Green Target: Melancholy

It is too long since something real happened to the Boston Celtics. The holidays have been too long, and the process of foreseeing which moves our GM could envision have been analyzed so throughly that it is no longer exciting. The lockout has killed many things in the heart of the fans and frankly, it has sedated our basketball minds.

We don't want to see Stern or Hunter on the screen anymore. We may want to see Derek Fisher though, although in another scenario: wearing the disgusting purple and gold and heading back to their locker room after being defeated by the Celtics once again.

In the meantime, we dwell in this sort of purgatory of lockout. We watch the videos, the games recorded and the youtube highlights. We may play a lot the computer games to try and recreate what the Boston Celtics are, were or can be. Fantasy has taken too much control of our basketball world. We want real basketball. Only the present and the past can be considered as real facts. They can be scrutinized and relived.

And since right now there is no future in the season, thanks to the ineptitude of all, I have decided to bring back the past to you and try and frame it into the future scheme of things.

What if, by any chance, Danny Ainge feels melancholic and targets some former Celtics to rebuild the ubuntu spirit? Would it be a fun, revitalizing process for us fans or is it just a video game foolish dream?



Let's see, if we take a look at the members of the 2008 championship squad, we already can forget about Sam Cassell, PJ Brown and Scott Pollard since they are not NBA players any more. But there are another seven players which could be eventually and hypothetically brought to the C's. Let's start from the most realistic scenarios to the wildest ones:

1. Ainge brings back Leon Powe and Brian Scalabrine

The Celtics need some leadership from the bench and both are players that know our system. Both are fan favorites and both are free agents at the moment. I ignore whether Scal has an opt out clause in his contract in Italy but I am guessing he has.

Powe would add some aggression in the paint, some needed rebounding and defense. Scalabrine would help with the little things, a little bit of D here and there and some occasional three pointer to stretch the floor.

2. Ainge resigns James Posey

You know this point had to come at some point. James Posey has been missed since the summer of 2008. His contract with the Pacers expires in 2012 and he may be subject of the new Amnesty Clause rule. Larry Bird may opt by keeping him in the roster or he may prefer to deal him in the mid season trade madness, whenever it happens. Provided he is bought out, it would be a quite intriguing situation for the Celtics. He would sign for cheap and would bring his hugs and his dark work on D to the team again.

I know, this is not the Posey of 2008 but it is also true that we don't need so much from him. In a small role, with a winning team he might get some of his basketball soul back to win it all once more.

3. Ainge brings back Gabe Pruitt

Well, I just mention this because he was a member of that 2008 squad. It wouldn't add much to our team to replace Bradley for Pruitt. Let's continue

4. DA resigns Eddie House

This would be a tougher one. I believe Eddie has a player option for this year's contract, but if he hasn't exercised it yet he may decide to become a free agent and sign with us. I know, it doesn't look realistic. Then again, anything is possible, he may finally understand that Lebron will never win a title until he really knows what tradition and teamwork is. House would then sign for us for cheap and help us raise banner 18.

At this point in his career Eddie is not our Eddie either.  His three point shooting is still there, but he is quite clearly at the end of his career. Having Delonte (provided Danny doesn't let him go, which would be another mistake) makes House's signing not really necessary. Then again, West is often a guest at the team's medical facilities which would require that we get more shooting from the bench.

Let's remember that we traded Eddie for Nate and then Nate for...peanuts?? (remember, Krstic signed for CSKA this summer and is not coming back to the NBA any time soon). We are thinking the same, I can feel it.

5. Ainge trades for Tony Allen

Chris Wallace works for the Memphis Grizzlies. That makes any scenario possible. The problem is that he normally hurts his former team which makes chances even slimmer. That is why I didn't write any greentarget articles on the possibility of signing OJ Mayo or Marc Gasol to fill our flagrant needs. Wallace wouldn't make us better and probably he wouldn't deal with us.

Then again, let's imagine Wallace feels bad and wants to prove that he never wanted to make Celtics fans mad. He then decides to makes peace with us by sending us Tony Allen back to Beantown for a bag of doritos (as Darius Miles said).

A year after being ignored by Danny, Tony is a more mature player and has gained some self confidence. Last year in Memphis he proved he is a better player than advertised (myself included). Adding Tony would be huge for us at this moment.

6. Somebody in the Celtics staff trades for Kendrick Perkins.

Notice how I didn't mention Danny Ainge in the heading. He once traded back and tried to go back in time after a failed trade though: remember the Payton for Walker trade some years ago? Antoine got some months of action in Boston again and Ainge seemed to be asking for our forgiveness with such a move. Would he do it again and bring Perk back? Tough, very tough. Besides, who would we trade to OKC?? Jeff Green??

There would be almost no chance of any of this happening, so you may be thinking it is foolish to even waste our time debating about it. But I insist: with a lockout and too much free time without NBA games, does it hurt of think of such chimeric scenarios? What if Danny leaves the team? What if he just does what he did with Antoine?

Bringing back Perk would solve many of our needs. Insert JO as the perfect backup center and bring our starting center back. Chemistry, D,leadership... Having Perk here again would be the perfect way to redesign our team with people who won it all with us in 2008.

Is any of these scenarios possible? and if so, which one would be more likely and why?

Finally, if you had to chose between all these names to bring just one of them, who would you pick?

Melancholy, such a nice and tender fog that will likely vanish when the lockout ends...