We're pleased to anounce our first sale on CelticsBlog. Something about stating that just seems so peculiar doesn't it? On the other hand, it's a real pleasure to be able to say so. It has been a long time coming. So here at the end of this grand, regular season on of all days, Tax Day, we are going to celebrate our new store launch with an across the board price discount on twenty-three product categories members have expressed interest in from time to time. Here's the list...

• Men's Organic Tees: 24.99 > 22.99
• Men's Long-Sleeved Tees: 27.99 > 25.99
• Men's Long Sleeved Dark Tees: 29.99 > 28.99
• Men's Golf Shirts: 22.99 > 19.99

• Women's Cap Sleeve Tees: 24.99 > 21.99
• Women's Long Sleeved Tess: 27.99 > 25.99
• Women's Long Sleeved Dark Tees: 29.99 > 28.99
• Women's Maternity Tees: 32.99 > 31.99
• Women's Maternity Dark Tees: 29.99 > 28.99
• Women's Plus Size V-Neck Tees: 32.99 > 31.99
• Women's Plus Size Scoop Neck Dark Tees: 29.99 >28.99

• Junior Jerseys: 29.99 > 26.99
• Kid's Light Tees: 20.99 > 19.99
• Kid's Dark Tees: 22.99 > 21.99
• Infant/Toddler Tees: 16.99 > 14.99
• Infant Bodysuits: 14.99 > 12.99

• Ball Caps: 18.99 > 17.99

• Small Mugs: 14.99 > 13.99
• Mouse Pads: 15.99 >13.99
• Dog T-Shirt: 17.99 > 16.99

• 3.5" Buttons: 4.99 > 3.99
• 2.5" Buttons Ten Pack: 18.99 > 16.99
• 3" Lapel Stickers: 34.99 > 32.99
  

We hope you enjoy browsing around, shopping in the CafeShop and these savings. Take advantage of the coupon in the store too. This will be our last sale until the playoffs (then we'll start a new one). It really feels great to us to be able to have this new way of connecting and sharing with this community, and insuring its future. That's what it is all about.

There are more items and designs coming. Next in line, new apparel for Juniors, Kids and Babies...and Puppies, not to mention new mugs and steins, and other fun stuff. Fun is a keyword in this whole endeavor. We want to have fun with this store and plan of doing just that in conjunction with all of you here. There's a lot we can do together through it.

A note on custom orders: as Jeff mentioned earlier, we can get your usernames/display names on the backs of any apparel or other item here, such as drinkware,  that supports back-printing. If you can come up with your original, CelticsBlog membership date either through your member profile or through other means (meomory?), then let us know. We would be happy to add, "A Member Since" to your custom item. Notice there is a menu link in the shop sub-menu for placing custom orders.

Please let us know what you think about the CB CafeShop, what you like and don't like, and perhaps what types of items you would like to see there. We are all ears. Again though, it is a pleasure to us to be able to bring this store to our community. We hope you enjoy it in the spirit in which it is given. It's nearly playoffs time. Anyone up for some competitions and some awards? Let's do some through the store. Like I said, we can have fun with this thing.

I just got an email from Mrs. Clark awhile ago. She tells me that Jeff is staying another night in the hospital. His fever has gone so now they just want to make sure he is okay. If his health remains stable and indications are that his progress is continuing, he will get to come home tomorrow afternoon. He's started to hit a low point emotionally from being there but he is looking and feeling better.

I'm really glad to hear the fever has gone down. That's an excellent sign. I figure he probably just got a little yucky stuff in his system from his appendix before they were parted from one another. I know Jeff is tired of this ordeal, but at least it sounds like his health is coming around.

We often hear the sort of surgery he has endured as being somewhat "lightweight". As a number of you know though, that is mostly because it can be performed so well with such good results and not because it is a lightweight experience for the one going through it. Here's hoping he'll be able to go home tomorrow. No doubt that will improve his spirits.

I wanted to let you all know that our founder and fearless leader Jeff encountered a health issue that began sometime Friday evening. By Saturday morning he was in considerable pain and needed to go to the hospital. As it turned out, he had an acutely inflamed appendix which needed to be removed. Fortunately it had not ruptured, so his medical team had some time to properly prepare him for operation.

Jeff was admitted into surgery at 6:00PM EST yesterday. The operation went quite well. As of this morning, he is in some pain and also is running a bit of fever, so he may or may not be able to come home today. Otherwise, everything appears to be going fairly routinely and he probably will just need some rest and recovery time. If he is not released today, then he will most likely be released sometime tomorrow.

Naturally we are all greatly relieved that Jeff is now past what should be the most difficult portion of this ordeal. I know it has been tough for both him and his wonderful wife. I say this particularly with regard to Mrs. Clark because as all of you know, it is in many ways harder to watch a spouse or other loved one go through such an experience as this than it would be to go through it oneself. I must say, I really can't speak highly enough about Jeff's missus. I know the last day and a half has been both exhausting and nerve-racking for her, but yet she has been able to keep us updated on Jeff's condition regularly during this episode. We are all very grateful to her for that.

So send this fine couple all of your best love, prayers, sentiments and well-wishes. I know how much you all care for both of them. They are a blessing to us and we are all fortunate to have them a part of our lives. I have one last piece of news and I think you guys will love this. Apparently Jeff talked all about CelticsBlog to the doctors while under anesthesia but he doesn't remember any of it!

We are pleased to announce that we have yet another new site design to introduce. You won't find this through your web browser though. It is designed for PDA's (Portable Digital Assistants)! I've long been aware that we've had quite a number of community members and site visitors either connecting to, or trying to connect to CelticsBlog via various methods of PDA net access. As those of you who use PDA devices know, many websites are not very PDA-friendly. So what I did was come up with a design that should be more friendly to them.

There are some compromises. You just can't put everything we see on CB into a PDA interface. Nor can you delete some things from this site that PDA's won't benefit from so much. Still what we have now is a new design for PDA users that should be much better-looking (by PDA standards) and easier to use than what we had before. Having a new site design for PDA's is not enough though.

What you need in addition to the design is a sensor that recognizes when someone connecting to CelticsBlog is doing so from a PDA, and then will automatically apply the PDA design interface for the user. So we did that also. That way, folks visiting CB by way of the regular web will be able to enjoy it in a way that is well-suited to the our more familiar use of the web and those using PDA's will be able to enjoy it better through their devices.

What I tried to do in the PDA design is keep every possible essential of what it takes to use CelticsBlog enjoyable. Everything else possible (which is practically everything) is gone. What is left is access to all of our blogs, our chat, our forums and other special sections with little dross. It may not be perfect and some issues may show up with it. Only people using it will be able to let me know about those.

I also don't have any time much to work on it further or even discuss improving it right now although I am interested in your input about it for future reference. Mostly though, it should be a good step up from what we had available before for PDA users. In time, we'll make it better as much as we can. Meanwhile, my hope is that all of you who may need and can benefit from this service out there will enjoy it.

We are happy to bring another new feature to CelticsBlog today and yet another new design. In our main menu you will now see a new item labeled "Links". This is not our old "Bookmarks" section revisited. It is a new self-building affiliate link-exchange program for all the sites we used to link to with Bookmarks. There are many differences between the two. This program is much leaner and more modern than our old links directory SW. It is more web-compliant. It has new features including personal bookmarking of sites on CB (can be displayed in a side column module here), a tell a friend function, hits, reviews, ratings and Google rankings.

It will also help us do some important things we've not been able to do before. For one, it is a true reciprocal link-exchange. We can make exceptions, but anyone who wishes can add links to CelticsBlog if they wish. It only requires that they provide us a return link. That's good business for us and them as well. Of course, it will all be moderated so not just anything is going to get published in there. The link-exchange will provide all of the information people will need to set up reciprocal links with us.

In addition to link-exchange, the new software also makes provision for a reciprocal banner exchange. This may prove to be a fun feature over time. We also have a new banner to share with other sites. It can be viewed here. The banner exchange will provide other site owners and admins the information they need to plug our banner into their websites.

The new link-exchange will also make it possible for us to offer a new, more direct and lower cost form of advertising on CB that we've not had before. It is called, "Featured Links". Those will be given prominent display in both the Links section and other places in CelticsBlog as well. Once again, anyone can get a Featured Link. Doing so costs $15 UDS per month and can be purchased through our CelticsBlog PayPal account as a subscription. To get a featured link, just click on the little button to the right of the Featured Links area of the Links section main page.

People can also recommend sites to us they feel might be of value to the CelticsBlog community via the new Links software. We encourage all of you to share your favorites with us. Well, that's about it I guess. I may fiddle the the stying of it all some a little more when I get a chance and we'll probably expand the directory listings more when the directory starts filling up. We don't have much in there right now. In fact, at the time of this publishing, we have exactly one link in the thing. We think it will grow pretty soon though and prove to be of value to both CB and its constituency.

We encourage all of our site-owning friends in the larger Celtics community to set up link swapping with us. We extend that invitation to all of our other friends, affiliates and visitors as well. We hope you all will enjoy this new feature.

So of you may have noticed we made a few changes around this place late last night. The most apparent is the new look of CelticsBlog. The new look as you are currently experiencing is not a new design, but rather five new designs. We have ten we will eventually implement. You will most likely see one of those in conjunction with a new site section later this evening. Two more will most likely be introduced later this week.

The new designs were not just important for looks sake. They provide better usability for all our members and site visitors even now. They will also make it possible for us to improve on that in the future and also do some new things with regard to site layout and functionality we've never been able to do before. There are many new features already here. You can see some of them and some you can't. I want to talk about some of the ones you can a bit more, but first I want to give out a special thanks to Brad Howard and GoFetch Marketing & Design.

Brad helped us develop our new logo icons for CB. Our approach was to create distinct branding for CelticsBlog. This was part of a larger overall strategy that we hope will insure the future growth and health of this community for a long time. From our very first collaboration, Brad was a joy to work with and understood exactly the direction we were headed. We didn't have to explain anything to him. We are looking forward to working with Brad and GoFetch much more in the not too distant future. Stay tuned for that. I think it is going to be a blast.

Now, let's move on to some of the new site features on CB. There are some, such as the new "Buy Me A Beer" function in our forums I'm sure most of you will not want to miss. Read More...

Continue reading this post »

Well, it pains me deeply to do this, but it is time to close shop for awhile. As Jeffrey mentioned earlier, we have a bit of maintainin' and upgradin' to do. I'll give y'all a little time to get your clothes back on before I turn the lights up. You have five minutes. Midnight EST is the magic hour. I have a ton of work to do on CB this evening. If you are still up and still in the mood though, we should be back online in a few hours. Happy, happy, joy, joy!

The software updates are complete. I found the offending #%#&@!? piece of software that was preventing the login bridging from working after the updates were implemented and repaired it. If any of you experience login issues, please just delete all of your browser cookies from CelticsBlog, quit your browser and restart it. That should work. If not, let me know. Otherwise, this was a pretty important set of updates. We have some good things coming. Stay tuned.

Hey boys and girls, it's your Uncle Bob here. We made a few little changes this week in how Chat at CelticsBlog can be accessed. It is designed to help keep out the drive-bys, fools and trolls, and generally make life more pleasant for our community and CB moderators. The main change is this...

Registration and username login are now required in order to access CelticsBlog Chat. That means you must be a registered member of CelticsBlog (and logged in) in order to access our Chat area. That is the only change. As it has been before, you must still have Java enabled in your web browser. You can get the most recent version of Java here if you need it. To login to chat, simply enter your username (no password required) at the prompt.

I'm feeling sort of flushed in the face for not getting this posted earlier. Frankly, I thought folks would have been all over this by now, but Jason Levine of Fox Sports Net New England passed along to us a nice little interview they did yesterday with our man Paul Pierce. It is a good watch. Jason said, "...can't imagine why he is in such a good mood." Check it out here! 

Overall, the new CelticsBlog VPS is performing much better than our former BlueHost server account but still, it is clearly inadequate for our needs. Because of that, I've already started the process of moving us to a dedicated server. That process will be painless. Unfortunately, it is going to take three more days for that setup to be completed so we won't have it until around July 1st. We'll survive this day, but it isn't going to be easy.

The one thing that can help us today is if all of you visiting CelticsBlog today will slow down your activity around here. Take your time reading, posting and browsing around the website. I realize all of our adrenaline systems are working overtime today, but it is the frantic pace of activity around here that is forcing me to shutdown the site temporarily at times. So, slow down.

We asked people to slow down their clicking around the site on Lottery day this last May. It really helped us stay online more and also have more visitors here. So, slow down, take a deep breath and cut down the rapidity of your browsing around here in half. It is not going to kill you and it will help this site stay online more today. If CelticsBlog does go offline, wait one minute before trying to access the site. Slow down!

A short while ago, I suspended CB and noticed that our cpu usage remained at over 26% even though people could not access the site. That is because many of you maniacs were hammering our site link and/or doing page refreshes several times a second. This type of activity only hurts us. Slow down! Take your time. You can do more to help CelticsBlog stay online today than anything we can do.

Many of you already know to slow down on busy days like this although some of you may have forgotten. We've also had 400 or more new registrants on CelticsBlog since Lottery day that may not realize how adversely heavy activity during these busy times affects CelticsBlog. That's more new members than we've seen since this past January. So Newbies and Veterans...slow down!

Here's a little note about how many people are online over here. You see those numbers in the left column that tell you how many people are visiting CelticsBlog and the ones in the forums that tell you how many are in there? Forget about them. I have performance enhancing caching schemes running on this site that skews those numbers dramatically. More than likely, if you see 500 to 600 people online...or however many, there is probably at least twice that number here if not more way more. So, slow down.

With that many folks, here's what happens. Every time one of you visits the homepage or clicks to any other page or page function on CB, anywhere from 20 to 25 mySQL database queries are generated. That is actually quite good for a completely dynamic website like CelticsBlog that runs so many services and has so much interactivity possible. The problem is though, that when many people are on average clicking new links every second, or few seconds, you generate hundreds of thousands of sql queries per second and millions per minute. Our VPS service simply can't handle that level of activity without threatening to crash the server. So, slow down.

I've already had to shut this place down ten times in the last three hours. I'll do it all day if I have too. I have no choice. When people are sending millions of sql queries to the server in a minute's time, it threatens to crash the whole machine and take down the other websites on the VPS server as well. I can't allow that to happen. Clearly, many of you are just frantic today. I don't blame you for that, but unless you slow down, we are going to be offline quite a bit today. So, slow down.

We may be offline a lot anyway. No doubt this day is going to produce record numbers for visitation at CB. I'm doing everything I can to optimize the site for performance based on what I'm seeing. I've already implemented one tuning adjustment and will be adding some mySQL query caching as soon as I can make time to determine the proper parameters for it. I'll do my best to keep CB online as much as possible and minimize downtime, but I need additional help and the only place that can come from is you. So, slow down.

Like I said, we'll survive this day and in a few days, we'll be on a new dedicated server where we can rock like never before. At that point, the greatest blog in the sports universe, is just going to get better and I can hardly wait. Meanwhile, if we all pull together as a community and do what we can to help CB stay online today, we'll make this particularly stressful day somewhat more tolerable. All we need to do is...slow down.

I'm not going anywhere. I stocked up on food, coffee, tea, kool-aid and beer yesterday. I'm pretty much glued to the server and the website until the wee hours of tomorrow morning. The only time I'm leaving is during these 2 to 4 minute shutdowns. During those times this morning, I've managed to fix two cups of espresso, clean up, brushed my teeth, get dressed and use the bathroom twice. During the next inevitable shutdown I am going to take out the trash. During the ones after that, I'm going to be trying to catch up on CelticsBlog email I've gotten. Otherwise, I'm right here with you as will the rest of the CB staff. Of course, we'll all be slowing down our activity around here.

So CelticsBloggers...let's rock! Let's just rock more slowly than usual though. By doing so, we'll all be able to make our experience around here more enjoyable today. All we need to do is, you guessed it...slow down. Here's a toast to a good Draft Day for us all. Go C's!

Did I mention my request for everyone to please slow down?

Love,

Bob

This is a comprehensive study of the Boston Celtics from the Department of Redundancy The Boston Celtics are a flawed basketball team.  Fans have cited different reasons for the team's woeful record over the past few seasons - laying the blame at the feet of a sub-par coach, key injuries, and inexperienced players.  Others have called out GM Danny Ainge for his role in the whole affair.  Although he has done well in the draft, acquiring quality talent in the middle to late rounds, Ainge's trades and free agent signings have certainly been questionable.   Although I believe that Danny has significantly upgraded the roster that he inherited from the O'Brien / Wallace regime, the Celtics are now faced with a different problem:  Years of drafting the "best player available" and attempting to correct prior errors in judgment through sideways trades have turned the Celtics into a case study in player mismatching and roster redundancy.

What does this mean?  Contending basketball teams are often comprised of anywhere between one and three exceptional players with everyone else in the rotation providing some kind of specialized skill (role-players).   These teams have areas of strength and overlap, but where they really succeed is in being able to mix players on the floor that complement one another and atone for each others' weaknesses.  Although the Celtics have "talented" players (obviously some will debate this point), their skill sets tend to duplicate one another relative to position and available court minutes.  Unfortunately, this issue goes far beyond the classic observation that Boston has too many players of similar size on the roster.  Phoenix can get away with having James Jones, Raja Bell, Shawn Marion, and Boris Diaw on the court at the same time even though they're all between 6'5 and 6'8.  Size is not the issue. 

I could spend a lot of time tracing the lineage of how these current C's came to be, crying in my beer about how we got into this mess, but I'm more interested in what's needed to get out.   With the draft just a couple of days away and trade rumors changing on an hourly basis, it seems like a good time to step back from the insanity, take stock of the Celtics, analyze our players on the whole, and see what can be done about further uncovering the team's needs.  In order to do this, I evaluated each of the Celtics in 20 categories, ranking each on a scale of 1-5.  Why 5?  Because 10 would make The Man a little nervous.

1 - Poor
2 - Below Average
3 - Average
4 - Above Average
5 - Excellent

I apologize to anyone hoping for a system with snappier adjectives.  The ratings were determined by both categorically analyzing the player against his peers on the team and then filtered once more against what I'd consider to be the standard-bearers for that particular skill in the NBA.  For example, the standard bearers in the three point shooting category might be Mike Miller, Dirk Nowitzki, Ray Allen, etc.  The categories are largely self-explanatory but I'll cover them briefly:

Handle - Overall ballhandling ability with particular attention paid to in-traffic dribbling.  Orien Greene graded out at a -5, in case anyone was wondering.

Awareness - General court sense on both offense and defense.  Executing of diagrammed plays, proper recognition on pick and roll, and clock awareness are just a few examples.  My rating of Gerald Green was generous.

Passing - Court vision of course, but also recognizing what passes can and cannot be made.  Also measures utilization of different types of passes to achieve the desired effect.  Attempts to measure Steve Nash using this scale displayed an E on my calculator.

Creates Own - The player's ability to create offense for himself.  For smaller players, generally refers to ability to create a high percentage shot attempt in an isolation or pick and roll situation.  For big men, generally refers to the ability to create a good shot in the low or high post area. 

Short - Shooting efficiency from 4-15 feet.

Medium - Shooting efficiency from 15 feet and beyond.

Three-point - Three point shooting accuracy.  Peers were tough here, I discounted a lot of the one season wonders and did a weighted attempt to percentage analysis… which was probably overkill, but hey.

Shooting off dribble - Measures ability to generate shots off the dribble: pull ups, fadeaways, step-backs, ball-fake sidesteps, or driving layup attempts.

Shooting off screen - Measures how effective the player shoots from behind a screen or in a pick and roll situation.

Finishing at rim - Finishing at the rim definitely deserves its own category; how effective a player is at dunks, layups, and putback attempts.

Draws fouls - Self-explanatory - the ability to get to the foul line by creating contact on a shot attempt.

Post up effectiveness - Ability to get a good shot from the low post area and general back to the basket skills.

On ball defense - How well a player guards his assigned man, staying in front of him.  Recognizing proper distance and discipline (not fouling jumpshooters, giving certain players a lot of room but playing chest tight on others, etc.) as well.

Off ball defense - How well a player helps in the team defensive concept, which includes rotational help when a teammate is beaten off the dribble, giving fouls, playing passing lanes, ball denial, and ability to get through screens.  

Offensive rebounding - Obvious.  The Moses Malone category.

Defensive rebounding - Also obvious.  Trust me, I'm exhausted going through these, too.

Blocking - Player quality as an administrator of Spalding tattoos. 

Altering - Ability to challenge shots, altering the opponent's attempt.  Get a hand up, already! This skill really deserves its own category since there are many players that are excellent at challenging shots but don't get many blocks.  Bruce Bowen, Ron Artest, and most other stud perimeter defenders would earn 5s here.

Hustle - Tommy points, quantified.

Intangibles - Leadership, locker room character, passion and desire, and of course, Celtic Pride.
When considering these ratings and before screaming, "Dobbs you idiot, Allan Ray is clearly a 4 in xxxx" or similar profanity laced attack on my mental faculty, realize that minutes on the court are a fixed commodity in basketball.  There are 48 minutes available at each position per game.  In my estimation, the best players should always receive the bulk of the minutes at a position.  It seems crazy, I know.  Matchups, foul trouble, and fatigue all have to be considered during the flow of a game, but it just seemed so rare that the Celtics ever used such a simple maxim as a starting point.  Once the best individual players per position are determined, finding chemistry within lineups and matching players with complementary abilities on the floor together is the next task.  Our coach never was able to determine this, partially due to injury, partially due to the redundancy issues I'm about to discuss, and partially, of course, due to his own ineptitude.  Some of the lineups thrown out there last season had to be seen to be believed.  It's almost as if they were trying to …

[cough]

Let's begin with the team's second most visible problem (the first one rhymes with Brock Slivers, for anyone left guessing) and that is the "glut" at the swingman spots:
[Insert rows 4-9]

The most glaringly obvious conclusion from even a cursory glance at the ratings:  Allan Ray should not be under any kind of consideration for court time.  I'd like to believe that the only reason he saw any at all was due to injury, but I'm sure Doc would have discovered a way to gift him 15 minutes a game, regardless.  Ray can't be lumped in with the point guards since he is far below average in all meaningful categories there, and his only NBA quality skills are duplicated by every other player competing with him for minutes.   If he has a place in the NBA, it certainly is not with the Boston Celtics.  This isn't to say he's a terrible player, but his skills certainly do not fill a need for the C's. 

Next up the tree is fan-favorite Gerald Green.  I realize that he is still young and possesses a good deal of potential, but I feel I have rated him accurately and fairly given his body of work.  Right now, he is not deserving of much court time [cowering].  He is a disaster on defense and has the poorest court awareness of any of the swingmen.  This is not new news, but what may be (to some) is that he is the possessor of one of the most redundant skill sets on the Celtics.  Gerald's effectiveness is limited to taking wide open three pointers and shooting behind screens, mostly due to his subpar ball-handling ability.  He shies away from contact on dribble drives, preferring to force a low percentage but "clean" shot instead of going hell-bent to the rim and forcing contact.  In other words, he is the anti Tony Allen.  Gerald can't get a lot of minutes at the shooting guard spot due to his defensive inadequacies, which force him to the small forward where he must compete with Pierce, Szczerbiak, and Gomes for minutes - all of whom are superior players right now.  I'm fairly certain that a fully healthy Wally Szczerbiak is still a better option; he is just better than Green in all of the categories where Gerald contributes, and he is as equally limited on the defensive end.  Of course, whether Wally will ever return to his All-Star form is open to debate, and again, Gerald has the capacity to improve in many of his deficient areas. 

Prior to his injury, Tony Allen enjoyed a breakout year and gave the team exactly what it lacked from the shooting guard position.  He overcame fear of reinjuring his knee and a spat of absolutely dreadful play at the very beginning of the season to become both a consistent scoring threat and a lock down defender.  Though still a below average ball-handler, Allen's first step and speed allowed him to get to the rim consistently for a high percentage shot or, quite often, a  trip to the free throw line.  His overall hustle and demeanor on the defensive end made fans much more forgiving of the occasional boneheaded pass or dribble off of his foot because his intensity was the fuel for both good and bad.  I recently revisited Tony's final game before the injury on DVR and he was absolutely dominant prior to going down.  I'm not sure that he will ever be the same after the total destruction suffered to his knee, but if Allen returns to form, it would certainly solve a lot of the redundancy issues - the redundant guys simply wouldn't play much with TA prowling the court.

[Wait, Doc's still the coach, right?  Uhhh….]

A healthy Allen is naturally the team's best perimeter defender and he would earn minutes based on this alone, but it's his newfound offensive talent that vaults him over the top of Delonte West and Gerald Green for the bulk of the minutes at the two.  Creating one's own shot, getting to the free throw line, and defensive prowess are places where no team minds redundancy.  
Delonte West is a bit of an enigma, both on and off the court.  He can do spot duty at the point, but he's not really at his best there, as fans witnessed through his early season woes.  I will say this, though - nobody, and I mean nobody was jerked around more last year than D. West.  Doc had Delonte changing his game on a half-by-half basis, and the poor guy didn't know who he should be each trip down the court.  West is regarded highly around the league for his basketball IQ, hustle, and intangibles fused with above average shot making ability.  Unfortunately, he's a little too small to match up with most NBA two guards defensively and getting away with him at the point guard isn't going to work as a long term solution.  As to whether he's someone that the Celtics could afford to trade, I honestly do not know.  The team would surely miss all of his aforementioned traits, but should Allen return to form and especially if the Celtics draft Corey Brewer (whom I believe is their first or second choice, simply because they aren't sure about Tony), then Delonte is left with relatively few minutes as a result.  I'll leave this one for the forums to debate, I suppose.  His offensive skillset appears to duplicate that of Tony Allen and Gerald Green, but he has enough over them in other areas that if push came to shove, I'd rather see Gerald included in a trade instead of Delonte.  [ducking thrown objects]

There's not much to say about Wally; he was playing up to his usual Szczerbistandards in November, averaging 20 PPG on 46% shooting and then once he got hurt, that was it.  Attempts to return from the sprains were unsuccessful, to put it mildly.  I am not sure that he is an NBA starter anymore, but it's clear that he still possesses well above average ability in shooting the basketball.  He would be wise to settle into a 20-25 minute instant-offense role off the bench where he can carry the scoring load while not giving up too much defensively against the other team's second line guys.  I think the team was hopeful that Gerald could step in and become the "young Wally" as they essentially score in the same ways (one is just more evolved), but clearly that has yet to happen.  That's right; I said it.  For all his athleticism, Gerald can't utilize it in areas where it would matter (dribble drives, earning free throws, defense), so he is effectively a younger Wally Szczerbiak.  

We arrive now at the captain, Paul Pierce.  I'm not sure what else needs to be said about him, but the ratings naturally indicate that he is far and away the best player on the team.  Let me also publically state that it would be foolish to consider trading him for anything less than full value.  The injury concerns are extremely overblown; Pierce has been incredibly durable through his whole career.  The nonsense I've been reading about how he's on the decline because of the stress reaction in his foot and his leaky elbow is utterly ridiculous.  He was playing the best basketball of his career prior to going down, averaging 27.4 PPG, 8.5 RPG, and 3.9 APG while shooting 46% in November, and in ten games in December he was even better, posting 25.4 PPG, 5.8 PPG, 4.9 APG shooting the same FG% while rediscovering a 45% three point stroke not seen since his rookie year.  What most do not realize about P-squared:  the way he plays basketball will make him effective far longer into the later years of his career than his peers who are more reliant on pure athleticism.  When Vince Carter or Allen Iverson's wheels go and they lose their trademark explosiveness, they will decline rapidly.  Paul Pierce can score in the post, he can score off the dribble, he can score behind screens, he finishes well at the rim, he has an array of up-fakes and moves that perennially put him atop the league leaders in free throws attempted, and he is cagey enough on the defensive end that he'll still be able to guard small forwards late in his career.   Pierce is not a one trick pony that is going to be used up at age 34, it just won't happen.  Unless he honestly and truly asks out publically, trading him would be moronic.  Yes, the Celtics are not close to contending right now, but it's Ainge's duty to acquire help for his franchise player and not trade him away because it's perceived that the window for the Celtics contending is too far in the future.  Pierce still has many more years left as an elite player.

It's clear that the guard spots have the largest pool of skill duplication on the team; at least two and possibly even three players here need to be replaced with different types of talent.  I remember Doc's comment last year:   "We don't have a set rotation."  It's easy to see why, frankly. 

[Insert rows 13-19]

The problem of skill redundancy isn't nearly as pronounced at the big man positions - rather it is one of a pure lack of talent and depth.  The team could easily do without the services of four of them, and it's pretty easy to figure out who they are.
I'm not going to waste much space here on Ratliff and Olowokandi - at least not much more space than they wasted at the end of the bench last season.  It's clear that neither will have a place on the team next year, although I will say that Ratliff could have provided spot duty for about five to ten minutes a game as a defensive center if healthy in 06-07.  Leon Powe has value as a rebounder and as a classic garbage man, but he really shouldn't try to do too much on the offensive end.  His size makes it extremely difficult to get his shot off against bigger players in the post (I saw him eat a tremendous amount of leather last year) and poor Leon really has no face-up game to speak of.  Powe should stick to doing what he does best - getting under the other team's skin and hitting the offensive glass with abandon.  He's ideal as an 11th or 12th man, no more.  He should get a certain redhead's minutes.

Scalabrine was a lot better last year, but that isn't saying much.  On offense, his areas of specialty include making the occasional three, setting screens, and firing the ball right back to the man who just passed it to him a second ago.  Outstanding… only three more years on his deal, by the way!  I'm giving him a bit of a bad rap; Scabs did show occasional prowess on the defensive end and he does know exactly where he needs to be in most situations on the court.  What's that saying though - the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak?  Yeah.  Hey, when all you've got is hustle and a dream, it's a hard knock life.

Last year was rough for big Kendrick Perkins; he could never find a rhythm and consistent playing time.  Plantar fasciitis robbed Perkins of what little mobility he had, crippling him in areas where he is classically strong:  low post defense of opposing centers, rebounding, and altering shots on penetration.  Offensively, he is a bit of a disaster, having only one go-to move (the right handed laser hook), but thankfully it isn't on display too often.  Perk is one of the least redundant players on the Celtics, as his skills at the defensive end are not duplicated by any of the team's big men.  However, it has become clear that he may not be starting center quality for a playoff team.  Foul trouble is still a major issue with Perk - a shame considering that he's generally an effective player when measured on a per minute basis.  I'm willing to give him a pass for last season, but the upcoming year is make or break - if the team manages to acquire a Jermaine O'Neal or Pau Gasol, Perkins' deal is going to look awfully expensive for someone playing so few minutes.  That's a good problem to have, because it means the C's landed one of those two whoppers, but I digress… It's going on Perk's 5th year and he needs to show that he can excel again in the aforementioned areas.

I'm not sure if there's anything bad that I can say about Ryan Gomes.  A quick scan of the ratings reveals that he's average in just about every area as a basketball player.  What the numbers can't show, however, is how much Ryan has improved in the areas he was deficient in from his first season to his second.  In his rookie year, after Doc Rivers discovered, "Hey, this guy is better than Scalabrine!  Heck, he might even be better than Mark Blount!  Maybe I should give him a look?", Gomes was playing as an undersized power forward that scooped up a ton of points on the offensive glass and could hit the wide open shot off the pick and pop.  He was also a terror on the glass before teams put him on the scouting report, and the 15 and 16 rebound games disappeared.  Over the summer, he was given a mandate to work his small forward skills and develop an outside game.  Ever the good soldier, he obeyed and returned to camp displaying an improved handle, a better array of face-up moves, and extended range on his jumper.  He learned that he could swing the ball low under a defender's outstretched arms and then flail upwards in a shot attempt, drawing a cheap foul.  Ryan then showed that he could hit the three-pointer in the final chapter of last season, a revelation that I never expected.  I'm interested to see what he has in store for Celtic fans this year - remember this is a second round draft pick we're talking about.  Gomes does everything adequately and isn't superior at any one skill, but he isn't incredibly deficient at anything either.  He's just a solid basketball player - a good glue / rotation guy that is outperforming all expectations.

It's no secret that Al Jefferson is the future of this franchise, but whether it's as a player in uniform that continues to produce for the team or as a trade chip that nets the C's something else… nobody can say with certainty right now.  Why the team is putting their best asset on any kind of block that doesn't exist on a 94 foot basketball court is beyond me.  This is a 22 year old kid that the team drafted, groomed, and is just now beginning to reach his potential… and he's being shopped?   Jefferson is a one of a kind big man with an array of moves that haven't been seen in the NBA since McHale was lacing them up, a player who's sure to be an All Star for many seasons in the future, and he's being dangled like an air freshener on a rear view mirror?  I could go on for hours about his up and under, feathery jump hook, left and right spins, jab step…

If I seem incredulous, it's because I am incredulous.  He's already developed into a big time offensive presence, and he has a lot of potential still for improvement, particularly on the other end.  It just doesn't make any sense to hear his name in trade rumors.  My nagging fear is that ownership is worried that he will ask for a max extension this summer and that Wyc and co. don't want to give it to him at this stage of his career - thus opening the possibility of getting something for Al before he walks in free agency.  I'm guessing that if the team can't get an extension done this summer, Al will go into year 5 as a very unhappy restricted FA.  That's the only reason I can even contrive of Big Al's name being thrown about in trade rumors.  This is one of the three best young big men in the game today with his entire career ahead of him.  Don't do anything stupid, Danny.

[insert rows 23-24]

Does Sebastian Telfair still get to play basketball without a nameplate on his locker?  Can we get a ruling from someone?  His status with the team is in doubt and though I'm sure the C's are trying desperately to move him, he's likely to have very little value around the league.  When I first heard that the Celtics were acquiring Telfair, like many, I was excited that the team was finally getting a true pass-first point guard.  After about twenty games, it was evident that he was not a pass-first point guard at all, but a much poorer shoot-first version of his Coney Island cousin.  Never before have I seen a player with such speed misuse it so egregiously.  Wait, I forgot about Marcus Banks.  There's still some time left for Telfair to 'get it', but I doubt that he ever will.  He's a poor shooter, a poor finisher at the rim, and an even worse defender.  The coaching staff rightfully buried him after all of these things became evident.  Acquiring this knowledge only cost the Celtics Brandon Roy, who in my opinion would be another totally redundant player on this team, but at least he'd have trade value! 

Rondo has a ton of natural physical gifts and is with all likelihood the point guard of the future for the Celtics.  Really.  This time, it's for real.  He has all of the skills necessary to succeed at the position except for that one tiny small insignificant miniscule problem of not being able to shoot a lick.  I posit the following though:  is it possible to be an effective scorer in the NBA without being an effective shooter?  I don't mean adopting the Antoine Walker methodology of "take em' till you make em'" either.  I think that R-squared might be able to get away with it - he just needs to develop one shot:  a pull up jumper/floater in the lane.  Since Rondo is so adept at getting to the rim even when the defender is playing off him, he'd only need to possess this one shot to make everyone forget that he can't hit a mid-range jumper or three-pointer.   Pair that one shot with an improved stroke at the free throw line and suddenly he's in double digits with ease and isn't someone Doc is afraid of "gumming up the offense" (one of the more ridiculous comments he's ever made, by the way).  Although Rondo definitely needs to get better at execution in the half-court, he is one of three players on the team that can actually create for other players (Pierce and Jefferson are the others).  Defensively, he is already well ahead of most rookie point guards.  Rondo needs to add some strength so that he can recover from screens more quickly, but when he does, I can easily see him developing into a second or perhaps first team All-NBA quality defender in two or three years.  No, MikeDFromNP did not just commandeer my keyboard.
Now we can assess the team's needs, having a clearer picture of our individual talent.  The needs most often cited by fans around the blog, purely from a positional standpoint without any special attention paid to skill sets are:

"    A backup point guard
"    A face-up style high-post big man
"    A more consistent presence at the center position / overall big man depth
"    A defensive SF/PF type
"    A defensive SF/SG type

Do any of the Celtics draft targets fit any of these archetypes?  Surely, Yi fits the face up big-man mold and Brewer certainly appears to be the defensive SF/SG type.  Horford, if he's available, would bring overall big man depth, allowing Jefferson to switch to the C spot (for better or worse).  Jeff Green would add depth here as well, though not as well as Horford.  Noah falls nicely into the defensive PF/SF niche.  As far as a backup point guard, the team desperately needs a veteran presence there.  It certainly appears that the Celtics will fill a positional need with whomever they draft, but I feel that it's genuinely difficult to rate or categorize these players until they have played against NBA competition.  I could have worked up ratings for all of the Celtics potential draftees, but it'd be a pointless exercise.  They have not played against their new set of peers yet, and I firmly believe that basing ratings on their collegiate body of work wouldn't be of value.  If anyone cares to rate these players using my system, then have at it.

The team clearly wants:
"    A passing big man that can facilitate the offense (think vintage Sabonis, Divac, Brad Miller)
"    A more mobile defensive presence in the middle (would Greg Oden have worked here?)
"    Another wing defender as a Tony Allen insurance policy
"    A veteran point guard to spell Rondo and teach him new dirty tricks
So, my opinions are pretty in-line with most on the blog.  Taking the player ratings as a whole and looking at them holistically, we can further assess areas of strength and weakness at the team level. 

Strengths:
"    When healthy, plenty of shooters from medium to long range, creating good spacing
"    Three players capable of creating their own shot and break down a defense
"    Long on hustle and intangibles - good locker room atmosphere even amidst a lost season
"    Decent in getting to and making free throws at the line (11th in FTA and 10th in FT% as a team)

Weaknesses:
"    Very poor ball-handling and passing on the whole with many players below average in these areas
"    Too reliant on screen based jump shooting, largely the fault of redundant personnel
"    Lack of defensive specialists both on the interior and perimeter
"    Low awareness in general but especially  in defensive situations, particularly on pick and roll defense  (youth excuse goes here)

Can these weaknesses be addressed through trades?  Trades where we don't get fleeced?  Let's see!

[insert  rows 28-33]

Everyone's dream scenario is finding a way to get Garnett to Boston without giving up Al Jefferson in the process.  It's not going to happen, but it is indeed a nice dream.  KG would fill so many holes for the team; I get dizzy thinking about it.  Unfortunately, the rumored deal would gut the Celtics quite badly, and he obviously doesn't want to come here, anyway.  The next best fit for the team is Pau Gasol, but there's been nothing on that front for a long time.  He would be the essential yin to Jefferson's yang - a true high-post big man with passing ability, touch from the outside, and solid interior defense.  Perhaps Chris Wallace will repay Danny for all those years of gainful employment?

"Chris, did you know it's a deep draft?  Man, have I got a crazy idea for you.  How would you like back to back draft picks?  Wow, it's so loony I can't even believe it.  The fifth pick and Theo Ratliff can be yours for that Spanish guy on your team.  What's his name, again?  Man I can't even pronounce it, but Chad Ford said he's looking for a change of scenery.  He'll love it here in Boston, just love it.  Hey, who's that on the other line?  Jerry?  JERRY HANG UP THE PHONE, CHRIS AND I ARE TRYING TO TALK, HERE.  No, no Chris, don't… that Jerry, he doesn't know what he's saying, he doesn't Know The Draft Like I Know The Draft [tm] "

Marion has already said that he won't play in Boston, but again, he'd be a nice fit as well.  I'd be on board for Jermaine O'Neal provided that he didn't cost too much, but there are injury concerns there.  The same is true of Andrei Kirilenko, but the Jazz claim he's not available.  Like an Ornette Coleman solo, that tune is subject to change at any moment.  And like any sane person, I'm 100% diametrically opposed to any trade that brings Zach Randolph to Boston.  He is a total duplication of Al Jefferson on the offensive end and a certified nutbag headcase malignant lesion to boot.

Free agency?  Nah.  The Celtics aren't going to be players in free agency at all this season.  The team is not close to contending and the owners don't want to pay the luxury tax.  There are some quality names out there that could help the team like Rashard Lewis and especially Gerald Wallace, but I don't think the Green can throw enough green at them for it to matter.  I look forward to the team making a big splash this year by announcing that they have inked Chucky Atkins to a 3 year contract. Somewhere in the distance, I hear Bill Simmons lighting himself on fire.

If you've just reached the end of this epic, congratulations!  And if you just finished a long session on the throne, please do me the courtesy of at least using the blank side of the printout.  The next couple days are going to reveal much about the course of the Celtics for the upcoming years.  Heck, 50% of the team I just wrote about might be gone.  I just hope that the brass realize that building by stockpiling players of one type is never a recipe for constructing a winning basketball team.  Hopefully, the franchise has learned a few valuable lessons in this regard and won't repeat their mistakes in the next 48 hours.

Until next time, pass the kool-aid, but keep a cyanide pellet handy.  You know, just in case.

Well, it wasn't the smoothest move in the world. I was not able to perform a server to server transfer of the CB site and its database from BlueHost to this new place, so I generated a compressed backup of the site through BlueHost's control panel and downloaded it that way. It took eight hours to get it and then upload it to these new servers only to discover, just after midnight last night, that it was incomplete and corrupted. So, I had to download CelticsBlog manually via ftp, which destroys all file and directory permissions when you put it on a Windows machine.

Then I got to do it all over again, the hard way. The uncompressed version took many hours to download and then of course many more hours to upload again. Meanwhile, I downloaded the database, uploaded it and got it installed via command line in a shell environment. Had I been able to transfer CelticsBlog using CLI, this whole process of moving the site might not have taken an hour. Sigh. Let's see...what else can I complain about? OK, how about this.

"Cheer up", I said, "things could be worse!" Twelve hours later when I finally did get the site moved, its database installed, most of the broken permissions fixed and most of the new configurations needed accomplished, someone I'll not name (because I don't want him buggin' out before I can have a little visit with him), broke our Apache server software, killed PHP on the servers and destroyed a ton of server customization in the process. Most of it was related to deep level performance enhancements done to the server. Apache's all better now, but all the fancy stuff has to be done again and there's a lot of it. Grrrrr!

Ahhhh! What am I fussing about? I'm just a little tired and grouchy I guess. After all, we are moved and that's big news. We are also ahead of our original schedule for this and of course, I will get all of the performance enhancements in place again and working in the coming days. No big deal. Naturally, the big hope is that these new server will allow us to enjoy ourselves around here now without so many serious service outages and position us for upward migration to even more powerful servers if and when we need them. BTW, I've been looking at server performance so far this evening and everything so far looks pretty dogone good!

So, cheers to the 2007 Draft week, day, night, hour and...moment! May it be a good one. 

 

We are happy today to introduce a new way for the CelticsBlog community to listen to great, live broadcasting events such as those produced by Celticsstuff Live and our friends at ESPN Boston...CelticsBlog Web Radio. The radio itself is a program that you can now see running at the top of the left column in many of our pages here at CB. It allows you to easily choose a "station" for listening.

When you "tune in" to a broadcast via the radio, a small popup window will open that contains an embedded media player that will detect whether there is any live broadcasting available and if so, begin streaming it to you automatically. The technologies used are pretty universal. All that is required to run the radio are things you already need in order to use CelticsBlog.

Aside from ease of use, one of the nicest things about the radio is that by opening up a station in a small, separate window from the main site, you are not "pinned" to pages in the main site as you are when players are embedded directly into articles. Instead, you are free to go about your business here reading articles, making comments, engaging in forum discussions, chatting with others and so on.

Ending a broadcast is as easy as either clicking the "Stop" button in the player window, or closing the window itself. The popup player is also nice in that, at least for the vast majority of folks, no third party media player will have to be opened in order for them to able to enjoy the shows we bring your way. You can listen all you wish and never leave CelticsBlog.

The current version of CelticsBlog radio is a simplified version of a larger one I have in the works. We expect we will be expanding our broadcast programming in the future and as we do, we will no doubt be providing the radio with new features as well. For now, we mostly just going to use this feature for live shows provided to us by our partners. After everyone is familiar with using CBWR, we'll probably relocate it a little lower in our left column so that our Members Login/Menu is still our most prominent item there.

We hope you enjoy this new site feature. In time we think it will become a true asset for us as we our "realtime" approach to blogging into the world of live broadcasting.

I just wanted to let all of you know that I will be performing some upgrades to our site's commenting system at 11:30 EST. Commenting will be offline during that period. Provided the upgrades go well we should have commenting back online shortly. Otherwise...eeeeek! So, let's keep our fingers crossed.

Creepy ain't it?

Just kidding.

That's, "Do Not Break Glass" as in, the screen of your computer monitor and, "In Case Of Emergency" meaning, in case we get a lousy pick. CelticsBlog or CelticsStuff Live going offline due to high traffic and activity loads is not considered "Emergency", merely awful. However, much like DARPA (the folks who developed what you and I know as the Internet, we've put together survival schemes for the Celtics community. So, depending on how both the servers of CelticsBlog and the servers at CelticsStuff Live handle the sort of traffic loads we are expecting on the two websites, here are your options for enjoying chat, CSL live webcasting and discussion this evening.

For people visiting CelticsBlog

In the event that CelticsBlog goes offline this evening due to server overload and CelticsStuff Live is still online, here are two chat options for CelticsBlog and CelticsStuff Live members...

1. This link provides a means to access CelticsBlog Chat via the Celticstuff Live server and will include an embedded media player for listen to tonight's live CSL Broadcast Room:
http://celticsstufflive.com/cblogbroadcastroom.htm

2. This link provides access to CSL's fine chat room, The Pit:
http://celticsstufflive.com/thepit.html

For people visiting CelticsStuff Live

In the event that CelticsStuff Live goes offline this evening due to server overload and CelticsBlog is still online, here are two chat options for CelticsBlog and CelticsStuff Live members...

1. This link will provide access to CelticsBlog Chat as CB members normally enjoy it Only a username is needed to enter. No media player is embedded into this page:
http://www.celticsblog.com/index.php?option=com_wrapper&Itemid=72

2. This link provides access to a standalone version of CelticsBlog Chat that includes a media player embedded in it that will be playing tonight's CSL's live broadcast:
http://www.celticsblog.com/chat-standalone.html

Other Options for Chat and Listening: The Firm of Loy, Shirley and Derron

In the event both sites are offline and all of our chat rooms and embedded media players are inaccessible, some of our fine friends at Loy's are working with us this evening to provide you additional ways you can enjoy this evening's activities.

Blog: Loy's Place - http://celticsgreen.blogspot.com/
This is CelticsLoyalist main blog manned by this dear man himself and our own wonderful, FLCeltsFan (who Loy kindly shares with us).

Forums: Celtics Green Forums - http://celticsgreen.proboards18.com/
Also a part of Loy's, this is one of the nicest and most intelligent Celtics discussion communities on the net. Interaction will require registration. It is simple and straight forward. You will be posting in no time. If do join and visit with them this evening, be courteous and obey the rules.

Chat: The Box - http://members.cox.net/celticsgreen/chat.htm
This is the chat room for all members of Loy's and the Celtics Green community. If you visit, be courteous and obey the rules.

Just one more thing...

So that's the strategy. In the event one website goes down, two more will be there to replace it. If two go down, there will still be one. If the one goes down, well...then we're talking, "The Day After." However, if in the event that our sites are offline, you should still be able to access tonight's CSL live broadcast via the following link that will open a media player on your computer whereby you will be able to listen to the show.

CSL Live: - mms://es-live.com/celticsstuff
This link will provide direct access to tonight's CelticsStuff Live broadcast. When you click on the link will open the show in a separate program, such as Windows Media Player.

And remember...

Tonight's CelticsStuff Live broadcast begins at: 9:00PM EST
Special Guests will include: Jeff Goodman, Sean Grande, and Patrick Gilroy
Live Call In: (617) 848-1242 | Toll Free: 1-866-751-9649
Jughead will be in The Pit at 8:45PM EST

Weeeeee! Here we go! Everyone have fun!

 

The nature of the beast.

On crazy days like Ping-Pong Ball Day and Draft Day (I should also add days when Wyc and Danny proclaim they are going to make an importance announcement and then at the appointed time, merely say something stupid.) we see enormous web traffic surges here at CelticsBlog. As you know, due to CelticsBlog's current hosting situation, this causes service outages for our website. On our end of things, what causes this can be boiled down to three things:

Problem #1. Rather than 200 to 400 people being on the website, we may anywhere from 500 to infinity trying to get on it. Now, if we had 1,000 people or more on this website and they weren't doing anything much, things would be fine. It doesn't work that way though does it, so that brings us to problem number two.

Problem #2. Not only is there more people here, but they become WAY more active than usual. The ready lots of bits and pieces of things, bounce around all over the website, click everything here at accelerated levels. When that happens, the "real" activity levels that we defined in number of "hits" increases from around 1,000,000 a day (yes you read that right - one million) all they way up to perhaps as many as 3,000,000. No doubt it would go even higher if the server could handle it. Of course this increased level in activity results in CelticsBlog site shutdown and the dreaded, "CPU Quota Exceeded" notices we are all familiar with. That brings us to problem number three.

Problem #3. When the site does go offline, it is clear that most CelticsBlog clearly experience temporary insanity (or at least a large measure more than usual). The result of this is they frantically begin clicking their browser reload buttons and trying to access the site via the main link at a rate of anywhere from 1 to 5 seconds. Many hundreds or thousands of people doing that at the same is the absolute best way in the world to insure that CelticsBlog will REMAIN offline.

What CelticsBlog do to help the situation for now...

On our busiest days (like today), I will be checking our site database regularly to see if it needs optimization and/or repair. We have never really needed any repairs to it except for once when BlueHost screwed it up, but I will probably perform at least three optimizations today in addition to one I've already performed this morning. Other than just keep an eye on things, that's about all we can do. This is mainly because CelticsBlog is fine-tuned to run well in its specific server environment...as long as BlueHost doesn't fiddle with their setup.

What you can do to help the situation for now...

There is not a great number of things you can do on your end of things but there is ONE THING you CAN do that could potentially make more difference in how much CelticsBlog is online versus offline this afternoon and evening than anything anyone of here at CelticsBlog could do. It can be defined by two words: SLOW DOWN! What I mean is stop clicking everything in sight as fast as you can. Here's some specific examples of how you can do this and help keep us online:

First, stay calm as you can, slow down and do one thing at a time. Give yourself time before moving from thing you want to do, to another. Take your time when making, editing and responding to comments and forum posts.

Second, stop looking at your Updated Topics and Recent Topics and then opening ten new browser tabs or windows in 10 seconds that will contain the things you want to read. Open one, read it, post if you want, then open another. In fact, just generally take it a little easier tonight and stop banging that refresh button, clicking around at manic pace and freaking out. Slow down!

Third, IF/WHEN CelticsBlog does go offline this or any other time, don't try to reload CB into your brower every stinking second or two. Because of the way BlueHost has this server set up, it bascially measures numbers of hits and sql database queries and compares what it sees in terms of the numbers of such events allowed in one minute on this server. If it sees 500 people attempting to run multiple sql queries 30,000 times in 60 seconds, we are not coming back online until all of you people either stop doing that or leave CelticsBlog.

So what am I saying? Well, I'm saying that if we do go offline, WAIT ONE MINUTE BEFORE TRYING TO RELOAD THIS WEBSITE INTO YOUR BROWSER!

Getting the picture? So slow down your activity some. It will dramatically reduce our server load and is the one thing all of you can do more than any other thing that could be done, that could potentially help us stay up and running during times like this. I'm not saying we won't have outages if you guys practice what I'm preaching here, but I will say that we will without a doubt experience less down-time...at least until another 500 or more pile in and good it all up for us.

Let me repeat one last time...slow down.

Now have fun everyone and, here's hoping for a great evening for us all. Cheers!

This week on CelticsStuff Live, JB, Jughead and The Duke will be visiting with Jeff Goodman, senior college basketball writer for FOXSports.com. The intrepid CSL staff will shake off their braces and unwind their bandages to explore the fruits of this lost/not so lost, season of injuries and dissapointment. They will be eliciting Jeff’s insights on; Oden, Durant, Hawes, Jianlin, Wright, Horford, Hibbert and any other of the potential desserts for the Celtics, as they stumble from the dinner table, seeking that sweet finish to a miserable meal.

If you have a question for the show or for their guest you can call the CSL toll free number anytime leading up to the game and leave us a voice message to play on the show or you can send them an e-mail as always they’ll be monitoring the chat wars in The Pit and taking your calls live.

Please Note: If this is the first time you have listened to the show or have experienced technical difficulties in the past, Jughead will be available in the chat room, at least 15 minutes prior to the show to help. During that time they’ll be taking in the beats of Miracle Johan for your listening pleasure.

Showtime: 7:00PM EST
Link: http://celticsstufflive.com

Update! In case you missed it, here's a link to an mp3 archive of this evening's podcast!

Three point shooting was pretty lousy last night as was the free-throw shooting, but all in all, most of our your Celtics had some pretty good numbers against the Pacers. Of all of them, one set in particular stood out...

Rajon Rondo: 14 Points, 8 Rebounds, 8 Assists, 7 Steals, 2 Turnovers.

That's not too shabby for a rookie point guard. Some were sold on him before he ever played an NBA game. Most of us weren't. That perspective has changed quite a bit though. The kid has sort of been making believers out of us this year. Had last night's game gone into an overtime or two, Rondo might well have gone joined an elite group of the few NBA players who have accomplished quadruple-doubles (without double-digit turnovers). My understanding is that, in the entire history of the NBA, it has only happened four times.

• Nate Thurmond, October 18, 1974, Chicago vs. Atlanta; 22 points, 14 rebounds, 13 assists, 12 blocks.
• Alvin Robertson, February 18, 1986, San Antonio vs. Phoenix; 20 points, 11 rebounds, 10 assists, 10 steals.
• Hakeem Olajuwon, March 29, 1990, Houston vs. Milwaukee; 18 points, 16 rebounds, 10 assists, 11 blocks.
• David Robinson, February 17, 1994, San Antonio vs. Detroit; 34 points, 10 rebounds, 10 assists, 10 blocks.

We love Rajon's work ethic, speed, athleticism, guts, smarts and...what about those hands! Yes, indeed. What about them? Well, you just knew it was only a matter of time before someone came up with something like this. Behold, Rondo's hands!

Happy Easter, everyone!

I didn't get to see the game tonight. As with many of you, I was relegated to watching refreshing boxscores and play by play on the web. It is not a fun way to watch a ballgame. Fortunately, I had this place so I was able to spend some time with my CelticsBlog friends and engage in a little spit-wad fight with Roy Hobbs and Edgar.

I did get a sense of a few things about tonight's game though. To put it in a nutshell, we really do have some wonderful little beasts-in-the-making on this team. At least it seems that way to me. Oh yeah, they've not proved themselves entirely yet. I know that, and I know that some of them never may. On this evening though, while trying to gleen something from the stupid web pages I was watching refresh, I flashed back to a memory of a much earlier time in my own life.

I was five years old and I was crying. My mother came running to see what was the matter. I shouted at her, "Dad kicked me!", and I pointed my finger at him. Then he, in the only memory of him I have wherein he was flustered, pointed his finger at me and shouted at my mom, "Well, he kicked me first!" It was true too! He had made me mad and I had kicked him in the shin just as hard as I could. I KNEW it hurt! Just before he kicked me back, I was smiling with satisfaction!

My mom just turned around and stomped away from both of us while shaking her head. I was aching from my payback, but he was so completely embarressed by the situation that I considered myself the victor in that small encounter.

Our C's young'uns reminded me of that fond memory tonight. They kicked hard and I was proud of them all for it. Whether they fair well in time to come or not, I would wish that they all could look back upon games like this one and smile with the remembrance.

Just as with most of you, I'm no sportswriter, but I do love the game. There is also no separating our love for it, and our love for the Boston Celtics from how intertwined it is with our own experiences and memories. Those are rich tapestries that are the stuff of life. It is, and will be, the same with the Boston staff and team.

With that, I'll leave you with the tonight's boxscore...

 

BOSTON CELTICS
STARTERS	MIN	FGM-A	3PM-A	FTM-A	OREB	DREB	REB	AST	STL	BLK	TO	PF	PTS
Ryan Gomes, F	35	6-12	0-2	0-1	2	7	9	1	1	0	3	3	12
Gerald Green, GF	30	4-18	2-7	2-3	2	0	2	1	0	0	3	6	12
Kendrick Perkins, FC	19	1-4	0-1	0-0	0	2	2	1	0	0	2	2	2
Allan Ray, G	41	8-18	3-7	3-3	0	4	4	0	1	1	2	5	22
Rajon Rondo, G	40	6-12	0-1	2-5	2	6	8	8	7	0	2	5	14
BENCH	MIN	FGM-A	3PM-A	FTM-A	OREB	DREB	REB	AST	STL	BLK	TO	PF	PTS
Leon Powe, F	28	6-9	0-1	3-5	3	1	4	0	1	0	1	3	15
Sebastian Telfair, PG	32	8-12	1-2	4-6	1	4	5	3	1	0	3	6	21
Kevinn Pinkney, IR	16	0-2	0-0	0-0	1	1	2	0	1	0	1	2	0
TOTALS		FGM-A	3PM-A	FTM-A	OREB	DREB	REB	AST	STL	BLK	TO	PF	PTS
		39-87	6-21	14-23	11	25	36	14	12	1	17	32	98
		44.8%	28.6%	60.9%	Team TO (pts off): 17 (13)
INDIANA PACERS
STARTERS	MIN	FGM-A	3PM-A	FTM-A	OREB	DREB	REB	AST	STL	BLK	TO	PF	PTS
Jermaine O'Neal, FC	35	5-12	0-0	4-5	1	13	14	1	0	2	6	6	14
Danny Granger, F	38	5-8	0-0	5-6	2	8	10	0	0	0	4	2	15
Troy Murphy, FC	28	6-6	2-2	2-2	0	0	0	4	3	0	2	1	16
Mike Dunleavy, GF	43	8-16	0-2	6-6	2	6	8	7	2	0	1	1	22
Keith McLeod, PG	32	5-8	1-2	6-6	0	4	4	4	1	0	3	4	17
BENCH	MIN	FGM-A	3PM-A	FTM-A	OREB	DREB	REB	AST	STL	BLK	TO	PF	PTS
Darrell Armstrong, PG	27	3-9	2-5	2-2	0	0	0	4	3	0	3	2	10
Orien Greene, PG	8	1-1	0-0	0-0	0	1	1	3	0	0	1	1	2
Ike Diogu, FC	17	3-3	0-0	1-2	0	2	2	0	0	1	2	3	7
Shawne Williams, F	13	1-5	0-0	0-0	1	2	3	0	0	0	4	1	2
TOTALS		FGM-A	3PM-A	FTM-A	OREB	DREB	REB	AST	STL	BLK	TO	PF	PTS
		37-68	5-11	26-29	6	36	42	23	9	3	26	21	105
		54.4%	45.5%	89.7%	Team TO (pts off): 26 (25)

Flagrant Fouls: None
Technicals: None
Officials: Matt Boland , Jess Kersey , Eddie F. Rush

The University of Kentucky Athletics Department has released the following statement this morning:

The University of Kentucky will hold a pep rally and a press conference today to announce the 21st head coach in UK men’s basketball history (6th in the last 76 years).

An introductory pep rally is scheduled for 12:15 p.m. in Memorial Coliseum. Fans are encouraged to come out and welcome the new coach. The ensuing press conference will be televised live to all fans in Memorial Coliseum wishing to view the event. Doors open at 11 a.m. and admission is free.

A press conference announcing the new coach will follow at 12:45 p.m. on the men’s practice floor in the Joe Craft Center. The press conference is open to media, athletics board members, board of trustees, and former UK basketball players.

According to ESPN and others:

Kentucky has announced it will hold "a pep rally and a press conference" Friday afternoon at 12:45 p.m. ET to announce the hiring of the program's 21st head coach. And according to a source at Kentucky, Texas A&M coach Billy Gillispie is the man the Wildcats will introduce to Big Blue Nation.

Update--according to USA Today , Billy Gillespie has been hired:

LEXINGTON, Ky. â€" Kentucky's restless two weeks is over. The Wildcats have a new coach in Billy Gillispie, who will try to restore some of the luster to college basketball's winningest school.

Athletics department spokesman Scott Stricklin confirmed Gillispie's hiring would be announced at a 12:15 p.m. ET pep rally, then a 12:45 news conference.

This is very big news for UK fans.

Here's a few nice photos from our team's superb losing effort last night. How dare anyone think they can play worse than us? We showed them! You can read the gruesome details here . Click on any thumbnail image below in order to view the gallery.

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Congratulations to University of Tennessee Head Coach Pat Summit and her Lady Volunteers! The winningest coach in the history of college basketball has just won her 7th NCAA National Championship . Summit, Wooden, Auerbach...that's rarefied air!

CelticsBlog notes:

• For Newbies--The little flag icons in the upper left corner of the CB pages allow you to translate CelticsBlog content into several languages. The translations are "read-only", but it is a nice way for our international visitors who may struggle with English to be able to enjoy all the content of our website.
• For Newbies--The little widgets in the upper right corner of all CB pages allow you to change the size of text and width of the page layout on CelticsBlog. The default layout width is fixed and fairly standard for blogs. I prefer the "fluid width". It allows the site's layout to expand or contract depending upon the width of your browser window. If the site layout seems congested to you, you might consider clicking the fluid width button.
• For Newbies--When you become a CelticsBlog member and sign into this website, you will see Members Menu toward the top of the left column here. It is there for you so learn to use it.
• For all members--If you are a member of CelticsBlog and have not read our posting rules for this website, please do so. Yes, I know it is a long post, but reading and abiding by those are requirements of membership here.
• For all members--I would like to acknowledge and apologize for the loss of service that we experienced yesterday here at CB. It was the result of yet another catastrophic failure on the part of the server that CelticsBlog resides on. This website did not cause the problem. The server was misconfigured. That created as situation that resulted in a chain reaction of failures server-wide. Hopefully by Draft Day, we will have put such issues behind us.
• For all members--Jeff will be returning on April 9th. I don't know if he'll have any opportunity to get over that day, much less whether he'll be able to post much, but my guess would be that one of the first things he will do on his return is check in here. Given that, I was wondering if we might put together a surprise, "Welcome Home" party for him. Think about it. We welcome your suggestions.

We are pleased to announce that today we have launched a new forums category titled "The International Zone" in the CelticsBlog discussion boards. The area will allow us to expand our outreach to the international community of basketball fans worldwide. We have moved our recently introduced International Basketball board there. That's just the beginning though.

Can you say, " Celebre a los Celtas!" We are proud of a second, new forum in the IZ just added today, the Foros Españoles, for our Spanish-speaking family that we hope will be the home of many great discussions. The title of the new Spanish area is rendered in the plural. This is because we will most likely add "child boards" there that in some ways will mirror what we've done with our English language boards.

We also could not possibly be more happy to tell you that two of our own, wonderful Latino members, Edgar and Requila will be assisting us as Global Moderators in the new Spanish area. Edgar and Rey have been members in good standing with CelticsBlog for quite a while. Both are bright, multi-lingual and have demonstrated their gifts for working with and winning the hearts of others. This new endeavor could not have been possible without them. We believe they will prove to be terrific assets to both our Spanish language community and our CelticsBlog staff as well.

For our Spanish-speaking friends I will say, ¡Bienvenido a CelticsBlog! Deseamos para vosotros mismos los goce estar con nosotros.