I guess grudges are a good thing

Kevin Henkin has put together a short piece on the Celtics two new points guards, titled 'Guards with grudges'. It appears that basis for this article was calling up sports journalists in Oregon and Kentucky and asking them why they thought Telfair and Rondo didn't completely work out with their former teams. A fair amount of what is said about Telfair echoes H.'s comments that I posted here. The idea that Rondo was held back by Tubby Smith's system at Kentucky is also revived.

Excerpts of Henkin on Bassy:

Here are a few other key factors that went against Telfair and led to his eventual trade:

COACHING STYLE
Much has been made about Telfair's demotion to third-string status last season, but little attention has been paid to the reasons why. Yes, Telfair's thumb injury allowed Steve Blake and Jarrett Jack to initially jump ahead of him. However, the injury itself doesn't explain why Telfair was unable to reclaim his former starting spot upon his return. The answer, according to John Canzano, sports columnist for The Oregonian, lies in the coaching. Specifically, Canzano believes that Portland coach Nate McMillan had little use for Telfair's fast-break-oriented game. "Telfair wants to run," Canzano said. "Do you remember Nate McMillan as a player? He was the anti-Telfair. Read between the lines there." While McMillan and the Blazers may have had little use for a speedy, run-first point guard, the Celtics were in desperate need of one. As the saying goes, one man's garbage is another man's gold.

IMPATIENCE WITH LOSING
Portland Tribune sports editor Dwight Jaynes said Telfair never received a fair opportunity to develop, mostly due to a franchise-wide frustration with the team's losing ways. "I think there was such impatience here with all the losing that there was an unwillingness to allow him to grow," Jaynes said. "Here, he never really had the keys handed to him. In Boston, if he's allowed to play through his mistakes, I think he's going to be fine."

TEAM CHEMISTRY
Nobody is going to confuse the Trail Blazers with a group of Boy Scouts, but what sort of negative impact did Portland's me-first, bad-boy attitude have on Telfair's game? A significant one, according to Canzano. "Telfair's relationship with [Portland stars] Darius Miles and Zach Randolph was icy, in part because he's not motivated by the same things that motivate those guys. Paul Pierce is a professional. Miles and Randolph are not. Paul Pierce wants to win. Miles is apathetic and doesn't seem to care." With the Celtics' alleged bad apples shipped away in the trade with Minnesota last season, Boston's roster appears stacked with choirboys when compared to Portland's.

And on Rajon:

The first thing you'll hear about Rajon Rondo is that he can't shoot the ball. It's an opinion that is held almost universally and is the very reason why he lasted until the 21st pick in the draft. Sounds scary, especially to guys named Pierce and West. One has to wonder, then, if Rondo is such a liability on the perimeter, why bother wasting a first-round pick on him?

SURROUNDING TALENT
Heading into the draft, Rondo was criticized for not living up to increased expectations after a spectacular freshman year. Both Kentucky writers disagree with the assessment. "A lot of people think he took a step back," Brewer said. "I think the Kentucky program took a step back in overall talent and it affected Rondo's play." Added Sun, "When you put very good players around Rondo, he seems to play better than if there are mediocre guys on the court."

COACHING WOES
Rumor had it that Kentucky coach Tubby Smith wasn't shedding any tears upon the loss of his starting point guard. While the rumor may be true, there appears to be another side to the story. "Rondo could never buy into Tubby because Tubby could never buy into him," Brewer said. "Rondo needs to have a relationship with his coach. He needs to trust his coach. Tubby just didn't want to deal with the relationship side of things."

THE SYSTEM
Not unlike Telfair, Rondo suffered from a slower-tempo offense at Kentucky. Said Brewer: "If he was in a better system for him, like Rick Pitino's at Louisville, Rondo's numbers would have been much better and it would have showcased what he can do."

The definition of a NBADL prospect

As you may have already seen, the Celtics just signed undrafted West Virginia big man Kevin Pittsnogle to a non-guaranteed two-year contract.

Pittsnogle is a 6'11" center who shoots college threes at a 40% clip. He was on the All-Big East first team last year and has played very well in the last two NCAA tournaments. Here's a rhetorical question: how bad does this guy have to suck to go undrafted in what is seen as the most barren NBA draft of the last decade?

I'm guessing the answer is pretty bad. Word is that Pittsnogle has what might be charitably called motivation issues. He didn't attend the Chicago pre-draft camp, in part because he apparently went into the few months of all-important pre-draft evaluations with 24% body fat. That's not a typo. 24% body fat. When M., our friend S. and myself all tested our body fat in a high school gym class years ago I was easily the flabbiest of the three of us and I only scored in the mid-teens.

The other knocks on Pittsnogle are apparently that he can't rebound, play with his back to the basket on offense, play man-on defense, dribble, or do much of anything other than set screens and hit stand-still, outside set shots. When West Virginia played LSU this last season Ty Thomas, who gives up a good four to five inches on Pittsnogle, shut him down simply by being energetic enough to prevent him from receiving easy passes. Something tells me that most NBA teams won't have much trouble finding other people who can do the same thing.

The really sad thing is that even though Kevin has got 'NBADL' stamped all over him (although it might say 'Finnish professional league', I can't quite tell from here) he might still be an upgrade from Brian Scalanbrine. Since this is a completely zero-risk move I guess it makes sense. With Raef now being overpaid by Portland the Celtics could use more players who can keep other teams' big men from collapsing on Pierce's dribble penetration. I'd be surprised if Pittsnogle ever gets good enough at everything other than shooting to play that role, but since his contract is non-guaranteed it doesn't really cost us anything to find out.

Lazio returned to Serie A; God reportedly unhappy.

ROME -- A sports court allowed Fiorentina and Lazio to rejoin Italy's top soccer division and reduced the points penalty against Juventus in Serie B after successful appeals Tuesday in a match-fixing scandal.

Juventus' penalty was cut from 30 points to 17. Fiorentina will have 19 points docked next season, while Lazio will be deducted 11.

The court also cut AC Milan's points penalty in Serie A from 15 to 8.

A July 14 ruling stripping Juventus of its last two Serie A titles was upheld, though Milan will be allowed to play in the Champions League preliminary rounds this season.

Also upheld were five-year bans for former Juventus executives Luciano Moggi and Antonio Giraudo, figures at the center of the scandal.

Hundreds of Lazio fans outside the hotel where the verdicts were delivered screamed in delight at the news their team was back in Serie A. Minutes later, they scattered when a sudden thunderstorm drenched them.

ESPN.com.

ESPN cans Harold Reynolds.

Here's the story. Anyone know the dirt?

More changes for the Pacers

Today provides even more news in what has been a pretty busy off-season for the Pacers. Indianapolis sent Anthony Johnson to Dallas for the rights to Darrel Armstrong (a free agent) and a pair of recent late-round draft picks.

Since the end of the season Bird and Walsch have been systematically purging their roster of lots of mainstays from recent playoffs teams. Their recent deals have sent packing four veteran rotation players who all averaged more than 22 mpg last season. To recap:

Out
Peja
Austin Croshere
Jonathan Bender
Anthony Johnson

In
Marquis Daniels
Al Harrington (potential rumored sign-and-trade pending)
Four players (Josh Powell, Rawle Marshall, Shawne Williams, James White) taken in recent drafts

This doesn't look much like the behavoir of a team focused on winning as much as possible in the next couple years. Such a team would retain their veteran, playoff-tested 'core' and build around them. Bird and Walsch are dumping much of that core and bringing in lots of recent late-first and second-round picks.

Assuming Indy doesn't trade Jermaine O'Neal anytime soon this loooks suspiciously like a Danny Ainge-esque rebuilding strategy: keep the resident All Star on your roster, recycle the other veterans with trade value, load up on lots of recent draft picks and count on some of them working out.

Like the Celtics, this trade route may leave the Pacers with more wing players than they know what to do with. If they complete the widely rumored sign-and-trade to bring Al Harrington home they'll have a 2-3-4 rotation of: Jermaine O'Neal, Stephen Jackson, Danny Grainger, Al Harrington, Marquis Daniels, Fred Jones (recently retained), and all their young pups. In light of all these recent moves I can't help but wonder if we'll be hearing trade rumors involving Jackson soon...

Latest Bulls news: JR Smith to Denver

It's been a busy few weeks for John Paxson and the Bulls. Signing Ben Wallace to a free agent contract made Tyson Chandler expendable, so they traded him to the Lower Mississippi Watershed Hornets for the expiring contract of PJ Brown and JR Smith; a man whose anti-authoritarian attitude may have been enough that Chicago decided to keep him at least a time zone away from Scott Skiles, which was made possible today by trading him to Denver for Howard Eisley and two second round draft picks.

Whew. Deep breath.

Apparently Howard Eisley will be waived, and if PJ Brown's expiring contact isn't included in a deal over the next nine months he'll apparently be politely bid a 'bon voyage' at the end of year.

So in sum, the Bulls exchanged Tyson Chandler and his $9M/year deal for Ben Wallace on a $16M/year deal, without taking on any other salary commitments that might interfere with their ability to re-sign Hinrich, Deng, et al and/or be a player in the next couple summers' free agent markets.

The upside of this immediate set of deals (leaving aside for a moment the presumably significant benefits of resigning the better of the Bull's current players on rookie deals) rests heavily on Ben Wallace's contributions over the next ~4 years exceeding those of Chandler. If Wallace continues to be the player he was a couple years ago, this is a no-brainer. His stats have shown gradual decline, however, and we'll have to hope for the Bulls' sake this is not part of a larger, ongoing trend. Chandler has been something of a disappointment, even before people in Chicago were disappointed with his performance in the first year of his new long-term deal. I'm sure some folks in Chicago were impressed they got out of his contract so easily. He's only 24, however, and its not out of the question that in 3-4 years he won't be better than a 36-year-old Wallace. We can keep an eye on each career, and grade Paxson accordingly.

Report from the Vegas summer league

G. has spent far too much of his life watching the NBA summer leagues. It began when the Celtics hosted the event at UMass, after a few weeks of which he was hooked. When the league made the leap to Vegas he went too. What follows is a combination off several exchanges we've had in the last few weeks.



I hear you as far as discounting summer dominance. I've watched far too much summer ball over the years and I've always tried to explain it this way: In order to pick details from SL games, you have to have a good deal of experience watching shitty basketball games. You can always tell newbie summer league viewers when one of the their first complaints is the reffing. You can basically discern nothing from a player's volume stats. The most important thing to pay close attention to is the manner and method a player uses.

For instance, three point shooting in summer league means fuck all. The threes taken are usually of the uncontested sort. This is why folks should be skeptical of what Allen Ray has done over the summer. From the one game I've seen now and a handfull of college games though, Ray can shoot a basketball - probably better than anybody else coming into the league this year. He looked to be a little out of sorts when he first went in but once that wore off, that shot looked pretty. This tells us nothing, however, about whether he can get that shot off against a real NBA defense.

I remember being freaked out by Delonte turning the ball over against pressure last summer, to the point where I was paying more attention to whether or not Will Bynum could play defense and be a possible replacement. And obviously Delonte was even worse at this once the real games started. I got caught up in the prick tease that was Orien Greene as well - a player who looked very good on the court even though nearly everything he did turned out awful. There is always an abundance of fools gold in the summer.

If you've been watching summer games since the old Reebok days, you've had more than enough time to acclimate yourself to shitty basketball. More than 99% of hoops fans, I'd say. Predict, brother. Its way more fun that way, its how you get better at judging what matters and what doesn't, and nobody remembers when you are wrong anyway.

I've had some pretty good success separating the wheat from the chaff. I could see straight away that Justin Reed might've been an All World summer league player, but it wouldn't translate. Kedrick Brown was an obvious bust, even when his numbers said otherwise. I remember one of those UMass SL games that same year you went where Banks had a ridiculous amount of assists, and once I got back, I wrote up a report on SoSH to calm those heathens down, as for every nice pass he made, he threw one into the fifth row. Gerald Green didn't do all that much last summer and folks seemed pretty down on him, but I liked what I saw a whole lot.

The one player recently that I've been way, way off on was Perkins. Every summer he's looked worse than some of the escaped seven foot Lithuanian mental patients that get drafted in the second round on a lark. But last year he makes a huge leap in the regular season. Still can't figure that one out.

As for this year: Rondo played like he doesn't belong in Vegas. He did so many things so well and in such a unique manner, it was really hard to find a negative. The Raptor guards couldn't keep him out of the paint at all. He distributed the ball beautifully. At one point in the game, he made an over the head rocket pass into the corner for an open three, then on the next possession, faked that same over the head thing and reversed it to another open man. Showed a great handle all game.

The thing that really stood out with Rondo wasn't the fact that nobody on the Raptors could do anything when he was on the court. It was the way he was doing it to them. Somebody would be looking to feed the post to Bargnani or the Hump and he'd get in the way of it, but his hands were low. Nobody keeps both hands low defending an entry pass. Ever. I've never seen it done before. So I'm sitting there and my brain is saying, "What the fuck is this guy doing?" Then I notice that his hands look to be almost scraping the floor and a bell goes off - the dude is mutant and he knows it. Nobody was bouncing anything past those arms - he was a brick wall. Another one that stands out was the way he tried for a steal when his man switched to the weak hand. Every righthanded person on the planet would attempt to swat the ball with their right hand while keeping the dude in front of them. Not Rondo. He angles the guy toward the sideline, then swoops around the ballhandler's right(!) side to go for the swipe from behind. Just crazy shit.

I've seen young kids get touted as defensive players coming into the league before and most of them turn out to be nothing. This kid is a one man wrecking ball though. The only way the Raptors were going to get something going offensively during that game was if somebody shot Rondo. One guy killed their outside game, their post game and any hopes they had of getting into the lane.

I can't be certain that everything/anything I saw will translate to the NBA. Nobody really can be. That said, based on one summer league game against scrubs, my best guess is that Rajon Rondo will be a regular rotation player and help the Celtics win games this coming season. If he can distribute the ball without being a turnover machine against NBA defenses, he could start for them at some point this season. If he can penetrate against pros effectively and learn to hit an outside shot to save his life, we're really looking at something here.

One summer league game, yes. But I was beyond impressed with this kid. He'll no doubt be traded for a stiff like Sam Dalembert shortly.

Jefferson was okay, as far as big men go in summer league games. He rebounded well. Showed nice touch from further out than we are accustomed to seeing from him. He also did a nice job passing out of a couple doubles. His body looks much better and his shoulders are far more square than they were, but he looked a little slow to me and didn't show any ferocity around the rim when it was required. His D looked alternately good and bad. How far has Al Jefferson fallen in two years? Is there anyone left who confidently thinks he’ll even be an above-average NBA starter?

Green was in top form. Doc was invited to chat with the broadcast team for a couple segments and nailed Gerald's problem. He really doesn't know how to get himself open. Anyway, he dominated the first quarter, dunked all over the Raps. Drove to the hoop at will and showed nice touch when he got there. His help defense was pretty good, as he got at least two or three steals jumping into a passing lane that I can remember. If the kid applied himself to rebounding the basketball a little more, he could get serious minutes next year.

Telfair started off very well, distributing the ball all over the place. After the first quarter though, the held onto his dribble way too long. He then started throwing a couple third row jobs. His defense early on was way better than I remember it. He even blocked a shot at one point and altered another. The coaches must be riding his ass about Rondo. His defense got lazy after they got a huge lead, which I won't bash him too much for. Still, I'm not really seeing it with him. To me, he just seems to lose his focus too easily. Plenty of And-1 moments though, which made the game entertaining.

Gomes hit two jumpers and the rest of his points came off nifty passes from the two guards. He didn't look slimmed down, contrary to what some of the early reports suggested.

Allen Ray's jumper is just lovely. His defense was passable. He got some extended garbage time minutes at the point, where he looked good penetrating and Delontesque setting up an offense. Man can shoot the basketball though, and his drives looked good as well.

Leon Powe is my new hero. Nobody wants a loose ball more than Leon Powe. There was one point where he was surrounded by three far bigger Raps, one of whom might've been related to an elephant, and when the rebound came off the cylinder, he went right back up with it and the bodies started flying. I love this guy but he might be the first player ever to kill someone on the court Last Boy Scout style. No way he lasts more than 5 minutes at a time in any game this year. He's in good shape, but if gets completely yoked out ala Ben Wallace, he'd be a terror off the bench. His offensive moves are kind of slow and he isn't the most graceful dude around, but if I'm building a team, I would always have a spot for a guy who would choke somebody out for a rebound.

Dwayne Jones looked at least partially retarded in the few minutes he saw the floor.

Fun game to watch. And we found out Heywood Workman is reffing scrub games now, so that was a huge plus. They are replaying the shit out of this game tomorrow, and if you weren’t such a jackasses you’d skip work, watch it and tell me if I'm crazy here.



BTW, if it's not clear from context, when G. says a PG looks 'Delonte-esque' setting up the offense it's the very definition of damning with faint praise.

Venti frustration, indeed

Henry Abbott not only says everything I could think to about the situation unfolding in Seattle, but adds a whole lot of other insights and then backs them all up with cool links and stuff. The start of a whole lot of interesting reading can be found here.

ESPN and SI weigh in on Iverson

Last Friday I speculated that the number of teams that could make a serious offer for Iverson would be pretty small, and that Boston shouldn't rush to pay more than they needed to four months before the season starts.

Marc Stein at ESPN reports that the effective market for AI is two teams-- Boston and Denver-- with Philly already having rejected the matching salaries Denver has to offer.

Allen Iverson answers were scarce in the desert. There were early rumblings in Vegas that the Sixers indeed were considering a multiplayer deal that, at its core, would have swapped Iverson for Kenyon Martin and Andre Miller. That's more than the Sixers got for Charles Barkley, you'll recall, but Philly ultimately declined.

No real mystery why, either. Taking on Martin, alongside Chris Webber, would give the Sixers two high-priced alumni from the scary world of microfracture knee surgery, which wouldn't exactly boost Billy King's approval rating around town.

Philly's problem, though, is that no team in circulation wants Iverson more than Denver, which can't make a much stronger offer than Martin and Miller or Marcus Camby and Miller. Boston remains highly interested, as well, with Paul Pierce said to have given the concept his blessing, but that appears to be as deep as the list goes at present. Barring unexpected amendments to the list, Philly will have to deal with at least one of those teams, even if the trade ultimately takes the form of a three- or four-team scenario.

Or else the Sixers can bring Iverson back in October after he has spent a summer more out there on the trading block than he ever had been.

Atlanta continues to stand out as the most ideal Iverson destination on this scorecard, especially after A.I. moved his family there this summer. Iverson makes basketball and business sense at Philips Arena -- maybe more than anywhere else on the NBA map. The Hawks need a ticket seller, have room for a dynamic star to pair with Joe Johnson and possess several quality youngsters to assemble into a quality trade package. Ongoing ownership uncertainty with the Hawks, however, keeps them on the periphery.

What next? The vibe circulating in the Vegas stands is that no one will be surprised if this saga consumes most of the summer, with Philly naturally hoping that waiting will persuade serious bidders to step up their offers. I'm not so sure.

Over at SI.com, Kelly Dwyer has a long piece that echoes the sentiment that Boston is in a very good negotiating position and should focus on not overpaying for AI.

let's go over what should be common knowledge regarding the Boston Celtics' rumored pursuit of Allen Iverson:

• For all intents and purposes, Iverson and Celtics superstar Paul Pierce should be able to coexist. Both are determined offensive players who show a keen interest in winning above all else, but they've also proven willing to give up the ball in late-game situations to lesser players if it means a better chance at winning. It's hard to imagine Pierce balking at sharing the ball with AI, or vice versa, with the game on the line.

• Rumors that Iverson could go to Denver (for Marcus Camby and Andre Miller) or Los Angeles (for Clippers Corey Maggette and Shaun Livingston) could only have come out of the Sixers organization, as they try to set an outrageous tone for trade offers.

• Philadelphia's best trade for Iverson, as Chris Mannix pointed out last week, is with the Boston Celtics. Yes, they're 40-year divisional rivals, but Sixers GM Billy King can't let that cloud his vision when trying to dump a 31-year-old whom he owes $60 million.

Given all of the above, the only issue left to sort out is how many assets Celtics GM Danny Ainge is willing to part with for the seven-time All Star.

Our advice: not much.

Boston has to be careful. To paraphrase Miles Davis while deleting a string of hilarious but wildly inappropriate blue words: They can't give too much away. Nobody is breaking down King's door to get Iverson at this point, and as training camp approaches, the Sixers GM can only get more and more uneasy at the notion of welcoming such a publicized piece of trade bait back into the fold. Ainge has to wait King out, make him sweat and only send the Wally/Green/Telfair troika (which works, cap-wise) to the Sixers for AI.

I'm a little surprised that Dwyer doesn't bring up the Oden sweepstakes in his discussion of Philly's motivations. Unquestionably, the 76ers quickest route to relevance, respect and the second round of the playoffs would be to trade Iverson for Jefferson, Green and assorted other trinkets; lose an epic number of games in 06-07; land Greg Oden with the first pick of the '07 draft; and embark on a decade of competing with the Cleveland LeBrons for the Eastern Conference Championship.

Well, that got someone's attention

If you think I react strongly, Bruce Allen over at Boston Sports Media Watch has a long piece on Peter May which he's melodramatically titled 'The Day The Globe Hoop Coverage Died'. As an added bonus you get a ranting email from Bill Simmons' about how awful the Globe's basketball coverage is.

I'm not sure if I appear moderate and reasoned in comparison, but one can hope.

Obligatory criticism, part 57

Bill Simmons has several great stories about members of the Boston sports media. In one about various Globe staff members he goes out for drinks when they are all in another town for the same event (perhaps the NBA All-Star game, perhaps the playoffs). Over several hours he tries a few times to have a conversation about basketball and the NBA, only to discover he's committed a faux pas akin to asking a recently divorced person how their marriage is going. He decides by the end of the night that Bob Ryan, Peter May, et al, have not watched a single professional basketball game for pleasure since the early-mid 90s. They knew nothing about the players, teams or styles of play that make up the modern NBA beyond the kind of superficial sound-bites that you might get waiting in a studio to appear on ESPN.

He has other stories along these lines, but you get the point.

As I've observed before, when you find something boring and distasteful it becomes difficult to pay more than superficial attention to it. When you're a journalist in such circumstances the odds that you'll deliver more than your share of sloppy, thoughtless writing are pretty good.

Today's 'NBA notes' column by Peter May is another contribution to this genre. He shows his usual lack of critical thinking and tendency to arbitrarily disagree with whatever the most recent Celtics development is. Today's is Pierce's extension. The gist of May's criticism is:

What would have been the downside had the Celtics decided to wait a year on the extension? Why not see what Pierce did with this team before emptying the vault? ...I can't fathom why the Celtics were so eager to get this done. Why not wait another year, see where the team is going, see how Pierce responds, and go from there.

Elsewhere

But what if this team wins 38 games next year? Or 42 and barely sneaks into the playoffs? You've got a guy on the books for $59-plus million who likely will be very hard to move -- unless Isiah Thomas is still in charge in New York -- and you've had another season in which he really hasn't been able to put the team on his back and succeed.

Back when I worked in education, the easiest tests to grade were the worst. When someone shows absolutely no understanding of the subject matter you just mark the paper 'F' and move on. In this case I'll add these few comments:

1) Paul Pierce has an opt-out clause in his existing contract that would have allowed him to be an unrestricted free agent at the end of this next season. For the exact same reasons that the members of the 2003 draft class (LeBron, Melo, Bosh, Wade, etc.) are all being offered extensions now, 12 months before they hit free agency, the Celtics are powerfully motivated to lock Pierce up lest they lose him next summer for nothing.

2) About five minutes on the web revealed following list of teams that look like they could arrange to be at least $20M under salary cap, given 12 months notice that Pierce was going to be on the market: Atlanta, Chicago, the Lakers, Memphis, New Orleans/Oklahoma City, Orlando, Portland, Seattle, Toronto and Utah.

3) The Celtics have turned down no end of Pierce trade offers in the last two years, when he was making $16-17M. Just the ones that have been publically acknowledged by one of the pertinent GMs include potential deals with Portland, the LA Clippers and Chicago. Give him a raise to $20M and he is still very attractive. Raef LaFrentz at $11M is difficult to trade. An All Star SF at $20M is not.

4) In this negotiation Pierce had all the leverage. He knows the owners are desperate to win and become relevant to Boston sports fans. The team has exactly zero chance of making the playoffs without him. If he went into this next season without an extension the season would have been a nine-month circus worse than Pedro's final year with the Sox. There's nothing to keep him from sitting tight and walking in nine months. The fact that the Celtics only had to give him a three-year extension, instead of the maximum six-year extension the CBA allows, should be seen as a minor negotiating victory for the team.

Another team backs out of the Iverson dance

T.S.'s former home town paper reports that Golden State has no interest in trading for Allen Iverson.

As for the Warriors' backcourt, two sources indicated the team will not pursue Allen Iverson, whom the Sixers have put on the trading block. Instead, the Warriors appear to be gambling that point guard Baron Davis can return to his All-Star form and remain healthy for an entire season.

A few weeks ago Philadelphia's trading partners were reported to be Minnesota, Denver, Golden State, Memphis, Atlanta and Boston. Since then the Timberwolves signed Mike James as a free agent, Denver had their offer of Camby and Andre Miller rejected, and Atlanta and Golden State have indicated they aren't interested.

Now, some of this may be posturing. At the same time it appears that market for Iverson is pretty small. All reports are that Billy King wants young talent and draft picks for AI, which is why he rejected Denver's offer. Who other than Boston has the interest and a bunch of young players to offer in return? Paxson hung up the phone half way the first time he was asked. Memphis could offer Hakim Warrick or possibly Rudy Gay with Eddie Jones' expiring deal. The only contracts Denver can match with Iverson Philly has already rejected.

When I posted on this a couple weeks ago I wrote that it made not sense for the Celtics to make this trade in July. In September King will be feeling far more pressure to make a deal happen, and AI is more likely to be pissed and aggitating to get out of dodge. There is no reason to make this trade for more than 40 cents on the dollar. King is a bad GM and has made a serious of bad, seemingly panic trades. Hold out for another one here.

One of: Ratliff, Szczerbiak
One or two of: West, Green, Rondo, 07 #1 pick
If only one of the former, at most one of: Gomes, Jefferson, Perkins

A deal like this would be highway robbery. But Iverson is a high-risk, 31 year old small guard whose trade value will only dimish with time and who at best gets you into the second round of the playoffs. If Philly won't take pennies on the dollar you walk away happy.

More VSL

Do you dream of a league full of guards in which nobody plays defense? I'm not sure I'd call them 'highlights' but here are some clips from the recent Celtics-Nuggets game in Vegas. Lots of passing by Rondo and Telfair to Jefferson and Green.

Dead time.

People attend football matches in the belief that they, like the spectator of any other sport, will see either victory or defeat; they accept it as their condition that they will see neither. They accept that they will not witness a goal being scored. A goal is an unnatural event. There are so many obstacles: the offsides rule, the congestion in the penalty box, the narrowness of the goal itself, the training of the keeper and his defenders. But then, such is the game and its merciless punishment of its spectators that even when the unnatural occurs and a goal is scored, they can never be sure that they have seen it. It is one of the fallacies of the game that there is no thrill greater than watching the scoring of the goal; it is one of the facts that most people miss it. The goal itself is a see-through box of threads, and unless you are looking upon it from up high or into it from straight on or viewing it with the benefit of television cameras, you cannot tell when the ball has actually gone through and scored -- until it has hit the back of the net. In every goal except the penalty kick, there is a small period of perception when there is neither goal nor no goal: dead time. Dead time is not a long time in clock time -- there is the moment when the ball appears to be about to cross the line, and, later, there is the moment when it definitively hits or fails to hit the back of the net -- but in any kind of emotional chronology it can seem endless.

Bill Buford, Among The Thugs 168 (Vintage, 1993). You might not guess it, but Buford grew up in southern California.

Pierce extended

Herald reports Paul has a new 3-year deal at $20M/per. Celtics clearly pay a premium to keep the new contract that short.

LAS VEGAS - Paul Pierce and the Celtics have reached agreement on a contract extension, a vital step for the club at this stage of its development.

Sources last night said the agreement was essentially completed late yesterday and that an announcement is forthcoming.

Danny Ainge said earlier yesterday that the sides were “just ironing out some of the final details,” and he reiterated that last night. But, according to a source, the largest of those issues were apparently resolved before Pierce’s agent, Jeff Schwartz, left Las Vegas in the late afternoon. It is known that Ainge and Schwartz spoke again yesterday.

Signing Pierce to a three-year extension that will take him through the end of the 2010-11 season is a critical step of stability for a team that is still in the building phase. He still has two years left on his present deal, but the fact the team captain is passing on the opportunity to end his contract after this season (and become a free agent) has to be seen as an endorsement for the club’s plan.

In terms of the financial stats, Pierce will complete his last contract by making $15,101,625 this season and $16,360,094 in 2007-08. The new portion of the pact will pay him nearly $60 million for three years.

Giving Pierce a new maximum contract requires no difficult decision on the part of the Celts.

“Paul’s been one of the great Celtics of all-time in my opinion - one of the top players to ever put on a Celtic uniform,” said Ainge. “He’s going into the prime of his career, and he’s still getting better. He got better last year from the year before.

“Most statistical breakdowns show guys play their best basketball from the time they’re 27 to 32. We get Paul from 28 to 33, so this is his prime. I think it’s important for us to get something done with him.”

Video of Celtics VSL

Thanks to the miracle of YouTube, we have some highlights of the Celtics recent win over Toronto in the Vegas Summer League. At the 1:35 mark Telfair has an extremely pretty between-the-legs pass on the fast break to Gerald Green for a dunk.

Disclaimer #1: this is the summer league and the Celtics are playing people who will be lucky to have a starting job in Greece in six months
Disclaimer #2: the PA announcer in the background either needs to be heavily medicated, or shot. Consider watching on mute.

Red faced.

The least of the Eddie Griffin news is that he's headed to Portland.

Bulpett reports Pierce to resign

Paul is supposedly close to signing a three year contract extension that would keep him off the free agent market until age 33.

The Celtics appear set to solidify Paul Pierce's future in Boston. While there may still be some details to be ironed out, expect an announcement in the next day or two that the captain has agreed to a three-year extension with the club. Pierce has two years remaining on his present deal and will thus forego his option to sever the contract next summer and become an unrestricted free agent. The issue of Pierce taking off for a team closer to a championship has been raised quite a bit lately, but apparently he was serious about wanting to stay with the Celtics and continue the building process. While it is likely to contain an early out clause, the new arrangement will cover him through the end of the 2010-11 season.

If true, this is a good deal for the Celtics. Unless he experiences some serious injuries and/or physical decline (always a risk) Pierce should still be an above-average player at the end of his contract. Even without seeing the details of his contract we can assume that he will be modestly overpaid by the end of this deal: that's one of the tradeoff's you make in the NBA world of relatively long-term, guarunteed deals. Today's news is good because, if true, the Celtics were able to keep this deal to a three-year extension, and not a full five- or six-year contract. Paying a 35-year old Pierce the back end of a such a max-dollar, escalating deal would almost certainly have gotten ugly.

Regardless of what Ainge thinks on the matter, ownership appears entirely committed to rebuilding while winning games around Pierce. We've been over the down-sides of this approach repeatedly. The good news if this extension goes through as reported is that we'll have dodged two potential bullets: first, that Pierce walks for nothing next summer; second, that we're stuck paying him Allen Iverson money until long past his prime.

An introduction to the point

Charley Rosen has an off-season piece up today running through the requirements of the point guard position. In some ways its classic Rosen. For one thing, Charley goes through everything that might be asked of a point guard and classifies each a 'must'. Off the cuff I would guess that less than 10 players in the NBA meet Charley's criteria for an acceptible point. Of course, nothing but perfection is really acceptible to former coach Rosen, which is why his in-season articles are overwhelmingly critical of all but the very best teams and players. I'm not knocking him: unlike most other sports journalists he's actually interested in writing about the details of the game; which for this fan is much appreciated.

Rosen observes that on offense

Points must also have a firm conceptual grasp of the totality of the game at hand... the point guard must be aware of every matchup, the score, and the clocks. Plus, he must know how many timeouts are available to each team. Even the tendencies of the refs.

Obviously, since the No. 1 is responsible for safely carrying the ball into the attack zone, he must be a superior ball-handler and passer with a well developed off hand. What's more if he's playing with go-to scorer who's routinely two-timed, the No. 1 must also be an efficient outside shooter.

What other offensive skills must he command?

+ Utilizing screen/rolls to the max.
+ Being able to penetrate well enough to compel the defense to send help.
+ Being able to finish in heavy traffic, which usually means having some kind of high-arcing flip shot that can be released in a hurry while the converging bigs are still gathering to jump.
+ Making sure to reward a big with an appropriate pass whenever he runs the court.


On the flip side, however transcendent a No.1's talent level might be, his effectiveness (and playing time) will be limited if he's prone to making bad decisions. Such as:

- Making the wrong (or even right) pass at the wrong time to the wrong teammate.
- Forcing a fast break.
- Over-penetrating and getting caught in a spot where there's limited air space in which to either pass or shoot.
- Shooting too much or too quickly (in the shot clock) while under too much defensive pressure.
- Forcing passes into crowds.
- Being oblivious to opponents looking to ambush passing lanes.
- Not being aware of the shot clock, the matchups, and/or which opponents might be in foul trouble.
- Failing to properly position the ball so that the designated play can be undertaken with the appropriate timing and spacing.

Moreover, history proves that teams led by shoot-first point guards are more pretenders than contenders. No NBA team has ever won a championship when its No. 1 has led the league in scoring. And only three teams have won titles when their point guard was also their leading scorer — Isiah Thomas with Detroit in 1990, Magic Johnson with the Lakers in 1987, and Walt Frazier with New York in 1973.

Those who followed the Celtics last season will have little difficulty spotting the multiple places on this list where Marcus Banks was, and Delonte West is, lacking. Delonte, for all his strengths, can only deliver on about half of Rosen's 'musts'. Marcus Banks was/is a walking liability to make every bad decision here and then some. These are just both player's offensive liabilities.

Not surprisingly, Ainge has been rumored over the last year to be involved in almost every PG on the trade market (e.g. Andre Miller, Allen Iverson, etc.) and then picks up Telfair and Rondo on draft night. Both come advertised as something well short of what Rosen would call acceptible.

Good for him

In the summer of 2003 Mike James was a classic fringe NBA player. Someone who was too small to play defense on shooting guards but without any point guard skills whatsoever, James was a free agent the Miami Heat had little/no interest in resigning. Watching him as the #2 offensive option in Toronto this last season I routinely couldn't freaking believe we were talking about the same player.

After signing him at the end of the summer the Celtics exchanged James for Chucky Atkins two-thirds of the way through the 03-04 season (in the infamous Rasheed Wallace deal) and we looked worlds better on offense right away. You know you're a lousy PG when Chucky Atkins is a big immediate improvement. James had an early season game in the fall of '03(I can't remember the opponent now) when he hit the winning a shot at the buzzer and it seemed to ruin him for the year. He spent the rest of his time in Boston charging uncontrollably into the lane and too often turning the ball over in a crowd. That and standing around for the first 15 seconds of the shot clock doing nothing are my primary memories of the Mike James PG experiment. He, Pierce and Davis looked awful together; like a bad pick-up team of guys who all want to shot, don't care much for team defense, but are all good enough that everyone defers to them anyway. This was during the (to date) low point of Pierce's career and he looked miserable through lots of it.

Now James is on to his 7th team in 6 years-- and paired with Ricky again-- but this time will get $6M+ for his efforts. The guy has certainly worked hard enough on his career. Nice for him that his retirement just got a whole lot better.

At the same time I'm not sure how this TWolves team comes together. If Foye lives up to his billing they'll have three pretty identical players in their backcourt, but not one of them a point guard who can make his teammates better. McHale has spent the last several years trying to add talent through free agency, and getting nothing from the draft. It's left him with a roster of over-paid rotation players many of whom are on the downside of their careers. Will the soon-to-be-32-year old James be much different? I wouldn't count on it.