Cup of Joe. Olynyk in a walking boot

Good morning! Welcome to CelticsLife's morning column, Cup of Joe. Each morning we feature a few quick-hitters from the previous night; the important stuff, the not so important stuff. The weird, the wild, the in between. A nice, mindless morning column to start your day off with. So pull up a chair, grab your Morning Joe, and find out what happened last night while you were sleeping.

Kelly Olynyk is wearing a protective walking boot

WALTHAM, Mass. -- Boston Celtics second-year big man Kelly Olynyk wore a protective boot over his sprained right ankle while meeting with reporters after Thursday's practice and said he's uncertain when he'll resume basketball activities while waiting for pain and swelling to subside.

Source: Chris Forsberg, ESPNBoston

Label me a pessimist, but I think this is a bad sign for folks who are hoping for a quick return for Kelly. I mentioned it at the time of the injury, but Kelly's last ankle injury kept him out for three months time. Not that we'll see a repeat, history never repeats, but my gut says Olynyk is out well past the All Star break.

Zach Lowe & Jeff Van Gundy discuss new lottery format that makes a whole mess of sense

On the latest episode of 'The Lowe Post' (which is such an interesting listen I'll link to it again), Zach Lowe and Jeff Van Gundy briefly discuss a change to the lottery format that's been kicking around the league office for a little; allow the 5, 6, 7 and 8 seeds in the lottery.

It almost makes too much sense, doesn't it? Decreases the incentive for teams to lose on purpose, mimimalizes the 'you want to be a good team or a bad team, you don't want to get stuck in the middle,' and doesn't give fans (us, for example) that weird 'do we really want to make the playoffs?' feeling.

Heck, you could even argue to take it a little bit further - why not just include all teams?

Start your morning off with... Mike Dunleavy, handsomest video-bomb of all time



Vintage WTHHT: What the hell happened to... Marty Conlon
authored by TB727

He was a lumbering big man to say the least, who epitomized the term "NBA journeyman." Along with the Celtics he played for the Supersonics, Kings, Hornets, Bullets, Heat, Clippers and Bucks, the latter whom he had his most successful run with. He was from Providence College where he played under the Evil Emperor, whose name is never mentioned on this blog. And he had a really peculiar looking foul shot where he'd lower his butt way down towards the floor. You might remember Marty Conlon.

The only season he played for the Celtics was the putrid 1996-97 campaign, where they were in full tank-mode for Tim Duncan. That team won 15 games, an all-time low for Celtics teams. Not surprisingly Marty played a major role for that team playing in 74 games (starting 15) at around 21 mpg where he averaged about 7.5 ppg and 4.5 rpg. When that same Evil Emperor came to Boston the following season to coach, Marty was shown the door.