Hmmm, perhaps there's some good news on the horizon after all. Not only will the Celtics of the $2.9 million dollar contract of Will Bynum soon, Rajon Rondo may play after all in the season opener......or not.
In a conflicting report, Celtics coach Brad Stevens says Rondo will be ready by opening day while Rondo himself says maybe he won't. Usually when a player wussies out, he deserves to get booed but when someone breaks a hand, all bets are off.
If Rondo is better suited to help the team by sitting in a coat and tie on the bench until his hand is fully healed, that may be the better option. Its not like this team has a legitimate shot at the NBA Finals and all wins matter like from 2008-12. Why risk him re-injuring his hand by having him rush his return?
The flip side is if he IS ready, it'll be a huge shot in the arm for a team that's slowly coming back to the top. If Marcus Smart is any good and Evan Turner's head is in the right state of mind, that's 2 good backups to go with Avery Bradley and Rondo. Phil Pressey would be the odd man out but then again, he and Turner can battle it out in practice over who deserves minutes. Also, if Pressey is improved from last year he'll be chomping at the bit for a chance to prove himself. That's known as the good kind of competion. Although, he could go the other way and pout like Joe Forte in 2002 but let's not go there.
Bottom line is if Jared Sullinger is the real deal and Kelly Olynyk is much improved from last year, both will benefit from Rondo being on the floor. Still, the one that REALLY benefits will be Marcus Thornton. If he's hot, Rondo will be feeding him the ball until he cools off.
In other NBA news, as sad as it sounds the Celtics may be one of the front runners in the Atlantic Division. The Nets aren't as good as they were last year and the Knicks and Sixers aren't scaring anyone. That just leaves Toronto who has to prove last year was no fluke and that's always hard to do with a team like that.
As of now, the Celtics have 16 men on the roster. Rondo, Bynum, Bradley, Olynyk, Sullinger, Pressey, Smart, Turner, Thornton, Brandon Bass, Vitor Faverini, Tyler Zeller, Jeff Green, Gerald Wallace, James Young and Dwight Powell. Young's hamstring is improved so he could play in tonight's pre-season finale although Wallace, Rondo and Faverini remain out. Like I said earlier, the Celtics look to keep Powell over Bynum due to Will's massive contract but if they decide to go the other way and cut Powell, at least they'll have insurance at center in case Olynyk and Zeller get hurt. Or they could cut Faverini and keep Powell and Bynum. Bottom line is, you can never have enough depth, especially in an 82 game season. Opening Day could be Zeller, Sullinger, Green, Bradley and Rondo start with Olynyk, Bass, Thornton, Turner and Smart the backups with Young and Pressey 11th and 12th man with Faverini and Wallace out with injury plus Powell/Bynum the healthy scratch.
In terms of bawful, Faverini and Wallace would get checkmarks for the Ellison Award but not Powell/Bynum since they're not hurt. In terms of a feel-good story, it would be nice for Powell to make the team considering nobody outside of Boston knew his name two months ago (or even now really).
Tonight's pre-season finale will bring old pals Joe Johnson and Kevin Garnett back to the Garden as the Brooklyn Nets are in town. I said before the year started that the Ted Stepian Rule bites the Celtics because this Nets team will be weaker than last year's that gave the Celtics the number 17 pick (James Young). For those who don't know, the rule refers to former incompetent Cleveland Cavaliers owner Ted Stepian who was famous for trading their first round pick nearly every single year. Pretty much the rule was designed to protect Ted from himself and it disallows the trading of first round picks in 3 consecutive years. That's why the Celtics got the Nets pick this past draft and in the 2016 draft but not this coming year. The Nets may suck this year to get in the lottery but may make some moves that make them a contender again next year. That's what I'm afraid of anyway. As of now the Celtics have their own first round pick and the Clippers, which would have been a sure lottery pick had Donald Sterling not waved the white flag and sold the team. Seriously, had Sterling stayed half the team including coach Doc Rivers would have been gone.
We'll see shortly after tonight't game how they look going forward.
No comments:
Post a Comment