There’s a deadline looming in Rajon Rondo’s mind – and it’s not the one about which most NBA watchers are talking. It’s not about a contract extension for the slick Celtics’ point guard, who is beginning his fourth season in Boston. He claims that doesn’t occupy a single minute of his thinking.
“I gotta get ready for the season,’’ Rondo said. “I haven’t even given it (the extension) a thought.”
His nose did not appear to be growing as he spoke and, in fact, Doc Rivers said he has seen no evidence that a possible extension is consuming his point guard’s thinking. On the contrary, insists the Celtics coach.
“It has not been a distraction for anyone, not for him, not for us,’’ Rivers said. “And he has been sensational (in the preseason.) Look, it’s not exactly revolutionary for an NBA player to be in this position. It happens all the time. Rajon has handled it great and I think it will work out. It usually does. It’s rare when it doesn’t.”
The Celtics have until Oct. 31 to sign Rondo to an extension which would kick in starting with the 2010-11 season. If nothing is done, then Rondo would become a restricted free agent at the end of the 2009-10 season, with the Celtics still holding the right to match any offer. However, there is some risk in letting that scenario unfold because a number of teams have targeted the summer of 2010 for spending on prospective free agents LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh. If they all stay put, the money might be redirected elsewhere (to, say, a restricted free agent point guard from Boston.)
Rondo certainly has made a case for a significant raise on the $2.6 million he is due to earn this season, an amount determined by the NBA rookie scale. (It is roughly half of what the Bulls’ second-year point guard, Derrick Rose, will earn this season and some $300,000 less than Jonny Flynn, the Minnesota rookie and No. 6 overall pick in 2009, will earn.) In three years with the Celtics, he has gone from being SebastianTelfair’s backup (with even a DNP-Coach’s Decision along the way) to an almost indispensable member of arguably the best starting five in the NBA, inarguably on one of the handful of NBA teams with legitimate championship aspirations. And he has done it the last two years with no real backup.
But how valued? And how valuable? Those are some of the issues that the Celtics and Rondo’s agent, the estimable Bill Duffy, are trying to hash out by Halloween. The Celtics don’t see this first deadline as all that important, given that they can always re-visit the issue next summer if things don’t work out this week.
“I honestly think that he will be a Celtic for life,” Rivers said of Rondo.
Says Rondo, “You gotta live for the present. I can’t think too much about the future because nothing is guaranteed. You never know what might happen.”
While Rondo’s improvement has been dramatic – last spring, he became the only Celtic other than Larry Bird to have three triple-doubles in the same postseason – he still is only 23 (he turns 24 in February.) If, as Rivers suggests, Rondo is going to be a Celtic lifer, then Rondo might want to think about what a 2011-12 or a 2012-13 Celtics team might look like. Ray Allen, for instance, is in the final year of his contract, although he shows little sign of wearing down. Paul Pierce has two years left on his deal, Kevin Garnett three. All will be well into their 30’s and slowing down when Rondo theoretically would be hitting his prime.
There were rumors this past summer that the Celtics were shopping Rondo, despite his brilliant play in the postseason. The thinking was that Rondo, who can be either high maintenance or simply complex depending on your view, might not handle a big contract the way the Celtics would prefer. Both Rivers and Celtics GM Danny Ainge denied that was the case.
Ainge, after all, was the one who saw something in Rondo, trading a No. 1 pick to Phoenix in 2006 so the Suns would pick the sophomore out of Kentucky at No. 21 overall. And, it was Ainge, with the blessing of ownership, who refused to include Rondo in either the deal for Allen or the deal for Garnett, even if it meant the deal would fall apart. That’s how much the Celtics thought of Rondo back then. (Neither Ainge nor Duffy would comment for this article.)
The sticky part now, potentially, is putting a monetary value on Rondo. The top-flight young point guards in the league (Chris Paul, Deron Williams, Tony Parker) all make more than $11 million a year. Does Rondo deserve to join that elite trio? In all likelihood, this is where Duffy would like to see Rondo land. Or is the next level down (Jameer Nelson, Jose Calderon, Andre Miller, Mo Williams) more indicative of his worth? All of those gents make between $6 million and $9 million per. This probably is where the Celtics would prefer to slot Rondo.
The two gray eminences at the position, Steve Nash and Jason Kidd, both will pocket around $8 million each this year in the first year of new deals signed over the summer.
“The second contract you get is for what you have done in the league, and what you can do, even further down the road,’’ Rondo said.
Rivers has spoken warily in the past of the perils of young players looking for big deals and focused on things other than winning. He does not see Rondo in that category.
“The (second) contract that a player gets will be a good guideline as to where his career is and where it is going,’’ Rivers said. “If you are like Rondo, who will get a big deal, it’s because he has put the work into his game and he’s proven it. It’s good for him.”
Regardless of whether a deal is reached by Saturday, the Celtics’ plan for Rondo to be there, hopefully, in June when they raise another championship banner. And if they do, you can bet that No. 9 on the Celtics will have had a big hand in it.
To listen to the wise guys out there, and some of them are actually pretty wise, the Celtics will eventually be undone by their bench. They haven’t found an adequate replacement for James Posey, a playoff assassin and locker room treasure. They haven’t found an adequate replacement for PJ Brown, another locker room guy and clutch playoff contributor. The Lakers and Cavaliers are deeper.
Maybe those assertions will prove to be correct, although DannyAinge, the team’s basketball operations czar, is mindful of all this and is said to be looking for help (maybe, perhaps, in the form of Stephon Marbury.) Meanwhile, Doc Rivers, the team’s head coach, says if he has to finish the season with what he has now, he is cool with that, in part because he has a new/old guy coming off the bench who is making a solid case for a regular spot in the rotation, at least when he can keep his chin out of the way of DirkNowitzki’s elbow.
We speak, of course, of the heretofore forgotten Brian Scalabrine.
Last year, Scalabrine was almost an afterthought for the Celtics’ juggernaut. He played in only 48 games and his minutes haul (512) was the fewest since his rookie year of 2001-02. Already this year, he has logged 444 minutes in 36 games.
“I felt just as important last year as I do this year,’’ Scalabrine said in an interview. “I was ready for the call last year when Kevin (Garnett) got hurt and I started all nine games. We won seven. Sure, on the whole, it feels better to contribute. But as long as we’re winning, that’s what matters the most.”
Unless, of course, you want to include his surprise visit to the media room after the Celtics had won the championship by crushing the Lakers, where he chided all the reporters who had picked Los Angeles to prevail.
“How, when you guys consider yourselves NBA experts, can you pick the Lakers to beat us? We’re on TV all the time, so it’s not like you don’t get to watch us play. I just didn’t see it. You guys were so convincing that — you were so convincing that I maybe thought in my heart that, wow, this is going to be a series. How could that be?”
He was right, of course. But Scalabrine wasn’t exactly involved in that or any other series. He didn’t appear in a single game and was inactive for all but three of the team’s 26 playoff games. He simply was not a factor.
“Sure, it was difficult not to play,’’ Scalabrine said as his teammates left for Detroit for a Friday game with the Pistons, leaving him behind while he recovers from a concussion. “But everyone has a role and I just didn’t fit in at that particular time. Very rarely do you get a chance to do something special or be a part of something special and this was it. Accepting your role is very important in all of that. Sometimes, it takes a while for people to recognize that and understand that. To recognize that it’s bigger than you. You need time to grow up.”
This time, it’s different for Scalabrine, but the same for the team, which has the NBA’s best defense and, not coincidentally, the NBA’s best record. Only time will tell if he can give the Celtics anything close to what they got from Posey and Brown when it really, really matters. But in the here and now, Scalabrine has answered the call to replace Garnett in the starting lineup when KG was suspended for one game and then to start five straight games at center (over Leon Powe, who seemingly had taken over the role, but has dropped back, in part because he tries too hard to initiate contact) when Kendrick Perkins was out with a shoulder injury.
The Celtics record in those six games: 6-0. Scalabrine as a starter: 27 minutes, 8.3 points and 3.0 rebounds a game. OK, Dwight Howard isn’t trembling, but considering what the Celtics got from Scalabrine last year, those numbers are almost Chamberlainian by comparison.
“Scal is going to help us this year,’’ Rivers said. “He’s such a versatile player, being able to play (all the frontcourt positions) and being able to guard quicker guys. He hustles. He makes a lot of little plays. What we’re trying to do is to get Scal to just keep the game simple. When you’re open, shoot it. If not, pass it. Don’t try to force it or make things happen. He’s starting to buy into that and I think you can see it in his play.”
Add to Scalabrine’s contributions the explosive, can’t-miss Eddie House, and the Celtics’ bench doesn’t look quite so vulnerable. Or, it shouldn’t. Glen Davis has already had is signature January coming-out (16 points in the big win Jan. 22 over Orlando) and Powe still can be a menacing presence (without the menacing gestures.) Tony Allen has his moments.
House, meanwhile, has already had three games where he has scored more than his season’s best last year (20.) Those games have all come in the last week, where he has connected on 22 of 31 three-pointers. The Celtics are pushing to have House included in the three-point shot contest during All-Star Weekend.
“I look at our bench as a filler bench,’’ Scalabrine said. “Any one of those guys can be put into the starting lineup and not miss a beat. We probably couldn’t sustain what the starters do, but they’re our best players. I feel comfortable with any of the guys starting.”
This is Scalabrine’s fourth season with the Celtics. He, too, is a free agent in the sizzling summer of 2010, although he doesn’t see too many teams using their cap space to bring him aboard.
“It’s not going to be a difficult negotiation,’’ he said. “I’ll just go to Danny and say, ‘I don’t want to go anywhere else. Please re-sign me.’ If he says yes, that’d be great. If he says no, that’s when I’ll probably have to start begging.”
Hoopshype.com readers may recall a recent column I wrote on Stephon Marbury, in which I basically called out the Knicks for the way they’ve handled this rather noxious situation this season. The story also contained the following: “Many teams wouldn’t take on Marbury at any cost, which is probably going to be evident when he does extricate himself from his current situation and becomes a free agent. His track record just isn’t all that overwhelming.”
Well, I still stand by the second sentence.
There apparently may be a soft landing spot for Marbury in Boston once (or should we say ‘if?’) he does work out a buyout with the Knicks. To date, Marbury has shown little to no inclination to accept a buyout. As long as he sticks with that rather Neanderthal strategy, he will (a) remain a Knick in roster-spot only and not play a minute this season and (b) forfeit whatever chance he might have this season of getting on with his basketball life.
And until that happens, there’s no place for Marbury to go. To the vast majority of ordinary and even extraordinary wage earners out there, it has been and remains incomprehensible that Mabury would not agree to give up a portion of his $20.8 million to secure his freedom. He’s made well north of $100 million playing in the NBA. And he’s drawing a line in the sand over $1-2 million, some of which he’d immediately recoup by signing with another team and the rest he could recoup with a new deal? Unfortunately for Marbury, this position is what’s driving the ‘reputation discussion’ these days. As in, ‘how can he be so stupid? What is he thinking? Is it just about the money?’
While I am not a big Marbury fan – and I believe I am in the majority on this – I have trouble seeing a downside to him coming to the Celtics. You have to think he would be willing to accept a backup role – if he isn’t, it’s ‘end of discussion’ – and would be on his best behavior. If he decides to go into Knucklehead Mode, well, that’s what waivers are for. The Celtics wouldn’t eat more than a veteran minimum guarantee, pro-rated.
Ever since James Posey signed with New Orleans last summer and PJ Brown retired, apparently for good this time, the Celtics have known they need to bulk up their bench. While Marbury does not address one need – size – he does address a number of others.
He can handle the ball. That was a concern last year as well, which led to the February signing of Sam Cassell. The Celtics re-signed Cassell, but he still has yet to play this season. The other point guard options – Eddie House, Gabe Pruitt – are either out-of-position players (House) or still raw around the edges for the playoffs (Pruitt.)
Marbury also can, as they say these days, score the ball. Having a reliable scorer in the second unit has been a problem for the Celtics all season. One night Tony Allen looks like he’ll be the guy. The next night he looks the guy who the Celtics refused to extend last summer and whose mere presence on the court last spring inspired dread and fear in Celtics fans.
Marbury also would be insurance if one of the guards got hurt. (The Celtics’ three guard-small forward starters have yet to miss a game this season.) Plus, if he did come in and play well, the Celtics could consider him down the road, as one of the issues on the horizon is that Ray Allen’s deal expires after the 2009-10 season. While Marbury and Allen were taken in the same draft (1996), and, in fact, traded for each other that day, Marbury is two years younger.
The behavior question is really moot. Think Randy Moss and the New England Patriots. The Celtics have a strong locker room and there is no way that Danny Ainge would foist Marbury on his coach or his team without running it by all of them. Ainge likes to think outside the box – remember his pursuit of Reggie Miller in 2007? – and Kevin Garnett, a former Marbury teammate, would have to agree to be in the ‘let bygones be bygones’ mood. I mean, Marbury broke up a promising Timberwolves team by demanding a trade – in March of 1999. Isn’t there a statute of limitations on that?
And while Marbury’s track record is suspect – the teams he leaves tend to get better – this is different. He would not be the focal point, but a role player. He would in all likelihood get his opportunities in the playoffs, as Brown and Cassell did, but he’s still going to be backing up Rajon Rondo. That’s a given. If Marbury wants to start and play big minutes, then Boston isn’t an option.
You have to believe this is going to be resolved. The Celtics and Cassell waited until late February last season, but part of the holdup was the usual oafish brinksmanship from the Clippers. This time, it’s the team (New York) that is initiating the dialogue and desirous of a divorce. But it’s also a team which has shown no inclination to simply waive Marbury. For New York, it would be preferable to let Marbury calcify and then bid adieu at season’s end (assuming, of course, that there is no trade.)
In the end, this one seems to be falling on Marbury. Clearly, he knows his Knicks days are over. He knows there is interest from the defending NBA champions, a team which can use him to try to repeat. What on earth is he waiting for? The Thunder?
From the moment he took over the Boston Celtics, and continuing on to this very day, Danny Ainge has had one enduring philosophy: think outside the box. As in, way outside the box.
He doesn’t care where you’ve been or what you’ve done. He will roll the dice. Sometimes, it comes up 7’s and 11’s, as it did with Rajon Rondo, Leon Powe and Glen Davis. Sometimes, it will come up snake eyes, as it did with Sebastian Telfair, Marcus Banks or Ricky Davis.
But in virtually every instance where his intuition failed him, Ainge has been able to recover by getting some other unfortunate soul to take on his mistakes. As the saying goes, it only takes one. And there always is that someone (unfortunately for Minnesotans, that someone has more often than not been Kevin McHale.)
The 2008 NBA Draft once again showed Ainge’s willingness to take a chance. It had nothing to do with the fact that he had just won a championship and could afford to gamble. He was doing the same thing when he was drafting after 24- and 33-win seasons. With the last pick of the first round, he drafted JR Giddens out of New Mexico, a somewhat surprising selection among the so-called cognoscenti. (The website NBADraft.net projected him as the No. 58 selection.)
Once the intrepid press went to work, it was discovered that Giddens had basically been booted out of Kansas, where he had been stabbed in a bar fight. An artery in his right calf was cut and the wound required 30 stitches to close. He ended up at the University of New Mexico where, in his first season, he twice wadaaincels suspended for what then-coach Richie McKay termed his inability to adhere “to the pillars of the program.”
Did any of that concern Ainge? If it did, he didn’t let it affect his judgment. He loves the kid’s explosiveness. He loves the kid’s defensive promise. So what if he transferred after a bar fight at one school and was suspended at another?
Ainge has shown himself to be extremely open-minded on matters like these. Take the case of Rondo. After a stunning freshman season, the Kentucky guard went backwards as a sophomore. The body language stunk. There were clashes between a headstrong kid and the do-it-my-way head coach. What, Ainge wondered, had happened to the player the Celtics had targeted the year before?
The Celtics had the 7th pick in 2006. That might have been a reach for Rondo, but Ainge might well have taken him there, especially since Brandon Roy was gone and Randy Foye didn’t excite the Celtics all that much. But instead, Ainge engineered a trade for Telfair.
Then, Ainge went to work to try and get Rondo, as he saw the Kentucky guard drop further and further in the first round. Finally, at No. 21, Ainge got the Suns to draft Rondo, trading a future first-rounder in a loaded draft class (2007.) Where others saw a history of conflict, a cocky kid and a guard who wasn’t anything close to a classic point guard, Ainge saw athleticism, defensive ability and intelligence, and wasn’t the least-bit put off by all the negativity emanating from Lexington, Kentucky.
“You know,’’ he said, “it isn’t always a bad thing when the player and the coach don’t see eye to eye. We interviewed a lot of people before we drafted Rajon. We heard all the stuff; he was cocky, uncoachable, all that stuff. But at the end of the day, we thought he’d be a good addition to our basketball team.”
Clearly, they’re hoping the same thing from Giddens, although he will have to fight for minutes. Giddens had an uneventful senior year at New Mexico (in terms of distractions, that is) The Celtics also are hoping for similar things from their second-round pick, Billy Walker out of Kansas State. His story brings to mind one of the recent Boston successes – Leon Powe.
Like Powe, Walker was a high school hotshot. Like Leon Powe, he suffered two torn anterior cruciate ligaments. Like Leon Powe, Walker went from being a likely lottery pick before the injuries to a second-rounder. (Sonny Vaccaro, the legendary shoe mogul and high school talent guru, told ESPN The Magazine that the pre-ACL tear Walker was the second coming of Vince Carter.)
The actual drafting of Powe was the result of some quick work by Ainge’s lieutenant, Leo Papile, who had fallen in love with the University of California big man while scouting him in the 2005-06 season. Papile also had seen Powe in high school, when, in 2003, Powe was mentioned (almost) in the same breath as LeBron James. Powe thought about turning pro out of high school; destitute does not begin to describe his home situation at that point in his life. But the ACL tear did him in. Another tear came after his first season at California.
Powe declared for the 2006 draft, despite having two years remaining of eligibility, but the knee injuries and questions about where he would fit in combined to send him tumbling into the second round. Papile started frantically working the phones. The picks go quickly at that point – two minutes a choice – and Papile finally convinced the Nuggets to draft Powe and trade him to the Celtics. The Walker transaction was essentially the same thing. If it works out as well as Powe, the Celtics will really be on to something.
Should Walker or Giddens be any kind of help to the Celtics, they will join the list of late first- and second-rounders who have been able to contribute. Kendrick Perkins was the 27th pick in 2003. Delonte West (24) and Tony Allen (25) were picks in 2004. Ryan Gomes was the 50th pick in 2005. Powe was the 49th pick in 2006 and, in 2007, the Celtics feel they got a couple of keepers in Gabe Pruitt and Glen ‘Big Baby’ Davis, both taken in the second round.
While Pruitt should get time this season, Davis was a revelation of sorts as a rookie. On draft night in 2007, there were rumors he had a deal with a team to take him in the first round. It didn’t happen. He was large (to be charitable) and that could have scared away some teams. But watching the guy on the floor, he simply knows how to play. He has power, good hands and even some beguiling finesse. He held his own when Tim Duncan came to town. He personally beat the Pistons in a huge regular season win on the road.
But, knowing Ainge, any or all of the above could also be future ex-Celtics. That was the case for Al Jefferson, Gomes and Telfair, all of whom went to Minnesota in the Kevin Garnett trade. West went to Seattle in the Ray Allen trade.
By now, however, Ainge has enough chips, not to mention newfound cachet, to keep doing what he’s always been doing. Whether it’s trying to coax Reggie Miller out of retirement for one last run, slightly preferring Kevin Durant to Greg Oden, or drafting a kid with so-called “issues,’’ he is not going to shy away. Expect the unexpected.
Where others see potential trouble, Ainge sees only potential. More often than not, history has shown him to be on the mark.
In his first five years on the job as the man in charge of basketball operations for the Boston Celtics, Danny Ainge made so many trips to Europe he could have arranged for dual citizenship in any number of countries.
This year, he didn’t go at all.
It’s not that the Celtics didn’t scout international players; Ainge is a big fan of the Knicks’ draftee, Danilo Gallinari, having seen him in the flesh many times as well as on tape. But in Ainge’s opinion, the just-concluded NBA draft wasn’t exactly overflowing with jaw-dropping international talent.
“I think it’s deep not with star-type players, but with a lot of role players,’’ he said. “And I think a lot of them will make the league.”
And a lot of them will probably stay exactly where they are.
It may be simplistic to suggest that the bloom is off the international rose, but a number of happenings, including the just-concluded NBA Finals, have managed to at least put a hold on the NBA’s fascination with all things international. Or, we should add, with the NBA teams’ fascination. David Stern can still tell you how many daily hits nba.com gets from the most remote stretches of Slovenia.
But with few exceptions (Manu Ginobili, Pau Gasol pre-2008 Finals) those teams did not possess NBA “star-type” players (to quote Ainge) and won mainly because of their teamwork. They were the epitome of the tired but true cliché: the whole is much greater than the sum of its parts. They knew each other and played like it. Lithuania did have an unquestioned European star in Sarunas Jasikevicius, but he bombed big-time when tried to make the jump across the pond.
Greece didn’t even have an NBA player on its team, unless you count Vassilis Spanoulis, who sat on the Houston bench for a year, was traded to San Antonio, and then went back to Europe. He may be one of the few players in NBA history to buy his way out of his contract. Usually, it’s the team that does that.
Gallinari was the sixth pick in the draft and the only international player in the top 19. (Somewhere, Dick Vitale and Lou Dobbs are smiling.) Among the other first-rounders taken, virtually all of them had a biographical attachment saying “expected to remain in Europe for more seasoning.”
If Gallinari becomes one of those “star-type” players, he will be the first international All-Star out of the NBA draft in six years. That was the year that Yao Ming went No. 1 overall and he has proven to be well worth the time, money and energy the Rockets expended to get him to the United States.
By that time, players like Dirk Nowitzki (9th overall in 1998) and Gasol (3rd overall in 2001) had proven to be “star-type” players; Gasol was the Rookie of the Year in 2002 and Nowitzki won the league’s MVP in 2007. Ginobili would prove to be a key part of the 2003 NBA champion Spurs a year later.
But a more revealing pick in 2002 came just four spots after Yao. With players like Caron Butler and AmareStoudemire on the board, the Denver Nuggets selected Nikoloz Tskitishvili. He was reputed to be the next Gasol. Oh well.
Then came the classic goof made by the otherwise astute Joe Dumars, who took Darko Milicic in 2003 over the likes of Chris Bosh, Carmelo Anthony and Dwayne Wade. Yes, the Pistons won the NBA title that year without much from young Darko, but you get the feeling they might have won another (or two) had Dumars taken any of the other three fellows that fateful June night?
You also get the feeling the Orlando Magic might be further along had they not completely blown the 2005 draft by using a lottery pick on Fran Vazquez, who has yet to play a single NBA minute and quite possibly never will?
Out of all the Europeans drafted since 2003 – and almost 30 of them were first rounders from 2003-2007 – there have been only a few who have had any discernable impact in the league. And that includes the No. 1 overall pick in 2006, Italian Andrea Bargnani. The best thing the Raptors can say about him now is that with the addition of Jermaine O’Neal, Bargnani can go back to the bench. He may eventually become worthy of his draft selection, but, to date, he hasn’t. And the Bucks had one year to look at Yi Jianlian, the No. 6 pick in 2007, and traded him. Eventually, he, too, might become a star.
What do we make of all this? First, the NBA may have exhausted the immediate talent overseas and needs to wait for another cycle. Second, it’s no longer a stigma for some of these players to not play in the NBA. Jasikevicius is happy where he is. Vazquez, presumably, is as well, along with Spanoulis, who was so homesick in Houston even with his mother living with him. Tiago Splitter is likely to remain in Spain where he can be paid more than what the Spurs can offer him. And in Euros.
But here’s another possibility, which we saw first-hand in the NBA Finals. Most of these international players don’t play defense. (Andrei Kirilenko being the notable exception). That doesn’t necessarily constitute news, or a dirty little secret, but it was painfully obvious to anyone who paid more than casual attention to the NBA Finals.
One of the enduring snapshots from that series was when Ray Allen, who had played the entire game, blew by a bewildered Sasha Vujacicfor an uncontested layup in the final minute to seal the remarkable come-from-behind win for the Celtics. Vujacic could be seen holding his hands up as if to say, ‘what happened?’ Similarly, Vladimir Radmanovic was a total cipher and couldn’t stay near Paul Pierce while Gasol appeared overwhelmed most of the series, a performance that undoubtedly drew a lot of chuckles in Memphis.
In the balloting for the 2008 Defensive Player of the Year award, Kirilenko was the only international player to get a vote. He got one. When the coaches picked their 2008 All-Defensive team, 36 players got votes. Three – Kirilenko, Ginobili and Andres Nocioni – got votes and none was close to making either of the two teams.
Defense was behind the success of the Spurs over the years. (And no, Tony Parker can’t guard his shadow, but he has been drilled relentlessly by Gregg Popovich into how to play a team concept.) This year’s Celtics’ team, which had no international players, won with its defense. But how many Kevin Garnetts are out there, even in the United States?
NBA executives will still spend and scout extensively overseas for, as we’ve seen in ever NBA draft, it’s a good futures pool. They’re not going to suddenly turn into hoop xenophobes and, as noted, the jury is still out on players like Bargnani and Yi.
But how many more teams need to win a title, like this year’s Celtics, before teams start talking about defense the way they do about offense? No one is talking about Gallinari’s defense - and his new coach in New York isn’t exactly known for it either. And to top it off, the poor kid got booed when he was announced to the New York fans attending the 2008 NBA draft at Madison Square Garden.
What else could he expect from the team that drafted Frederic Weis?
There’s a deadline looming in Rajon Rondo’s mind – and it’s not the one about which most NBA watchers are talking. It’s not about a contract extension for the slick Celtics’ point guard, who is beginning his fourth season in Boston. He claims that doesn’t occupy a single minute of his thinking.
From the moment he took over the Boston Celtics, and continuing on to this very day, Danny Ainge has had one enduring philosophy: think outside the box. As in, way outside the box.