Random Thoughts on Some Wednesday Happenings

Yesterday may have been hump day but it was a busy one for the Celtics and around the Celtics blogs.  We started the day with Delonte rumors and ended it with those rumors having been proven true.  So, now the Celtics have 15 players under contract.  They still have 14 guaranteed contracts and now there are 3 non guaranteed contracts.   There will be some good competition in training came between the 3 players who are vying for that 15th spot as well as Von Wafer and Avery Bradley who are just coming in and working to show that they belong.  There will also be competition between the O'Neals for the starting spot at center and Luke Harangody and Big Baby for back up minutes.  There will also be Nate working to show he belongs and Marquis trying to make good after an underwhelming first season here.  Just one more month to wait.  September 27 can't get here soon enough. 

Speaking of training camp, Danny announced yesterday that the Celtics will be staying home and running training camp at its practice facility, the Sports Authority Training Center at HealthPoint in Waltham.    For the past two seasons, the Celtics have held training camp at Salve Regina in Newport. At his basketball camp,  Paul Pierce mentioned that he was tired of Newport and that he wanted the Celtics to get away for training camp to build chemistry.  They are not only not getting away, but they aren't even getting as far as  Newport.   Danny had some good reasons for staying at home.
“When I played with the Celtics, we never went away,” said Ainge. “There’s a lot of things that we can do here, including team building. Plus we have a lot of our own health facilities, our training rooms, and our weight rooms here. Guys can sleep in their own beds. It’s a long season, so we’re trying to combat that.”
I'm wondering if this move was a message from Danny to Pierce because he was getting a little tired of Pierce's meddling this offseason.  A couple of times Pierce has voiced his opinion that Danny needed to step up his efforts to sign players.  He mentioned the need for a scorer and for a back up at the 3 spot.  He questioned who would guard him in practice.  I guess he was overlooking Marquis Daniels who figures to be the back up 3.   Since Daniels was injured much of the season, a non factor for the rest of the season, and being used out of position as a point guard,  I guess that might be a natural omission.   But, even with Quisy, the back up 3 is the weak spot for this team with a very deep bench.  It's possible that Delonte could guard some 3's.  He certainly can guard LeBron since all he'd have to do is get up close and ask "How's mom?" and LeBron would either lose concentration and become useless, or lose it altogether and get ejected for slugging Delonte.   Back to the subject at hand.  If training in Waltham was good enough for the '84 and '86 champions it should be good enough for '11 champions.


Just a thought.  It's pretty strange that we now have 2 former Cavs who were teammates of LeJerk's and one former Heat player who was teammates with Wade.  We didn't want any former Raptors.  

Doc is certainly going to earn his money this season.  The Celtics will be one of the more entertaining teams to follow with all the characters that are on this roster.   We have Shrek and Donkey back for an encore and there is never a dull moment with those two around.  And Shaq is Shaq and bigger than life and always looking to have fun whether he is playing basketball or crashing someone's wedding or challenging Justin Bieber to a dance contest.   And now we have Delonte back.  I loved Delonte when he was here and you never know what he is going to come out with.   It's really going to be a fun season around here.