Celtics after Finley and Hughes


Boston Herald
A Celtics source confirmed yesterday the primary target is veteran swingman Michael Finley, who was bought out of his contract by San Antonio on Monday. Finley is expected to clear waivers tonight. The team also is interested, to a lesser degree, in free agent guard Larry Hughes.
Looks like Michael Finley (turns 37 this week) is indeed the Celtics main target. The fact that he went to the same high school as Doc Rivers can't hurt (Did they play there together? I kid, I kid) and it sounds like Doc wants a veteran shooter, so that would give Finley the edge over Hughes who isn't as good a shooter even before he broke his finger, reputation wise at least. Stats wise it should be noted that while Finley is a career 37.4% 3-pt shooter, he's shooting only 31.7% this season. Larry Hughes (career 30.8%), who made himself into a very good 3-pt shooter the past two yrs shooting close to 40% from beyond the arc, has fallen back to a Rasheed like level of 28.9% this year. All these waived/bought out guys are way past their primes, so its hard to evaluate them without knowing the exact number of steps lost, but Hughes (recently turned 31) has a little more left in the tank and is a better defender in my opinion at this stage. We could do worse than Michael Finley though and if signing him keeps Paul and Ray even the least bit fresher come playoff time it can't be a bad thing. Stay tuned...