Celtics sign Harangody

[Jon]

Well, I won't weigh in on his upside yet, since we've yet to see him play a preseason game, let along a regular season one.  However, I do think it'll be interesting to see what effect he has on Baby over the year. 

If Luke plays well (and to some extent if Perk recovers well), we could see Baby traded at the deadline.  Not only could Baby be a valuable chip as the playoffs approach, you also have to wonder how much Danny is willing to spend to keep Baby around. 

I like him, I really do.  But I don't think he's a big enough part of the future to justify giving him a big new contract. 

[kofanis0880]

Harangody is trash... waste of a signing, but we all knew it was coming. Career D-Leaguer maybe a 10th player on the bench nothing special. Definitely an improvement over Scalabrine though as the customary roster token.

I hope Sims beasts in training camp and steals the spot away from him

Do you think that we are going to be able to sign 15 starters to play for us?! Don't you think that we need role players? Bench guys? What do you think BBD is? He's a career bench player. At best a team is going to have 7-8 "starter caliber" players. Then a handful of career bench guys. Then a couple of "upside" guys. Harangody has upside. He could move into that productive career bench mode very easily. He even has a chance of being a borderline starter. He did put up some huge numbers in a tough conference. He came into the summer league and put up great stats against some good competition. To say the guy has no upside is pretty ridiculous.

When did i ever say we were gonna sign 15 starters. I'm not one of those idiots trying to trade for Caron Butler or JR Smith to be the solution to our back up wing hole. Harangody does not have upside. If he did he would have been drafted a lot earlier given his college resume. The whole entire draft is based on upside and potential. His best case scenario is a below average Austin Croshere. I would give 50-1 odds that and put up a significant amount of money that Harangody will never be a "borderline starter"

Harangody was great in college and was also the very good in summer league however, this does not in anyway transfer to the NBA. Would it not make sense that he would put up very good numbers against the same players he was beating up on during his 4 years at ND??? The summer league means almost nothing. During training camp means a lot more than summer camp.

I see. So BBD had no upside whatsoever since he was drafted in the second round. Neither did Ryan Gomes. Neither did Michael Redd, or Rashard Lewis, or Manu Ginobli, or Carlos Boozer or Gilbert Arenas….

All second round picks have some limitation. Otherwise they'd be lottery picks. Using your theory about playing well against college players and summer league guys not translating, how exactly would you like to judge a players likely success?! His favorite color? How he cuts his hair?

Do you really want to peddle that nonsense that obviously comes from some personal bias against him? Be serious!

I never said 2nd rounders couldn't have upside. All I said were that Hansbrough doesn't, and if he does it doesn't account to much. All of the underclassmen and internationals selected in the second round are based on upside i.e. Bill Walker. It is extremely extremely rare that a 4-year senior gets drafted and amounts to something that late especially when they have limitations Harangody has.

Glen Davis was scouted by many teams and received many first round grades if you remember he was expected to go in the 20-30 range. He was drafted 32nd??? He was two spots away from  being in the first round very similar to DeJuan Blair. Most people thought Harangody would go undrafted. There is a big difference between 32nd and 52nd. I love Gomes but he did not have a lot of potential coming into the NBA, at the time no one though it was a bad pick because they knew he had the athletic ability to play two positions solidly and played the college game like a seasoned vet. Since 2000 only Gomes, Ramon Sessions, Kyle Korver, and Luis Scola (who was drafted in 2002 but came into the league in 2007) have done anything in the NBA. Harangody is  most likely going to be the next Rick Rickert/Brandon Hunter than Luis Scola.

Lewis and Ginobili are different. For one Lewis came straight out of high-school and was expected to be a lottery pick. He was all upside and no substance. Ginobili was drafted to store away for few years... (he was drafted in 1999 and made his debut in 2002).

Arenas and Ginobili were both very high 2nd round picks if I remember correctly. Arenas fell because he was (and still is) highly erratic and Boozer because he was getting beat in the pre-draft camps. Michael Redd was first rounder and potential star at OSU his first two years, but killed his draft stock. He was also a completely different player in college then he is in the NBA. He completely reinvented himself, Rondo should do whatever Redd did in college right now it would help his shooting tremendously.

Not only all second rounders have limitations, basically, all picks do. The reason you don't judge it on summer league is because for the most part these are the same players they have been playing against for the last 3-4 years in college... The NBA game is totally different. Harangody should be putting up similar numbers in College to what he does in the summer league, it is the same talent just redistributed. He was also the best player on a team filled with low ceiling prospects and euro-vets and unknowns. It would have been disappointing if he didn't produce. You judge a players likely success based on their the attributes skill-set and those of the position the player plays. Harangody's best strength is his effort level and strength, while that is good it does not make up for his lack of athleticism ball-handling and length of which at least one is necessary to play the 3 or 4 position.

I may have personal bias towards him, however, it is better than having the green goggles that a lot of you guys seem to have. I think Stanley Robinson would have been the perfect fit.


Oh and Smitty, I know Tyler is not an athlete but when you compare the two it is night and day.

It's green goggles to say that a guy who averaged 22 pts and 9 boards in the big east has upside?! He's the only guy in Big East HISTORY to average 20 and 10 in conference play!

Why don't you be honest with everyone on here and tell us what your bias is because either you have absolutely no clue about basketball, or there is something deeper. The reason he isn't lottery is because he's a tweener. Because he's a bit unorthodox. Because he's not the quickest a foot. To say that he has no upside though is just a stupid comment.

It's Green Goggles to look past his obvious deficiencies and just excuse them.  Could it be that I see for what he is? An athletically challenged tweener who is too short and to play the NBA 4 and two slow for the 3. What is your love affair with him? You can't just say because he was the focal point on an overrated ND team (in what many would say was an overrated big east conference) it is going to translate to the NBA.

He was a great college basketball player and he was built for that game. College basketball and NBA basketball are totally different. A guy like Harangody is very capable of dominating in college basketball, however, his game does not translate to the NBA at all. Although he may have a high BBIQ and play with a high amount of effort this will not make up for his lack of length or athleticism. With that being said, I would rather have him on the team than Scalabrine.

I think this right here is a key point and probably the crux of the argument. Harangody does not have much upside. However, he has a higher probability than most prospects at reaching his maximum potential (which is also lower than most prospects).

[bucknersrevenge]

Well the league has been littered with guys that have fit the "too short to be 4s and too slow to be 3s" mold. And these guys are all backups somewhere. To me there's no reason why Harangody can't carve out a nice niche in the league as a backup 4 if he plays with intelligence and stays within his game. He already seems to know exactly where to be on pick and rolls and this is a pick and roll league. He's got a decent turnaround j and pretty strong finisher in the post. Will he pick up a defense enough to get by as a bench player? That's the real question. And considering what passes for defense on most teams in this league I'd say he could. As a Ryan Anderson/Ersan Ilyasova/Linus Kleiza type, I think Luke ould wind up an effective bench guy.

[moiso]

Not sure why he has to be compared to strictly white guys.  He reminds me a little of Ryan Gomes.

[Surferdad]

Not sure why he has to be compared to strictly white guys.  He reminds me a little of Ryan Gomes.

I would say a lot. There are many similarities.  In Gomes' case, he knew he didn't have the size the play the 4, so he learned how to hit jumpshots, which helped him play the 3.  Ryan is also a good defender.  I think Gomes could represent what Harangody's upside might be.

[Birdbrain]

I have a dream where one day basketball players will be judged not by the color of their skin but by the quality of their game.

Or school they went to.  The south ..

I think his original premise is a failure so the rest of the discussion seems useless.  When your starting point is arguing that he shouldn't have been signed because he's at best the 10th man on this squad and think that's actually a draw back there is no where to go but down.