Scalabrine's biggest problem this year

[Spilling Green Dye]

After watching "Scally" the past few years and going from loathing him to liking him, he has obviously not produced this year.  But, I don't think that's entirely his fault, and I think I've figured out why he has dropped off.

For starters, to say that he has a negligible role on this team is simply not true.  With the salaries of the starters the bench is somewhat thin, and as a result Scalabrine comes off the bench to play PF/SF. 

Scalabrine found success the past two years because he was on the floor with players who were very good offensively.  His biggest asset has always been that he makes very few mistakes, plays decent defense, knows when to defer his shot, and can hit an open 3 (the only thing of the 4 he isn't doing this year).  For an example of this, go to 82games and check out his stats from last year when he played a large amounts of minutes with the starters and you'll see that they were very successful with him on the floor.  But, due to injuries and the current roster rotation, Scally is now left on the floor with less options.  The result?  His inability to score on his own (at all) is highlighted.

Scally has never been a good rebounder, so why are people complaining about this now?  Probably b/c he is holding back the Celtics in other ways he hadn't before.  Don't expect him to start rebounding now.

The solution?  Either trade him or only play him with the best Celtics.  I would only include him in a trade if the Celtics got back someone who can defend the quick PF or long SF position.  Wallace, BBD, Shelden, and the rest of the bench can't guard this position.  Holding onto him isn't all that bad in the long term (of the season and post season), but clearly in the short term he should not be on the court with the second unit.  Thoughts?

[vinnie]

Scalabrine is useless on this team. Waste of space on the bench and cannot wait until he is long gone and hard to find.

[KCattheStripe]

Scal's biggest problem this year is he keeps waking up as Brian Scalabrine.

[celticinorlando]

scal's biggest problem is we still have to play him

[DannyZ]

Scalabrine found success the past two years because he was on the floor with players who were very good offensively.  His biggest asset has always been that he makes very few mistakes, plays decent defense, knows when to defer his shot, and can hit an open 3 (the only thing of the 4 he isn't doing this year). 

Whoa, whoa, whoa.....   Found success?  He's a train wreck.  he was slightly less of a train wreck last year.  This year he is a full fledged train wreck again.

He has 12 games this year where he was scoreless (including tonight in 23 minutes).  He has 13 games where he grabbed no rebounds.  He has played in 23 games.  So over 50% of the time he gets either no points or no rebounds.

He is 392nd in the league in scoring per 48 minutes.  The list only goes to 415.  That includes everyone who has played even a minute this year.

http://www.nba.com/statistics/player/Scoring.jsp?season=22009&league=00&conf=OVERALL&splitScope=PER48&qualified=N&position=0&splitType=9&yearsExp=-1&splitDD=&pager.offset=350


He is 167th out of 168 in rebounds per 48 minutes among forwards.  He managed to beat out Jarvis Hayes who has played two minutes in one game this year.

http://www.nba.com/statistics/player/Rebounds.jsp?season=22009&league=00&conf=OVERALL&qualified=N&position=2&splitType=9&yearsExp=-1&sortOrder=7&splitDD=All+Teams&pager.offset=150

[DannyZ]

I should mention that Scal's rebound rate is 404 out of 415 of all players in the league, including point guards.

Eddie House grabs rebounds at a better rate than Scal.

http://www.nba.com/statistics/player/Rebounds.jsp?season=22009&league=00&conf=OVERALL&qualified=N&position=0&splitType=9&yearsExp=-1&sortOrder=7&splitDD=All+Teams&pager.offset=400

[Who]

Scalabrine is a solid 12th man who gives you some lineup flexibility.

[DannyZ]

Scal should never be sent in to guard a power forward unless all other power forwards have fouled out or are in street clothes.  Sheldon should always get in ahead of Scal at 4.  I understand Scal playing some minutes at small forward, because we only have one true small forward left on our roster (Tony Allen).

[Kiorrik]

Scal's biggest problem this year is he keeps waking up as Brian Scalabrine.

ROFL :')

TP.

[Brickowski]

His biggest problem is that he sucks.  Everything else is correctible.

[celticinorlando]

His biggest problem is that he sucks.  Everything else is correctible.

thank you for the laugh on what has been a crappy C's 3 games to witness

[Change]

His biggest problem is that he sucks.  Everything else is correctible.

ha ha ha ha ha. Love this blog

[KCattheStripe]

Scal's biggest problem this year is he keeps waking up as Brian Scalabrine.

ROFL :')

TP.

Thank you thank you, Don't forget to tip your veal and try the waitress.

[Tradetime]

I very much enjoyed watching Scal get abused by whomever he guarded tonight, watching guys blow by him, or the typical jump with his arms still mostly clutched to his sides as if being held down by super glue with the "ooh, I thought I could get to that one" rebound effort we all know him by.

This game, hopefully, will alert Ainge and company of just how good our current bench is, and they will go before the deadline and improve it.

[CelticG1]

Every player plays better when they play with the best players on the team around them. Look at Tony Allen. Theres a major reason why he is doing a great job and thats because he has been playing with great players instead of having House and Scal and who knows who else passing him the ball. The thing is I still think that almost every other player on our bench would still produce more playing with the starters than Scal would even. I also think that all of our bench players would (and they are) play better than Scal in limited minutes of the bench. So basically I think Scal is the least productive bench player if he is playing with starters and least productive bench player playing with other bench players. I feel bad because I actually had some hope for him after last year (the playoffs) but I think he must have been playing out of his mind (which still wasn't anything to write home about). Scal is pretty much giving reasons night in and night out to not playing. He's pretty much begging Doc to put in the young guys for him cause i honestly think that Doc (a player's coach) has been sticking to him out of respect but sooner or later I don't know if Doc will be able to do that. Think back to our championship year and Scals got decent minutes during the season, he even started in games when KG was out. But in the end enough was enough and he didn't even make the playoff roster over a rookie (BBD) who wasn't a factor at all that season (especially in the playoffs) It's only a matter of time before something happens