Fiddlin’ and Diddlin’ on Thursday

The news today is about West and Wally returning to practice and hoping to play on Friday against the Kings. The Herald, Globe and Celtics.com all have articles that are similar. West returned to practice yesterday and has pronounced himeslf 100% healthy. Wally hopes to practice today and is being cautious about coming back too quickly this time after rushing it last time. Hidden in these articles is the fact that Pierce is still in the boot and not looking at coming back anytime in the near future. One quote struck me in Peter Stringer’s article:

“We’ve got to go over some stuff, because we’ve changed some stuff without Tony and Paul,” said Rivers. “Some of the things don’t fit right now. We’re a post team and a pick and roll team now.”

We are a post team? We are a pick and roll team? We don’t post up our bigs near enough. Doc starts them too far out and they often get the ball out on the floor and not in the paint. When they are in the paint, their teammates aren’t getting them the ball there. And our best post player and rebounder isn’t even on the floor most of the time. And I remember one game in which we worked the pick and roll consistently and beyond that, we only use it once in a while. Sometimes I really wonder about Doc.

You know it is a slow news day when the Globe has an article on how Bassy dresses. Seems that he models in his spare time and is quite the snappy dresser.

The guys in the Green Room take a look at each of the 9 players who have taken the floor over the past 2 weeks while the Celtics have been playing short handed.

ProTrade has a piece that is very positive about this team. They feel that with the experience our young players are getting and the improvement in their play will pay big dividends with the return of Paul Pierce.

The Bay Insider reports on Big Al’s progress this season. They also give props to Rondo and Green for their progress. Al is breaking out this season now that he is finally healthy. I believe he is only going to get better. Last year everyone was down on him for not making progress. This year they are down on Perk for the same reason. Perk will be fine once the plantar fasciitis heals, just as Al was fine once the bone chips were removed.

Finally, the Warriors and Pacers pulled off a huge 8 player deal yesterday and the Herald reports on it. This deal proves that one man’s trash is another’s treasure. Indy has been desperate to get rid of Stephen Jackson and the Warriors seem happy to get him. Also, no contract is untradeable. If a team wants to get rid of a player bad enough they will even take 2 unfavorable contracts in return. I wonder if Trader Danny is getting an itchy trigger finger seeing this trade go down.

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