OUR BIGS ?

What we thought was a strong suit starting the year, has become a lot less than expected IMHO.

We knew Perk was going to be on the shelf for a while but Erden is hurting, JO same, KG same, leaving Shaq as apparently the most healthy big we have right now (not counting Davis in this). Can Doc play these guys limited minutes, and win consistantly?

Not to be too worried but I would be lying if I said I wasn't a bit concerned.

Being healthy in May June is more important than right now, but we all saw what having a game seven at home can mean too. Wins now are important too.

beat

WE could always call Mike Sweetney! He would be a BIG help!-MD.

Beat, Right now I would settle for KG coming back healthy and Perk returning strong enough to provide 10-15 soon with SE soon to provide another 10-15 and the Big Shamrock another 15 with Baby making up the difference.
I have a hunch ( hope I'm wrong) that JON is a bust this year...
Doc will have his work cut out, no doubt...Who can we get that will realistically fit?

LACELTFAN wrote:Beat, Right now I would settle for KG coming back healthy and Perk returning strong enough to provide 10-15 soon with SE soon to provide another 10-15 and the Big Shamrock another 15 with Baby making up the difference.
I have a hunch ( hope I'm wrong) that JON is a bust this year...
Doc will have his work cut out, no doubt...Who can we get that will realistically fit?

JO health history recently is poor. Can't count on anything moe from him. Shaq? Perk again he appears to be close to ready but? KG should be back soon and probably would play tonight if it was May. SE another ?

Add it up and Baby is a center by default in some cases. Just need some breaks and not BONES either.

and mrkleen

Sweetney is probably 400lbs by now he would be a walking 3 second violation anywhere in the offensive end.

beat

Hi,
I think C position is a concern.
The only fully functional 5 is Shaq. But don't forget that he's 38 years old and his efficiency after 18-20 min goes down. Also, he foul prone. Also, he already missed a dozen or so games.
The only fully functional backup is BBD who has to split 4 and 5 duties (I hope KG will be back Mon).
SE is doing his best and already exceeded what was expected from him. But he's rookie with injured shoulder and nobody knows how long he's going to last. On top of that he's groin pulled - hopefully it's minor.
As Lacelt put it JON is a bust. So, I don't count him.
Last but not least - Perk. I hope he'll hit ground at least walking but it may take him a month or more to get to the proper level.
In summary: it's not a pretty picture. Is there a solution? None that I'm aware of other than to keep our collective fingers crossed and hope that by the playoffs Shaq, Perk and SE are able to cover 40-45 minutes.

AK

please, please, don't tell me if JO is scratched for the year that possibly they would look to Rasheed??????

It's not totally out of the realm of possibility Rosalie but I doubt it will happen.

Rasheed drove me crazy last year with his 3s and lazy matador defense. Crazy.

Having said that, though, I think we also have to give him a ton of credit and stepping up BIGTIME in the Finals against LA when Perk went down. We only lost by 4 points and we were using Sheed and Baby at center. We got horribly outrebounded that game but, however we did it, we were leading for most of the game and only lost by 4 and that could not have happened without Sheed playing well.

If JON and Semih both need surgery and Perk is coming back at some unknown % of his former self this year, what are our options?

bob

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I think we'll need a reenforcement or two.

As always the questions are who can we afford, who is available and who would we part with if we could make a trade.

Are Dwayne Jones and Pops Mensah-Bonsu still floating around unsigned? Both are good on the defensive end and known as fairly decent shot blockers. Mensah-Bonsu is a very good rebounder. Neither has an offensive game.

We could also take a look at Tiny Gallon, although I'm not sure how he's done in the D league. Do we still have Magnum Rolle hanging around as well?

I think our most likely trading chips are Harangody, Wafer and Robinson, but I'm not sure that brings us much in the way of talent in return, interest from other clubs or salaries to swap.

Our best option looks like a mass return to health.

NY Celt:

Yes , and we'll all have to pray at Mass for a return to health!

MD.

NYCelt wrote:I think we'll need a reenforcement or two.

As always the questions are who can we afford, who is available and who would we part with if we could make a trade.

Are Dwayne Jones and Pops Mensah-Bonsu still floating around unsigned? Both are good on the defensive end and known as fairly decent shot blockers. Mensah-Bonsu is a very good rebounder. Neither has an offensive game.

We could also take a look at Tiny Gallon, although I'm not sure how he's done in the D league. Do we still have Magnum Rolle hanging around as well?

I think our most likely trading chips are Harangody, Wafer and Robinson, but I'm not sure that brings us much in the way of talent in return, interest from other clubs or salaries to swap.

Our best option looks like a mass return to health.

Ask and ye shall receive.

http://www.pressherald.com/sports/gallon-helps-claws-to-win_2011-01-12.html
http://www.nba.com/dleague/maine/statistics/

Interestingly, two of the players Sam and I liked a lot in summer league, DeShawn Sims and Matt Janning, are both playing for Maine. Sims went overseas to Greece for a bit but is now back, and Janning was signed by Phoenix and released in pre-season. Sims is shooting >50%, 17ppg and 8rebs with Maine. Neither of these guys fix our problems at 5, but if they're doing good they might make some other player on the roster more expendable trade bait. The dleague stat link above shows all the players stats, including Gallon's, Janning's and Sims'. Rolle played 2 games with Maine and was waived due to injury.

Pops got released by NO this month. He's 6'9", 240. Not an NBA center's body.

Jones appears to be available too.

bob


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Bob,

Funny, I just looked up the Red Claws' stats yesterday. First I looked at the rebounds column and, then, at the height stat for the guys with the most boards. No center sizes. That wouldn't usually bother me if Davis weren't our most durable "center."

I really liked Sims and am as impressed with his stats as I was with his summer game. IF the Celts were to make a trade, I can't see fewer than two Celtics (probably plus a pick) going for any kind of a serviceable center. That would leave one roster spot open for a guy like Sims.

The center position is really looking tenuous. At one time, I was reading that it would be a huge Celtics advantage this season. That seems so long ago.

Sam

I had mentioned two free agent bigs earlier, center Dwayne Jones and power forward Pops Mensah-Bonsu.

After thinking about it I remembered HoopsHype tracks free agents and took a look to see who else might be available. Here's a small sample...

Center: Mark Blount, Chris Mihm, Luke Nevill

Power Forward: Othella Harington, Sean Williams, Lance Allred

All of which led me to the conclusion that the following post had the most merit concerning our situation with our bigs...

NY Celt:

Yes , and we'll all have to pray at Mass for a return to health!

MD.

Ok-let's get to church immediately!! Mark Blount????

I will say one thing about O'Neal, the guy really wants to play for the Celtics this year, so I believe if at all possible, they will wait until the end of the year.
His career is over if he has surgery now.

Sam wrote:Bob,

Funny, I just looked up the Red Claws' stats yesterday. First I looked at the rebounds column and, then, at the height stat for the guys with the most boards. No center sizes. That wouldn't usually bother me if Davis weren't our most durable "center."

I really liked Sims and am as impressed with his stats as I was with his summer game. IF the Celts were to make a trade, I can't see fewer than two Celtics (probably plus a pick) going for any kind of a serviceable center. That would leave one roster spot open for a guy like Sims.

The center position is really looking tenuous. At one time, I was reading that it would be a huge Celtics advantage this season. That seems so long ago.

Sam

sam,

Minute-for-minute DeShawn Sims is impressive on the glass for his size. Then again, so is Luke. The problem is that we can only leave them on the court for so long before players and refs start taking advantage of the rookies.

The decision by Sims to NOT come to Celtic training camp seems to have backfired a bit. His defense, that I saw in summer league, looked as good as Laksme and Gaffney's and his offense is significantly better than both. Laksme got cut because Doc said he wanted more offense at that position, and that opened the door for Von Wafer. A battle for that spot on the bench between Von Wafer and Sims would have been interesting. Because Sims didn't think he had a chance at making the squad he's now definitely not on the squad. The fact that Doc kept Laksme and Gaffney on the squad for as long as he did suggests he really wanted more depth at 3, he just didn't see what he was looking for in those 2 and went with the smaller, more veteran Wafer instead.

Janning does not appear to have excelled in dleague like he did in summer league. That's why summer league is so misleading. With the exception of first rounders, it's players on the bubble of being invited to a pro camp, where they'll be on the bubble of making the team and sitting on the end of the bench. In other words, they're marginal players at best. Ever once in a while, you get a dleaguer who deserves to be in the bigs, gets his chance (which often requires a team to get hit with multiple medium-to-longterm injuries. Otherwise, they'll just limp along, like we've been doing without KG and West, or they'll trade for a veteran to fill the spot) and makes the most of it. Anthony Tolliver and Reggie Williams came out of dleague to GSW (Tolliver is now with Minny and Reggie is still with GSW) and Josh Powell, most notably with LAL, bounced in and out of dleague and few pro teams.

Sims' free throw shooting, 64%, is a definite minus. His fg% and rebounding are big plusses. He has played the most minutes of any player on the team so far (so his numbers are more representative). He has taken about 50% more fga than anybody else on the team so far (and is averaging 50.7%!!). He has 55 offensive rebounds (oooh baby!) out of 175. Tiny Gallon (that's like jumbo shrimp and military intelligence) has 176 rebounds, but he plays center and is probably closer to the basket. Interestingly, 6'9", 290# Gallon (66 offreb out of 176totreb) is an even better offensive rebounder than lively-bodied 6'8", 225# Sims.

bob

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