No links necessary: things haven’t gone well for the Celtics the last decade or so. Outside of one Eastern Finals appearance, its been a tough ten years. Toughest of all has been enduring painful personel decisions–how many future all stars have we traded? And what did we get in return? No, no, it hurts too much to look up the links.
But tonight’s NBA draft seems to be a move in the right direction. Although he’s got a big contract and is coming off of surgery, I think Ray Allen will be a great addition. So long as he meshes well with Pierce (and his ability to share the ball with Lewis would indicate he will), the Celtics shouldn’t suffer through the offensive woes of the last few seasons. They haven’t provided Paul any real offensive help since Walker left this team, and that was closer to last century than this season.
I’m even more excited about the prospects of Big Baby. Critics don’t like his weight (official scale: 290), but I think being a second round pick will motivate him. And the East doesn’t have too many quality big men after Shaq and Howard (we’ll see how Ben Wallace plays next season, and if Jermaine O’neil is even in the East).
Finally, I’d like to congratulate Ainge and co for the moves they didn’t make. They didn’t part ways with Al Jefferson. They didn’t part ways with Gerald Green. They dumped Wally Szerbiak’s insane contract (he’s not good enough for me to care about spelling his name right). Sure, I would have loved Kevin Garnett for Jefferson and the 5 pick. I would have cheered the five pick for O’neil. And I was skeptical when I first heard the name “Allen”– I thought we would overpay. But they didn’t: they made a reasonable trade, brought in a proven all-star, and should rank among the favorites (with Toronto and perhaps Jersey) to win the Atlantic next year.
6’10, 290 lbs. Awesome.
