What exactly is The Doctor reading in his morning Paper?
"Boston actually gets some preseason national air-time against the Cavs."
I know...Surprising. But thankfully, the game last night against last year's Eastern Conference champions provided an excellent opportunity to not only hit game highlights, but also give everyone a necessary offseason/preseason review going into the season opener against the Wizards next Friday (which also will be carried by ESPN.)
To begin, let's start with taking a look back at last season.
"See him?! He's the only reason to care. That's not saying a lot."
In the years that I have been a Celts supporter, nothing was worse than enduring the 06/07 season for about...oh, 1,000 reasons or more. Not only did we have the second worst record in the entire Association (The Grizz will always be terrible. I'm sorry.), but then there was the lottery fiasco which cost me about 9 years off of my adult life the day the ping pong balls were selected. Oh, and if you actually care about players and development like I do, the wrong people played for 75 out of 82 games.
Aside from Paul, let's take a look at the roster from last season: http://www.nba.com/celtics/roster/2006/
Take a quick moment to look over that before we get into things. Ready?
With a roster that included the most extreme example of 1st overall pick abuse in the history of professional sports (Olowokandi), and the most undeserved push in the last 5 years (Telfair), it was a season that was doomed from the beginning. In fact, the only winning that the Celtics did during the season was in the Slam Dunk "Contest."
(Side note: If you can't jump over Nate Robinson, terminate your own contract and give me the money they've paid you already.)And that's how last season was. There were talks of tanking to pick Odenrant first overall, Doc was catching it from all angles from the national media, and our roster was about as deep as a puddle in Arizona.
However, not everything was bad. Ryan Gomes and Al Jefferson stepped up big in their new roles as team leaders to help compliment Paul. There was some legit off the bench production from Tony Allen (until he was sidelined) and everyone's favorite bench hyper, Brian Scalabrine.
In the end, however, young talent that fails to get utilized in the proper way will never have the impact it should. 24-58. That's not even a respectable first half blowout score these days.
And then came the offseason. THE offseason, I should say. Everyone in Celtsworld was preparing to take Odenrant with the first pick in the weeks leading up to the lottery. I, myself, was online daily looking to see which provider was going to be the first to release the Oden authentic jersey. And then, the worst thing that could possibly happen...did.
"The 5th pick...goes to the Boston Celtics." Wow. (All needed to be said.)
The draft came, and there were many reports early on in the day that Boston was looking to make a trade with Seattle for Ray Allen, although no one knew the exact specifications of the trade and what the Sonics wanted. It eventually went down, and here's how it ended up:
Celts get:
- Ray Allen
- 35th Overall pick (Which turned out to be LSU's Glen "Big Baby" Davis)
Sonics get:
- Delonte West
- Wally Undeserviak
- 5th Overall pick (Which turned out to be Georgetown's Jeff Green)
- Future 2nd rounder (Probably Olowokandi's son.)
"Hey, thanks for the 2nd best 3-point shooter in the history of the entire league. In return, here's Wally. You don't have to do too much. Just keep food in his dish and his water fresh while his torn E(verything).C.L's heal." No wonder your franchise will be in Oklahoma City within two years.
Speaking of trades, that trade pales in comparison to the deal of the offseason, and probably the last 5 years, by far. There's no need for me to hype how important it was because television and news did that for me for about a month and a half.
Celts gets:
- Kevin Garnett
T'Wolves get:
- Ryan Gomes
- Al Jefferson
- "Slam Dunk Champion" Gerald Green
- Theo Ratliff
- Sebastian Telfair
- 2009 1st round draft pick (Top 3 Protected)
- ...And a partidge in a pear tree
Two words: Worth it.
The 2007/2008 roster - http://www.nba.com/celtics/roster/
Quick notes:
- Our rookies are nice. Big Baby gives the C's a much needed inside presence to go along with Garnett and Perks, and he's played with more intensity and passion thus far in the preseason than our entire squad last year. I love when rookies care. Gabe Pruitt came from an excellent program at Southern Cal under Tim Floyd and provides an option, by means of home-grown talent, in the quest to solidify the guard position. Brandon Wallace can be good with time, and he needs to learn how to hone his size and compete at the forward position in the Eastern Conference.
- Double R (Rajon Rondo) is money. I can't wait to see how he handles his sophomore campaign.
- The offseason pick-ups of James Posey and Eddie House are huge for two different reasons:
1.) Posey comes from the Miami Wade's, and automatically provides the C's with some veteran leadership after competing in the postseason (which means they won games) the last few years. (We won't discuss last season, though. Bulls Sweep = Gross.)
2.) Eddie is one of the more memorable recent drifters in the league, and I will never understand why. He's a solid second guard, he's one of the best passers in the league, and if your last name is House, people respect you.
He hit it. (Carmen came straight from the C's game. Look at the outfit.)And there's your offseason.
The entire preseason can be summed up in one game: Last night's win over the Cavs.
- Garnett: 21 pts, 13 rebs, 10 assts. (Preseason triple doubles are nothing to get excited about, but that's still pretty impressive against the reigning league champions.)
- Allen: 20 pts
- Paul : 12 pts
- Lebron: 17 points. If they don't get the problems with Varajeo and Pavlovic figured out soon, Lebron might find himself in Paul's shoes from the last few years.
Final score: Celts 114, Cavaliers 89.
I don't embrace the "New Big Three" nickname as of yet, because as great as they may be, they are still light years away from the originals (For those of you who don't know, that would be Larry Legend, McHale, and The Chief.) However, I must say that in comparison to years previous, I have never been more excited for a basketball season in my life.
Next time around: A preview of the rest of the Atlantic Division.
Think Big.
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