In the future, must Boston get taller to compete in east?

[campybatman]

Looking at the other top teams in the eastern conference, Boston can't really compete with their height and size even with Garnett. Anything can change from now and down the road. Players could be traded or become free agents and sign elsewhere. But, looking at teams like Cleveland, Orlando and Chicago, for example. Their front courts dwarf Boston's... Or is it more about the match-ups. But, if you're a head coach and you're playing the match-up. Then you probably won't start the same players. I think it depends... If a shorter player has long arms and can defend and rebound against taller opponents. You can leave him as a starter. Someone like a young Ben Wallace. Rivers is pretty consistent with his starting lineups.

I'm of the opinion that it would be ideal if Boston can have taller players. Especially, in the front court. I just feel if a lack of height wasn't a weakness. Perhaps, if you're Ainge, you wouldn't be forced to draft or sign a free agent based on need. For instance, Moore was signed based on a need. But, if Boston already had a viable option at center with height. Moore might not have been signed. O'Bryant's lack of an impact probably forced Ainge's hand.

Garnett is likely 6'11'' or an inch taller and Perkins is probably more 6'9'' than 6'10''. But, after them, where does the height come from? Let's say for sake of argument, you see Davis, Powe and Moore go this off-season. Who does Ainge look to...? Erdin?

I just look at the Celtics in the playoffs and wonder if more height could better offset losing Garnett. It sure could help when rebounding. Because it's Garnett's defensive presence and rebounding that is missed. He's like having a quality center. Not to bring up the past, but PJ Brown was tall at 6'11''. The problem is obvious... O'Bryant and Moore didn't pan out and Garnett's season ending injury wasn't foreseen.

[Rocky5000]

How tall do you think Howard is? He's only 6'11 an inch taller than Perk. Lewis is shorter than Garnett, by an inch or two. Pierce is shorter than Hedo by 3 inches, but I don't think that is too big of a disadvantage, and Hedo may walk next year, same goes for Gortat. We could definitely use some height off from the bench, but I don't think it keeps us from competing. We have the 7' tall Mikki Moore on the bench right now, and he's not helping much. The team that could give us height issues is the Lakers.

[Fencer reregistered]

Yes. The Cs need a third player with no-apologies height/length/hops, to go along with Perkins and Garnett.

Based on the free agent signings of Brown, POB, and Moore, Ainge evidently agrees.

[Avalanche]

yep, we need a guy on the bench 6'10 or more that can be a true back up center when we need one

and isnt mikki moore

[campybatman]

Well, it would be nice to have one or two tall players beside Garnett that you've as legitimate players and not for the sake of available fouls like Moore.

I understand height is hard to come by when the competition for such is high. Still, the bottom line is Boston is a short team.

Davis 6'7''
Pierce 6'6''
Perkins 6'9''
Scalabrine 6'8''
Powe 6'6''

In this case, you've to be an above average rebounder and you can't be someone who's prone to fouling. Davis and Perkins can kill Boston in that regard. That is, Davis doesn't rebound enough and nowhere consistently, and Perkins you've to rely on too much to stay out of foul trouble that you handicap yourself. You loose Perkins, you're screwed. I just think it could be nice not to have that kind of mentality.

Fortunately, for Boston, Ilgauskas, Varejao and Turkoglu each can opt out after this season, and B. Wallace, Battie, B. Miller and Noah will have expiring contracts next season.

I hope that the next big man Ainge signs pays off better.

[Hemingway]

Right now we are doing the best with what we've got. After dealing for KG and RA 2 years ago we depleated our roster. We've only had 2 off seasons to add players. Factor in the need to win had us take guys we could not keep long term. I think this summer will be interesting. Do we need to get the win now guys and take the best talent we can or do we go to fill our needs and get guys who fit even though they may not be the best? Sheed would be the answer to both IMO. So I think no matter what anyone says, he will come here. Other than that we just need to draft someone big to help us. It is too bad POB did not work out.

[SichtingLives]

Well, it would be nice to have one or two tall players beside Garnett that you've as legitimate players and not for the sake of available fouls like Moore.

I understand height is hard to come by when the competition for such is high. Still, the bottom line is Boston is a short team.

Davis 6'7''
Pierce 6'6''
Perkins 6'9''
Scalabrine 6'8''
Powe 6'6''

In this case, you've to be an above average rebounder and you can't be someone who's prone to fouling. Davis and Perkins can kill Boston in that regard. That is, Davis doesn't rebound enough and nowhere consistently, and Perkins you've to rely on too much to stay out of foul trouble that you handicap yourself. You loose Perkins, you're screwed. I just think it could be nice not to have that kind of mentality.

Fortunately, for Boston, Ilgauskas, Varejao and Turkoglu each can opt out after this season, and B. Wallace, Battie, B. Miller and Noah will have expiring contracts next season.

I hope that the next big man Ainge signs pays off better.

Minor point, bonsai, you listed all their heights w/o shoes. The only NBA player I can think of who did anything without shoes on was Gerald Green, and that was only to eat a cupcake or something.....

But more to your point, standing reach is often a more relevant factor than height. Grit and pure strength/athleticism can make up for an inch or two as well. I think the key here, which I believe you or someone else may have pointed out, is not that we need taller players so much as more depth with our bigs. Mikki is trash and wasn't anticipated to fill more than a 10th-12th man role when we picked him up, so f him, he's out (one can only hope). Scal is, well, Scal. I think it's odd that he has more value to this club now then when we signed him, but regardless he doesn't exactly scream "post presence".

Besides that, we have Perk and KG (very solid moving forward, if KG can come back healthy) and Powe/Davis as backups with a little Scal sandwich thrown in. The one thing we could definitely use in the near future is a steady PJ Brown type (a tall, BU center with tangible basketball skills, not another pf masquerading as such or an empty jersey like MM). I think this was the plan with Patty O'Bogus but we all saw how that panned out. Any more depth than that is just being greedy, but I think a frontline of Perk/KG with Leon/Baby/Scal as bu 4's and an unnamed center with size and passable skills (after all, there aren't a whole lot of excellent back-up 5's, or even excellent starting 5's around the league) would be plenty sufficient to go to war with. However, the fact that we don't know what will happen with Leon next year does change things up a bit (assuming everyone else is healthy). Any way you look at it, we could use at least one more big who can provide something of value to this team moving forward, and that's if we have a core of those five already listed. If any of them are out, than we need to replace their current value on top of that.

Once again, Danny will have his work cut out for him in the offseason.

[JCizzle]

I'm not a huge fan, but I wonder if Tyler Hansborough might be a good fit. In the one mock I saw it had him going in the mid-2nd, so we might be able to buy him ala Bill Walker. He's probably about as NBA ready as you can get and might be a good Leon replacement. This is obviously assuming we can't find someone with legit 7' size and are forced to think outside the box a bit.

/shrug

[Fencer reregistered]

To a first approximation, a good use of 15 roster slots is 3 per position. If you get two guys hit at the same time with injury and/or foul trouble, you'll have a problem. So be it.

There's nothing wrong with going 2 Cs/4 PFs, if the PFs give you enough center capabilities. And KG gives you everything but post defense, while Davis gives you post defense, so the two viewed together can muddle through as a "third center."

But it would be helpful to have a second no-apologies center behind Perk.

[armageddon]

I still wish we had signed Birdman. He seemed like the perfect fit, did he turn us down?

[campybatman]

I think Andersen wanted to sign with Denver, but why for only one year?

The problem with the "it's better to have multiple power forwards and at least one viable center" is you're taking up roster spots to alleviate a need for a backup. In other words, it requires Davis and Powe and/or Scalabrine to give yourself one viable center or Perkins. That's not good. It means that your head coach is overcompensating for a position that he simply doesn't have on the roster. No more failures. Ainge must "get it right" this off-season. I'm not convinced Rasheed would sign here, so Andersen has to be the target. Andersen signed for basically nothing to play for the Nuggets. I'm certain that an offer of half of the MLE can get it done. Unless you're interested in others like Pachulia, Nesterovic, Magloire or Shelden Williams. I would go after Andersen hard.

[Avalanche]

just remember that the Birdman has been great there this season and they arent likely to let him go easily

Detroit on the other hand wont re-sign Sheed, its other teams we'd have to worry about

[campybatman]

But, can Denver afford him? Even after trading Iverson and Camby, Denver still has a high team payroll. I mean they need to address holes elsewhere on the roster. Further, Nene will make $10.5M and Steven Hunter will make $3.6M. And I think they're still paying part of McDyess' salary. Maybe, they decide to let Andersen go if he's being offered more than the $998,398 he's making this season. He has certainly outperformed that salary.

[GuyClinch]

C's clearly lack length and jumping ability. If you think about our championship team with lost Posey and Brown - two guys that play pretty big. And we are now using Scalabrine and BBD - two earth bound short armed undersized players..

If that wasn't enough Doc likes to rub salt in the wound going 'small" at the 2 guard with Marbury or House..

I think this core can win one more championship. But Danny needs to go all out and address our shortcomings next year. I would look for replacements for Powe (who might be done - I mean MICROFRACTURE that kills your athleticism.) BBD - who would be a better fit on a team that had height but lacked offense, Starbury.. I like him as a backup PG but not a 2 guard.. Scalabrine - he always sucked..

I hope to see some wheeling and dealing out of Danny - maybe a little mortaging the future.. Its now or never for our big 3..

[JCizzle]

C's clearly lack length and jumping ability. If you think about our championship team with lost Posey and Brown - two guys that play pretty big. And we are now using Scalabrine and BBD - two earth bound short armed undersized players..

If that wasn't enough Doc likes to rub salt in the wound going 'small" at the 2 guard with Marbury or House..

I think this core can win one more championship. But Danny needs to go all out and address our shortcomings next year. I would look for replacements for Powe (who might be done - I mean MICROFRACTURE that kills your athleticism.) BBD - who would be a better fit on a team that had height but lacked offense, Starbury.. I like him as a backup PG but not a 2 guard.. Scalabrine - he always sucked..

I hope to see some wheeling and dealing out of Danny - maybe a little mortaging the future.. Its now or never for our big 3..

Heh, do we have much left to mortgage? Aren't we out of 1sts for like the next 5 years? haha

[Celtics_85]

We need to find some bench scoring and get bigger up front at the same time. What I would like to see is Rosho Nostervic and Janero Pargo brought back from overseas. Put these guys in the second unit with Davis, TA, and Walker and we would be much better. Walker and TA can drive to the basket on most anyone and Davis, Rosho, and Pargo are good shooters.
Pargo would be an upgrade over House and TA would benefit much more playing the backcourt with Pargo than House which could get him going again. Rosho is a good veteran backup for Perk and has chemistry with KG from his Minny days, and we know what we have in Davis.
I would put House and Scal on the market to try and find some other bench help also. Let Marbury walk and let Pruitt be the third PG and I believe he can give us some outside shooting that House gave us in his third year. Pruitt has shown that he can be a good defender but can't create for himself or others on offense, but he would be a solid third PG,SG off the bench that can shoot and defend.
We need to find a way to keep Ray and Pierce rested throughout the season and this second unit can get the job done while the first unit rests. Pargo can create for himself and is a scorer while Davis and Rosho would benefit from TA and Walker driving and dishing for short jumpers.

[Avalanche]

Rasho is another solid option... i was watching for those years in minny but cant quite remember what his relationship with KG was like

[GuyClinch]

Heh, do we have much left to mortgage? Aren't we out of 1sts for like the next 5 years? haha

Sure. It's salary that's the issue nowadays. You can pretty much BUY a first round pick if you would take on bad salary. That's how you mortgage the future nowadays - you take on some bad long term contracts to win now.

[BillessuR6]

Yes, lack of height off the bench is out biggest weakness. We need a couple of BIG men and a big wing, IMO.

Rasho definitely won`t sign here. He didn`t have a good relationship with KG at all. I expect him to return to Europe or sign with TOR.

[Red2]

of course they need to get taller. Danny needed to get a big man last summer and he didn't do it. Mikki Moore obviously is not the answer. we have the big kid from turkey possibly coming over but I thought drafting giddens instead of a big man was a mistake. Now with leon out until december or january (and perhaps longer ) the need is even greater. If Danny could get a late 1st round pick for some of our guys ( TOny, gabe etc) or trade for a yong big man that would be ideal.