Thought it might be worthwile to have another thread to talk about Celtics personnell and potential lineups
Bob Ryan was pretty brutal on the rest of the Celts beyond the new big three
I understand some of the concern - but I think Rondo is a bigtime keeper - a decent player with a very suspect cast of characters last year, that should be helped immensely by having such great players around him now.
Additionally I think the fact that Allen, Garnett and Pierce are all good passers shouldn't be overlooked.
Perkins, Powe and Davis might get some time too obviously - but I wouldn't be surprised to see one more trade for a veteran.
But just wondering what people see as the starting roster and key backups now - and who they might like to see brought in via trade if need be... and if they think Rondo can handle point guard.
Bob Ryan really needs to look up the rosters of the Suns and Spurs (who he cites as having deep benches), and see how concentrated their minutes/points are. To be quite honest, I don't think Bob Ryan has any idea what he's talking about these days and couldn't name you the benches on those rosters. If he could, he wouldn't have written that article.
Bulpett on the other hand detailed the players in our rotation and why they'll all get better as a result of playing with this trio.
I think all they have to do is add two vets - I think Brevin Knight and Mutombo would be ideal and the Herald listed them as realistic targets recently.
I still think Rondo is your starting PG, his basketball IQ is off the charts, youngster or not, he understands the game better than a lot of veteran PGs.
Perk is going to be perfectly fine at the center position if he stays healthy. As Bulpett says in his article, Jefferson's inadequacy on defense led to a lot of fouls on Perk (when Perk did get minutes last season), as Perk was always having to pick up Big Al's man. With KG replacing Jefferson, Perk will not have the same foul trouble he has run into.
So, lineup...
PG - Rondo
SG - Allen
SF - Pierce
PF - KG
C - Perk
6th: Tony Allen
7th: B. Knight/VET
8th: Mutombo/VET
9th: House
10th: Scal
11th: Powe
12th: Davis
Pruitt, Wallace go to the NBADL for now.
If you do look at the Suns and Spurs rotations and see their minutes played, you basically see a strong 6 man rotation with a couple of other fringe guys getting 10-16 minutes a game. I think Tony Allen is going to play a lot of minutes, probably 25-30 a game, spelling Pierce, Allen and also coming into the first unit as a defensive stopper.
Knight or whatever other backup will likewise get minutes in the 15 range, and House will, too, as a shooter though, I don't really see him as a PG option. You get a vet center like Mutombo to chip in 15 minutes a game, and other than that, I really don't see too many minutes spreading around.
They'll also go small a lot and play KG at 5, something to keep in mind. You make a great point about the passing ability of the trio...that takes pressure off the ability to have a true PG out there at times. So maybe you do see House at 1, but the offense runs through Pierce or Ray Allen in that instance.
There's a lot of different units I can imagine with this team, especially with Doc's desire to go small at times. I'll post some later, but there is some creative units they can really put out there, to keep guys fresh, to maximize a certain strength (ie defense, or shooting, or fast break offense). They have the ability to find out what a team's weakness is on both sides of the court and create a unit that attacks those weaknesses.