After every game, we'll take stock of how each individual performance affects the player's overall value.
Starters
Rajon Rondo: Double green arrows for Rondo. One for his ability to adjust his game and score when the team needs him to score. One for him being a tough S.O.B. I damn near died when he hit the ground last night. This kid is tough as hell and that sets an example for what's expected from the rest of the team.
Paul Pierce: Pierce played the role of distributor quite nicely last night. I'm not increasing the value on him yet simply because he's still nowhere near ready physically. He had a few opportunities that would have been dunks last season… that ended up in horribly blown layups. He still clearly needs work.
Ray Allen: Ray continues to take a back seat as the "get KG and Paul Pierce into shape" show rolls on. Big time holding pattern right now.
Kevin Garnett: Aggressive KG showed up early and he finished with a 15 and 7 night in just 25 minutes. Overall, a positive night for KG. I'm not going to get too excited though. It was the Raptors. If he didn't do this, I'd be really worried.
Jermaine O'Neal: Same for Jermaine. 8 points 7 rebounds is ok. It came against the Raptors. And there were no blocked shots.
Bench
Brandon Bass: Not a bad night. But only 1-5 at the rim? That's not going to work.
Mickael Pietrus: I was actually torn on this because he shot well from 3, but i'm still hoping for more than that. Maybe I'm the one that needs to adjust my thinking on Pietrus. Regardless, he took 7 shots, all 3's, and he made 4 of them. Plus, his energy is a welcome change from the piles of "blah" that I've seen on the court this year.
Marquis Daniels: 12 largely unimpressive minutes. A -2 in a 20 point blowout? That's not good.
E'Twaun Moore: He seems to be moving too fast and trying too hard. Maybe that was Avery Bradley's problem too. He was a -7 and he launched a shot that was similar to one that got Bradley mocked pretty loudly. I'm still cutting the rookie some slack.
Greg Stiemsma, JaJuan Johnson, Avery Bradley: Incomplete grades for all. Though Johnson displayed his jumper and Bradley attacked the basket in garbage time. Stiemsma needs to work on his hands… or at least be ready to catch Rajon's passes.
Coaching
Doc Rivers: Yeah, he says he started to laugh because he thought Rondo was selling a flagrant foul… but we all saw the cut-away of him looking like he walked into his home to see it ransacked and robbed. Otherwise, status quo for Doc.
OVERALL
A 20 point win is a 20 point win, so overall it's a positive step. The Celtics are SUPPOSED to do that to Raptors. It doesn't mask any of the problems the Celtics still have: An insane over-reliance on Rajon Rondo, conditioning that lags well behind where the team should be, and a bench that can disappear at times. All of those things still existed last night.
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