POB

[Bankshot]

I thought he did ok today.  He didn't hurt the team by being out there.  Had a block, couple of rebounds and a nice hook shot.  I hope Doc keeps feeding him some consistent minutes, no matter how small.  Hopefully he can turn into a good backup at least.  I wouldn't give up on him yet.

[ScoobyDoo]

Good call Bankshot. I was going to make a post about the same thing. I thought he played "very well" and did some very nice things out there in his four minutes:

1. He was asked primarily to keep Evans off the boards while he was in there and I watched only that match up during his time on the floor. He kept Evans off the boards for the most part. No easy task.

2. He affected alot of shots and I think he blocked two on one possession of Philly's.

3. He ran the floor hard and put in good hard effort the entire time.

4. He made a few nice passess and had a very nice, smooth offensive play

5. He went after boards hard, even if he didn't haul down a ton of them.

6. He also showed some growth in the show and drop defense. It looked like he's starting to understand that with his length he can just hedge and show on a pick and roll and then drop and zone with his arms up to halt penetration. This is a critical thing to understand in our defense and something he was missing before. He would rush up so fast the point would go right by him to the rim. Now, at least last night, he really showed well with his length and hedged a few plays and quickly dropped back.

7. He also threw his body around. Not everyone has to be a Perkins, but you do have to be willing to throw around what you have. Alot of times that's enough.

Finally, I am lawys presently reminded how long this kid is around the basket. If he's into a play defensivelya round the rim and he's not blocking a shot he certainly affects shots with his length, no question.

This is the kind of game I would try to gain some momentum with him and give him a shot tomorrow night against Pau. If he's getting abused, pull him and give him a shot the next game against the other team's second unit. If he's doing ok, let him work and gain more confidence. God knows we could use his length.

I also think we might be able to start getting him more minutes by "hiding" his deficeiencies a little by playign him a few more spot minutes with the starters.

As you say, I beleive if nothing else, he could trun into a good back up center for us. I give hims until the end of nexct year. By then you'll know what we've got based on the arc of his progress...or lack thereof.

Again, good call. TP for it as this kid rarely gets any positive feed back on the boards.   

[housecall]

He possibly could matchup with Gasol for a few minutes at a time,because of his length.Its something i would look at if i was Doc.

[ScoobyDoo]

Yeah Housecall , I agree. I "do think" it's a stretch that he could be successful against Pau at this point in his progress and that "he might" get abused but I'd be willing to give hims a quick shot for the main reason that if he does well it could give him a huge confidence boost and help him move along a little.

I wouldn't be worried if he had trouble and it wasn't working...just pull him, explain what happened and then give him a shot against a second unit the next game....

But if we could start getting even 5-10 minutes a game out of him with his length at the five spot, it would be very, very helpful for us. His length really helps us around the rim and it also let's baby and powe wreak more havoc from the four spot.   

[Roy Hobbs]

For all the good stats, POB also picked up two fouls in five minutes.  That's consistent with his play all season long.  You just can't leave a guy who fouls at that rate in the game.

[Chris]

For all the good stats, POB also picked up two fouls in five minutes.  That's consistent with his play all season long.  You just can't leave a guy who fouls at that rate in the game.

And its not just the fouls, its the type of fouls.  He was picking up fouls because he was horribly out of position. 

There of course was also that turnover he caused by running into the ballhandler (I think it may have been Allen).

While he has shown a few skills, he is still a long way away from being truly ready to contribute in any more than an emergency situation.

[housecall]

I don't think a few minutes here and there  is going to cost us the game.How is or will he correct his mistakes unless he is put in the game?I think people sometime overstate his bad play.There are guys playing minutes every night making mistakes.

[ScoobyDoo]

Agreed re the fouls, that is a valid point. However, Kendrick Perkins was incredibly foul prone for the first "four" years of his career. ( I believe he ranked in the top 5 in the NBA in fouls per minute over theose four years and perhpas even was #1 in fouls per minute at times). Should we not have played him and continued to "bring him along"? If we had persueed that path with kendrick and said well, he fouls too much, let's not play him...would he have progressed enough to be the starting center of the NBA champions.

I'm not saying we need to play him 30 minutes a night, all I'm saying is 5-10 minutes a night "when he is doing Ok" and continue to bring him along...if he struggles right away, yank him...just like we did for "four years" with "Kendrick Perkins". kendrick was also incredibly frustrating with his offense and putting the ball on the floor...but with time and game time over four years he has slowly learned not to do those things as much.

I think it's hard not to say that the good things he did on the floor last night, far, far, far outweighed the two fouls which were bad and were, as you correctly stated, due to being out of position, badly.

However, he was in great position on more plays, like when he blocked two shots on one trip or did some nice foul line shows and quick lane drops on others.

You can help the pace of player's progress by rewarding them after good efforts...I think he should get another 5-10 minute opp based on a very good, solid effort last night.

[nickagneta]

Giving credit where credit is due POB did a fabulous job of establishing position on that basket he made. He got the position, held off his defender and positioned his defender under the basket, and finished the turn and lay in. He had a great backdoor pass into Ray Allen that Ray missed the bunny on. He had a block. And I think a couple of rebounds.

But as Roy mentioned he made two quick fouls, though Leon pick up three in less time. The fouls being called were extremely one sided but his were rather egregious and were make ups for his being out of position.

He was lost on the defensive rotations. Go back and watch that. When a rotation was needed he just kind of sat in the paint and waited for a man to come near him and had his eyes following the ball the whole time. His positional defense was atrocious.

For all his hustle he was constantly the last man down the court in both directions. Either he is clueless on when to break, has zero ability to get out of the box quickly or is just plain slow as molasses. You would figure that a man buried on the bench as long as he has been would be flying up and down the court trying to impress.

His lateral movement and footwork is still just awful and he gets so caught up in watching the ball after it is shot that he is constantly getting pushed off the blocks.

He had a couple of decent minutes last night. I'm not saying he didn't. But the lack of anything resembling growth in his effort or knowledge or overall game just is non existent.

[MVP]

POB showed some good things out there last night. He altered maybe 3-4 shots, did better in defending the pick and roll, and the way he ran the floor and sealed Evans was impressive too (credit to TA for not hesitating to pass to POB). Overall he was playing hard. His problem during the stretch was jumping on every pump fake. With his length, he should rarely jump especially when he was switched out on Andre Miller...but that's understandable for a young center who has barely played in the NBA.

POB isn't ready to contribute this year to this team. He is still pretty raw and weak. But I think with a whole offseason being able to work with Clifford Ray and do conditioning with Brian Doo, he could become our 4th big next year if we lose one of Powe/Davis.

[ScoobyDoo]

He has a long way to go, I just prefer to be an optimist, focus on the positive things done as motivation and momentum and continue to keep working on the bad things. I viewed his play last night, even with all the negatives you point out, as a net positive for the team. I am going to go back and watch his four first hapf minutes and see where the core was when he entered and when he left. And I won't just look at well, we were up more so he was good...but rather if he along with the other four guys and their +'s or minuses were able to hold or increase the lead.

I still think he did enough good things to be given a shot at another 5-10 minutes...and the more he plays perhaps the more familiar he'll get with rotations, Leon blew at that too for a season and a half...

[ScoobyDoo]

Agree MVP, I thought he did alter quite a few shots...something we sorely lack after Perk and KG and he made some nice gains on the show on the pick and Roll. Dead on re taking the pump fakes...and him needing to understand with his length he usually will just have to put his hands up to mess with shots...

I did not like this signing initially, but I am seeing slow progress. He has the talent to get their, he just needs conditioning and strength as you said and continued and consistent coaching. I agree re next year.   

[nickagneta]

He has a long way to go, I just prefer to be an optimist, focus on the positive things done as motivation and momentum and continue to keep working on the bad things. I viewed his play last night, even with all the negatives you point out, as a net positive for the team. I am going to go back and watch his four first hapf minutes and see where the core was when he entered and when he left. And I won't just look at well, we were up more so he was good...but rather if he along with the other four guys and their +'s or minuses were able to hold or increase the lead.

I still think he did enough good things to be given a shot at another 5-10 minutes...and the more he plays perhaps the more familiar he'll get with rotations, Leon blew at that too for a season and a half...

Save yourself the time. He came in Celts up 12 and left Celtics up 13.

But ask yourself this question. If the Celtics could land Rasho Nestorvic or Zaza Pachulia this off season for the MLE or less, should the Celtics even bother with the effort of trying to bring back POB? Because if they can land one of those two guys I say sign them and cut POB because I really don't see his ceiling being anywhere near where either of those two players currently are, especially Pachulia who I think still has some growth in his game left.

[papa shuttlesworth]

Giving credit where credit is due POB did a fabulous job of establishing position on that basket he made. He got the position, held off his defender and positioned his defender under the basket, and finished the turn and lay in. He had a great backdoor pass into Ray Allen that Ray missed the bunny on. He had a block. And I think a couple of rebounds.

POB's passing from the high post is always fun to watch.  It seems like he has a nice pass to a backdoor cut every time he plays.

I thought he played pretty well last night.  It would be nice to see him get 5 minutes per night, just to work on things and to see if there is actual progress.

[housecall]

For all the good stats, POB also picked up two fouls in five minutes.  That's consistent with his play all season long.  You just can't leave a guy who fouls at that rate in the game.

And its not just the fouls, its the type of fouls.  He was picking up fouls because he was horribly out of position. 

There of course was also that turnover he caused by running into the ballhandler (I think it may have been Allen).

While he has shown a few skills, he is still a long way away from being truly ready to contribute in any more than an emergency situation.

I think thats being a little picky.If he had been playing consistently during the season then i would expected better... this was POB first set of quality minutes on the floor this season.I didn't see anyone ripping Perkins(starter) apart,and he made some mistakes.