Celtics looking to trade for Leandro Barbosa, Rudy Fernandez

http://www.bostonherald.com/sports/basketball/celtics/view/20100704leandro_barbosa_rudy_fernandez_on_trade_radar/

WINTER PARK, Fla. - While the Celtics [team stats] continue to tend to their own Garden in hopes of retaining their own free agents, the club is exploring a number of other options, as well.

League sources said yesterday that the Celts have expressed trade interest in guards Leandro Barbosa of Phoenix and Rudy Fernandez of Portland.

The Celtics probably are using Rasheed Wallace’s contract in their attempt to acquire Barbosa, who averaged 9.5 points in 17.9 minutes for the Suns this season.

Barbosa will make $7.1 million in 2010-11 and has a player option for $7.6 million the following season. Wallace is on the books for $6,322,320, which is well within the acceptable range (125 percent plus $100,000) for a trade under NBA rules.

The Suns then could let Wallace retire and be responsible on their cap only for the buyout, which the C’s could help with, too.

Barbosa, 27, is a seven-year veteran who would fit well with the uptempo style coach Doc Rivers and general manager Danny Ainge prefer.

But Fernandez may be even more intriguing. He’s a 6-foot-6 shooter ill-suited to the Trail Blazers’ halfcourt approach. The 25-year-old Spaniard also spoke of being homesick last season when he averaged 8.1 points and 2.0 assists in 23.2 minutes.

Fernandez will make $1,246,680 this season, with a team option of $2,180,443 for 2011-12 and a qualifying offer of $3,187,807 for the year after.

That’s very reasonable money for a player who could make a very big impact in the Celtics system.

But as interesting as Barbosa and Fernandez may be, the Celts are aware that size is a more critical need. They continue to pursue center Brad Miller, among others.

IF (the big IF) we get Barbosa, we won't have to worry about who will be running the fastbreak with Rondo anymore. Barbosa is one of the quickest players in the NBA. He is greased lightning. He's also only 27. Per 82games.com, he has excellent clutch stats. He's shooting 55% from the field "in the clutch", 64% from 3, 91% from the line. His assist-turnover ratio in the clutch is EXCELLENT, 1.4 assists and 0 turnovers. 81% of his clutch fgs are assisted. This means he moves without the ball. This stat will go down on the Celts if we keep doing isos with Pierce (don't get me started on that!). By comparison, Ray Allen, who is a perpetual motion machine without the ball, is 79% assisted. If we get Barbosa, I think we can say goodbye to Tony Allen.

I heard Rudy wants to go back to Spain. Well, Boston's home from Portland, I guess, LOL. I have very mixed feelings about Rudy. Not a great shooter, His clutch shooting stats, per 82games.com, is excrement. I mean, he's worse than Derek Fisher and D-Fish is down near the bottom. But he's aggressive, can create his own shot and will help breakdown defenses. Rudy Fernandez's clutch points are only 60% assisted.

bob

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gee, great run-down, bob. love going to the stats boards to find out what light they can shed on players i don't know so well, and thanks to you i now know them a lot better.

but they don't speak to D, and neither has anyone chipping in here so far -- so, how is Barbosa's D ? (i don't have a clue about it ...)

Michael

bigpygme wrote:gee, great run-down, bob. love going to the stats boards to find out what light they can shed on players i don't know so well, and thanks to you i now know them a lot better.

but they don't speak to D, and neither has anyone chipping in here so far -- so, how is Barbosa's D ? (i don't have a clue about it ...)

Michael

Michael,

Sure, stats never really tell the story about defense. It's also hard to tell how well a player will defend on your team, with your system and players, based upon how he defends on another team, with other players, in another system.

As we saw in Phoenix and now in NY, defense is not a priority for Mike D'Antoni. He's the love child of Stan Albeck and Doug Moe. So, how can you take the measure of the defense of a player who played for him?

Barbosa's and Fernandez's defenses aren't great. I see that more as a knock on Fernandez, who played more of a halfcourt game in Portland, than on Barbosa who played in a system, and with players, where the game was all about running fullcourt and scrambling on halfcourt defense. Phoenix, due to their lack of size and bulk, are not positional defenders, they are scramblers. Not so true with Portland.

Ray Allen never played defense until he came here either. Not because he couldn't but because his teams needed him to expend himself on offense. I have mixed feelings about Fernandez, not so mixed about Barbosa. Barbosa's not big (6'3", 202#) and so he'd have trouble defending bigger SG (especially in the post), but I think he'd be great defending PGs. He definitely has the speed to defend, all he needs is the will and KG will inject some of that into him, just like he did with Ray.

bob


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excellent insights, very glad to have your thoughts. thx.

thought your comment that RA didn't play D til he got here either was particularly well suited to the conversation, because he sure has picked it up. his defense against Kobe in particular (and really, throughout the playoffs) i thought was, as a whole, exemplary - esp for someone who got to Boston not doing much defending.

which reminds me how much we're going to miss Thibs, but i guess i will Trust In Danny to get something good done there.

Michael

Mike

Remember Tibbs never actually defended anyone himself. He put in the mindset for it but the players are the ones that do it. I can't see a letdown because he's gone now either.

beat

The story line for today, 7/12, is that Toronto is trading Turkoglu and Calderon to Phoenix for Barbosa, Diaw and possibly Tyson Chandler.

I believe a team has to wait a minimum of a month before they can trade a player that came to them in a trade. This means Barbosa could still be a Celtic before training camp, if that's what Danny wants.

bob

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would toronto be a team that would want to deal in a trade with us, and maybe give us pieces that would help us out?

Michael

bigpygme wrote:would toronto be a team that would want to deal in a trade with us, and maybe give us pieces that would help us out?

Michael

Michael,

They worked with Miami, why not us?

bob

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oh yeah - excellent point, sorry i didn't see the obvious ... thx, bob