Every morning, we compile the links of the day and dump them here… highlighting the big story line. Because there’s nothing quite as satisfying as a good morning dump.
STABLE FRONT OFFICE
This too is one of the more overlooked aspects of the Celtics success, a franchise that on the basketball side of things has been run by Danny Ainge since 2003. His right-hand man, Mike Zarren, has done an exceptional job of maintaining the team’s salary cap flexibility and remains one of the more highly regarded NBA execs out there. The stability of those positions takes away some of the uncertainty that agents and players might have about the franchise and, more specifically, how they will be treated if they become Celtics.
A. Sherrod Blakely hitting the nail on the head here. Wednesday’s dump included a lengthy take by Jeremy Stevens on the Sixers’ situation. The team now being held up, for some reason, as a credible rival to the Celtics is on their fourth, fifth, or sixth GM since the team’s purchase by Josh Harris in 2011. I mean, the Sixers’ front office has been so screwed up, that the total number of GMs they’ve had depends on whether or not you count the brief tenures of Brett Brown and Jerry Colangelo.
This is not a team that is going to contend with the Celtics year-in-and-year out.
Front office instability never results in on-the-court stability. The only kind of consistency that comes with a revolving-door front office is consistently poor on-the-court results.
NO LEBRON JAMES
They will still see him twice a year, but that’s so much better than four times a year plus the playoffs. Of course, Boston will still have to show up and handle their business against the teams in the East, and the NBA for that matter. But to know that their journey towards competing for an NBA title won’t have to involve dealing with James
I know Blakely is talking about how the Celtics won’t have to face LeBron James in the playoffs, but frankly, I’m with Jaylen Brown on that–I’m miffed James went out west. I maintain that Boston occupies an outsize chunk of real estate in LeBron’s head–and he was (correctly, IMO) not confident that his situation in Philly would put him in a position to beat the Celtics. If LeBron stays in the east, the Celtics, this year, were finally looking at a chance to get some payback for the way the last two Celtics seasons ended.
Anyway, he headed out to LA where Magic is going to let him have a say in personnel moves (“You know him. You play against him. You know the back story and everything about the guy. You probably know a lot more than we know”–whut?? That’s a literal word-for-word quote from Magic).
Page 2: Speaking of the Lakers….
How much he makes everybody better, but also how he raises everybody’s level of play
That’s Magic talking about LeBron.
I’m sitting here trying to think of an instance of LeBron making someone else into a better player. If anything, his career has been a study in marginalizing good players.
More schadenfreude from the AP piece on the Lakers:
Johnson believes Rajon Rondo will play a mentoring role.
Rondo is only 32 years old. He’s the same age as Al Horford.
He’s definitely bounced around the past few years, but you know that, in his mind, he does not see himself as a guy on the tail-end of his career, ready to step into a supporting and ‘mentoring’ role.
the Lakers also acquired Rondo, Lance Stephenson, JaVale McGee and Michael Beasley to form a new veteran core
Take a long moment and look at that ‘veteran core.’
“We feel we have two players at every position — a starter and then a backup to that person,” Johnson said.
Yep. Magic, that’s how a basketball roster with at least 10 players on it works.
Added Pelinka: “A lot of people have said this is one of the deepest rosters in the NBA, and that is an extreme strength to us.”
A lOt Of PeOPle HavE SaId THis Is OnE of THe DEePEsT rOStERs iN tHE NbA
That, my friends, is not the mindset of a GM on his way to winning a championship.
Maybe, somewhere down the line, an older and wiser Rob Pelinka will win a championship. If he does, he will undoubtedly be embarrassed by the comment above.
Finally: Westerholm gathers all of the ESPN AND SI player rankings into one convenient easy to hate list
The offseason is winding down, giving outlets a chance to release their Top 100 rankings — a chance to anger … essentially every fan base (and many players!) in the NBA.
The two most popular rankings belong to ESPN and Sports Illustrated, and on Thursday, ESPN released it’s top 11-20, which included the final Celtic (unless Robert Williams is in the top 10).
If you’re like me–a busy adult who’s always very busy doing Important Things that are really important, and you don’t have time to waste scrolling through page after page of player rankings in order to get your Recommended Daily Allowance of anger and annoyance, Tom Westerholm has you covered.
Yes, getting angry has never been easier with his handy list of all the rankings of all the Celtics in both ESPN and SI top 100s.
It’s one-stop shopping for the time-pressed individual looking for a quick jolt of anger to jump start a slow morning or beat the mid-afternoon blahs.
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