Cup of Joe. TWO Summer leagues

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.

Celtics will partake in two summer leagues

With a pair of young rookies and a load of draft picks, the Boston Celtics are expected to enter two summer leagues this year, according to the Boston Herald's Steve Bulpett -- one in Las Vegas and another in Utah.

Utah has not hosted the Rocky Mountain Revue since 2008 -- and the NBA has made no formal announcement of the league's return -- but Bulpett reported Tuesday that the Celtics are "prepared to participate" in the revived event. Grantland's Zach Lowe recently indicated the NBA is "on track" to host a four- or six-team league in Utah this year.

Source: Jay King, MassLive

"They'll probably need two different teams just to handle all those picks!" - The internet.

This would seem to be nothing to but good things for an extremely young team, who will probably want to give a few young guys a look. Giving these guys as much experience, and familiarity with each other is essential. Two leagues, Michael! Two leagues!

NBA Dunk Contest to return to it's traditional format

NBA returns to classic format at dunk contest with a two-round event (3 each round) with each dunker performing any dunk without time limits

Source: Marc Spears

For those of you who who missed the announcement - this year's contestants will be Zach Lavine, Giannis Antekounmpo, Victor Oladipo and Mason Plumlee. The betting odds for the dunk contest will likely favor Lavine to win.

I know a lot of folks weren't pleased with the way the Dunk Contest went last year - and rightfully so, you have to name a winner - but I actually thought the format a step in the right step. I had been hoping it would evolve into a head to head dunk tournament, starting off with East vs. West match ups, and then progressing until there's one winner.




Vintage WTHHT: What the hell happened to... Ron Mercer
authored by tb727

Imagine there was a guy that played for the Celtics that was rated higher than Kevin Garnett and Stephon Marbury as a high school senior in 1995. Imagine that guy went to Kentucky and won a National Championship, making the All NCAA First Team, so you knew it wasn't a fluke. Now imagine he's drafted by the Celtics. He has great size for the 2 or the 3 since he's 6'7. Fast forward one year and the Celtics have another young guy also 6'7, a rookie named Paul Pierce. People aren't sure who the better player is. If you think I'm making this up, you don't remember the summer and fall before the lockout shortened season of 1998-99. You definitely don't remember this week's What the Hell Happened To player, Ron Mercer.

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