RealGM

Just read 5 articles on boston.com and bostonherald.com

They shed light on what the Celtics are thinking.

In no particular order,

1. A trade is not expected, the final cut may not come until Ocober 27th, the last day one can be made.

2. Gabe Pruitt seems to be developing into a satisfactory backup for Rajon Rondo. Gabe spent all summer working out in San Francisco on his ball handling, conditioning, and overall game. This is good to hear. Doc also has told Gabe to be agressive, especially if a defender lays off him.

3. The Celtics will not eat Brian Scalabrine's contract.

4. Patrick O'Bryant is much more than a pleasant surprise (thanks Clifford Ray for working all summer with Patrick at the camp you jointly run with Robert Parish, thanks also to Robert Parish). Patrick now needs to become more consistent, although no one was expecting anything, Patrick has now set the expectations much higher than anyone anticipated.

5. Bill Walker is turning heads, although one NBA insider who remembers watching Walker since high school says that until Walker demonstrates that he can make a shot from the perimeter, defenders may choose to lay off him to prevent him from driving to the hoop. This will become more apparent once the real season starts.

6. Darius Miles may be farther down the rotation ladder, but he is excellent insurance at both forward spots, and may even complicate the Trailblazers free agent hunt this summer if Miles $9 million 2010 salary is added back to their cap (if Miles plays in 10 games after sitting out his 10 game suspension).

5. JR Giddens may take a while to figure out how to use his physical tools to contribute.

6. You get the sense that the Celtics are not pursuing anyone, right now.

7. Scot Pollard is living in Indiana hoping to either sign on with an NBA team or get a television studio analyst's gig.

The Herald article on Pruitt is particularly encouraging for Pruit because I long suspected that Doc wanted 5 "guards' on the Active 12, with 3 capable of handling the ball. We can argue over whether Tony and Eddie count in that group.

But when Doc seemed to reach for a 5th guard last year (injuries and fouls excluded), it was because two of Eddie/Tony/Rajon/Ray could not make a shot that day, so Doc was looking for a scorer/shooter off the bench. Pruitt being able to help close out the last two exhibition victories down the stretch (by making shots and getting steals) means, at least to me, that Pruitt has a shot at being the 5th guard on the active roster, along with Ray, Rajon, Eddie and Tony.

There are two battles for that last roster spot:

Miles vs. himself, and Pruitt vs. Cassell.

Gabe helped his own cause a lot last night.

I missed the 4th quarter of last night's game but Pruitt has definitely shown that he has the tools athletically, and skillswise to be a player in this league. Most encouraging has been Pruitt's on the ball defense and his off the ball rotations and instincts. He definitely has a firm grasp of where to be in the defensive schemes and has an intuitive sense of where the ball will be going next. Offensively, you can see that the skills are there (though his ball handling can be a little suspect) but he simply struggles with initiating the offense i.e. passing to the wing or high post when being pressured. This strikes me as an issue that could largely be resolved via more in game experience. So overall I'm relatively encouraged by his performance here as well.

I also would like to add that of all the second unit lineups we've seen thus far I really liked the three guard lineup of Eddie, Gabe and Tony with the front court pairing of Glen and Patrick. This group has a really good mix of defenders (Gabe-Tony-Baby) and shooters (Eddie + Gabe from 3 and Glen and Patrick from mid-range). Tony's scoring and playmaking abilities are a nice center-piece of this group but he doesn't have to do it all either. Really nice early synergy in this group IMO, I hope to see more of it.

It's a shame that we have to cut someone. Especially someone not named Scalabrine.

Why can't they eat Scal's contract? Did Scal make it a midnight snack?
Anyone know why TA was wearing a knee brace again?

CSNE should let Pollard provide commentary on road games instead of Donny Marshall.

i'm guessing, regarding TA's brace, which I thought was the same the night before, was because of 42 minutes played the night before....as a knee man myself, I feel his pain.

I think it is pretty apparent that Sam I am is going to be a coach/player when neccessary.

It's simple. If you cut a guy like Pruitt, he'll get picked up immediately by another team. You cut Cassell and he'll be hanging out at home with PJ Brown. How hard of a decision is this????