Celtics have signed Bill Walker

[celticfan42487]

For all intents and purposes Miles is an open roster spot. He doesn't have any more guarantees then that other SF.. Wallace I think.. that we signed last year. He'll probuly go through the drills and we'll see where he is. Then he'll be cut when it comes for a pay raise.

[Kefa461]

Ready to roll......

[JMillott]

I think the Celtics are viewing Pierce, Giddens and Walker as the SF's on this years roster, I believe that Darius Miles is to be viewed as the 3rd PF on the roster behind KG and Powe. He will likely be used when Doc Rivers wants to play smallball with KG at center.

I'm quite sure that Bill Walker took this long to sign simply because with his raw talent level his agent most likely didn't want to have him locked in on a three year second round contract.

It would stand to reason that Ainge's talk of sending him to Europe was to show the agent that he would be on an NBA rookie contract for three years or not in the NBA for the first year and still stuck with a rookie contract for the two years after this one.

[GuyClinch]

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.

What every report but his recent workout for the Celtics?!? Stop hating dude..

Pete

[sully00]

If there has ever been an NBA player that could afford to carry around a little extra weight it would be Darius Miles.

The media report thing is useless. It is like draft workout info. The Celtics are not going to tell some reporter how much they love this FA or that FA, it will only drive up the players price and other team's interest.

For a player like Walker the 3 year deal makes sense. First of all he will get some guaranteed money and his options will be player friendly timing wise. Secondly while he will have to wait another year to cash in on FA if he lives up to his ability he will be able to earn an above MLE contract which he would not be eligible for after two years.

I think the wait was on Finley. Boston likely was offering the LLE or the remainder of the MLE to Finley and that was holding up the contracts for Giddens and Walker. Now they likely get all 3 for less than Finley for better or worse.

[TheCelticTruth]

normally i just accept bill's commentary, but i havent seen an actual published piece make significant mention of darius being "out of basketball shape" since he said it in an SI piece in april. august and april leaves a lot of time for improvement, and i dont believe hell be 100% game ready until he starts playing nba games, but he certainly could be close to form at this point if hes as healthy as some reports indicate, especially where his intensive training didnt start until he was waived, and he hadnt been doing for long when the SI piece came out

[billfromBoston]

If there has ever been an NBA player that could afford to carry around a little extra weight it would be Darius Miles.

The media report thing is useless. It is like draft workout info. The Celtics are not going to tell some reporter how much they love this FA or that FA, it will only drive up the players price and other team's interest.

For a player like Walker the 3 year deal makes sense. First of all he will get some guaranteed money and his options will be player friendly timing wise. Secondly while he will have to wait another year to cash in on FA if he lives up to his ability he will be able to earn an above MLE contract which he would not be eligible for after two years.

I think the wait was on Finley. Boston likely was offering the LLE or the remainder of the MLE to Finley and that was holding up the contracts for Giddens and Walker. Now they likely get all 3 for less than Finley for better or worse.

...no way Boston offered the rest of the MLE--Finley just re-upped for 1.3, Boston has 2.7 million left...likely they offered the minimum to...

As far as Miles current physical conditioning, call me a "hater" the guy is most assuredly in worse shape than every other player on the team other than Davis and Scal-he had gained 30-40lbs at one point...we'll see what he's got...

Frankly, I have no idea what to think of Darius Miles...how his knee can have miraculously recovered to the point where he can play an NBA season after being diagnosed with a "career ending" condition from a PLAYERS ASSOCIATION appointed physician is beyond comprehension...maybe he did HGH to recover...who knows...but Boston gave him a non-guarenteed deal, so clearly they're not sold on him enough to give him more than a chance to show them he belongs...

I'd love it if Miles was able to resume his career...an elite level athlete with amazing raw talent at only 26 years old? Its a no-brainer...

[GuyClinch]

As far as Miles current physical conditioning, call me a "hater" the guy is most assuredly in worse shape than every other player on the team other than Davis and Scal-he had gained 30-40lbs at one point...we'll see what he's got...

Most assuredly? What you saw him in person? He did well in the standing jump test. Fat guys can't jump..

Pete

[GuyClinch]

As far as Miles current physical conditioning, call me a "hater" the guy is most assuredly in worse shape than every other player on the team other than Davis and Scal-he had gained 30-40lbs at one point...we'll see what he's got...

Most assuredly? Listen the guy had a CAREER ENDING injury. It's just natural he would back on a pounds as he had given up hoops. Now that he wants back in the game we can expect him to lose some weight. I don't think Danny would have even given him that camp contract if he was grossly overweight. The Mavs guy gave him an 8 out of 10..

I am interested in seeing if his hops are really gone. It seems to me your wishing ill on him so he doesnt' steal minutes from the new young guys..like Bill Walker. Healthy Miles might not be cut out for international ball but he is really dangerous at NBA ball.

Pete

[billfromBoston]

I don't "wish Ill" on him at all...it would be fortunate and miraculous if he was 100 percent back...and no, i don't think he's "grossly overweight" I said I don't think he's in NBA basketball shape and that I think he's behind all the other incoming players in terms of conditioning...

...i'd love to get psyched about Miles, but frankly I haven't seen or heard anything positive about his current state of being except an out of context "8 out of 10" evaluation from a team official and Ainge's insistence that he was back healthy....I put some credence into these assessments, but I also know that teams have had a few months to look at him and he finally signed a non-guaranteed deal in which he's only being given a chance to prove he can make the team---if he was truly "back" all the way he'd have a t least a guarenteed deal....

...this tells me that no team is sold on him being 100 percent healthy and that the Celtics are playing "wait and see" to determine if the grind of daily workouts and a full training camp will be something his knee can handle...he hasn't played organized basketball for two years on top of all of this AND he wasn't a particularly polished or skilled player to begin with...so out of all of our "question mark" players I see Darius as the biggest question mark of the bunch..

Is that not fair based on what we know? I could care less who wins what job, as long as they are the BEST one for the job...if Miles is that guy, I will be rooting like hell for him to develop into the best player he can be...i'm just skeptical...

[MyInsatiableOne]

I think both Walker and Miles are low risk/high reward type signings, especially Miles since his isn't even a guaranteed contract...he still has to make the team.

I still think Walker is going to be the latter day Kedrick and Gerald, but we'll see...

[JMillott]

I think a worst case scenario for Bill Walker if he was to have no more knee problems would be a solid basketball player. The kid knows how to play basketball so I think you can put your Gerald Green and Kedrick Brown worries to bed.

Gerald Green clearly had flaws in that he didn't have the strength to handle the contact at SF or the ball handling skills to play SG in this league. If he ever does bulk up enough to play SF and hold on to the basketball through contact he could still be a useful rotation player because we all know he can shoot the basketball and has self confidence.

Kedrick Brown didn't make it in this league for a very simple reason, he didn't have enough confidence that he belonged in this league or was worthy of getting the basketball during the regular season. Obviously having Jim O'Brien as his coach didn't help him any either in that reguard and playing with Antoine Walker and Paul Pierce when he was playing Obie ball didn't help matters.

Bill Walker on the other hand has all the confidence in the world, knows how to use his athletic ability and both the athletic ability and physical strength to play in this league. His biggest flaw is that he just isn't all that good of a shooter, had he been able to stay healthy to this point he'd have been very compareable to a Jerry Stackhouse coming out of college in my opinion.

I still to this day believe that had Jerry Stackhouse stayed at UNC under Dean Smith getting quality coaching for an extra year or had come into the NBA in a better spot that he'd have lived up to the hype he had coming into the league.

I'm hopeful that he can be the anti-Stack where instead of coming into the league with a ton of hype going to a terrible team with terrible coaching and getting handed the keys to the franchise he gets to come in with everything to prove for a good coach on a good team full of veterans that play the right way.

I don't think you could ask for a better mentor for Bill Walker then Paul Pierce at this stage of his career. Paul Pierce is basically the ultimate cerebral SF in the NBA right now and if Bill Walker wants to learn all the tricks of the trade Pierce is the guy to learn them from.

If he could pick up even half of Paul Pierce's savy and footwork to go with his incredible athletic gifts he could really develop into something else.

[quinielabox]

Sounds like the Celtics have added to their SF position. Bill is a lot cheaper than Fatione and he has more upside than Fatty.

[GuyClinch]

Bill Walker on the other hand has all the confidence in the world, knows how to use his athletic ability and both the athletic ability and physical strength to play in this league. His biggest flaw is that he just isn't all that good of a shooter, had he been able to stay healthy to this point he'd have been very compareable to a Jerry Stackhouse coming out of college in my opinion.

I like Bill Walker but without seeing him play in the NBA he has to be considered a longer shot then Kedrick Brown or GG. You can rationalize why those guys failed but they were drafted high so people at the time felt they would succeed. GG in particular would likely have been drafted soon after us if we passed.

It's funny but right after one of our prospect fails it was somehow easy to see how that would have happened.. It's just not true. Stuff happens and prospects sometimes just don't work out. GG was a stud in the McDonald's all-american game. He had all the earmarks of success. We didn't get to see the flaws in his mental approach or game until he hit the NBA and started competing.

Personally I think Danny gets this and just plays the odds. Sooner or later one of those super athletic swingmen is going to work out for us. Maybe Walker is that guy but maybe he is the Dahntay Jones. Jones is athletic, has a good attitude, seems to work hard but just isn't the best NBA player. I have never heard that he is the least bit stupid either..

Pete

[LongTimeFan]

Well, there is also the Celtics development system which you hinted at with Obie's 3-ball. The current Celtics team is simply fantastic at developing players, whereas most NBA teams could care less. We draft players that we can and do develope into future NBA players. We poor substantial amounts of time and resources into developing their human capital.

Walker is a flyer in terms of being a gamble. But his low cost, high possible ceiling and long term trajectory fit the development model the Celtics have in place.

Besides being great at spotting talent DA is also very good at spotting players that are wiling to put the work in, listen and develope. I believe Gerald Green was not vetted, because we thought he'd go way earlier. The kid didn't listen and wasn't coachable.

[billfromBoston]

Bill Walker on the other hand has all the confidence in the world, knows how to use his athletic ability and both the athletic ability and physical strength to play in this league. His biggest flaw is that he just isn't all that good of a shooter, had he been able to stay healthy to this point he'd have been very compareable to a Jerry Stackhouse coming out of college in my opinion.

I like Bill Walker but without seeing him play in the NBA he has to be considered a longer shot then Kedrick Brown or GG. You can rationalize why those guys failed but they were drafted high so people at the time felt they would succeed. GG in particular would likely have been drafted soon after us if we passed.

It's funny but right after one of our prospect fails it was somehow easy to see how that would have happened.. It's just not true. Stuff happens and prospects sometimes just don't work out. GG was a stud in the McDonald's all-american game. He had all the earmarks of success. We didn't get to see the flaws in his mental approach or game until he hit the NBA and started competing.

Personally I think Danny gets this and just plays the odds. Sooner or later one of those super athletic swingmen is going to work out for us. Maybe Walker is that guy but maybe he is the Dahntay Jones. Jones is athletic, has a good attitude, seems to work hard but just isn't the best NBA player. I have never heard that he is the least bit stupid either..

Pete

...this may be so, but there are some substantial differences between Brown, GG, and Walker that you are ignoring...Kedrick Brown was just happy to be in the league, he "retired" on his rookie deal and didn't come back to basketball until he had spent his money. Gerald Green was not much of a worker either and had amazing comprehension problems...by all accounts Bill Walker is a fierce worker and very intelligent...so you can say what you want about their talent, but Walker is starting out with a much better approach to things and that should help him succeed where the others failed...

[MVP16]

I was playing around with the ESPN trade machine and I noticed that they have Walker making $542,114 this year with a 4 year contract. I'm not sure how reliable they are, but it would be interesting if Danny signed Walker for 4 years.

[15th overall]

I was playing around with the ESPN trade machine and I noticed that they have Walker making $542,114 this year with a 4 year contract. I'm not sure how reliable they are, but it would be interesting if Danny signed Walker for 4 years.

Is that even possible? It'd be MFing fantastic if true but I could see the Players Association possibly having a problem with it or some BS.

[JMillott]

I believe that he can be signed for up to five years using the MLE money if the player is willing to do so. If this is the case then i'd be willing to bet that we have team options on the 2nd and 3rd year with a player option on the 4th.