Good News For the Celtics

Beginning tonight, the Celtics can list 12 healthy, active players who are eligible to play on their active roster.  For the first 5 games of his suspension, Delonte West had to be kept on the active roster, giving the Celtics just 11 players eligible to play.   Suspended players have to be on the active roster for up to 5 games, but if their suspension is over 5 games, then they can be moved to the inactive roster. 

I'm not sure where Shaq is in his rehab from the knee bruise, but the ideal thing would be to have Shaq active to give the Celtics another big body.    If there's a possibility that Shaq could play, West could join Bradley and Perk on the inactive list, allowing the Celtics to have an extra center in case of foul trouble like they had in the last game. 

Also good news is some information in an article by A Sherrod Blakely on CSNNE.   Here is a rather exciting excerpt from the article:

Not being able to play has given West an opportunity to observe the Celtics, both from up-close and from afar.

"We're locked in," West said. "We're focused."

And he's not just talking about on game days, either.

After Boston's thrilling 105-102 overtime win over the Milwaukee Bucks on Wednesday, West was looking forward to getting in the gym early the following day and work on his game.

Regardless of whether the Bucks game went into overtime, the C's were going to have Thursday off.

West arrived around 9:30 a.m., and was pleasantly surprised to see he wasn't the first on the scene.

On the training table getting treatments, he saw Shaquille O'Neal.

Not to far away, there was Jermaine O'Neal.

A peak outside on to the court, Paul Pierce, who had just became the 36th player in NBA history to crack the 20,000-point barrier, was already working up a sweat getting up shot after the shot.

West took a glimpse over in the weight room, and saw Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen putting in work as well.

"And that's not just one day; that's consistent," West said. "The first guys in the gym. It's serious focus going on here. Guys aren't taking anything for granted. We want it bad here."

How can you not be excited about information like this?   I know I am.  Ubuntu....