C's Still Have 'BIG' Void

by **bobheckler** Thu Feb 21, 2013 10:29 pm

Notice, Doc doesn't even mention Melo, Forsberg does. All Doc talks about is Wilcox.

C's still have 'big' void after deadline
February, 21, 2013
Feb 216:26PM ETBy Chris Forsberg | ESPNBoston.com

HILLS, Calif. -- The Celtics approached Thursday's NBA trade deadline with a glaring need for an additional big man. They didn't add one, and actually, they had to deal away their first big off the bench to get necessary guard help.

You can do the math.

"We can't get into foul trouble," Celtics coach Doc Rivers joked while addressing his team's lack of frontcourt depth after sending Jason Collins to Washington with injured Leandro Barbosa in exchange for third-year guard Jordan Crawford.

Boston is dangerously thin up front with Kevin Garnett and Brandon Bass being backed up by a group that includes Jeff Green, Chris Wilcox and Fab Melo. And Rivers admitted his team's available bigs could further dwindle at times before the end of this road trip.

"Listen, I'm going to sit Kevin in games, and, so, those are the games it'll be an issue for us. We'll be really small," said Rivers. "We may have to add a D-League guy, [because] I would be surprised if Kevin played all three of these games coming up. That puts a lot of pressure on us. But it's what we're going to have to do."

Rivers said the Celtics will sift through those who land in the buyout scrapheap in the coming days and continue to monitor the D-League in search of additional frontcourt depth, but said nothing was imminent.

"You've got the two groups left: The guys are who don't like their teams anymore, or their teams don't like them -- that group is the buyout group, which is getting smaller each year," said Rivers. "And then you have the D-League."

Rivers admitted there's additional pressure now on Wilcox to fill the role of first big off the bench, a spot he's struggled to be consistent in this season.

"Chris has struggled, not in that role, he's just struggled," said Rivers. "We're putting a lot of pressure on Chris. Chris is going to have play well for us."

bob

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