The Glove is ambivalent

G.P. has yet to show his ugly mug in Boston and I can't say I'm dissapointed. He's apparently working out in Las Vegas, and his agent said we'll know within a week whether or not he'll be reporting. My bet is that G.P. is trying to engineer a trade and I'm sure Danny Ainge will abide him if he can get a deal he likes. However, this seems unlikely for two reasons. The first is that G.P. is going to make $5.4 million dollars this season. No team in their right mind wants to pay an old point guard who has questionable talents and effects on team chemistry. And two, it's too early in the season to trade cap fodder like G.P. I think he should be dealt midseason so that Boston can position themselves well to get the next best thing, like cap room in return or a good draft pick. I would think the Clippers might have interest in such a deal. They're loaded with young high picks and they don't need anymore influxes of talent. Donald Sterling is cheap and as such likes cap room. From the Celtics perspective, the Clippers are unlikely to reach the playoffs this year so a return draft pick would likely be a good one that could be A) traded B) turned into more size. This is my hope of hopes.

The other best case scenario is that G.P. doesn't show up at all. He will be awful for the Celtics. Ricky Buckets is enough to deal with on his own. If only the Trailblazers hadn't changed their stance on the talent/character ratio recently. Boston could probably have suckered them into taking Buckets and the Glove in years past.

Dampier

Supposedly Eric Dampier, Evan Escmeyer, and Dan Dikau are coming to big D in exchange for Eduardo Najera and Christian Laettner. On the face of it this looks like a good trade for Dallas. They get a legit 7' center in Dampier and a back up to him to boot. They get rid of Laettner, whom nobody wants and give up Najera. The downside to this trade is that you lose your hustle guy in Najera who can give a team a big lift off the bench. He was key to Dallas' playoff performances the last few years as he was the only person willing to really play defense. The other potential problem is Dampier. He averaged 12-12 on a subpar team and this was his best season ever. He was clearly playing for a contract. He says he wants to go to a contender, but he was getting close to signing with the Atlanta Hawks. He's 30 years old. I think he may be poison to Dallas much the way Olowakandi was in Minny. If he comes to ball this year like he did last year then Dallas is in pretty good shape. They'd role a starting line up of Damp, Diggler, Josh Howard/Jerry Stackhouse, Michael Finley, Jason Terry/Marquis Daniels. This overall is a pretty impressive starting 5, especially now that Shaq has crossed the Mississippi. I'll hand it to Mark Cuban, he is not afraid to deal if he sees something he wants, and I'm impressed that all he gave up was Najera and Laettner. I'm still predicting Dampier to be a bust, but I haven't really seen him play as he's been in Oakland for a while.

The Glove ain't got the love baby

I was waiting for the dust to officially settle on the trade before writing anything about the G.P. for Marcus Banks (plus others) trade.

1) Danny is clearly willing to give up on Marcus Banks quickly. I thought he had potential, but maybe the sports guy is right and Banks is only the poor man's Robert Pack. So now that Ainge has Marcus back in his lap and unhappy, what will he do with him? Is he a trade asset? I'm not sure. I'm thinking that the Pistons could use him, or maybe the Pacers, possibly the heat but who are any of these teams going to trade for Marcus. This is concerning. It's also bad for Marcus. If he's on the Celtics he needs to just show up and play so he can get himself out of town to a better situation for him. He hasn't shown enough to be demanding trades or anything like that.

2) Danny made a smart move. Looks like he's clearing cap and committing to his guys Allen, West, Jefferson, Blount, and Pierce. Everything else is expendable and not worth losing cap room. I'm fine with that. This team is young though, and it remains to be seen how talented. If Jefferson and West can step up so that Pierce doesn't have to lead the C's in every statistical category then Boston will do okay in the East this year. The East is still weak with the final 4 playoff slots being open to anybody, but the division the C's are in will help them hit the playoffs.

3) Thank god G.P. is threatening to retire rather than come to Boston. Nobody wants him here. They just want his contract to expire and if he wants to pull the plug on that himself, fine. He has become a parody of his once proud self failing to accept his declining skills with any grace.

4) The Lakers got screwed by G.P. not showing up for his physical because I think they wanted Marcus, not Jumaine Jones. This is also good. Stupid Lakers.

Ainge makes a good move

Danny Ainge finally did something right. Blount resigned with Boston today ($41 mil for 6 years). This is good. He is a viable NBA center and that's important if you want to win. I was pretty sure Mark was skipping town so this is a very good deal. I'm surprised Blount didn't get more money from other teams. Considering what Foyle and Okur signed for I thought Blount could go for more than the midlevel exception. No matter. Now all the Celtics need to do is trade away Ricky Davis and I can really start feeling better about the team.

Post-NBA Draft Jitters

A few words on the NBA draft:

1. Orlando is stupid. Okafor can come to play. His game only got better by the year at UConn and he is going to work the glass and the D, what else could you ask for from a big man? Charlotte couldn't be happier though.

2. The Celtics finally drafted some size and were hoping and praying that Sergei Monya would fall to 24. They got size in the form of a high schooler. I'm not pleased that he is "raw" or has "upside". But size is good. I know nothing about this kid other than the fact that he can dominate a team of 6'4" and under white kids. Yeesh. As for drafting more small guards, I hope Ainge has a plan to trade something. And will he give up on Marcus Banks too soon? That said, I like both West and Allen, but not for the Celtics. They don't have much need for players like this. Maybe they can trade them for Shaq. And as a final Celtics draft note, thank you Seattle for taking this years big-white stiff Robert Swift. I guess he wasn't going to fall to the Celtics anyway, but still. The idea of Swift in Boston was not an appealling one. They should just go sign Ostertag if they want to realize the upside of Swift. None of my wish list players landed in the Celtics hands. Also, I'm not sure if this draft really helps them avoid the lottery next year.

3. The Bulls. They did right. Jamal Crawford, the door is that way. Ben Gordon, welcome to what will hopefully be one of the best backcourts in the NBA for the next decade. Just don't go riding any motorcycles. And I love the Deng pick. I think people were a little harsh on him the way Tayshaun was ripped coming out of college, but I think Deng could play. He was pretty dominant during just one year at Duke.

Expansion Draft Fears Realized

A'yup. Brandon got his walking papers. It wasn't unexpected, but I am dissapointed. This kid would not be a star, but I think he brought a lot to the table. It's a shame he got lost. I thought maybe Charlotte would want Chucky and his veteran leadership, but they clearly were not trying to take on salary. They took a ton of restricted free agents that they now do not have to sign. Smart move. Maybe Ainge could learn something from Bickerstaff et al.

NBA trades

Tmac in Houston? I'm not so sure if that's the move Van Gundy wants. Tmac is not a playmaker, he is a ball hog. Sure he can drop 40 and look flashy doing it, but where are the wins? Remember when he said it sure felt nice to be in the second round against the Pistons and then lost three straight games? I don't like this move at all. Except from the standpoint that it gets rid of Stevie Franchise and Cat Mobley who turnover and dominate the ball too much to let Yao run wild. I was thinking Houston could parlay their backcourt for a solid PG and maybe a higher draft pick to help get them a respectable 4. We'll see. And from Orlando's perspective, this makes no sense. Getting SF and Cat does make them a lock to make the playoffs in the east (especially when combined with Okafor) but it doesn't seem like the right direction for them. Though, with all their recent ineptitude, the playoffs will be the right direction. The whole trade could be made moot if Charlotte takes Juwan Howard or Kelvin Cato in the expansion draft tonight, but that is highly unlikely.

At the very least, this will make the next month of NBA news very, very exciting. Oh, the expansion draft drops tonight at 7pm on NBATV (I know you don't have it). They've also been showing old drafts, today their going from 1981 to 1986. And yes, I thought about calling in sick today. And yes, that is wrong.

Celtics Expansion Draft

Chad Ford from ESPN.com reports that Brandon Hunter has been left unprotected for tomorrows expansion draft. I'm not sure if I see the logic in letting a young, inexpensive bruiser depart for nothing in return. Hunter showed a knack for rebounding during the season and toughness as he refused to back down to J. O'Neal in the playoffs. He just took O'Neal down for trying chippy shit under the glass, as he should have. This kid doesn't have much offense, but someone that can work the glass like him should be kept and polished. It's tough to find heart, hussle, and energy guys and they're important. Just ask the Detroit Pistons about that.

Throwing the baby out with the bath water

Apparently a number of players have withdrawn their names from the NBA draft. Looks like Ainge's strategy of stockpiling late first round picks is blowing up in his face. At least Krispy Kreme Krause waited until after he had the rings to screw everything up. But I'll try to be optimistic about this.

Lottery Balls Bounce not for the

I can't wait to see where the C's will land in this years lottery tonight. Oh right, they were the worst team in known history to land in the playoffs and thus are on the outside looking in tonight. Sigh.