No Kandi for you

The Minneapolis Star Tribune reported on Saturday that the Timberwolves owner had nixed a Blount-Kandi trade. Or rather, he made his approval dependent on an almost impossible condition.

Meanwhile, on the Timberwolves, owner Glen Taylor said he would not consider inheriting Mark Blount's contract of some $30 million in a trade for Michael Olowokandi unless the Celtics sent back a player in return who would be a free agent next season and making about the same money as the Wolves center. That would mean another Wolves player would have to be included in the trade. One reason McHale likes Blount is that, in McHale's judgment, the free-agent market after this season will not have any players who would help the Wolves as much as Blount.

Since the Celtics don't have a $6M expiring contract this would appear to kill the deal unless a third team was brought into the mix.

The free agent big men hitting the market this summer include Nene, Lorenzon White, Nazr Mohammed, Melvin Ely and Joel Przybilla. If you want a post player to pair with Garnett Przybilla or Mohammed seem like the best options, with Ely a possibility, Nene a giant question mark and White's career all but done. For reasons we've already discussed McHale has to think that any of these players worth signing is going to resigned by their current team to at least the MLE, or dealt in a sign and trade. As much as everyone in Boston can't stand Blount you can see why McHale would want to use Kandi's expiring contract to get him before he loses that trading chip and has to try and find a starting center in free agency or at the bottom of the first round of the draft.

Note: I'm late in posting this, and so didn't get a link to the Star Tribune article until it went behind their registration firewall. Those who want to will find it in their sports section from Saturday the 21st.

Hello, Coco & Alex; Andy & Guillermo, we hardly knew ye.

From MLB.com:

The Boston Herald is reporting that the Red Sox and Indians have agreed in principle on a multi-player deal that would send outfielder Coco Crisp to Boston. The Red Sox would send reliever Guillermo Mota and prospect Andy Marte to the Indians in exchange for Crisp.

Baseball sources told the Boston Herald that the teams agreed to a deal a few days ago provided that Cleveland could acquire another outfielder to replace Crisp. The Boston Herald reports that this replacement would possibly be Jason Michaels from the Philadelphia Phillies.

The Boston Herald reports that there was some indication that the Phillies and Indians had hoped to finalize a deal for Michaels by Saturday evening. The sources said that they believed Cleveland would send one of two relievers -- left-hander Arthur Rhodes or right-hander Rafael Betancourt -- to Philadelphia to get Michaels.

In addition to Crisp, the Boston Herald is also reporting that the Sox are on the verge of signing free agent Alex Gonzalez. The 28-year-old former Florida Marlin is expected to play shortstop and bat in the nine hole for Boston.

Sound familiar?

Peter May in today's Globe:

As of late yesterday, Mark Blount was still a Celtic. If he somehow becomes an ex-Celtic, then you have to give a loud shout-out to Danny Ainge, particularly if the acquisition is a player whose deal is up at the end of the season. We know what Blount does and does not do. Is he a serviceable NBA big man? Yes. Is he going to be a difference-maker in the post? Probably not. But here's what really makes little sense for any team with an eye on the bottom line: Blount is due to earn an average of $8 million a year for the next four years. Blount originally signed a deal that started at the NBA-acceptable mid-level exception figure of $4.9 million. But that deal escalates -- and the final four years of the deal are worth $28.192 million. Now, add a 15 percent trade kicker (which cannot be rescinded) and the total figure for the last four years rises to more than $32 million. That's a number that could put the Timberwolves into luxury tax territory, depending on other maneuvers the team might make. So if you're Kevin McHale, you have to ask yourself: Is Blount really worth it?

Sunday NFL predictions.

Anyone else want to go out on a limb? I'm seeing a Carolina/Denver Super Bowl.

Does this say more about BlogAds or the marketability of Boston sports teams?

My amateurs understanding of how BlogAds work is that they scan the content of the page and then select ads from their vast reservoir of clients to post based on which ones their keyword algorithm thinks will be most interesting to viewers.

That said, I find it interesting that as of the time of this writing I count the front page as having 10 posts about the Celtics, 2 each about the Patriots and Red Sox, 1 about the Portland Trailblazers and 1 about Kobe. What are the four links selected by formula? 'Lakers', 'Kobe Bryant', 'LA Lakers' and 'Lakers.com'.

Of course, by writing about this I have now probably quadrupled the probability of LA-themed links staying at the top of our page.

Resolved: that going forward they shall only be referred to on these pages as 'that evil franchise in LA'. Clever references involving purple and gold and Mordor are also allowed.

Um, about those earlier posts...

Seems like the pups have put together two nice games in a row. Here's Shira Springer's take.

For the second consecutive game, Al Jefferson (10 points, 10 rebounds) and Kendrick Perkins (11 points, six rebounds) proved instrumental down the stretch. With the young players again complementing the proven talents of Paul Pierce and Ricky Davis, the Celtics defeated the Nets, 99-96, last night at the TD Banknorth Garden.

Combined with a 103-96 win over Minnesota Wednesday, it was just the second time this season that Boston has recorded consecutive victories. But this winning streak feels more substantial, especially with Jefferson and Perkins now demonstrating some consistency. Some might even dare call the last two wins a turning point.

I think it's a little early to call this a turning point. But it's nice to see Jefferson and Perkins begin to find themselves a little, even if it's only for a couple of games.

Where have we seen this before?

ESPN's daily dime acts surprised at Kobe Bryant's play at the end of a close Lakers loss to Sacramento:

But playing under the influence of the frustration of seeing the Lakers' lead slip away, Bryant seemed to find a new gear: call it Gatling Gun mode, because while the Kings were taking the lead, he quickly fired up three extremely difficult shots -- including two long 3s -- that had little chance of going in.

His body language said, we're winning or losing this game on my terms, like it or not. He took six of the Lakers' first seven shots in OT, making only two. Basically, he shot the Lakers right out of the game.

At what point do we stop inventing things like 'Gatling Gun mode' and just call it 'Kobe Bryant'. These two paragraphs could just as easily have been written about the entire 2004 Finals, which Kobe almost single-handedly won for the Pistons.

Jackie Mac's take

I'm surprised the voracious Celtics fans on this blog haven't posted anything on Jackie MacMullan's recent analysis of the Celtics. She makes the case against the Blount/Olowokandi trade, but also talks about the state of this very young team.

Next season. Tired of hearing it? You are not alone. Boston's fan base is growing weary of looking to the future. They want results now, and they aren't getting them, because this team is young and mistake-prone and soft defensively. That causes them to lose tight games, which causes further fan angst, which further heightens the fact that we are coming up on 20 years since this franchise has won a championship, which further rachets up the heat on the boss, Danny Ainge, and his coach, Doc Rivers.

The most recent war cry is these Celtics are underachieving.

That's where you lose me. The Celtics are about where I expected them to be. When you take a team that won 45 games, subtract two of its most seasoned veterans (Antoine Walker and Gary Payton), and add yet another draft pick that isn't old enough to rent a car (Gerald Green), did you really expect it would be an upgrade? I'm not suggesting Boston should have held onto Walker or Payton, but without adding any other veterans to the mix, which they should have done, they were bound to take a step back. I'll never forget the fixed, forced smile on Rivers's face when Green's name was called on draft night. Doc knew the kid was two, maybe three years away from helping him. In the life of an NBA coach, that's an eternity.

First question -- could the C's really have signed veteran free agents given that they're over the cap? Or is she just talking about a trade? But I think her overall point is well made, and similar to one that Renato has been making here.

Meanwhile, Ainge continues to dial up Seattle and offer Green, in hopes of satisfying his obsession for the Sonics' Robert Swift. The word out of the Sonics' offices continues to be the same: no thanks.

At least Ainge knows who he wants. We have no idea if Swift will ever pan out, but I seem to recall Pitino making many boneheaded moves, the most significant of which was failing to pull the trigger on the Jermaine O'Neal deal when Seattle or Portland was asking for three number one picks which yielded Kendrick Brown, Joe Johnson and Joeseph Forte. Ugh.

The sobering statistic that rankles Ainge is the fact his team is 5-13 in games decided by 5 points or fewer. ''I don't think there's another team in the league that's lost more than eight games [by 5 or fewer]," he said. ''I'm not saying we should be 10 games over .500, but collectively as a team, I'm disappointed in some of the results."

Again, this is an issue of the youth of the team and/or poor coaching, isn't it? Maybe Simmons was right. Personally, I tend to blame this on the youth of the team. Veterans know how to maintain focus and not blow games. Young players are still trying to figure out how to play at a consistently high level. Which brings me to Jackie's next point.

Most nights, Al Jefferson hasn't been on the floor for those crucial minutes. He was averaging just over 17 minutes a game because of his defensive struggles, even as chants of ''Play the kids" grow more insistent. Someday Jefferson might be a 20-and-10 guy, but at the moment he's a young player with enormous potential who isn't consistent enough to earn major minutes. Rivers remains steadfast in his resolve not to hand Big Al time without justification.

He's right.

''He's got to earn it," Rivers said. ''No. 1, it makes the player more accountable. No. 2, if you don't do it that way, then you get guys saying, 'Why should I work so hard? I'm going to play anyway.' And, No. 3, you'll lose every guy on your team that has been busting his butt but doesn't play.

''I understand how people feel about Al. I'm a fan. Young players in the NBA are like backup quarterbacks in the NFL. Everyone wants to see them play -- but they look a lot better when they're not playing."

So, there's the argument against playing the pups. Make 'em earn it. But I think Doc's analysis is a little off. I think the temperment of the player is much more important than any incentives the coaches dangle in front of them. Did Kevin Garnett or Kobe Bryant need incentive to become the players they were? No. They have an internal drive which allowed them to succeed from the moment they joined the league. Their development was sheltered somewhat, but not nearly as much as Perkins and Jefferson, in my opinion.

Finally, Jackie sums up with this:

You wonder how much longer Pierce will wait for Jefferson to develop into an All-Star forward. No. 34 has been a poised, professional, agreeable superstar who is having the best season of his career. There are suitors everywhere, but trading him now would set Boston back to ground zero. Having said that, if Pierce respectfully asks to be moved, will the team comply? And if it doesn't, will it get ugly?

Rivers knows there's a growing number of folks who'd like to see him dumped instead. He is human; he wonders what his future holds, even as a member of the ownership group stops by and offers his support, as one of them did yesterday.

Ainge, under fire himself, can sense the negativity that is starting to envelop his coach.

''I'm very aware of it, and I think it's so unfair," Ainge said. ''We're missing free throws at the end of the game. We're missing block outs at the end of the game. It's a different player at the wrong time at a crucial moment. I'm not saying the coach has nothing to do with any of that -- we all have to share in what's gone on. But to blame him for that stuff . . . people talk about Doc's rotations. How can you set a rotation with a team that's 14-23? With that kind of record aren't you supposed to try new combinations that might work?"

The continued improvement of Delonte West and Perkins is good news, yet will they ever be front-line, impact players who will win you a title? The inability of the veterans to convert in crunch time remains the bad news, and at times, the defense is appalling.

Michael Olowokandi can't fix that for them. These young Celtics need time. But how much? The clock is ticking, for Ainge and Rivers -- and Pierce, who isn't getting any younger.

Good questions. And people, we already know the definitive answer to at least one question raised by Jackie. Success is not a choice, and the negativity in this town sucks.

Welcome back.

Hello, Theo. We've been missing you.

Who will bet $1 that this trade happens?

Blunt options?

ESPN.com has a headline up suggesting that the Cavaliers and Nuggets are in the mix for Mark Blount, but the content is behind the wall of secrecy.

Also, they have a new web design. On first glance, ick.

Good for Arroyo.

The Globe says Bronson Arroyo is close to signing a three-year deal with the Sox, over the advice of his agent, because he wants to stay with the Sox. "The upside for the 28-year-old righthander is financial security and the chance to remain with the Sox for at least the next three seasons, two tremendous opportunities for a pitcher who just three years ago was placed on waivers. But, that upside -- being signed at a fixed cost for a duration of some length -- also would appear to make Arroyo more vulnerable to being dealt to a team such as Tampa Bay, which is seeking affordable starting pitching and has a player the Sox covet in shortstop/leadoff hitter Julio Lugo."

Joel, about that six year contract we just signed...

It turns out that some MIT dudes know a thing or two about what kind of contracts Portland can offer to their own players. Not too much, but more than Portland GM John Nash and at least one other GM.

#30.

Dr. Z on Tom Brady.

SI's Dr. Z gives Tom Brady the business:

Why is Peyton Manning getting so much heat now while Tom Brady gets none?....

Both clubs suffered the same postseason malady. It's called out of sync. Blitzes were their undoing. Maybe that will be the new defensive textbook for playoff football. When you're playing a team that clinched early and rested people, blitz the hell out of them because they'll be rusty in their adjustments.

With Brady, his early problems were kind of brushed aside in the Jacksonville game because it became a runaway in the second half. But the Patriots had gone through a miserable first half. Brady was 7-for-17 for minimal yardage. He'd been sacked four times. His passes were sailing and nosing, receivers were running the wrong pattern or dropping the ball. But how could you dwell on stuff like that after a 28-3 victory? ...

[O]n Saturday night[, t]he whole New England operation was skewed. Things weren't crisp. Brady was off, even on some of his little checkdowns. One play was embarrassing: a smoke, or shoot route, in which Brady whips the ball quickly to a receiver out wide and if he can beat his man with one fake, he's off and running, only this time David Givens was downfield while Brady was throwing out wide -- to no one.

Blount to Cleveland for Gooden/Jones?

Boston's better sports section breaks some new ground on Blount trade rumors. The new possible trading partner is the Cavaliers, who may or may not be offering Drew Gooden and Damon Jones.

Marcus Banks is also involved at this point. If something were to happen with Cleveland, he would accompany Blount. Sources say Drew Gooden and Damon Jones have been discussed as a return.

'Have been discussed' is one of those great journalistic catch-alls that could mean Cleveland has offered, Boston has asked, Steve Bulpett's neighbor from Akron thinks its a good idea, or something else altogether.

Putting aside the laundry list of 'ifs' that should go before this paragraph, a Gooden/Jones deal is more than just a salary dump. Gooden is a better post player than anyone currently on the Celtics roster and Jones would push some of Delonte West's minutes to SG. You may ask yourself, why would the Cavs take a trade that is a clear downgrade in talent?

The charitable place to start is that Cleveland has old friend (for you UConn fans) Donyell Marshall and surprise draft steal Anderson Verajão at PF. For them, Blount becomes insurance in case Z breaks down at the 5 and provides some nice offense off the bench. Banks backs up Eric Snow at the point.

The more important thing pushing this, however, would be that both Cavs seem to be wearing out their welcome. Gooden is the kind of talented young 6'10" bruiser of a PF that teams normally would kill for. He's close to tops in the league in both FG% and rebound rate. And yet at the end of this season he'll be on to the 4th team of his 4 year NBA career, which suggests how much his coaches and teammates like working with him. I remember reading somewhere that Doc and Gooden couldn't stand each other when both were in Orlando.

Jones was Cleveland's consolation prize when they couldn't sign Saras last summer. He signed a 4-year $16M deal and is now is steadily losing playing time and getting booed by the fans. If he comes to Boston he can commiserate with Veal and Dickau about fan's high expectations for role player free agent signees.

If this trade goes down it looks like another move by ownership to rent an expiring contract to make their annual run at the playoffs and theassociatedd revenues. This trade would put any serious rebuilding on hold for yet another year.

The other option is that this has been leaked by Celtics management to put pressure on Minnesota and/or Memphis to do a Blount deal on Boston's terms.

Which is the greater evil: collective bargaining or Raef LaFrentz?

R.M., responding to my last post via email, gives me kudos for finally agreeing with what he's been saying about the Celtics for the last two years

I don't have time to write a long reply, but I just want to say--it's about time you came around! A year ago, when your team was trading for Walker and pushing for a playoff spot, you were excited about the move even though the Celtics never had a chance to win anything meaningful in the foreseeable future. As I said at the time, the Celtics are schitzophrenic, and need to choose between rebuilding and contending because they can't do both. Struggling to get a low playoff seed with a mostly veteran starting 5 does nothing but ensure you'll get a low draft choice.

I'll admit that the end of last season were heady times for Celtics fans and the argument that the team could win now while rebuilding seemed more plausible then (to some of us, although in fairness not to you) than it does now. Your skepticism that the Celtic's youth was going to turn into a supporting cast for Pierce capable of charging deep into the playoffs now appears to have been born out. I may rationalize our exuberance by acknowledging how freaking long it has been that this franchise has been pathetic, and how good it felt to be the hot team for once, but I won't try to dodge that the exuberance was misplaced.

In my opinion the biggest mistake the Celtics made was the first Walker trade, which stuck them with LaFrentz's bloated deal. They're stuck with that stiff for years to come, and the presence of his contract on the roster means that you can't get cap room without getting rid of Pierce. Walker had an expiring deal and you would have been able to get some picks for him anyway without taking on a bloated contract like LaFrentz. Ever since the LaFrentz deal, the Celtics have been kidding themselves into believing that they had future stars on their team that would develop around Pierce, partly because free agency could never be in the cards with LaFrentz+Pierce around. Now, Pierce is the one who has to go.

While we also agree on how ugly Raef's game and contract are, we continue to disagree on how badly this has hamstrung the franchise. Remove Raef's contract from the Celtics tomorrow and they still don't have room under the cap to sign more than an MLE for the next few summers. Unfortunately, we're also seeing that the MLE gets you less and less each year. Of course, while LaFrenz alone doesn't affect our capacity to sign free agents that first Antoine trade also got us Delonte West, Tony Allen and Cleveland's 2007 #1 pick. Is this more or less than Antoine's expiring salary could have fetched at the trade deadline last year? Well, we could have offered him to New Orleans for Baron Davis, but why would a rebuilding team want an (amazing, all-star) 30 year old PG with chronic back troubles? If this doesn't seem much it's in line with the trend: expiring contracts seem to get less and less valuable each year at the trade deadline.

Why is this? Perhaps its because the value of what teams can get with cap/luxury tax space has also been dropping.

A larger issues limiting the Celtics' (and many team's) ability to sign free agents are the changes made to the Collective Bargaining Agreement in the last three years that make it far more attractive for free agents to sign with their original team than to skip town for another offer. With players facing the equivalent of a significant future pay cut to change addresses lots of them have predictably stayed home, or arranged for a sign-and-trade. Prior to this development a number of NBA franchises had cleared out their payrolls in anticipation of bidding for top talent. When the top talent didn't hit the market they went ahead and spent the money on significantly less impressive talent. So Atlanta pays a max contract to the 15~20th best shooting guard in the NBA; Milwaukee gives the MLE to Bobby Simmons; Mark Blount gets offers from ~6 other teams and (there it is again) signs for slightly more money to stay in Boston; etc. etc. The most visibly shafted have been the Lakers, who cleared out their long-term commitments for an expected run at Yao or Amare next summer only watch both turn around and sign long extensions with their existing teams.

In general I think this is a good thing, and an indication of the league's sensitivity to marketing and image. Over time the changes in the CBA will serve to reduce the mobility of the top players in the league, who will on average play more of their careers with the teams that drafted them. Less fans will feel the kind of long-term resentment that folks in Orlando continue to feel about Shaq leaving town. Free agency will continue to be a way for teams with established stars (e.g. San Antonio) to add good role players that improve their depth. It will not work well for teams like the Hawks, or the Celtics, needing top-shelf talent to build around. The possible exception that proves the rule may be a player like LeBron, who might decide to take a salary cut to move from Cleveland to New York and/or LA on the premise that what he makes up in endorsements and quality of life more than compensates for the lost income. Those rare exceptions aside, if you want top young players to build your team around you'll either need to dupe them out of another team in a trade or draft them. Since successfully trading for Dwight Howard or Chris Paul or Chris Bosh now seems like a long shot, to put it mildly, teams like the Celtics will likely need to do most of their improving through the draft.

Format.

Comments on the format are welcome in the, um, comments to this post, say.

In particular, suggestions for the links on the right margin would be appreciated.

Blount: the first to go?

Yesterday, the Boston Globe joined the Herald and other media outlets in reporting on the Blount for Kandi speculation

According to two league sources, a deal that would send Mark Blount to Minnesota or Memphis could be completed soon. One source described a deal as ''imminent." The most likely scenario would have the Celtics shipping Blount to Minnesota for 7-foot, 270-pound center Michael Olowokandi. The Celtics play the Timberwolves tomorrow night at the TD Banknorth Garden.

Both Minnesota and Memphis are mentioned as possible trading partners. The Grizzlies were one of the suitors who offered Blount essentially the same deal he signed with Boston a year and a half ago, so they have history as well as interest. They also have the expiring contract of Lorenzen Wright to offer. Both teams share another thing in common: they are second-tier playoffs teams still trying to win around solid existing post players. The T-wolves perhaps figure that with Garnett they can bear Blount's deficiencies at rebounding and defense. Memphis may feel the same way about Gasol, although they would have less reason to. Both teams are trying to improve their rosters in a market with incredibly few PF/C of any talent out there to be had in trade, let alone an efficient-scoring PF/C on a $6M/year contract. Lastly, both McHale and West (with all due respect to the logo) have made their fair share of poor personnel decisions in the last several years. Perhaps they'll blow this one, too. We can only hope.

I have been putting the outline together for a much longer review of the current state of the Celtics which I'll go ahead and spill the punch line to now: short of at least one (and more likely it would take 2-3) dramatic and improbable trade(s) the Celtics have almost no chance of becoming a serious playoff team in the next 2-3 years, and little chance of competing for a title in the next 3-4. You'll have to wait for the assessment of the roster/luxury tax situation that leads to this but the upshot is that the window for winning a championship with Paul Pierce on the roster may already have closed. This regardless of whether he chooses to exercise his option in a year and a half and bolt town for a team that's not a train wreck.

Before and during last season ('04-05) the Celtics assembled a group of complementary veterans (Payton, Blount, Walker) to see if they could simultaneously become a competitive playoff team while cultivating the young potential on their roster. This clearly failed as the team went no further (first round playoff exit) in the big picture than it had during the previous year's Jim O'Brien/John Carroll disaster. Following the loss to Indiana 9 months ago management clearly decided to ditch the 'compete now' strategy, got rid of the veterans they could, and committed to going with their youth. Unfortunately, and I suspect unexpectedly for the guys running the team, the results have been far uglier than they hoped. The 'young talent' has shown itself this season to be far more limited and flawed than the anyone expected. While fans in Boston seem to be scapegoat Rivers and scream for him to be fired I think the larger truth is that the young talent on the roster in years away, at best, from making up the core of a real playoff team. Most of them will never be more than role players in a league where winning and losing is a function of which teams have top talent.

With the strengths and limitations of the current roster in more focus I think it's time for the team to stop the half-arsed way they've been trying to rebuild the last three years. If Blount and Ricky currently have value then the time is now to trade them for younger players, expiring contracts and/or picks. The same goes for Paul. It is very likely that the only result of him staying in Boston for the next several years is to ensure we continue to have the 10-15th pick in the draft instead of the 1-5th. I don't have many illusions about dealing Raef's contract. If Blount, Pierce and Davis can get us Luol Deng, the Knicks #1 pick in '06, Kandi's expiring contract and another #1 in '07 (supposedly a very deep draft for big men), then I pull the trigger. In the short term we would be Toronto Raptors-bad (probably worse, lacking a stud like Bosh) but hopefully the inevitable collection of top lottery picks and good drafting can lay the foundation for something good in the future. As I will explain in my longer review there is almost zero chance in the near future of this team adding the kind of significant talent they'll need to go deep in the playoffs through either trades or free agency. For the next several years the future of the franchise will rest almost entirely on the draft.

I hope the fact that Blount is surfacing in recent trade rumors is a sign that the team is getting ready for a more serious commitment to rebuilding.

A timberwolves fan on the Blount - Kandi deal

Aaron Gleeman looks at a possible deal for Blount and says

from a purely on-court standpoint swapping Olowokandi for Blount is a home run. While Olowokandi is a much better rebounder, Blount is a significantly more efficient scorer and a much better all-around player. However, from a team-building standpoint, it would be yet another example of the team clogging up the roster with a mediocrity who takes up far too much cap room.

This is the sort of thing I might have found myself writing a year and a half ago. Wait, I think I did. Right about when the Celtics resigned Blount to his current contract. Now that we have the chance to dump him for an expiring I contract I write: please, sir, may I have some more?

Of course, thanks to Garnett's massive salary and the long-term money being paid to the likes of Wally Szczerbiak, Marko Jaric, Hudson, Hassell, and Madsen, the Wolves weren't going to have much cap room to play around with anyway. That means that upgrading from Olowokandi to Blount is probably worth the ridiculous cost, although it also likely means that it won't matter much in the grand scheme of things.

I can't remember if resignation is one of the seven of grieving, but if Gleeman is on my timeline he may be ready for the TWolves to trade Garnett by the middle of next season. And people have been making fun of Isiah for hoarding all those expiring contracts on the Knicks roster.