It's amazing how short the offseason is when you win a championship. I'm used to trying to come up with another month's worth of stuff to tide you readers over. But the Celtics will open up training camp in 8 days. 8 DAYS!!!
So now it's time to start looking at how we can properly defend our title. Number 1: Limit Ray Allen's minutes early in the season. Ray says he's 100% now… after starting last season with some soreness still lingering in his ankles. I think its in the Celtics best interests to keep Rays minutes low to start the season… and see what some of these younger guys can do with bigger minutes early in the season. Get Giddens in there with the first team to see what he can do. Put a Rondo, Tony Allen, Bill Walker, KG and Pierce lineup out there for a little while.
I'm not worried about Pierce. He's a bull that inflicts more punishment than he takes… and he's one of the most durable players of his generation. I'm not worried about KG, either. He's in phenomenal shape and he plays far enough away from the basket that he's not absorbing a lot of punishment.
And even though Ray might have the best body on the team… suspect joints will fail you if you put too much wear and tear on them. Let's face it… if Ray Allen WASN'T a physical specimen… he'd probably be retired by now.
So its a testament to him that he has been able to bounce back so well. But I think he's at the age right now that you have to err towards preservation. The good thing is… Danny Ainge has made enough additions to this team that Ray can play 30mpg or fewer until the All Star break without the team missing much of a beat.
Elsewhere: Mark Cuban posted some of the emails he got in response to Josh Howard's "I don't celebrate the anthem" comments… and then he took them down. I read them when they were up. They were disgusting. The racism in those emails made me want to puke. Cuban took them down… because he says he made his point.
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