RealGM

After losing 4 games out of 6,
including disappointing losses to the Knicks, Warriors and Blazers;
I thought that I'd check out the Celtics NET PER after the Knicks game.

NET PER is your PER minus the PER of the man that you are guarding.

Only 205 out of 425 NBA players are ranked, because you have to play in
35% of Total Team Minutes to get an NBA rank.

Still, the Celtics placed 5 players in the top 60,
and 4 in the top 34
(note: If each team had one player in the top 30, well, you get the idea)

NET PER Player ........... NBA Rank
+10.7 Kevin Garnett ...... 09
+09.7 Ray Allen ............ 14
+06.6 Rajon Rondo ....... 26
+05.7 Paul Pierce ......... 34

+02.8 Tony Allen .......... 60
+01.7 Leon Powe
+00.7 Kendrick Perkins ... 93
+00.2 Eddie House

-05.5 Gabe Pruitt
-08.8 Patrick O'Bryant
-09.7 Glen Davis
-13.8 Brian Scalabrine

Although it's great that, Leaguewide,
KG ranks 9
Ray ranks 14
Rondo ranks 26
Paul ranks 34
Tony ranks 60
Perk ranks 93

when in hell is Honorable Coach Doc Rivers gonna start playing
Patrick O'Bryant over Glen Davis?

and what can be done to keep Brian Scalabrine off the floor completely?

Interestingly, the NET PER difference between Rondo and Eddie House
is about the same as the difference between Eddie House and Gabe Pruitt.

Doc Rivers was quoted today as saying that although he would be
content to start the playoffs with this roster,

"we need a big ... and we need a guard."

That means Glen Davis' job and Gabe Pruitt's job
(Pruitt would become a full time practice player, I guess).

But in the meantime, how about getting Patrick O'Bryant's ears wet.

The kid has no lower or upper body strength, but can he be worse than Glen Davis??

Well, on the Globe's Celticblog, Rivers just said that he needs to find a way to get Pruitt and Scalabrine on the floor more...saying of Scal, "He does a lot of good things for us." Oh, those intangibles, so hard to see, so easy to refer to when you make indefensible substitutions.

TA apparently reinjured his ankle in the Knicks game (the same one he injured in the beginning of December) and won't play the next two games, so it'll be lots of Scal and Pruitt for better or worse.

Does anyone notice anything peculiar about the top-ranked players in this system? Better yet, how about just for the Celtics?

The problem with using PER for Pruitt and O'Bryant is that they have not played enough minutes for it to be an effective tool. This is especially true because they almost never play any meaningful minutes with the better players on the team. I think Pruitt's numbers are deceiving. I think they would be better if he played 12-15 minutes a night.

I agree that Scal should just never play. He has been getting ripped by Hollinger for years. In his Scal column this year he said that Scal is decent as a 12th man, but nothing more.

"when in hell is Honorable Coach Doc Rivers gonna start playing
Patrick O'Bryant over Glen Davis?"

On this, POB is certainly a capable offensive player. My only concern was seeing him get pushed around by JaVale McGee when I was at the Celts/Wiz game back in December. He could be a real albatross on D.