Preseason: Celtics VS Knicks - Friday, October 9th

[celticfan42487]

What is all this talking about cutting players...

Unless I'm going crazy, we have 14 players under contract and a team can have 15.

There is no need to cut anyone for anyone. In fact if we want we can sign that fat guy and that will be our team.

[GuyClinch]

Hudson's handle is better then House's IMHO. I don't know that his three compares of course. House is still painful to watch with regards to his handle. Problem is Hudson won't see any time barring injury so this won't really help us.

[BillessuR6]

Well, what kind of contract does Hudson have?

[ParticleMan]

KG, pierce, ray, perk, rondo

Sheed, daniels, house, scal, BBD

giddens, williams, walker, hudson, TA

that's 15.
we'd have to cut someone to sign the fat guy. just be thankful we don't have to cut two guys to make enough room.

[famadihana]

Celtics / Rockets highlights as promised. very good footage of KG hitting his shot and being aggresive on defense.

http://www.kveo.com/sports/celtics-complete-coverage

Thanks a lot!

[cloverleaf]

we'd have to cut someone to sign the fat guy. just be thankful we don't have to cut two guys to make enough room.

Ha! That would be interesting, if the NBA went to team weight limits, instead of roster limits. One big weigh-in each month, or before each game.

[SichtingLives]

KG, pierce, ray, perk, rondo

Sheed, daniels, house, scal, BBD

giddens, williams, walker, hudson, TA

that's 15.
we'd have to cut someone to sign the fat guy. just be thankful we don't have to cut two guys to make enough room.

At this point, big sweets is looking better than Williams. He looks lost out there, I can't see what use he'll have for this team. Did yall see that blind hook shot last night? lol I used to see kids take that shot on the playground in junior high, good god.

Ahh whatever. It's only the 15th spot, neither are going to play anyway.

[chas0x01]

We are 9 man deep. I would like to see us add 1 or 2 rotation players. OK, Scal is pretty decent but I would like a back up SF who can hit a 3.

We need to get rid of some ballast. TA, Giddens, Walker...We have to trade TA and JR for a rotation player...they are useless on this team...

I like Hudson however. I am mostly surprised by his dribbling and handling. I thought he would be much worse but he has no problems bringing the ball up the court under pressure. He is also a good defender, so he might just make it...

I'd say we are actually 12 deep, maybe more. But everyone on the 12 man active can play: Rondo, Ray, Pierce, KG, Perks (who looks great), Sheed, Baby, Scal, Daniels, House, Tony A, Williams. All these guys can contribute at least situationally. We don't have a true backup 3 cuz Daniels is better at the 2 and Scal is better at the 4, but both can cover the 3, as can TA and maybe even Walker (who is our 13th man), depending on the matchups. I'm also confident at least for now, that Hudson could cover the point for 15mpg if Rondo got hurt. And I don't see Sweets making the team unless a trade goes down.
I don't know if we could be any better than what we are right now. We have tradeable pieces but what reasonable trade could we make that would improve us?

[Dogen]

KG, pierce, ray, perk, rondo

Sheed, daniels, house, scal, BBD

giddens, williams, walker, hudson, TA

that's 15.
we'd have to cut someone to sign the fat guy. just be thankful we don't have to cut two guys to make enough room.

At this point, big sweets is looking better than Williams. He looks lost out there, I can't see what use he'll have for this team. Did yall see that blind hook shot last night? lol I used to see kids take that shot on the playground in junior high, good god.

Ahh whatever. It's only the 15th spot, neither are going to play anyway.

Yes, it's just the 15th spot, there are 5 bigs ahead. The thing is, Sweetney is interesting because he's just about the only player on the team that has that traditional inside game. We had Powe last year to bang in there, so I'd like to see that low post being established at times. KG and Sheed don't really play that way anymore, Perk and Baby are just marginal at it. Williams? If you get a guy in there who causes the defense to collapse on him, that makes the shooting bigs even more effective from the outside.

Anyway, Sweets is a long shot, but I think this is just the reason he was brought in.

[ryaningf]

Yeah, we have 15 guaranteed contracts (Hudson's is partially guaranteed), so we'd have to make a move somewhere to get Mike on the team. Apparently, that's some sort of possibility, as Doc has said recently that it's up to Mike Sweetney to make them (the Cs) want to make a move to keep him.

Sweetney's low post game is what will allow him to make this team. But I don't see anyway how he'll be able to get in shape this season--even in the best case scenario, I think he's looking at a full year of conditioning before he's back to playing shape. His post up game gives him some wildcard potential, but it's slim. With Perk, KG, Wallace, and even Baby as low post options, I don't think there's a HUGE need for another low post scorer.

Frankly, after two whole games, Giddens looks like the least impressive player we have--he can't play as a part of a team concept, he's all arms and legs and isolation basketball--I have been impressed with his defense at times, but he's terrible on the other end...Hudson has to be kept because without him we only have ONE player (Rondo) who can guard the fast, quick, small point guards out there; guys like Aaron Brooks, or Nate Robinson...plus, Hudson has that 'it' factor, he's not scared out there, not afraid to make a mistake, and he competes...he's a good defender for a rookie, can hit a jump shot if you leave him open...we gotta keep him...otherwise prepare for visions of Eddie House trying to defend small quick point guards...not good.

TA was off his feet an incredible 13 weeks this offseason, recovering from his ligament surgery. He faced a bigger rehab than KG--therefore, I'm ready to cut him some monumental slack in the preseason...the dude is just getting back on his feet, literally, and he just needs PT to get back in the flow of things...it's too bad we couldn't sent him to the NBDL for a rehab stint, which would really jump start his recovery. On the bright side, I thought the House/TA/Daniels/Wallace/Baby lineup played some great defense...they gave up like 7 points in the 7.5 minutes there were on the court together. That 2nd unit can be a bomb squad if it wants to be, but I'd rather it be a bomb and defend squad--TA helps in that regard...

Getting back to Sweetney, he is a long shot which ever way you slice it--long shot to make the team, long shot to get in shape, long shot to actually help this team this year, even in the best case scenario. He's an interesting topic right now, but I find it hard to imagine he's going to have any real impact on this season.

[Kids Are Alright]

Agree that Giddens looks like a Jr High kid trying to play varsity ball....I don't know what people see in him.

Also agree that Tony's just getting his leg going out there. Say what you want but we beat the Lakers two years ago with Tony at the point, it was scary, he sucked as a playmaker, but we won. He's a plus defender
(and a charge waiting to happen) and made a great pass out there last night (before the charge). Oh yeah, he missed a layup too....so did Pierce and Ray Allen (if a dunk counts as a layup).

I've always like Sweets and his old teammate, Eddie Curry, but there's no chance whatsoever that he'll get in shape. None. Both of those guys are highly skilled old fashioned post players and they both have great hands.....and handles.

Hudson's a better fit for this team than Giddens.

[humblebum]

I agree with all those points above. Giddens just doesn't look like an NBA player out there. Tony Allen, despite all his warts, is a legit NBA athlete and competitor... I'd much rather put Tony out there over even thinking about using Giddens.

I really like Hudson's potential as a spark plug combo guard off the bench. I think he's a natural scorer, he's got the type of competitive, confident edge you want to see, and he's definitely a solid athlete who can get after it defensively. But he has a lot to learn out there and I don't expect him to contribute this season and if he does it's going to be in blowouts (if he makes the active roster, which is questionable) or in case of injury.

I also like Sweetney's game a lot but he's just so far overweight it's hard to see him sticking with this team. There's no question he's a better player than Shelden though, but Shelden is at least in legit NBA condition and he already has a contract... so despite the fact that Sweetney has more talent, Shelden will likely win that job.

[BRUNiNHO91]

Giddens came in and had 2 assists in 4 minutes..he played 5 minutes less than Hudson, and had the same stat line..why is he so bad and Hudson is so good?Nate Robinson burned Hudson all day long yesterday...so, so much for the arguement of him guarding those type of players...

But IMO, one of Shelden or Sweets will get the boot..there is no reason to cut Giddens, Hudson or Allen and keep both Williams and Sweets.

[MVP16]

At this point, big sweets is looking better than Williams. He looks lost out there, I can't see what use he'll have for this team. Did yall see that blind hook shot last night? lol I used to see kids take that shot on the playground in junior high, good god.

But you can't really look at it like that. Sweets game is having the ball and being able to score and him playing with players like Giddens, Hudson, etc. is a benefit to him because he gets to have a lot of touches. It seems like every other possession when he is on the court he gets a touch in the post. During the regular season, playing with KG, PP, Ray, Rondo, Sheed, Daniels - he would barely get any touches and the other aspects of his game which are very poor would really be a detriment.

Williams is the opposite. He is a role player who you don't want touching the ball, but can make an impact off the ball with defense/rebounding/hustle. He will look much better playing alongside the starters then playing with the 3rd string where he wont have to do any scoring and just being able to focus on those aspects that he relatively excels in.

[Prophet_C]

lmao at tons of fun. Need more recaps.

[SichtingLives]

At this point, big sweets is looking better than Williams. He looks lost out there, I can't see what use he'll have for this team. Did yall see that blind hook shot last night? lol I used to see kids take that shot on the playground in junior high, good god.

But you can't really look at it like that. Sweets game is having the ball and being able to score and him playing with players like Giddens, Hudson, etc. is a benefit to him because he gets to have a lot of touches. It seems like every other possession when he is on the court he gets a touch in the post. During the regular season, playing with KG, PP, Ray, Rondo, Sheed, Daniels - he would barely get any touches and the other aspects of his game which are very poor would really be a detriment.

Williams is the opposite. He is a role player who you don't want touching the ball, but can make an impact off the ball with defense/rebounding/hustle. He will look much better playing alongside the starters then playing with the 3rd string where he wont have to do any scoring and just being able to focus on those aspects that he relatively excels in.

Williams defense looks overrated from what I've heard about it, and his rebounding is simply average for a big. He has been fairly atrocious looking so far. Yes, I said it. In two preseason games, totalling under 25 minutes, I'm making a huge leap and assuming the guy sucks. I hope to be proven wrong. Obviously it's not much to go on so far, but he has been very underwhelming. I do like candy n' sweets offensive game, but he is about 80 lbs. too heavy for anyone to take him seriously. Neither one of them look poised to make any kind of meaningful impact on the team beyond some garbage time and showing off a few suits....but we can wait and see on that.

Neither of these players will catch a sniff of court time with the starters, so that's an irrelevant stance to take. Also, you've sort of created an excuse for Williams when the role he's been playing in is the exact role he is auditioning for. If you're a hustle/intensity/defense guy, that comes through no matter who is on the court with you. He just needs to go out there and get the job done, he's fighting to make a name for himself on this squad and he's not doing it yet, imo.

I don't hate the guy, despite the harsh words. When he shows that he knows what he's doing out there, I'll give him credit for it. Like after tonights game perhaps.