Belongs to the Boston Celtics. I was really, really excited by the play of our entire bench yesterday. Really good. Leon Powe looks like he knows he's an NBA talent now. Watching him just bulldoze Theo Ratliff out of the way and lay it in was really great to see. Plus, he looks absolutely ripped. He was really overpowering people out there. Impressive stuff.
I now have a clay effigy of Bill Walker in my basement, and I pray to it regularly. Nothing more need be said.
POB looked like a very legitimate backup. I love his length, and he seems to be well conditioned, which is very important for a 7 footer (they have a lot of mass to move). He is also very athletic. I didn't really believe that hype until yesterday, but that alley-oop he caught.... wow. It just looked so fluid and easy. He reached back about 2 feet, caught the ball with one hand, and slammed it through clean and HARD. The backboard was shaking for about 8 seconds after the play.
Darius Miles, while he still does that stupid thing where he taps his forehead after every basket, looked like he had retained a great deal of his athleticism. The alley-oop he finished, while it wasn't awe-inspiring, and didn't require a super leap (as Tommy said), was still a very athletic play. He had to contort himself to finish that play properly, and that is tough to do when you're trying to catch a lob. Plus, he had that play under the hoop where he jumped from a standstill and laid that ball in from above the cylinder. Quite impressive. I play basketball regularly, and I can only touch the rim with a running start. Granted, I'm 5'10 on a good day, and Darius is 6'8, but STILL. Nice play.
Pruitt looked like he had added about 20 pounds to his frame. That still only gets him up to about 190, but any sort of improvement in that category will help make Pruitt a better player. I like his game a lot. Unfortunately, there just isn't really any space for him to get playing time on this roster.
Scal is truly awful. Everything positive he did yesterday, he immediately negated. Case in point: Scal made that steal, and then immediately threw it away late in the game yesterday.... Luckily, the 76ers failed to score off of the turnover. They missed the layup. Scal then grabbed that board, and proceeded to throw another pass away. The 76ers converted. The work of an artist, Scal. The work of an artist.
Big Baby is obviously a useful player. Unfortunately, I didn't see much improvement in his game. He looked like the same player as he did last year. Still, the good news is that his game was already good enough to make him an 7th or 8th man on an NBA roster.
House was shooting the lights out, and handling the pressure well. He might be unorthodox, but he's a very solid backup PG. I'm happy with him as the primary ballhandler when Rondo goes out.
TA was back to his old form, which is very exciting! He was slashing, leaping, and handling the ball better than before. If he ever plays like he did for that short stretch of games before his second knee injury, then we will have one hell of a bench.
So, to summarize, I am, despite the loss,one hyped-up C's fan. I cannot wait until opening night..... especially since I have tickets!!!
Topic: The Deepest Bench in the League (Read 2611 times)