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Post by ferbo on Jul 8, 2006 19:24:28 GMT -5
Word on Gomes is encouraging from several angles. Sounds like he could back up at the 3. If he can do that, he is in effect backing up at the 2 by letting PP swing over t here for some time. And he can play the 4, at least against some 4s. preferably in a backup role where he is less likely to get muscled. Even though lighter, if he is against other team's backup 4 msot of the time there, he can fare well with his intuitive feel for getting to the ball.
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Post by DERRENMATTS on Jul 8, 2006 21:10:00 GMT -5
Hey, looks like a lot of good things happened in our first game. Nothing but good things are said about Telfair. He looked very good in last year's summer league games too. There is a possibility that Telfair was in the wrong system in Portland, which handicapped his playing style (much like Rajon at Kentucky). Doc has got to make sure he utilizes their (Telfair and Rajon) playmaking ability by making sure all the players learn how to execute setting picks for them. They must also learn how to roll after the pick to give Telfair and Rondo a scoring option to pass to.
Gomes is definitley going to have a big role with our parent team, either as a guy who gets heavy minutes off the bench, or as a starter (until Jefferson can prove that he is worthy to be starting). What a terrific player he is turning out to be. A 27 pt - 9 reb effort in his very first game.
I'm not going to worry about Jefferson at this point. His ankle still bothers him and he's definitely not in any type of rhythm. Clifford Ray is working with him and he's got a good track record, but the transformation probably won't be overnight. But I'm going to hold onto my hope that Jefferson comes through for us this year.
Allan Ray sounds like a player who will benefit a lot from playing with PG's like Telfair and Rondo. He sounds like a catch and shoot guy, and that's what we're going to need to put alongside of playmakers like Telfair and Rondo. From the video clips of Ray, he does look good shooting the ball, and judging by his mid 80's FT% (which is what I base a player's shooting form on), he's a real outside shooting threat.
We should monitor Gerald Green's adjustment. He is a very talented scorer, but like Ainge and Rivers stated last year, he is a good scorer, but not a very good team scorer at this point in his development. He has to show that he can score in the team game and not just on one on one plays. Now that he's playing with real PG's who are looking to set up players for their shots, Gerald will need to learn how to work with them and let them set him up.
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Post by Celtic17 on Jul 8, 2006 22:23:35 GMT -5
think it's overblown. gerald works as hard as anybody this side of pp, perk and west I sorta agree BC. If it were coming from an outsider, I would more... Sound like they are trying to kick his rear into be what he can.
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Post by FLCeltsFan on Jul 8, 2006 22:24:01 GMT -5
Another first hand report from Vegas... this comes from CelticsBlog
I was at the game. Here are some of my impressions if anyone cares.
Al looked rusty to start. His timing was off and he missed shots that he can make. It should be noted that he spent most of his minutes playing center, and against a 7'5" giant from Russia. The dude was truly scary. In the second half, Al looked better on both ends of the court, and I anticipate that he will continue to look better as SL goes on. BTW, nobody fouls out in SL.
Bassy looked great. Not perfect, but he ran the show and was the best point guard on the floor all day. He shoots much better than I thought and he can really see the floor. I liked that he was a general out there. You knew who was running the show when he was on the floor. Very vocal young man and good at directing people where to go on the floor.
Rondo was fantastic on defense. He'll be a great energy guy off the bench, and I see him coming in at the end of games for defensive purposes when there is a lead to protect. He really impressed me. I was scared with Bassy and Rondo as our starting back court, but the little guys held their own on defense.
Green, on the other hand, was easily led astray on defense. Other guards get him leaning one way pretty easy and then cross him over and fly by him. They were doing it to him the whole game. His shot was off today and he didn't really strike me as trying to get into the game. He made some nice plays, dunks, and rebounds, but generally let me down a little. Kind of like Al, he looked rusty. If his shot starts to fall, other teams will be in trouble (although they will get many points back on the other end until he learns how to stay in front of his man).
Allen Ray looked great in the first half. More athletic than I thought and could really shoot. He made up for Green's shooting. He didn't seem to do quite as much in the second half, but you felt good when he took the shot.
Powe didn't do anything to impress me, and he has one of the weirdest freethrow shooting strokes that I have seen. He didn't do anything to hurt himself either. I look forward to getting a better read on him tomorrow.
Jones looked better at the end of last year. He ran the floor well, but didn't show he could catch the ball easily in transition. He fumbled it quite a bit. His defense looked more shaky than I remembered from last year.
Gomes was a man among boys. He looked great. He is just so crafty around the rim.
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Post by Roadrunner on Jul 9, 2006 8:06:12 GMT -5
Gomes sounds like he will be a player in the rotation for sure. Starter, off the bench, not sure.
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Post by ferbo on Jul 9, 2006 9:41:08 GMT -5
Thinking about Gomes: Wonder if he is at the point where he can go outside at the 4 and pull his man out with him, like Raef did. Only it seems that Gomes could then blow b y. Comment was interesting that as Gomes' play unfolded, it was obvious he had trouble with bigger 4s. Something I talked about, and maybe some of you. Maybe his greater speed, etc., and better shot will elgt him do that.
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Post by ferbo on Jul 9, 2006 12:11:27 GMT -5
Clippers only have 7 guys on their summer league roster. And not sure I recognized even one of them.
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Post by FLCeltsFan on Jul 9, 2006 16:14:27 GMT -5
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Post by ferbo on Jul 9, 2006 20:32:06 GMT -5
Lull before the storm?
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Post by FLCeltsFan on Jul 9, 2006 22:35:52 GMT -5
Halftime summary is up on Draft Express www.draftexpress.com/viewarticle.php?a=1399Halftime.... Clippers 33 - Boston 25 From Jonathan Givony on Draft Express. .. If tonight's game was any indication, the Celtics may have gotten one of the biggest steals of the draft in Rondo. He was the consummate PG, controlling the tempo of the game, handling the ball under pressure, setting up teammates, making good decisions and getting by his man with a lightning quick first step, knowing when to push and when to pull back. Despite how impressive he was on offense, it is his defense that really makes him special. He plays fantastic pressure defense and got in the passing lanes several times. Green was very aggressive to start the game and scored a quick 7 points. The Celtics media bass said that Ainge was in Green's face in practice today and he came out with a sense of urgency to prove himself. The second quarter Allan Ray played more. Jefferson again had a disappointing first half. He took the ball strong against two defenders and scored on them with impressive footwork once but in other instances he looked dazed and confused when asked to improvise or show BB IQ. Jefferson struggles to make good decisions and looks lost. The second quarter must have been bad as they only scored 6 points in the entire quarter. The first quarter was pretty much even with the Celtics scoring 19 and the Clippers scoring 20 but then in the second quarter the Celtics only scored 6 points while allowing the Clippers to score 13. The half time summary doesn't say how Gomes or Telfair or Powe or Ray or anyone except Rondo, Green and Al played. They were very impressed with Rondo.....
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Post by FLCeltsFan on Jul 9, 2006 23:29:18 GMT -5
Final score Clippers 78 Celtics 61 Second half observations from Draft Express... Rondo slowed down like everyone on the Celtics in the 2nd half but still showed nice flashes on occasion. He did a great job of breaking his man down off the dribble and getting into the paint, but preferred to dish it out to his hapless teammates who couldn't hit a shot from the outside. His defense remained good. After starting out hot, Green couldn't hit a shot the rest of the way. He took tough contested shots but missed badly on quite a few. Once his shot stopped falling his head dropped and he was taken out of the game. No update on Al from the second half... Allan Ray's shot was off today and so there wasn't any way for him to contribute since he has a one dimensional game. He got some minutes at the point and proved that he is definitely a shooting guard. Nothing on Telfair, Gomes, Powe or any of the other players. Recap and box score aren't up for the last two games so probably won't be until tomorrow. Past my bedtime so that is it for tonight....
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Post by ferbo on Jul 10, 2006 9:10:43 GMT -5
Well, now, that was quite a disappointment.
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Post by ferbo on Jul 10, 2006 9:11:13 GMT -5
Al is certainly succeeding in what he was trying NOT to do.
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Post by FLCeltsFan on Jul 10, 2006 9:22:04 GMT -5
Live account from the Vegas....
From: HMURDOCH@aol.com Date: July 10, 2006 6:00:49 AM EDT To: celtics@igtc.com Subject: Live from Las Vegas! It's ..sigh.. Celts game 2 vs Clippers Reply-To: The Boston Celtics Mailing List <celtics@igtc.com>
Well, there was some exciting basketball played here today (Sunday, July 9, 2 006). It just wasn't in the Celts vs Clips game (see my notes below on the long awaited "Roy vs Foye Deathmatch!)
Back to our guys - they just didn't seem to have it today. I don't know why they looked so much better yesterday, but today wasn't their day. No one stood out and Daniel Ewing and James Singleton and Boniface Ndong (his real name) had a field day. When we were down by over 20 points in the 4th, the coaches threw the towel in and subbed the bench for some player evaluation time.
The highlights such as they were, were provided mainly by Rajon Rondo continuing his respectable defense and some outstanding rebounding (for a guard, and tops for the team in this game) - and by Leon Powe. Powe got some limited minutes and toward the end of the game seemed to discover his offense with 9 pts on 4 of 7 shooting (including a very nice hook shot) in just 16 minutes.
Those last few minutes were the first where I thought it looked like he finally started being comfortable on the floor and started actually looking for his offense. He also showed his strength in not allowing the opposing players to push him around in the paint.
Other than that, it was a shambles. Sebastian Telfair continued to rack up the turnovers with 4 TO's vs 2 assists. I've read someone saying that his prolific turnovers in the first game were due to teammates not catching good passes, but some of the passes yesterday looked like trying to make overly difficult passes rather than simple ones. And a couple of the TO's today were to empty seats or just badly thrown passes. I'm not saying he isn't a good passer, but I think he may be trying too hard at the moment. But it is a new team with new teammates etc
. Telfair is also credited with 1 of 5 shooting on the day. I thought that Sebastian did a little better job of not letting everyone blow by him on defense today, but he has a long way to go before he is on Rajon's level.
And also on the not too shabby side, I should mention that Allen Ray continued to shoot well today and had 3 assists (but with 3 turnovers).
But speaking of point guards .... and thankfully getting off the topic of today's wipeout ..... someone who played much better today *as a point guard*, was Brandon Roy. He played all the minutes that I saw him in the game against the Timberwolves, as the Portland point guard (I took a quick food break to be prepared for the Celts game, so I missed a few minutes).
And a good deal of the game he was defended by Randy Foye. Given various people's hopes for one or the other on draft day, I was really interested to see these two match up. Roy showed that he can play the point very well (at least against summer league opposition). He had no problem bringing the ball up the court, and was able to blow by Foye and others with apparent ease. In general he didn't seem to have much problem getting wherever he wanted on the court, and showed some very nice shooting and passing.
Foye on the other hand brought the ball up the court some of the time, but generally passed it off to Bracey Wright, who seemed to be the designated ball handler and creator for the Wolves. Foye showed talent as a scorer, but if he has point guard abilities it didn't show much in this game. Again it's early and just summer league, but in this game Roy sure looked very impressive and much the better player today.
For those who wanted the Celts to draft (and keep) Foye as someone who could convert to point guard duties for the Celts - on limited exposure to his game I can see why Danny may have skipped Foye and tried to find a real playmaker or two. Whether he got the right ones or not time will tell.
So .. I may take the day off from the games tomorrow as the Celts aren't playing. I don't know if there's anything to do around here other than basketball, but hopefully I'll find something...
Hank M.
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Post by FLCeltsFan on Jul 10, 2006 10:09:14 GMT -5
Another first hand account from Vegas... this time from Rebel C Fan on Real GM
Being at tonight's game, I can honestly say it was very ugly. There isn't much else to say about it. Basically, the C's couldn't shoot the ball, and that's what it came down to. The Clips outplayed the C's on every level. Their guards really ate us alive, which is sad because Shawn wasn't even in the building (word has it he was at Pierce's fund raiser in LA). No one was at fault. The sucking was a team effort. They refused to establish anyone down low, they didn't attack the basket, the certainly didn't swing the ball around, and they didn't get out in transition. They were out of sorts tonight. Anyway here is my quick player perspective.
Gomes- didn't shoot well off the pick and pop
Bassy- played hard, but couldn't get the offense going
Rondo- still great defense, but otherwise see comment on Bassy
AJ- played better tonight on the offensive end. Was making the shots he missed yesterday. Unfortunately, no one could get him the ball enough. However, he is showing signs of the old AL. Still looks unsure at times.
Green- He blew a monster jam and never really got back in the game after that. I was dissapointed with him tonight. I can't understand how he can just sit in the corner waiting for someone to pass him the ball and not insert himself more into the offense.
Powe- Didn't show much life until garbage time. Then it was like someone turned on a switch. He became very aggressive and looked for his shot. He showed some nice footwork around the basket and is a very powerful guy. I'd like to see hime play like that all the time. Otherwise, he looked a little lost.
Jones- Didn't really play until the last two minutes and didn't have much of a chance to show anything.
Ray- the refs were hard on him early and he picked up several really ticky tack fouls. It seemed to throw him off and he couldn't hit anything until the end of the game. He looked good during garbage time, but I was hoping for a little more consistency in his shot.
There were others who got minutes, but they we generally unremarkable, and this is getting long enough. If you have specific questions, I'll be happy to try and answer them. Sorry for any typos or mis-spellings. It’s late and I’m writing fast.
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