What our 09-10 bench will need

[Who]

I don't think Armstrong's that bad defensively, which is why I'd be okay with him, but his offense is absolutely atrocious. That's why I would want to get Julian Wright out of NO if I were to take on a long term contract, and a number one if I were to put Davis in there in a sign and trade (Roy has pointed out that it will be next to impossible to do a 1-for-1 S&T with Davis, but combined with other players, it courld work). Armstrong to me is pretty much a throw in. That's why I like Scal, TA, Davis, maybe Pruitt (though I'm just as inclined to simply cut him) and cash for Posey (or Peterson), J Wright, Armstrong and a number one. Then pick up a veteran power forward to be the primary big off the bench until Powe comes back. At some point, we'd have to make a cut (revisiting my prior post, I have 16 guys - Perk, KG, Pierce, Ray, Rondo, House, Armstrong, Posey, Wright, Marbury, Powe, Walker, Giddens, Collison, Carroll, FA PF) but that just puts the pressure on Walker, Giddens and Carroll to earn roster spots.

I'm a big fan of Julian Wright.

Wright just needs to slow down a bit on the court, learn to play at different speeds ... then he'll blow up. It's well within his reach to become a better version of Trevor Ariza, and to do so within the near future ... I love his man-to-man defense + his energy/hustle. Good all-round skill set. Very nice player.

[cordobes]

So it's obvious that our two real question marks are the backup pg position and center position.

I disagree. House is a very competent backup PG (and an atrocious backup wing).

Our biggest needs are a big and a wing.

2.Scal will be able to fill in behind KG until Powe comes back from injury, thus making it unnecessary to find another backup power forward.

I don't understand the need to separate the PF/C positions.

Scal is a 5th big in a team with a good frontcourt rotation.

You can't depend on Powe to come back - we don't know if/when will he come back (predictions at this point are merely guesses) or how's he going to look when he comes back. If he accepts a 2 year deal for the minimum with only half of the contract guaranteed, then it's worth to waste a roster spot on him. But we can't enter the season counting on Powe to produce. If he does, it's a bonus.

4. Bill Walker is ready to take some major minutes from Pierce.

Another major mistake. That's the kind of assumptions that put us in that situation last season. I'm hoping Ainge has learned a lesson.

Personally, I think Billy showed some real potential in the limited minutes he was in last year. He shot at a very high percentage, and was averaging over 14 points per 36 minutes. He's athletic too, so he has the tools to be a good defensive player. He's already a better option than Tony Allen, and has plenty of room to grow. Playing him would a)develop him as a player b)allow the team to concentrate their acquisition efforts on more important pieces for our bench.

I'll never understand why people see so many positives on Walker. He was appallingly bad. Before the season many were saying he was NBA ready; what I was seeing in his college games was a very raw player, very far away from being anywhere near the level of a NBA contributor. Maybe next season he'll be ready. However, we'll have to wait and see. No reasons whatsoever to assume that right now.

We need to fill our center position with a shot-blocker. Since our bench will be taken off the dribble repeatedly, this is our biggest need. A good shot-blocker can make up for poor defensive play from everybody else. Anything else we get out of our bench center will just be an added bonus.

Completely disagree. Shot-blocking is over-rated. The correlation between shot-blocking and good defence is minimal. In fact, many bad defensive teams are great shot-blocking teams: precisely because they're so vulnerable inside. On the top of that, we already have Perkins and Garnett, two good shot-blockers. Shot-blocking is a nice skill, but we should be looking for a sound defender, able to guard the post and the screen/roll.

We need a backup pg that can really shoot the 3. This will relieve the pressure off of everybody else, especially guys like Powe who need space to be effective.

I agree. That's why we have House.

Also, it forces opposing teams into a tough decision: do they stick their best off-the-ball defender onto House or our point guard?

Well, in that case, it's obvious for House, as the point-guard must be handling the ball. But they won't care: they'll simply outscore and outrebound us.

If we're going to pair House with a PG, it needs to be someone like Jason Kidd, Ricky Rubio or Shawn Livingston.

Our bench needs two things: range and shot blocking.

Our bench needs quality and productive players. Ainge should be looking for a quality backup big and a quality backup wing.

[no kidding]

I'd overpay to pry Gortat away from the Magic, and look for the best defensive small forward I could find in the bargain bin. This forward doesn't have to score, but he has to be quick and smart.

[Gainesville Celtic]

4. Bill Walker is ready to take some major minutes from Pierce.

Another major mistake. That's the kind of assumptions that put us in that situation last season. I'm hoping Ainge has learned a lesson.

Personally, I think Billy showed some real potential in the limited minutes he was in last year. He shot at a very high percentage, and was averaging over 14 points per 36 minutes. He's athletic too, so he has the tools to be a good defensive player. He's already a better option than Tony Allen, and has plenty of room to grow. Playing him would a)develop him as a player b)allow the team to concentrate their acquisition efforts on more important pieces for our bench.

I'll never understand why people see so many positives on Walker. He was appallingly bad. Before the season many were saying he was NBA ready; what I was seeing in his college games was a very raw player, very far away from being anywhere near the level of a NBA contributor. Maybe next season he'll be ready. However, we'll have to wait and see. No reasons whatsoever to assume that right now.

I tend to fall on the side that says the sample side is too small right now to be definitive on Walker.

Given that I'd rather go into the season with him as our 5th or 6th wing guy --- and be pleasantly surprised if he overperforms. But I agree that assuming he's ready sets us up to be disappointed.

[yoursweatersux]

Blah blah blah, I found a way to be as obnoxious as possible while disagreeing with someone by following up everything they said with stuff like "yet another huge mistake!"

I'm not going to analyze everything you said item by item, as that's obnoxious, so instead let me just ask you a few questions.

Did you think it was terrible defensively when House was paired up with Marbury?

http://www.82games.com/0809/0809BOSP.HTM

If you look closely, when House was paired with Marbury the defense was still pretty good, it was just the offense that sucked, which validates 3 of my original points.

Also, were you aware that every game Scal started this season, we won? He's not as terrible an option as you think he is.

Lastly, have you ever seen the difference between Rondo playing against a team without a shot blocker, and a team with a shot blocker? Shot blockers discourage drives to the rim, and cause people to hesitate or avoid it altogether. If you have a team that gets taken off the dribble, shot blockers encourage the pullup jumper. Have you ever watched a game when Scal was playing as our "center"? People take it right to him without hesitating. When Perkins is in, that crap never happens. Yeah, perk only averages 2 blocks a game, wich doesn't seem like much out of the dozens of possessions played in a single game. But the defense is 100% different when he's in simply because of his presence. It's also why Yao Ming is so huge defensively for the Rockets. Trust me, it aint because he can play pick and roll defense.

[snively]

I also don't see the rationale for projecting a rotation ready Bill Walker.  I think the only reason Doc put him on the floor was that he followed up blown coverages with hard fouls, showed little fear, and moved the ball on offense.  He seems like a nice, hard-working kid with some intelligence, but he didn't show much in the way of roleplayer skills.  His shot is iffy, his handle is iffy, his defense is spotty and he doesn't create turnovers.  Until he can do one of those things well, he doesn't belong in the rotation.  He's just a guy who can give you 6 fouls on a rough night and dunk off of broken plays.

I also ditto the Julian Wright love.  I've only seen him a handful of times, but he was always active and disruptive defensively and a blur in the open floor

[cordobes]

Blah blah blah, I found a way to be as obnoxious as possible while disagreeing with someone by following up everything they said with stuff like "yet another huge mistake!"

I'm not going to analyze everything you said item by item, as that's obnoxious, so instead let me just ask you a few questions.

You shouldn't be posting here if you're going to find people that analyze the points you make and disagree with them "obnoxious".

I don't think Scal is a terrible option. In fact, I think I was the only person in this board saying he'd be getting regular minutes in the rotation in the pre-season when almost everybody was asking him to be cut. I said Doc should work him into the rotation before Doc did. Where were you then? Still, Scal is ideally a 5th big in a good team.

I've already written enough about the irrelevance of those kind of stats, especially with such a small sample. And once again, the biggest problem is in the playoffs. House and Walker as the backup wings is a nightmare.

I'm not saying that shot-blocking isn't nice. Just that if you're going to rely on shot-blocking to make up for the deficiencies on fundamental defence, your overall defence is going to stink. And as I said, we already have 2 solid shot-blocker on Perkins and KG, I don't see why it's essential to have another one (your rant about Perkins makes me question if you actually read my post).

[paintitgreen]

To back up cordobes and counter yss, I think Houston's defense is much better with Chuch Hayes, at 6'7" and not a shotblocking threat, than with Yao. Yao just makes a phenomenal difference on offense. I also think shotblocking is somewhat overrated but I do see yss's point. The fact is, the Celtics were terrified of going to the rim for the first 10 quarters of the Orlando series. That's why they lost Games 1 and 3. In Game 2, they won mostly because Eddie House shot the lights out and the D tightened up. Pierce started taking the ball to the rim in the second half of Game 3, and that's what got them going for Game 4 and the first half of Game 6 (win or no win, Game 5 was just plain ugly). That shotblocking by Howard is the reason why.

Of course, it's not like we're gonna find a Dwight Howard type for bargain money on the free agent market.