17 assists) Wednesday night against Indiana, a triple-double he needed less that three quarters to complete, as well as the first Celtics triple-double in over two years. Kevin Garnett probably said it best when he was quoted after that 18-point shellacking of the Pacers as saying, “It seemed like there were three Rajon Rondos out there.” The thing about Rondo is that he had all of last season to learn, to work, to hone his craft, while just trying to get the ball to Messrs. Garnett, Pierce and Allen, and stay out of the way. As a young, inexperienced point guard last year, all he was asked to do was not screw things up and that lack of responsibility meant he had more time to improve, by hard work, osmosis, and the regular tough love he received (and likely still receives) from Doc Rivers. A guy with a skill set like Rondo’s; lightning speed, great jumping ability, quickness and court savvy, as well as his freakishly long arms that he uses to superior effect while playing stifling defense, is a powerful threat when things are both working and he “gets it.” Could he use a better jumper? Sure. Would it be nice to see a little bit more consistency? Of course. But I don’t think anyone is complaining about what Rondo is giving right now (almost 14 points and nine assists in his last nine games). If he keeps playing close to this level then he will take a truckload of pressure off the shoulders of the Big Three as the Celts strive to repeat.

2. ANYTHING UP WITH PAUL PIERCE?

It’s strange, but Pierce seems off, somehow. I’m not sure if it’s his 40 percent shooting (career 44 percent) or the way he seems to be missing so many of those shots (short). It’s probably nothing and has had exactly zero negative effect so far. But it’s strange to see a game like the Indiana game, when Rondo does what he does, KG has a classic KG game (26 and 14), Ray Allen continues to shoot the lights out (11 of 18, 31 points, 6 of 9 three-pointers) and even Kendrick Perkins rocks out (16 and 10) while Pierce struggles from the floor (5 of 17, zero field goals in the first half) is such a pronounced way. He’s averaging 18.6 PPG, more than four off his career average, and, other than a five-game stretch in mid-November when he scored 36, 34, 19, 28 and 22 respectively, has appeared slow and out of sync. Now again, it’s nitpicking; the team is 18-2, he’s still posting solid numbers and the marked improvement of Rondo, Perkins and (gulp) Tony Allen has masked some of his troubles. But it will be interesting to see how long this lasts and whether or not any type of revelation, injury or otherwise, comes forth.

3. IT’S TOO SOON TO SAY THE CELTS ARE BETTER THAN LAST YEAR

Through 20 games, the Celtics have won 18, including streaks of 10 and six. Last season, the Celtics won 66 games and the NBA Championship. What that means is that it’s far too early to anoint this year’s edition of the Green as better than last year’s edition. They are certainly playing as well now as they did at any point in ’07-’08, as they have recently begun to blow their opponents out with the kind of clinical precision they made famous last year, summoning the perfect combination of stifling defense and offensive firepower at will (or at least at the most opportune time). But that’s all they’ve done, this year. It’s the job of sports writing guys and sports TV guys and sports radio guys to pontificate on such topics, but in the real world, there is no way to gauge whether the entire body of work this year is comparable to last because there haven’t been enough games played yet. It remains to be seen if Tony Allen can do what James Posey did in big games, or whether Rondo and Perkins can keep up the rapid pace of their improvement or if the team can avoid major injury as it did last year or if at some point, the combo platter of great expectations, opponents’ best efforts and fatigue becomes a weight that’s too much to bear. At this point, it is safe to assume that if the Celtics stay healthy, they are as close to a lock to return to the Finals as can be. But remember, faithful readers – there are still five months of regular season and three rounds of playoffs to go.

4. THE NBA FEELS KIND OF TOP HEAVY

Look at the standings. The first place team is at least eight games over .500 in five of the six divisions. Three first-place teams (Celtics, Lakers, Cavs) have a double digit win/loss ratio while Orlando is nine games over sea level. Meanwhile, 14 teams sport sub-.500 marks, with three of them in the Pacific Division. The point is that there may well be a couple teams come playoff time who are carrying lousy season marks into the tournament, making it even more likely that the Alpha Dogs, e.g. Boston, L.A., Cleveland, Portland, Orlando and even Detroit will have an even easier road to the postseason’s later stages than one might have initially supposed. What does this all mean? It means that there isn’t as much parity in the NBA as the league would like the average fan to believe actually exists. And the reason why has nothing to do with money, like in baseball. The salary cap ensures that all teams are at least sort of operating on the same level, luxury tax teams like the Knicks, Nuggets and potentially the Celtics be damned. No, the reason there isn’t as much parity as the league would like is because of inept management in too many cities. Look at teams like the Grizzlies, Clippers, Bulls and even Phoenix, all teams that don’t understand how to assemble the right parts. Sure, Danny Ainge went from a fraud to a genius when he was able to acquire Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen without giving up anything of value not named Al Jefferson. But there’s a lot to be said about GMs like Chicago’s Jon Paxson and the Suns’ Steve Kerr, both of whom collected individual names without bothering to think about how said guys would fill specific roles (honestly, is anyone even remotely surprised that the Bulls stink after giving up their only legitimate low post guy in Tyson Chandler in favor of the fossil of Ben Wallace while putting nothing but tweeners at the 2 and 3 around him?). The teams that are winning right now either have superstars (Cleveland, L.A., Orlando, New Orleans) with enough competent complimentary guys around them or are well-balanced by virtue of shrewd front office maneuvering (Boston, Houston, Portland, Denver). Everyone else is either mediocre or is already lottery-bound barely a month and a half into the season. And if you don’t believe me, again, just look at the standings.

5. IT’S AWESOME HOW GOOD THE CELTICS ARE

Forgive me, neutral observers, but I have to revel for just a minute. I just love the fact that the Boston Celtics, my first ever favorite sports team, is not only relevant, but good, and really good, again. After so many crappy years before the Garnett and Allen deals, it feels incredible to see Boston win and win so consistently and convincingly. It seemed like forever that the Celtics were the team that jumped out to a big, first half lead over a superior opponent only to wilt under the weight of five third quarter minutes of good defense and paying attention by the other team. Now, it’s the Celtics who do that (witness last week’s game against Golden State, among others, if you doubt me). And don’t think it’s a mystery when results like the Philly or Minnesota or Toronto games from late last month pop up. I don’t care if I’m called a homer for saying it. I love it!

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With Jim O’Brien bringing his Indiana Pacers into town tonight, it seemed appropriate to run this piece from Michael Passanisi about the legacy of the former Celtics coach.

By Michael Passanisi

In the 60′s, 70′s and 80′s, Celtic Pride meant winning it all. But after the bad years, it meant making you proud to be a Celtic fan again. But let’s go back to 2001.

Under Chris Ford, ML Carr, and Rick Pitino, things had been chaotic for years. Ford couldn’t get along with certain players. Kevin McHale, Larry Bird, and Robert Parish were gone, and between 1992 and 1994, first draft picks were Jon Barry, Acie Earl, and Eric Montross. In 94, the Celtics brought in Dominique Wilkins, an aging superstar who it was thought would help attendance. It didn’t work, because Ford and Wilkins fought all year, and even the fans turned against him. Dominique stayed for one season, and in 1995, Ford and CEO Dave Gavett were let go by owner Paul Gaston. Since Reggie Lewis’ death, Ford’s record had slumped to 67-97. To replace Gavett and Ford, former Celtic player ML Carr assumed both jobs. “Even though ML and I were friends,” Larry wrote in his second book, “I had my doubts. I just couldn’t see ML in that role.” By 1996-97, the team’s record was down to a hideous 15-67, and some accused Carr of deliberately putting inferior players in to improve the team’s draft position in the season’s final weeks. “I wasn’t trying to lose,” Carr has been quoted as saying, “I never increased the talent so we could win. It didn’t make any sense.” Dee Brown, a prominent member of that team, has said that “it was incredibly frustrating because the players wondered what on earth was happening..We had no direction. We were a laughingstock.” It seemed that Celtic Pride no longer existed.

The way thing were going for the team, they failed to get the first lottery pick; that went to San Diego. The great Tim Duncan was not coming to Boston after all, and the Green were left with picks 3 and 6, which were Ron Mercer and Chauncey Billups.

Pitino, a great college coach, arrived in Boston in ’97 with much fanfare. He was still considered a hero for bringing Providence to the Final Four in the 1980′s. However, considering everyone’s hopes, Rick in Boston was a huge failure. He demanded and got total control, and one of the first things he did was take the office of President from Red Auerbach, a totally callous move. The team improved for one season,but still was considerably under .500. Author John Feinstein, who wrote a book with Auerbach, said that the egotistical Pitino (coach, CEO, and President) “moved players in different directions like a mad scientist.” Rick had expected to have Duncan, but he was in San Antonio. Billups and Mercer were soon traded. Good veterans like David Wesley and Rick Fox were let go, only to become stars in other places. Danny Fortson, an Auerbach favorite who came in the Mercer trade, lasted only a year because Pitino felt he was a problem in the locker room. Rick apparently listened to no one. Eventually, the Celtic players totally quit on Pitino, who said he would leave if things did not improve. According to a Peter May article, “the players stopped playing for him and stopped listening to him”, and in January 2001, with the squad’s season record at 12-22, Rick resigned. His overall Celtic percentage was .411, with no postseason appearenes. His successor was Jim O’Brien.

Although O’Brien had been a close Pitino associate for years, when he took over the team the players responded to him. Writer Mark Murphy has said that “the coaching change brought a sense of relief, and he benefited.” For the rest of the 2000-01 season the team went .500. They still missed the playoffs, but things were about to improve. Top scorer Antoine Walker had been with the Celtics since 1996, but despite the fact that Pitino had been his coach at Kentucky, it failed to jell between them. According to Murphy, “O’Brien got more out of Walker than anyone has. He was able to work to his strengths.” Reached at his home in Indiana, O’Brien said he”understood Antoine’s strengths and weaknesses, who he was as a man, and what he could do on the court.” Aided by trade acquisition Rodney Rodgers and a young Paul Pierce’s 26 points per game, the 2001-2002 Celtics finished 49-33 and finished only 3 games behind New Jersey in the division standings. They topped it off with a first-round playoff conquest of Allen Iverson’s 76ers and a huge 4-1 upset of first place finisher Detroit before falling in a tough six-gamer to the Nets in the Eastern finals. O’ Brien has said that one of his greatest Celtic memories is bombing the 76ers (120-87) in the fifth and deciding game of the Philly series. It was only the second postseason series win in nine years, and the furthest the team had gone since 1988. The following year, despite the departure of Rodgers, the squad topped .500 again and beat Indiana in the first playoff round before losing one more time to NJ in the semis. It was the first Celtic repeat-playoff performance since Lewis’ death.

O’Brien had now established himself, and he might have been involved in the Celtics’ huge success today. However, the team’s new owners brought in Danny Ainge as Executive Director of Basketball Operations in 2003, and trouble began. Ainge was young and inexperienced at the time, and he had his own ideas about personnel. Murphy says that Ainge “didn’t like Antoine Walker’s game. He was big on three-pointers, but without a lot of movement.” Before the 2003-04 season, Ainge traded Walker for Raef La Frentz, Chris Mills, Jiri Welsch, and a draft pick; one of the team’s best players through the bad years had been replaced by inferior people. When Ainge traded for guard Ricky Davis, a talented but undisciplined offensive star while giving up O’Brien favorite Eric Williams, Jim had had enough. He felt that he and Ainge just weren’t going to make it together. Though O’Brien has called Boston “my favorite stop”, he says that “to win a championship, we had to rebuild, and I wasn’t confident in Danny’s rebuilding.” He resigned on January 27, 2004, leaving with his pride intact and with most players regretting his departure. “He’s a good coach. A good person. I wish him well. I have no ill feelings about Jim O’Brien”, Ainge has been quoted as saying. Celtic captain Pierce called O’Brien “a straight shooter type of guy. I think we had a good relationship. An open relationship. He was real demanding of his players. I looked at him as one of those old-fashioned coaches…he preaches a lot of defense.” After his departure, the team faded badly for the rest of that season.

O’Brien’s overall Celtics record was 139-119, and the chances are good that the Celtics would have remained a respectable team if he could have reached an accommodation with Ainge.

Instead, Jim went to coach the then-troubled 76ers, where big things were expected of him. A native Philadelphian and star college player there, he hoped to better the team as he had in Boston. He brought with him Dick Harter, his trusted lieutenant and another defensive specialist. But as the season wore on, things didn’t work out. Though the squad improved by 10 games, Jim had to deal with personalities like Chris Webber, who openly questioned some of O’Brien’s moves. Philly management apparently wanted former 76ers star Maurice Cheeks to coach, but Cheeks was allegedly under contract in Portland at the time, and despite the improvement, the team went out early in the playoffs. Three weeks later, O’Brien was given his walking papers, and Cheeks was brought in.

Meanwhile, under new Celtic coach Doc Rivers, who was hired in 2004, the Celtics were up and down for three years. A surprising first place finish in 2004-05 was followed by two tough and depressing seasons, before Rivers and Ainge hit the jackpot with Kevin Garnett, Ray Allen, and a rejuvenated Pierce last season. Ainge became Executive of the Year, and Rivers an NBA Championship coach.

Rather than being the mentor of a league champ, O’Brien is in Indiana, where he has been beset by numerous injuries and troubled players and even failed to make the playoffs last season. As longtime Celtics beat writer Mike Fine wrote earlier this year: “Jim O’Brien can’t catch a break”.

For many reasons, O’Brien is not rated today with the all-time great Celtic coaches. But if he had found a way to stay, he might be. All in all, Jim O’Brien should be remembered as the coach who first began to restore Celtic Pride.

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THE FIVE-PACK: WHAT WE KNOW SO FAR

By Jeremy Gottlieb

13 games down, 15 percent of the schedule complete and the Celtics are right where we thought they would be: in first place.

But how good are they? Good enough to survive missing Kevin Garnett for a game? Yup. Good enough to continue to have Eddie House as their backup point guard? Perhaps. Good enough to continue to let inferior teams give them the early jump only to play five or so minutes of tough defense come the third quarter and/or rely in Paul Pierce to explode down the stretch and subsequently carry them? Um…

So with all that in mind and with another stretch of five games in eight days beginning tonight in Minneapolis, here are another five observations on the defending champs.

The Celtics are Targets

As the defending champions, the Celtics are getting each opponent’s best game. Teams like Milwaukee, Toronto and the Knicks, none of whom are going anywhere further than maybe the first round of the playoffs this season, have put big scares into Boston over the last couple of weeks. This, of course, is completely normal and completely predictable. And the Celtics have responded properly, taking their opponents best punches, then countering with enough power of their own to be left standing at the final whistle. But how long can they keep it up? Talent will get you far in the NBA, but not every night. And if the Celtics are faced with playoff-type intensity on the part of the opposition night in and night out from now until April, how fresh will they be when the really important games come around? Doc Rivers did a fine job managing the minutes of his Big Three last season and it paid off as the season and the postseason wore on. But with the opposition being tougher this year, will that minute management cost them? The schedule has already done them no favors (needing overtime to beat the Bucks playing without two of their best four players said as much about the Celtics being in their fifth game in seven days as it did about the talent or effort level), and neither will their opponents. It’s a situation that bears watching as the season progresses.

Does Gabe Pruitt totally stink?

I don’t know. I don’t think anyone knows outside of the Celtics’ training facility. What I do know is that Eddie House is not a point guard. He wasn’t one last season, either. But Rivers continues to use him as one, bringing him off the bench as the chief backup to Rajon Rondo. This can create problems in that a) House can’t dribble which means that when the slightest amount of defensive pressure is put on him, he immediately becomes a liability, b) he can’t guard anyone, which means that the Celtics have to hide him on the defensive end, be it through a zone or a variety of switches or double teams, and c) he can’t invest his maximum energy in the reason he’s on the team in the first place, which is to provide instant offense via his jumper. The Celtics got around these problems last season, primarily because they were so far ahead so often that they could afford to play House out of position. But so far this year, things haven’t been quite as easy, which is why it’s time to see what Pruitt can do. House will still get his minutes, especially when the Celtics go small. But with Sam Cassell in mothballs while training to become a coach and with no other real point guard on the roster, now is the time to get Pruitt at least enough minutes to see if he deserves any more.

Tony Allen or no Tony Allen?

Before I go any further, I have to offer a disclaimer: I am not at all a Tony Allen fan. I don’t think that he is smart enough in a basketball sense to understand how to harness his ability either for the good of his team or himself; his major knee injury suffered while performing a showy dunk after the whistle had already blown during a stretch in which he was finally looking like he was beginning to get it in a game two years ago the most obvious, egregious example. That being said, he is a key to this team and it would be quite satisfying for him to prove me and other naysayers wrong about him. His performance in the 98-80 drubbing of Detroit last night certainly helped: 13 points on 6 of 7 shooting to go with six boards, three steals and a couple of blocks in a team-high 28 minutes. But the 13 points were two more than he had scored in the previous four games combined, while averaging just 14 minutes per game over that stretch – hardly inspiring totals. The team is also hoping/praying that he can pick up some of the defensive slack left with the departure of James Posey, but really, has he ever done anything to inspire confidence that he can at least make a top-shelf shooting guard or small forward earn his points during crunch time? The Celtics are going to need something both solid and consistent from Tony Allen at some point this year; at several points, actually, and the fact that they re-signed over the summer at least intimated that they have confidence in him to do so. But over four years into his career, the jury’s still out.

I’m Being Very, Very Nitpicky

Look, I’m well aware that everything discussed above is small potatoes. If anyone knows how to handle adverse circumstances from game to game, it’s the Celtics. If Gabe Pruitt gets banished to the D-League again, it probably won’t hurt the team. If Tony Allen remains a knucklehead, it will hurt, but not fatally. Such is life with the Celtics these days. They are 11-2 and have won 9 of 10. They are getting positive contributions from everyone in the lineup, even Scal. Leon Powe and Big Baby Davis continue to develop and look to be huge factors off the bench. Rajon Rondo still looks like he’s on the threshold of stardom. Ray Allen continues to appear fresh, Garnett is as intense and focused as ever and Pierce has shown several times already that he is unarguably one of the top 10 players in the league. Their success up to this point is not as pronounced as it was at this juncture last year because it’s no longer new and a championship can go a long way toward making a fan base feel relatively fat and happy. I probably could have written this four paragraphs ago, run a spell-check and filed this piece. But then, this wouldn’t be a five-pack, it would be a one-pack and what fun is that?

A Lot Can Happen in Four and a Half Months

It’s true. Important people can get hurt. Other teams can make acquisitions to improve themselves. Young, up and coming teams with hope (Portland, Atlanta, New Orleans, the Knicks) can get on a serious roll and really start believing in themselves. Older, washed-up looking teams (San Antonio, Dallas, Phoenix, Detroit) can realize it’s time to flip the switch and start looking their vintage selves. The Oklahoma City Thunder can break the double digit win barrier by season’s end if they get every break. The point is, making predictions at this point in the schedule is a fool’s paradise – there’s just too little time gone by and too many events that have yet to occur. All we can do now is observe and in observing the Celtics, one can’t help but feel that things are not only healthy, they’re going to get healthier.

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Has the NBA turned into the NFL? Has Roger Goodell been whispering in the ear of David Stern?

What other explanation can there be for this head-scratching one-game suspension handed to Kevin Garnett for an incident with Milwaukee’s Andrew Bogut on Saturday night?

From the replay, it is clear that Bogut was the aggressor, and Garnett was merely instinctively reacting to the contact from Bogut.

Double technicals were assessed for the incident, and since Bogut had already received a technical earlier in the game, he was ejected. Bogut did have his foul was upgraded to a “flagrant foul penalty one” by the NBA. Big whoop. Does the league feel that since Bogut had to leave the game he was punished enough?

Garnett will now miss tonight’s game against the New York Knicks, and will end up forfeiting $225,000 worth of salary (according to Steve Bulpett)

Losing Garnett tonight against the Knicks isn’t the end of the world for the Celtics, and getting the high-energy Garnett a night off might not be the worst thing either, coming off that brutal 8-games-in-12-days stretch, but we still can’t figure out what the league is thinking. Especially when you compare what Garnett did with Shaq’s takedown of Rodney Stuckey, which has not resulted in suspension. That wasn’t a case of Stuckey running into Shaq and bouncing off (as O’Neal tries to make it out to be) Shaq took both hands and tossed Stuckey to the ground.

Apparently that’s OK in the NBA. Shaq was fined $25,000, but not for the hit, the fine was for his “verbal abuse” of the officials and his failure to leave the court in a timely fashion.

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By Jeremy Gottlieb

(Editor’s note: This is the first of a regular series of submissions from new staff writer Jeremy Gottlieb, who you may also know from his work at Cold Hard Football Facts, various zone editions of the Boston Globe, the Metro-West Daily News and North Shore Golf Magazine. Please give Jeremy a warm welcome. We’re glad to have him here.)

Hard to believe the season is in full swing and the Celtics have already made their first semi-extended road trip of the year, but that’s indeed where we are and the Green have a 4-1 record to show for it. No, it’s not last season’s 8-0 start, but there have been flashes thus far to be sure. So, with the schedule getting slightly more dense in the coming days/weeks (six games in the next eight days), here are five observations on what we can gather from the first five games on the docket.

The Celtics Can Win Any Way They Want

Take a look at the results. Opening night was a grueling, playoff-style battle in which the Celtics needed a big fourth quarter and a lot of the same defensive intensity seen last season to dispatch LeBron and the Cavs. Even though they led big at one point against the Rockets and got a huge game from Ray Allen (more on him later), the Celtics needed a similar effort to put away Houston. The Bulls game showed that they know what they need to do against far inferior opponents, hence the blowout. And Wednesday night’s game against Oklahoma State, um, I mean the Thunder, was a classic case of barely showing up on the road, allowing the opponent to think it had a chance thanks to an energized first quarter, then flipping the switch when needed in order to coast to victory. Let’s hope that style of win doesn’t become a habit as the Celts try to repeat, but at least they showed that they still know when and how to summon the proper intensity when needed. We already knew these guys, as constituted, could win in a variety of ways. But it’s been nice to be reminded over the course of the past week and a half.

Ray Allen Doesn’t Look Washed Up Anymore

It was tough to watch last spring, remember? Ray Allen looked as done as dirt against Cleveland and Detroit before picking himself up off the mat as the Pistons series progressed and in the Finals against the Lakers. Well, it looks so far like the Ray we all know and love benefited not just from the summer, short as it was, but from the doubters as well. He scored 29 and shot 11-of-15 with five boards and five dimes against Houston before fouling out, then submitted a nifty 18-9-4 line against the Cowboys, er, Thunder, draining a couple patented Ray-style threes and even showing some pretty impressive hops for a washed up guy (his fourth quarter drive, explosion and dunk on ex-teammate/stiff Nick Collison was sweet). Look, it’s very early and there’s no telling what another full season plus playoffs will do to his 33-year old body or ankles after 100+ games last year. But with the Doc Rivers pledging to monitor the overall minutes of the Big Three and without James Posey as a long range threat, it sure is nice to see Ray playing like, well, Ray.

Posey Hasn’t Been Missed…Yet

Granted, an early season game in the middle of nowhere certainly isn’t an indicator, but the Celtics are holding their own without Posey, whose contributions last year may as well have expanded the term to the Big Four. It obviously remains to be seen what his absence will mean as the season wears on, and particularly in the playoffs. And there doesn’t seem to be anyone on the roster who can duplicate what he represented (sorry, Donny Marshall, but your boy Tony Allen hasn’t got a prayer and if you don’t believe that, just watch his mind-boggling foul on Tracy McGrady as T-Mac went up for a three in the late stages of the Houston game – eerily reminiscent of the head fake and foul of Chauncey Billups in the first Pistons game last fall). The combo platter of smarts, defensive tenacity, versatility, heart and onions that Posey contributed will be sorely missed at some juncture. Let’s just hope it’s later rather than sooner.

The Rest of the East Doesn’t Seem Too Scary

Other than Cleveland, is there any team in the Eastern Conference that will really challenge the Celtics? Despite their blockbuster trade, I’m not convinced the Pistons are all that much better. Allen Iverson is reaching the stage of his career in which he may be thinking about subjugating his own interests in favor of winning a title and Detroit may be the place to do that. There will surely be some element of a “last dance” type of mentality there with Billups already gone and Rasheed Wallace on his way out. But beyond an initial surge, I just can’t see guys like Rodney Stuckey, Jason Maxiell and Amir Johnson ready to play the types of roles they’d need to play in order for the Pistons to beat the Celtics or the Cavs. As far as teams like Philly, Miami, Orlando and Atlanta, all have loads of potential but all are too young, too inexperienced or too inferior defensively to make a team like Celtics really worry. Plus, I have a feeling that Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce, not to mention Allen, will be constantly reminding the younger guys that no one thinks they have the discipline to give the same kind of effort they gave all year last year and stay on anyone (Tony Allen, Big Baby Davis) who may stray. I’m not predicting another title (yet). And a lot can happen between now and May in terms of injuries and other teams improving themselves. But right now, I can’t really see anyone but the Celtics representing the East in the Finals again.

There Should Not Be an NBA Team in Oklahoma City

Really now – the Thunder? I understand the game against the Celtics was just the third home game on the docket and they are still getting acclimated down there in Stillwater, er, Oklahoma City. But everything about that game felt so un-NBA like. Two delays because of lousy netting around the rims? Another because of condensation on the floor from the ice underneath (and furthermore, there’s a hockey team in Oklahoma City???). All the good players on the Thunder (Kevin Durant, Jeff Green, Russell Westbrook) should still be in college while all the better role players (Collison, Chris Wilcox, Earl Watson, Joe Smith) haven’t been any good since college and the coach (P.J. Carlesimo) had his best coaching days in college. And those colors; yellow and that old NBA standby, teal. I thought I was watching the Celtics scrimmage against a CBA team until I remembered that Isiah Thomas bankrupted the CBA. Look, some day the Oklahoma City Thunder will feel more like a real NBA franchise and less like Oklahoma State. But now, they look like they should still be playing in Seattle.

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By Kevin Henkin

Even a king, I suppose, is prone to uttering foolish words on occasion.

Such as when LeBron James said about a three point shot made by Gabe Pruitt in a game against Cleveland last week, “Even a trash can gets a steak every once in a while.”

A trash can? Strong words. Especially during preseason, and especially from a young player who usually knows well enough to take the high road whenever discussing opponents. Even so, it got me wondering whether LeBron’s low view of Pruitt’s shooting had any merit. Curious, I did some digging into the matter. Here’s what I found:

In general, Pruitt has always been a pretty good shooter from deep waters, and he appears to be improving.

At USC, his 131 three-pointers were the most ever by a Trojan in his first two seasons. His three point shooting percentage during those seasons was 41% (and was 39% during his college career overall). For the sake of comparison, teammates Paul Pierce and Eddie House shot 35.5% and 36.6% respectively in college.

In his limited time spent with the Celtics during his rookie season, Pruitt shot 3-12 from three point land in 95 minutes sprinkled across 15 games. Of course, most of those minutes were spent in certified garbage time, which has never been much of a useful indicator of a player’s future contributions.

Perhaps its better to look instead at the 18 games that Pruitt also spent with Utah in the NBA Development League last year. In those 18 games, Pruitt hit 39 of 108 three pointers for a 36.1% shooting percentage. Additionally, in his 8 games during this current preseason, Pruitt has connected on 8 of his 21 trey attempts (38%), which is right in line with Paul Pierce’s 8-22 and Ray Allen’s 9-24 preseason three point shooting. Beyond the numbers, Pruitt during this preseason has clearly been more aggressive and more comfortable in looking for his own perimeter offense.

Look, we’re not talking about Ray Allen here. The upcoming Celtics’ season will not be made or lost on the play of Gabe Pruitt. Nonetheless, assuming he sticks on the active 12-man roster, his recent emergence can only be seen as a meaningful positive for the team. Above all else, he adds some necessary flexibility to the new roster.

Follow my logic here: Especially with the off-season loss of James Posey and in the wake of the release of Darius Miles, the team’s most notable depth weakness remains at the small forward position. Paul Pierce is obviously terrific at the three spot but when the starters take their rests, it potentially gets a bit dicey. However, with Pruitt as a viable back up point guard, Eddie House and Tony Allen are able to shift over to the shooting guard and small forward slots respectively. If you believe that Tony Allen is the best small forward option for the second unit (which I do), then it’s the combination of Pruitt and Eddie House in the backcourt that makes that option possible. It also offers a nifty switch sceanrio that protects Eddie House on defense against bigger shooting and combo guard matchups.

On the topic of Tazmanian Devil-man Bill Walker, the rookie appears to bring energy, nerve and offensive verve to the table but until he gains more seasoning in his all-around game at the professional level, his role should be relegated to human spark plug. If it’s about winning games, based on what we’ve seen to date, the Celtics are simply better with the combination of Pruitt, House and Tony Allen in the back three than with anyone else.

So while Gabe Pruitt will probably never be comparable to LeBron James, he’s no trash receptacle either. And while James is watching the Celtics hoist their 17th banner into the rafters and hand out their bling rings next week, he might wish to reflect further upon the high value of role players on a championship-caliber team.

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