OPTIONS DWINDLING FOR THE CELTICS IN THEIR BIG MAN SEACH

WEEI
By Paul Flannery

Ryan Hollins could be the last big man standing for the Celtics. (AP)

The Celtics lost out on Ronny Turiaf when the veteran signed with the Heat. They lost out on J.J. Hickson when the Blazers were awarded the waiver claim. They even lost out on Chris Johnson, when the one-time Celtic was claimed off waivers by the Hornets.

The Bobcats waived Boris Diaw, but the talented, yet soft in the middle big man appears to be heading to San Antonio. As a final blow, the Hornets seem intent on keeping Chris Kaman.

Where does that leave the Celtics? The two names still in circulation are Ryan Hollins and journeyman Josh Powell. Here’s the take on Hollins: He’s 7-feet tall with a decent touch around the basket, but he’s a poor rebounder who lost his spot in the Cavs’ rotation to rookie Tristan Thompson.

Still, Hollins is better than Powell and would serve an immediate need considering the sore foot that Greg Stiemsma is currently playing through. If anything happens to Stiemsma, the Celtics are in major trouble and it could lead to Kevin Garnett playing more minutes than the team would like.

In order to add Hollins — or anyone else for the matter — the Celtics would have to make room on their roster by waiving one of their players. Chris Wilcox is out for the season and will undergo heart surgery later this month and Jermaine O’Neal decided to have wrist surgery and will also miss the rest of the season.

Under the new collective bargaining agreement, they wouldn’t be able to re-sign a player they waived for at least a year so if they have any interest in bringing Wilcox back, they’d keep him on the roster.

This Friday is the deadline for players to be bought out/waived and still be eligible for the postseason on another team. As a reminder, players can sign at any time up until the last day of the regular season and still be eligible for the postseason as long as they are not on someone else’s roster by the Friday deadline.

1112288

The Celtics have obviously reached the point where any big man moves they make are going to be from a position of weakness. At this point, they're pretty much looking at the least bad of the alternatives.

With that fact in mind, I wish Danny would buy out the two players who will definitely not be contributing this season: JO and Wilcox. My guess is that, while Danny would happily buy JO out, he'd probably rather keep Wilcox around for his potential next season and because it would cost too much to buy out his entire contract for both this season and the next. (I think the Celtics could re-sign Wilcox after a certain number of months since they had released him—a period of time which he'll probably need to recover anyway.)

If they want to mess around with the youth and six fouls represented by Ryan Hollins, fine. He might shock us, and at least he's apparently got the physique for the job. Hey, maybe he picked up some hustle tips from Varejao. (I might rather have Fesenko than Hollins, if Fesenko's in shape to play, because of his bulk and defensive abilities.)

But, as well, I'd still like to see them sign Dan Gadzuric, who's been playing (only five games) for the Texas Legends of the Developmental League. In his last NBA outings (2010-11), he was playing very few minutes and had very few points and rebounds.

However, he apparently hasn't forgotten how to rebound. In 18.4 MPG with the Legends, he is averaging 8.6 P/G, 4.8 OR/G, 6.0 DR/G, 10.8 TR/G, and (here's the worst part) 2.8 TO/G. Yes, I know it's only the "D" League. See my statement above about operating from a position of weakness.

I have no idea what kind of shape he's in or whether or not he's currently injured (I have the feeling he's not). Heck, even the ordeal of finding his DL stats reminds me how deeply in obscurity DL players are buried. But, as a nine-year veteran of the league at age 34, standing 6' 11" and weighing 240, I'd rather see him on the roster than either JON or Wilcox for the rest of this season.

Besides, I've learned how to spell his name.

Sam

P.S. Looks like the Lakers may have caught lightning in a bottle with Sessions.

SAM,

If they buy out Wilcox, they cannot resign him for 1 full year as Collective Barg. Agree.

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112288,

I'm not surprised. I knew it was a while.

We'll see what Danny does (or doesn't do).

Sam

I realize we got Hollins, but we could probably use a second big man too (we were 4 deep when we started the season, now we're just back up to 3 and Steamer wears a boot off the court).

Unfortunately, Fesenko's signing with the Pacers.

bob

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