What do you think of this future lineup

[DERRENMATTS]

I'm sure a lot of you like the sound of this lineup of the future:

C- Perkins (6'10")
PF- Jefferson (6'10")
SF- Gerald Green (6'8")
SG- Pierce (6'6")
PG- Orien Greene (6'4")

Each and every player in this lineup is long armed. Jefferson, Pierce, and Green can be the star threesome, each capable of putting up 20+ pt games on any given night (but not average 20+ ppg each). Perkins and Orien can be excellent role players who provide the starting 5 with excellent defense at C and PG.

If Pierce is truly a changed player who does what Doc asks him to do, I have no problem with him being here for the rest of his career. His FG% must continue climbing (45% last year), his passing efficiency must improve (less turnovers), and he must continue moving without the ball and not going one on one.

I have my reservations about Perkins being the caliber at Center who can be the starter on a championship level. But if Pierce, Jefferson, and Green are star offensive players, Perkins may be the right fit because all he'll need to do is rebound and block/alter shots. Scoring won't be needed, and Jefferson will be there to cleanup whatever rebound Perkins may not be able to reach.

Same with Orien. I'd love to get a top PG like Hinrich, Nash, etc. But with our star trio, Orien may be more than enough. All he needs to do is get the ball into their sweetspots--feed Jefferson in the post where he can do the most damage, feed Pierce on the floor where all he needs to do is catch and shoot, and feed Green on the breaks where all he has to do is go up for the ball and flush it home.

Off the bench, we'll have Gomes and Ricky at the wings who can come in and provide scoring, and at PG, we'll have Delonte, who can provide steady PG play and an outside shot. Defensively, we'll have Justin Reed--who is looking more and more like E-Will, without the post game.

So what do you guys think of this lineup?

[Celtic17]

5 - Perkins
4 - Jefferson
3 - Reed or Gomes
2 - Green
1 - Greene

By the time this group of kids are starting, Pierce may be gone.

[cfoo]

Greene looked really good tonight. Yeah he's raw and his offensive skills are obviously limited right now, but he has a natural ability to run the break and may be the best we have in that department. Plus he has good size and likes to get his nose dirty like Delonte does as well. I think potentially he and Delonte could be a nice mix... Dickau may end up the 3rd pg at this rate.

Perk I was hoping for more this preseaon. He is still a monster but his offensive skills have not improved at all. Plus he is still a foul machine. Im still a huge fan of his though. We need to be patient with him.

Gerald has a long ways to go...

Jefferson is making a name for himself. Big Al is here. Woo. Only sure thing we have, as being part of that lineup right now.

[DERRENMATTS]

C17, you know that I am not the biggest Pierce fan around because of the way I perceived his playing style and negative attitude. But he has seemingly begun to morph into a player who does what his coach asks him to do and excel in other departments aside from just scoring. I'm not on his bandwagon, but I'm much more pleased with Pierce right now than any time in the past 3 years. The Pierce who is playing for the Celtics right now is the Pierce I would hang onto.

With another solid game in limited minutes, Orien is carving himself quite a future with us. I'll give my own scouting report on him after I watch wednesday's game vs. the Cavs (I hope to see a lot of him). So until then, I won't say that he is definitely in our future plans. But he is making me very optimistic about our future PG situation.

Center may be the position we need to concentrate on securing for our future team. Perkins had the opportunity to really play his way into heavy playing time during the regular season when Jefferson was out. But even though he was rebounding a lot, he was still fouling too much and his offensive game had not surfaced. Ainge needs to really scour the league to find a Center to target in the near future. I looked up the Centers in the NBA to find out the top rebounding and shot blocking Centers and the only ones who match that description are Shaq, Ben Wallace, and Tim Duncan. Duncan is nearly untouchable, but maybe when Big Ben becomes a free agent, we can tempt him to come to Boston. He's already 31 years old, so not sure how good he'll still be when our young guys finally fulfill their potential.

Next best place to look is in the draft. Not many true Centers anymore, but Tiago Splitter looks like the guy we should seriously target to be our future starting Center. His strengths are his rebounding and shot blocking and he's also got a decent offensive game. BCHistorian has seen Tiago play and he raves about his game. I'm sure Tiago won't be a top pick, but for certain a top 10. Greg Oden is another highly touted Center and scouting reports indicate him having the potential to be a dominating Center, especially on the defensive end. He won't be coming out till the 2007 draft and he's surely going to be the top overall pick.

[Deleted]

C - Jefferson
PF - Gomes
SF - Green
SG - Davis
PG - Greene

Pierce leaves and jefferson finds a better fit at center

[DERRENMATTS]

Gomes will not be able to play PF over the course of a game, and especially over the course of an 82 game season. He is a tweener and will get eaten up against PF's. Even shorter PF's like Elton Brand and Mike Sweetney will give Gomes a hard time.

But he is a versatile forward who can fill in at either forward spots. He's a good scorer from anywhere on the court and he's just a gamer all around. No flash in his game, its all substance.

I wouldn't mind using him as a future 6th man if Doc wants to use Ricky in the starting rotation.

[DERRENMATTS]

Fans are raving about Orien Greene. Its been so long since the city of Boston has had a real PG who can set up players that its easy to get excited over this kid. Payton was a good PG for us, but he didn't get us running and I even thought he lost some of his passing abilities compared to his earlier days.

But here's Orien, a tall, long, and athletic PG who is quick, handles the ball easily, and makes difficult passes look routine.

Greenwave says that Greene could possibly start by the halfway mark of the season. I'll have to get a look at this kid in action to see if I agree with him. But judging from what's being said on Celtics message boards all over the internet, many agree with Greenwave.

So if Orien Greene is the real deal, we have 4 positions nailed down for our future starting 5. Only the Center spot remains to be filled. In tonight's blowout win versus the Nets, Perkins only got 9 minutes of playing time. I'm interested in hearing what Doc's reason is for this move. But until Perkins starts getting more playing time, and stops being a foul machine, Ainge needs to keep a lookout for a Center.

[VI_CelticsFan]

derrenmatts said:

I'm sure a lot of you like the sound of this lineup of the future:

C- Perkins (6'10")
PF- Jefferson (6'10")
SF- Gerald Green (6'8")
SG- Pierce (6'6")
PG- Orien Greene (6'4")

So what do you guys think of this lineup?

I like that Lineup you've got there derren. I'm very pleased with the way PP is playing now too. But I want to know which of those players in that lineup could average 20 ppg. If Pierce is in our future lineup, then I'm thinking he and BigAl will average 20 ppg each, and GG with averaging in the mid to late teens, with his athleticism being the main part of his game. What do you think?

[eja117]

I need to see a lot more of Ogreen before I like him too much. I think hes getting better and I like his stat sheets but I like DWest too. I think DWest is a natural player. He isn't too slow these days. Clearly faster than Payton anyway (which isn't saying much) and I never see him make a decision where I'm like "why the hell did he do that"?

[DERRENMATTS]

Well, the way I see it, a championship team needs to have a real strong post scorer. No recent team has won without having a strong low post scorer as their main option. Houston had Hakeem, the Spurs had Duncan, the Lakers had Shaq, and the Pistons had Rasheed (though he wasn't always scoring from the post).

So Jefferson will need to be the top scorer on this future team (or at least get the most looks). On a lineup with 3 high scoring players, Jefferson may not average as much as he could if he played on a team where he was the only big time scorer. So, I'm thinking he'll average around 21 ppg.

Pierce will be the next big time scorer, and if he's continuing to play team basketball and not selfish one on one basketball, his average will look something like 19 ppg.

Gerald Green will be the 3rd wheel of the trio of stars (although he could turn out to be the brightest star among the three). But because we have Jefferson getting the most looks, and Pierce getting the majority of other shots, Green will average about 17 ppg.

Any of these 3 players are capable of averaging 20+ ppg in the league and in any game, they are capable of leading the team in scoring. But because the emphasis is on team basketball, the scoring will be shared, depending on what the defense is giving us. If they double up on Jefferson, Pierce and Green will have bigger scoring nights. If they are a stronger perimeter defensive team, Jefferson will have a field day with his scoring attempts.

Another thing is that because we have excellent players on the bench who can put up big scoring games too, the trio may not get a lot of minutes of playing time. Ryan Gomes and Ricky Davis can score in the high teens, low 20's, and so Rivers won't have to rely on Jefferson, Pierce, and Green to play 40 minutes every game. This will affect how much they will score.

[VI_CelticsFan]

derrenmatts said:

Well, the way I see it, a championship team needs to have a real strong post scorer. No recent team has won without having a strong low post scorer as their main option. Houston had Hakeem, the Spurs had Duncan, the Fakers had Shaq, and the Pistons had Rasheed (though he wasn't always scoring from the post).

So Jefferson will need to be the top scorer on this future team (or at least get the most looks). On a lineup with 3 high scoring players, Jefferson may not average as much as he could if he played on a team where he was the only big time scorer. So, I'm thinking he'll average around 21 ppg.

Pierce will be the next big time scorer, and if he's continuing to play team basketball and not selfish one on one basketball, his average will look something like 19 ppg.

Gerald Green will be the 3rd wheel of the trio of stars (although he could turn out to be the brightest star among the three). But because we have Jefferson getting the most looks, and Pierce getting the majority of other shots, Green will average about 17 ppg.

Any of these 3 players are capable of averaging 20+ ppg in the league and in any game, they are capable of leading the team in scoring. But because the emphasis is on team basketball, the scoring will be shared, depending on what the defense is giving us. If they double up on Jefferson, Pierce and Green will have bigger scoring nights. If they are a stronger perimeter defensive team, Jefferson will have a field day with his scoring attempts.

Another thing is that because we have excellent players on the bench who can put up big scoring games too, the trio may not get a lot of minutes of playing time. Ryan Gomes and Ricky Davis can score in the high teens, low 20's, and so Rivers won't have to rely on Jefferson, Pierce, and Green to play 40 minutes every game. This will affect how much they will score.

Sounds great. That's what I was thinking as well. Jefferson should be our high scorer. I love the idea of any of those three being capable of scoring 20 on any given night.

[DERRENMATTS]

Well, not only them, but Ricky is also capable of scoring 20 pts on any given night if he gets the opportunity. And if teams ever compeltely shut down Jefferson, Pierce, Green, and Ricky, they will feel the bite of Ryan Gomes.

[Celtic17]

I like the idea of Gerald Green playing the 2. There isn't a PG in the league that can get up high enough to challenge GG's jumper. With his hop, it will be like taking open shots all night. At least I hope so...

[DERRENMATTS]

Gerald will be a mismatch wherever he plays. But moreso if he plays SG. He's quick enough to play that spot and has the ability to handle the ball like a 2guard. He's very quick getting off the ground and releasing his silky smooth jumper. I like his potential more than Jason Richardson's, but Gerald needs to show the ability to attack the rim off the dribble in order to maximize his total game. I don't want him only taking jumpers and scoring off of fast breaks.

[Celtic17]

G2

The replacement.