I see now what dannys plan was, lineup is set

[Birdbrain]

I have a feeling Giddens will be in the 10 man rotation at the start of the season.

[vjcsmoke]

Kurt Thomas is a pretty good player, but it looks like he is leaning to resigning with the Spurs.
The other thing to consider is that KT is only 6-9, so he would be undersized against centers, and he only has the quickness to guard the 4-5 position.
Perkins is a pretty solid center, but he has weaknesses to his game and POB is just a huge question mark.

[BudweiserCeltic]

I really like Kurt Thomas, but I'd preffer if we went with someone with more length... he kinda replicates Powe's and Davis' role in this team, though a bit of a better match-up against Centers (though his size works against him in the position at times). Pop couldn't use him against the Lakers, so that could be a concern.

I also want a bit of more speed from the second unit, pushing the ball and such... changing the tempo from the usual half-court type from the starters.

[Tradetime]

I still like the idea of bringing in Shaun Livingston to camp. That way we could legitimately have House play the 2 guard full-time in the second unit.

[bucknersrevenge]

I still like the idea of bringing in Shaun Livingston to camp. That way we could legitimately have House play the 2 guard full-time in the second unit.

we can still do that with pruitt. and tony can even handle it a little bit.

[wolfceltic215]

I still like the idea of bringing in Shaun Livingston to camp. That way we could legitimately have House play the 2 guard full-time in the second unit.

C - Perk/O'Bryant
PF - KG/Powe-Davis (depends on matchups)
SF - PP/ Walker
SG - RA/TA/Giddens?NBDL
PG - RR/House/Pruitt

IL - Scal?!

I think we've covered all positions. I'd really love for Pruitt to earn his minutes this season. Give him his chance. I like Walker too, his work ethic is unbelievable. He had no contract, just came from surgery, and yet he was already practicing. Good kid. Giddens?! Kinda don't like the way he handled things. Maybe we can trade him! lol. I say let this lineup show what it's capable during the regular season, and when we see deficiencies, we still have half of the MLE to spend and we can always sign veterans at the vet minimum like the way we did to PJ last Feb.     

[CoachBo]

It better not be set. 


Still need an actual 2nd C. 


Still need a larger backup 3. 


And still want a backup PG that does more then shoot. 

Sign on. We are in HUGE trouble if this roster is set. No credible backup for an injury prone center, no credible backup at the three and still a tad short at the point.

This is not a championship team as constituted.

[wolfceltic215]

It better not be set. 


Still need an actual 2nd C. 


Still need a larger backup 3. 


And still want a backup PG that does more then shoot. 

Sign on. We are in HUGE trouble if this roster is set. No credible backup for an injury prone center, no credible backup at the three and still a tad short at the point.

This is not a championship team as constituted.

We had no credible backup for Perk last season, Pollard was almost always out of sight. We only had Powe and BBD, yet we managed. This O'Bryant experiment wouldn't be so bad. I'm sure he'll be able to contribute more than Pollard last season. He'll learn so much from Clifford KG and Perk. We were romping and stomping with House as backup PG last year, can't see why he can't do it again this season. Pruitt just needs his minutes to prove himself that he can be the backup PG to Rondo or be the 3rd string PG. The most vulnerable spot at our roster is the backup 3. Posey's departure really hurts, but we gotta move on. We can surely try out Walker for the early part of the season, and if he doesn't deliver, we can surely find ways as the season unfolds. Just give everyone a chance. Be open-minded and think positive.     

[CoachBo]

Actually, Pollard played quality defense behind Perkins until he was injured. And House struggled handling the basketball until the playoffs. As for Tony, I'm going to have to see him suddenly morph into an intelligent basketball player to believe it.

The problems will be exacerbated, frankly, if Ainge counts on Giddens or particularly Walker in the rotation. Giddens might be ready to play; Walker has bad knees and problems controlling his emotions.

With all due respect, I'm a coach. I don't deal in blind optimism. I deal in facts and results. My assessment of this bench is that we cannot win a title with it.

[MVP]

Our bench at the start of last year was: Posey, House, TA(just a few months after surgery), Big Baby + Pruitt(unproven rookies), Powe(unproven 2nd year player), Pollard(injured for most of the year), Scalabrine and Wallace(undrafted rookie).

Right now, our bench is: House, TA(should be healthy starting the season), Walker + Giddens (unproven rookies), Powe(3rd year player who had a great 2nd half of the season), Big Baby(2nd year player who showed good glimpses and played crucial minutes), Pruitt(2nd year unproven pg), O'Bryant(3rd year unproven center with potential) and Scalabrine.

So basically we lost Posey, but should expect improvements from Powe, Big Baby, TA and Pruitt. Also, either Giddens or Walker could give us Big Baby like contributions. I don't see the big worry about the bench, we are fine right now. If we can get an upgrade in one of the positions, sure. But, starting out the year, I think Danny wants the younger players to get the minutes off the bench and develop as the season goes along just like Big Baby and Powe did last year.

If we sign both Giddens and Walker to contracts, we'll gave 14 players under contract. I think DA will want to keep the extra spot open for some flexibility in case of buyouts or PJ deciding to come back. The only way I see us adding someone else during the offseason is if we send Walker to Europe.

[Jon]

I think the simple trouble with the roster is that there are a lot of unknowns. 

Could O'Bryant and Allen be suitable replacements for Brown and Posey?
 
Will Eddie House fit in better next year because the team knows how to play with him or will teams exploit him as a liability even more after last year?
   
Will Powe and Baby continue to get better or will they take a step back as teams become more aware of them?

Can Pruitt, Giddens, or Walker contribute at all to this team?
 
Will Rondo and Perkins plateau or will they take it to the next level?

Will the Big Three benefit from a year of playing together or will they start to get more selfish now that they've actually won a title? 

Can Brian Scalabrine be successfully moved from a player to Lucky the Leprechaun's sidekick? 

We just don't know. 

And I think that's what makes me a little nervous.  Given the relatively narrow window this team has to win, you'd like a little more certainty about what you're going to get out of it.  Still, to some degree, this is the nature of sports.  And we're just going to have to wait and see.

Ultimately, this team should still be very good.  The starting lineup is superb and will be playing most of the time when the game matters.  I just hope that if the reserves are not as good as advertised that Doc resists the urge to overplay the starters in the regular season.  Even if this team doesn't have the best record in the East, they can still win in the playoffs.   

[Triboy16]

Another thing to talk about is who in the nba has an amazing bench anyways?? guys like bobby simmons, posey actually all want to start. When you pay a guy all of your mle that is a borderline starter(for example perk)

When you pay a guy 2.5 million a year that is a bench guy . So what i'am getting at is you could have 3 or 4 2.5 million guys(quality of eddie house) and still feel unsafe, unless you get for example a reggie miller or pj brown who wants to come out of retirement and that aint happening or its rare

Lets just use the bench we have for now. Devean George i heard might be interested in signing with us?? the guy avg 3 points and 2 rebounds for the mavs last year , and helped them do didly squat. Do you really want to pay him even a vet min to join our team??

Our bench is pretty much identical last year except yeah obryant is no pj brown(but he is a presence , can rebound and block has nasty length) , pruitt will do some chores sam cassell did and lastly posey could be the biggest loss but i'm willing to give giddens a try. (giddens if he didn't mess up and was still at kentucky was it? could have been easily a lottery pick this year in the draft)

[silvershamrocker]

Who has a significantly better bench than us right now?

House/Pruitt
T. Allen/Giddens
Walker/Scal
Powe/Davis
O'Bryant

It's not the best bench in the league, but it's not terrible.

[BballTim]

Actually, Pollard played quality defense behind Perkins until he was injured. And House struggled handling the basketball until the playoffs. As for Tony, I'm going to have to see him suddenly morph into an intelligent basketball player to believe it.

The problems will be exacerbated, frankly, if Ainge counts on Giddens or particularly Walker in the rotation. Giddens might be ready to play; Walker has bad knees and problems controlling his emotions.

With all due respect, I'm a coach. I don't deal in blind optimism. I deal in facts and results. My assessment of this bench is that we cannot win a title with it.

  I'd agree with your assessment if we didn't have our starters to grind the other teams into submission for 35+ minutes a game. We'll probably add another big at some point, but with what we have now we're a 60+ win team with as good a chance to win the title as any team in the league.

[wahz]

Its just a minutes game. And as it is now, its going to go down about like this for Reg season minutes:

c Perk 28, O Bryant 12, KG 8
f KG 30, BB/Powe 18
f PP 36, TA 12
G RA 35, TA 10, House 3
G Rajon 34, House 14

The keys to absorbing Poseys minutes will be that we won't go small as often; KG and Clifford Ray and TT will improve O Bryant drastically; Perk will improve and be on the court more; BB and Powe will be solid right away and compete for minutes; TA will improve; Rajon will improve and be on the court more; and House will be his usual self. Every minute is accounted for.

We can start worrying about the playoffs now but frankly until we use this rotation I am not sure we know which kind of player we need to add to this mix. Clutch shooter? Lock down defender? Someone to compete with O Bryant for backup center minutes? One of those but until we see what TA's progress is, and how BB, Powe, and OBryant do, I don't think we know. My wag is we will need, at critical moments in the playoffs, someone to spread the floor so the answer will be we need a clutch shooter to come in with a lineup of KG, PP, RA, and House. But I am saying this because I think BB and Powe will be fine, OBryant will imrpove and be more than adequate and maybe a big surprise, and I think Tony will be very good, a few too many TO's but very good overall.