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The Boston Celtics announced today that they have signed 2008 second round draft pick Bill Walker. Per team policy, financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. “Bill’s hard work and skill development this summer has given us the belief that he can be in our short-term plans as well as our long-term plans.” said Danny Ainge, Celtics Executive Director of Basketball Operations/General Manager.

Great news if true. Link?

*Edit: Nevermind, it's on wiretap. Looks like we've become a lot more athletic this offseason...

Smart move made by Ainge signing him after Miles. We are all set.

tjm384 wrote:The Boston Celtics announced today that they have signed 2008 second round draft pick Bill Walker. Per team policy, financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. “Bill’s hard work and skill development this summer has given us the belief that he can be in our short-term plans as well as our long-term plans.” said Danny Ainge, Celtics Executive Director of Basketball Operations/General Manager.

I wonder if this could means that Walker might be a trade chip in the back of Ainge's mind as oppose to a future keeper like say Rondo. Or does it mean that Walker can be a decent reserve now and maybe a potential regular rotation player or starter down the road.

well, he does say he figures into both short term and long term plans, implying a trade is reading in between lines that arent in that statement, at least not the way i read it. i would feel similarly if he only said short term plans, cuz then id be like "why did he specify short term?"

this doesnt mean walker wont be traded, but i dont get the implication he is being signed with the intention of trading him

i like it. i have been a walker fan for a while, and i think giddens is likely to be better, but feel walker has the greater upside. they give us some similar skills, but both have different skill sets as well, and if miles can do something, were suddenly very deep in the wing spots, and may be able to keep allen fresher than last year.

i also wouldnt be surprised to see a small ball variation where kg and miles (assuming he sticks and is decent) man the big spots

Well I guess the thought of the Darius Miles signing, on the previous post, would eliminate any signing of Bill Walker may wind up to be the shortest term message board comment in RealGM history.

I am STOKED!

great day for me
first miles, now bill...

I just signed on hoping to hear some news about Walker. Great!

Now, what did he have for breakfast?

Alright!

Great news!

I was hoping he wouldn't go to Europe like reports were suggesting.



This guy was a lottery pick without the knee injury and for Ainge to want to sign him for 08/09 means he has proved something to the Celtics. Damn, still 2 months til nba season begins!

Welcome aboard Bill Walker!

Cripes, Ainge could have held off a couple of weeks, what is everyone going to talk about now?

Only kidding, nice to see him under contract.

bonsaiflipflops wrote:

tjm384 wrote:The Boston Celtics announced today that they have signed 2008 second round draft pick Bill Walker. Per team policy, financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. “Bill’s hard work and skill development this summer has given us the belief that he can be in our short-term plans as well as our long-term plans.” said Danny Ainge, Celtics Executive Director of Basketball Operations/General Manager.

I wonder if this could means that Walker might be a trade chip in the back of Ainge's mind as oppose to a future keeper like say Rondo. Or does it mean that Walker can be a decent reserve now and maybe a potential regular rotation player or starter down the road.

In my opinion, I think that he meant that Walker could be a contributer right away. Sorta like Baby I'm assuming.

U2larkin04 wrote:

bonsaiflipflops wrote:

tjm384 wrote:The Boston Celtics announced today that they have signed 2008 second round draft pick Bill Walker. Per team policy, financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. “Bill’s hard work and skill development this summer has given us the belief that he can be in our short-term plans as well as our long-term plans.” said Danny Ainge, Celtics Executive Director of Basketball Operations/General Manager.

I wonder if this could means that Walker might be a trade chip in the back of Ainge's mind as oppose to a future keeper like say Rondo. Or does it mean that Walker can be a decent reserve now and maybe a potential regular rotation player or starter down the road.

In my opinion, I think that he meant that Walker could be a contributer right away. Sorta like Baby I'm assuming.

Yeah, I also think thats what he meant.

phew. now we can all drop this "he's going to europe" or "he won't be signed" sillyness.

i guess we can still argue about whether he'll go to the d-league or not...

Well, to be fair the teams plans before Posey and other free agents signed may have had a lot to do with Walker being signed....regardless, I thought Walker's work in Waltham would give him a chance to change Ainge's mind about where he was at developmentally...the kid is a worker-like Powe-and I expect that to continue...

I do think that Miles signing doesn't guarentee him anything in terms of a role...I believe Bill Walker may very well beat him out for a job straight-up....Walker is a beast and is not going to let an out-of-practice, out-of-shape Miles just walk in and bump him down the depth chart...the kid will fight for his spot and I don't know if Miles is currently so much greater of a talent, he's got a lot of holes in his game...

^^^ Your not being fair to Walker. Miles is not out of shape - and how do you know he is out of practice? He impressed Danny in his workout and had an impressive leap flat footed. It's BBD that's out of shape.

Every report on Miles was that he was not in basketball shape, that he was carrying around some extra weight, and that he'd need to improve his conditioning before he was ready to play an NBA season...he hasn't played in the NBA for 2 years-no amount of pick-up games can simulate real competition, plus he hadn't been physically able to step on a court until a few months ago and was massively overweight at that point.

I guess its all a matter of definition....i'm sure Miles has improved his physical condition since resuming basketball activities, but he's still not ready to play an NBA season conditioning-wise by numerous accounts...being impressed by him is all relative to expectation...he was a flat-liner to most NBA execs 3 months ago, so being able to go through drills and move fluidly may easily be impressive to those execs...when your injury is "career ending" seeing a guy looking 100 percent healthy tends to be impressive...

It'll be a good TC this year...plenty of battles to take place, which will push everyone to be their best....I just like Walker's chances against the current competition and my perception of where that competition is physically and developmentally...

Well you have to figuire it's a 3 year deal for Walker and is coming out of the MLE. The way DA drafts we want to control the high end outcome. We want the full Bird rights. I think we're pretty set now at backup SF. There's a chance Walker and a chance Miles can fill the role next year.

The draft all makes sense now doesn't it. We needed athletic backups for Pierce and Allen. We have two serious contenders at each spot, Walker and Miles at the SF, and TA and Giddens at the SG.

I love this incremental improvement. We are champions and we keep building the pool of talent.

GuyClinch wrote:It's BBD that's out of shape.

I can understand that you'd dislike a player, but don't you think you insult him a little too much?

I'm surprised about this, and I thought Walker would go to Europe for just this season. It'd be ideal to leave one roster spot open for a player later and I thought that's what Ainge was going to do.