if in four years the celtics starting five is rondo, perk, powe, walker, and tony allen danny ainge should save time and book his hotel room for the lottery early.
BB mentions that this group cant shoot, but understates it. as a defense, i would sag off rondo and probably allen. make them prove they can make jump shots night in and night out. right now, they cant. and i doubt they will ever be known as sharpshooters in their careers.
rondo and allen's scoring would drop ldramatically if they couldnt drive to the basket. and without shooters to spread the floor defenses will sag and make drives to the basket much more difficult.
walker? we really dont know yet what he can do so i dont think it is fair to put him in the "he can shoot" category yet.
what of powe and perk? pack the lane with defenders who dont have to guard great outside shooters and watch how often they block powe's shots, which happens already pretty often. as for perk, yeah, were i the other teams i would love to let him try to create his own shot game after game.
i like perk a lot, but i dont think he can consistently handle a double team or has that many moves that he can dazzle defenders and score regularly.
the starting five suggested above would have real troubles on offense and get beaten consistently i think.
now then, if you are saying that powe, walker, allen and maybe giddens are BENCH players...then i think you have an argument for what a good bench the celtics will have.
let's face it. even with the scoring brilliance of KG, ray allen, and paul pierce the celtics did not cake walk through the playoffs last year. it took all three stars to help take pressure off one another AND the rest of the team to do it.
it seems to me that the best hope for the celtics future lies in ainge's stated willingness to unload aging vets when their time is up and retool. (ala his bird and mchale statement.)
be it with free agents that the team can afford when allen et al leave....
or trading expiring salaries for younger players or draft picks....
or using the young celtic talent to make bigger deals happen...
the current non-big-three roster of the celtics is unlikely to deliver very satisfying basketball, let along championships.
