Big Three Must Stay Healthy

All last offseason and through the regular season, we stressed how important it was for Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen to stay healthy if we wanted to win a championship. If we lost any one of them for a long stretch of time, it could have been very detrimental to the team. Ok so I know the team was 9-2 when Garnett missed 11 games throughout the season, but still. The camraderie that the team, especially these three, built right off the bat in Rome was spectacular. They weren’t just teammates when they were at practice or games, but they became the best of friends and family on and off the floor. To lose any of them would be like watching the Patriots with Tom Brady.

The reason I bring this up is because it was announced today that Gilbert Arenas had more surgery on his knee and won’t be back until late December or early January. Watching the Wizards without Gilbert is like watching a totally different team, and some (myself included), actually think that they play better without him. Sure, Agent-0 is capable of lighting up the scoreboard himself, but when the teammates just stand around watching “the show”, that can be very ineffective. When Gil isn’t in the lineup, Eddie Jordan has his team running his Princeton Offense and it’s much more fun to watch, and I’m sure to play, when everyone is getting involved. They still have two all-star caliber players in Caron Butler and Antawn Jamison, a young big man in Andre Blatche, a pretty good pass-first point guard in Antonio Daniels to go along with their serviceable big men. Heck, the Wizards did beat the Celtics in back-to-back games without Arenas!

I’m just saying that it’s interesting to look at another trio of all-star players in Arenas, Butler and Jamison and know that perhaps the best of the bunch being out makes the team, as a whole, play a little bit better. You could never say that about Paul Pierce or Kevin Garnett. Ray Allen, don’t get me wrong, can easily be the best player on the court for any given game. But when it comes down to it, Pierce is the captain and The Truth and KG is KG. This team just wouldn’t be the same, and absolutely nowhere near as good, if they lost Pierce or Garnett for any extended period of time. Let’s just hope these guys stay in great shape in the offseason, stay healthy for the entire season and get some extra rest along the way by getting the younger players some more burn.

Who Will Be Active?

As of right now, the Celtics have 16 players under contract and one unsigned rooke (Semih Erden). NBA teams are only allowed 12 active players for any given game, so which four players are going to be seeing some time on the inactive list or the D-League? It’s obvious that ten spots are locked in for sure. The starting five will obviously be back in full force along with Sam Cassell (when he signs next week), Tony Allen, Eddie House, Leon Powe and Glen Davis. That leaves two spots left for players to fill in. Let’s break down the remaining players and see who earns, or perhaps eliminates themselves from, a roster spot.

The first player to bring up, and basically to just get out of the way real early, is Brian Scalabrine. Scal is a funny guy and is probably the best person on the team to go get a beer with, but he won’t be suiting up for too many games this season. There’s one of the remaining six out of the way. Now it’s a five-headed monster to cut down to two.

Looking at the point guard position, it looks as if we will be pretty set with Rondo blossoming into the lethal distributor and defender we all know and love along with the re-signing of both Eddie House and Sam Cassell. Sam isn’t the biggest fan favorite, but he is a veteran point guard that can be a calming influence over the second squad. Whether he gets them involved or not is another question. House earned his new contract by being such a solid contributor all season, even after virtually all of his minutes were taken away by Cassell. He stepped in during the playoffs and started right back where he left off: giving an unreal amount of energy as well as a relentless assault of three-balls. Sad to say, but it’s going to be another year before we see Pruitt active on a regular basis.

The last four candidates are rookies J.R. Giddens and Bill Walker as well as two new free agent faces in Darius Miles and Patrick O’Bryant. I think Giddens will be active because he will fill in as the #3 SG on the team and will be great to groom defensively in some blowouts. Also, if Tony Allen God forbid were to ever hurt his knee any further, it would be nice to have Giddens ready to go with some experience under his belt.

Patrick O’Bryant is a work in progress at the center position. We got by last year for most of the regular season with Garnett and Perkins starting and Davis and Powe relieving them from the bench. The addition of PJ Brown later in the season was a huge addition, but does O’Bryant make PJ expendable by the time late-February rolls around? I think the Celtics let Clifford Ray work with O’Bryant in practice for a while before activating him.

So it seems as if the final active roster spot is between Bill Walker and Darius Miles. Bill Walker coming off minor knee surgery, which seems like it shouldn’t hold him back at all this year. Darius Walker had what was diagnosed as career-ending knee surgery, but he’s back and ready to play, although his knee may never be 100% ever again. Ainge recently said that Bill Walker has been very impressive, so much so that they quickly scratched the idea of sending him overseas and want him here with the team. Now does that mean he’s going to be on the active roster or will he be inactive or even a D-League candidate? Given Miles’ injury history, I think he’ll stick around with the team rather than go to the D-League so he will be working with the veterans like Paul Pierce to be ready to play when his number is called.

Also, a very interesting point reguarding Darius Miles. One reason for Danny and Doc to make Miles active is to really stick it to Portland. How you may ask? Well if Darius Miles plays in 10 games this season (and this is after his suspension) it would put $18 million back on Portland’s books. A potential Western Conference power, I’m sure the Celtics would like to do whatever they can to set them back, and forcing them to dish out $9 million a year for the next two years on Miles rather than signing a free agent would be one way of doing that.

So what I’m saying is that the Celtics will get Miles his 10 games of action to insure that his salary goes back under Portland’s cap, then from there that spot will be available to both he and Walker. Of course, if one of the bigs is injured and needs to miss some time, O’Bryant would usurp the active roster spot. Until Miles is back from his suspension, I think O’Bryant will be on the active roster.

So in my opinion, I think this is what the opening day active roster will look like:

PG: Rajon Rondo, Sam Cassell, Eddie House

SG: Ray Allen, J.R. Giddens

SF: Paul Pierce, Tony Allen

PF: Kevin Garnett, Leon Powe, Glen Davis

C: Kendrick Perkins, Patrick O’Bryant

Inactive: Gabe Pruitt, Darius Miles, Bill Walker, Brian Scalabrine