BREAKING: Tony and House to Sign

[Dogen]

I'm happy assuming this is the case. However where does this leave Giddens and Walker? A couple of nobodies who wont make any impact?

A couple of rookies. What can we expect from them? No one knows yet.

One or both of them will probably get some minutes this year; perhaps spent time in NBDL. The thing is, the team is defending the title this year, so very little opportunity to develop players when every other team is focusing on taking the throne.

[PPAW4Life]

I'm relieved we got these two coming back but we may have overpaid for both of them.

I think losing Posey and the dwindling FA's out there finally ignited us into do something.

[celticfan42487]

Um, House is an if?

How about Leon Powe?

I think it is clear that the team believes in Leon Powe and his potential to be a consistent 6th man next season. House is the steady hand, stretch the defense guy off the bench.

On the wings Tony Allen, Giddens provide athleticism and energy, if not consistency. This is a potential concern area but in reality we're talking about 24 minutes backing up the best wing duo in the NBA. On nights where TA and JR struggle (only for "important games") Ray and Pierce will play more minutes... No big deal, IMO.

At the backup five spot the Celtics have two options whereas for much of the season last year they had only one, Glen Davis. Now Glen is a year older and wiser and they also have an athletic, young 7 footer on the bench.

Posey is a big loss, but the team has plenty of realistic options on the bench.

House played very uncharacteristically last year. Where he played both defense and hit clutch shots during the playoffs. 1 year after finally getting his ring after efforts rarely seen from him is usually an abnormality not a sign that he is god. House is the least if on the bench but it isn't like he has teh track record were we should automatically expect that he will come back and put up everything he did last year in terms of defense and clutch shooting wich he hasn't done in the past 7 years of his career. Granted House is the very lowest "if" on the bench. And he is fine as our backup PG if we have another ball handler on the floor (wich is still just Pierce now unless our rookies step up).

You may believe in Leon Powe, but in reality he hasn't shown much to truely seperate himself from Big Baby. Leon is a good roleplayer offensively and a bad one defensively but always gives heart. Baby is a better roleplayer against opposing bench teams that can't handle his size (guys like Anderson Varejo).

And yes we have plenty of options, they aren't excatly the most inspiring.

Basically I'm mostly dissapointed because I had higher expectations. I was of the mind after coming off teh championship run that we would start out with a clabier of bench that we ended our run with. Not rely on rookies and Pruitt to develop to just meet par of last year's bench that we ended our run with. And a bench were we could relastically go to and give Pierce,Ray,KG down to 32 mpg without having them come back and pick up the mess. A bench with some solid veterant roleplayers mixed in with some rookies or busts or unproven injury career type of players, not one vet mix in with a bust, an injury career man ,and rookies.

All said and done it's a freaken bench and it won't kill us. Most teams are looking to improve their starting 5. And we still have leaders on this team that should allow us to keep our defensive mentality [KG,Pierce, Thibs]. Rookies aren't going to say anything to disrupt that like a vet that doesn't play defense might (Ricky Davis). I guess I just had unrealistic expectations of Boston being a free-agent destination after winning a championship.

[15th overall]

Can we plz go sign bonzi now

Agreed.

I love these signings but our bench still needs a legit offensive threat. Cassell failed to fill that void last season and as much as people wanna worship Posey's contributions he was garbage on offense last season when the starters sat. We still need a guy who can create his own shot like Bonzi, Marbury, Ricky, or Finley to come off the bench.

[return2glory]

I love this move. I really wanted House to say because IMO, there are a few players in this league can do want he does and commmand only about 15 minutes per game.

TA is a guy that I really like. Yes the injuries are a concern, when healthy he is a good player and can create his iwn shot, get to the basket, and play defense.

I still think we have money left to get another player or two.

[humblebum]

Um, House is an if?

How about Leon Powe?

I think it is clear that the team believes in Leon Powe and his potential to be a consistent 6th man next season. House is the steady hand, stretch the defense guy off the bench.

On the wings Tony Allen, Giddens provide athleticism and energy, if not consistency. This is a potential concern area but in reality we're talking about 24 minutes backing up the best wing duo in the NBA. On nights where TA and JR struggle (only for "important games") Ray and Pierce will play more minutes... No big deal, IMO.

At the backup five spot the Celtics have two options whereas for much of the season last year they had only one, Glen Davis. Now Glen is a year older and wiser and they also have an athletic, young 7 footer on the bench.

Posey is a big loss, but the team has plenty of realistic options on the bench.

House played very uncharacteristically last year. Where he played both defense and hit clutch shots during the playoffs. 1 year after finally getting his ring after efforts rarely seen from him is usually an abnormality not a sign that he is god. House is the least if on the bench but it isn't like he has teh track record were we should automatically expect that he will come back and put up everything he did last year in terms of defense and clutch shooting wich he hasn't done in the past 7 years of his career. Granted House is the very lowest "if" on the bench. And he is fine as our backup PG if we have another ball handler on the floor (wich is still just Pierce now unless our rookies step up).

You may believe in Leon Powe, but in reality he hasn't shown much to truely seperate himself from Big Baby. Leon is a good roleplayer offensively and a bad one defensively but always gives heart. Baby is a better roleplayer against opposing bench teams that can't handle his size (guys like Anderson Varejo).

And yes we have plenty of options, they aren't excatly the most inspiring.

Basically I'm mostly dissapointed because I had higher expectations. I was of the mind after coming off teh championship run that we would start out with a clabier of bench that we ended our run with. Not rely on rookies and Pruitt to develop to just meet par of last year's bench that we ended our run with. And a bench were we could relastically go to and give Pierce,Ray,KG down to 32 mpg without having them come back and pick up the mess. A bench with some solid veterant roleplayers mixed in with some rookies or busts or unproven injury career type of players, not one vet mix in with a bust, an injury career man ,and rookies.

All said and done it's a freaken bench and it won't kill us. Most teams are looking to improve their starting 5. And we still have leaders on this team that should allow us to keep our defensive mentality [KG,Pierce, Thibs]. Rookies aren't going to say anything to disrupt that like a vet that doesn't play defense might (Ricky Davis). I guess I just had unrealistic expectations of Boston being a free-agent destination after winning a championship.

To me it does seem that expectations is what is causing some of the negative backlash against Danny's assembling of the bench for next season.

I also think that the roles available, given the improved continuity and growth of Rondo/Perk, are much more simple and thus easier to fill than people are thinking. If Perk and Rondo are each able to play with more consistency while increasing their MPG by 5-7 minutes the roles behind them shrink and become easier to fill. If Perk adds a little jumpshot to his game your not going to miss PJ's contributions as much. Then Davis and O'Bryant can come in and play decent ball and your not in a bad spot. Same goes for Rondo/House/Pruitt.

Anyways, I don't think there is much of any reason that House's game is going to slide. His role will be exactly the same.

[ParticleMan]

Good stuff. Solid moves. I don't think we overpaid for TA, we may have a bit for House, but really it's not much money. I like the fact that it's only 2 years. I expect Pruitt and Giddens to take over their roles, but we have 1 year of comfort level where the youngsters don't have to contribute anything, and the 2nd year the kids should be able to seriously compete for mins. if TA and Giddens both show promise, we can trade one and sign the other long-term.

Nice flexibility, decent money, keeps continuity. I think we are mostly done now, but we might sign an end-of-the-bench guy for the vet min. I don't think we NEED anything else at this point. We're set.

[meatball sub]

WOOOO **** HOOO BABY!!!!!!!

[LenBiasBaller]

The thing is we do not have to solidify our roster right NOW. We do not have to rush into signing anyone.

I think PJ will be around for another playoff run late in the year. If not we can hold off until the deadline there could be some steals available to round out our roster for another championship run. God I love saying that.

We should go forward as constructed and see how everything pans out. For the most part we have a solid lineup.

The following are most peoples concerns:
Backup Center (Veteran)
SF (Vet Shooter/Defender)
PG (Vet PG possibly)

Other than the above we in good shape for now with some of the young guns filling in. The biggest thing is that we have not overpaid for anyone. That in itself is a huge move. If we had posey right now for 4 years at the MLE we would have only filled 1 of the "holes" above. And we would have been in worse shape financially in the long term.

If you guys have forgotten our major weakness last year IMHO was athleticism. We solved it partly by increasing TA's role and drafting giddens, walker, and signing a promosing young POB. Let's see how it goes.

There is such a fine line between adding vets and staying young and athletic. I think we were at the absolute tipping point last year with the the young teams (i.e. sixers, hawks, cavs) who are still young and now ever hungrier. So some of the Vet stuff might be a little overrated.

I like where we are at now we have a nice balance. If a gem comes along then sign him up but otherwise stand pat and see how things play out.

[humblebum]

The thing is we do not have to solidify our roster right NOW. We do not have to rush into signing anyone.

I think PJ will be around for another playoff run late in the year. If not we can hold off until the deadline there could be some steals available to round out our roster for another championship run. God I love saying that.

We should go forward as constructed and see how everything pans out. For the most part we have a solid lineup.

The following are most peoples concerns:
Backup Center (Veteran)
SF (Vet Shooter/Defender)
PG (Vet PG possibly)

Other than the above we in good shape for now with some of the young guns filling in. The biggest thing is that we have not overpaid for anyone. That in itself is a huge move. If we had posey right now for 4 years at the MLE we would have only filled 1 of the "holes" above. And we would have been in worse shape financially in the long term.

If you guys have forgotten our major weakness last year IMHO was athleticism. We solved it partly by increasing TA's role and drafting giddens, walker, and signing a promosing young POB. Let's see how it goes.

There is such a fine line between adding vets and staying young and athletic. I think we were at the absolute tipping point last year with the sixers and hawks who are still young and now ever hungrier. So some of the Vet stuff might be a little overrated.

I like where we are at now we have a nice balance. If a gem comes along then sign him up but otherwise stand pat and see how things play out.

Great. Post.

[sully00]

Glad to have Tony back, he certainly fills a need.

I am not the biggest Eddie House fan at least as it relates to him as a pg but he can shoot and hustle and I am glad he is back.

According to the Providence Journal this moring (I read the print version so you have to dig up a link) Ainge has open offers to Cassell, Brown, and Pollard to all return if they wish, obviously at the league minimum. So just think all the hating on Sam people can do for a whole season.

If these numbers are right that leaves about 3 mil for Ainge to throw at a FA SF.

[GreenGrizz]

I feel much better. House will bring leadership back to the bench. I never wanted to see TA go. I know he is a good player but he never gets it right. I hope the championship experience will help him.

[armageddon]

Very glad to see House back but I was hoping for a big splash with the full MLE. Obviously DA knows that nothing was available so he punted.

TA doesn't touch the MLE so this is ok. He's still TA, good and bad. Best scenario is that he reaches his athletic potential (mental aside) and he becomes a good trade asset next year.

We know historically with DA and Doc that rookies don't get much burn, at least early.

We're good at all positions except center, when Perk is out we're in trouble.

[U2larkin04]

I'm very glad to hear this... I'm still a believer that Tony can be a very good player, probably the only one left, but oh well, haha... And as for Eddie, he really stepped up for us in the playoffs and is really a guy I like having off the bench... this news made today a pretty good day for me, haha

[The Rondo Show]

I like Eddie, but I'm not a big fan of giving him nearly half of the mid-level. T.A. doesn't touch the mid-level, so I'm fine with bringing him back and hoping he can return to '06-'07 form. If not, he's still a great defender for $2M and it's only 2 years so it's not like we are dealing with a Scalabrine situation (worthless player, long-term contract).

If PJ delines that minimum contract Ainge offered, I'd offer the rest of the mid-level Kurt Thomas, who is like a rich man's PJ Brown.

I really don't get why they would offer Pollard a contract. That guy is just a scrub who has no business on an NBA roster. I get that he's a good guy, funny, etc. but he is worthless on the court and we could make better use of a roster spot.

[Al-Haqq]

I'm very happy to have them back for next season, but let's be real here. It's not like we won something here - these deals needed to get done.

We couldn't stand to lose Posey, Allen and House!

Impressed that it was for 2yrs and for roughly a little over 2million.

We use 1/2 the MLE on House but not on Tony because he's been with the team for 4yrs. So we still have the other 1/2 of the MLE.

I would satisfied with a veteran signing. Finley, George would be nice additions.

By the way, this is going to be a big season for Tony Allen, not because I think he will play great, it's because he has to! We need him to be huge off the bench.

[LongTimeFan]

I think many on this board think & hope Tony can become a very good player. The question is how his body and mind recover. I think it is great we can and do offer him a roster spot to work his way back.

[celticfan42487]

Another thing to look at it is every game next season will be a exciting game for the 30 minutes of bench players. We no longer know outside of House what we will be getting. Last year House and Posey's consistenty was getting a little boring.

Another thing just poped into my mind. This is it for our wings and PGs for the run with our Big 3. House,Pruitt,Giddens, Walker, Tony Allen are the support.

House and Allen are on 2 year deals so we won't be upgrading our backcourt/wings corps for Ray Allen or Pierce through Ray Allen's expiration date. There will be no help to let them ease into the mid thirties... I think I need some more of that cool-aide to feel better.

[campybatman]

So, House's the veteran at point guard, huh? Pruitt better be the bleep next season or else Rondo will be averaging forty minutes a game. Too much pressure on Pruitt. I hope he doesn't fail. Because you've one point guard, a combo guard and a shooting guard. Let's hope that that's a positive mix in the back court.

I know, who else was Ainge going to sign? But, I would've preferred, if House had resigned, playing him more as an off guard and Ainge signing another true point guard like Rondo. Oh, well... We'll see how this turns how. Again, I'm crossing my fingers that Rondo doesn't get seriously injured and Pruitt's impressive in season two. Because Ainge's really gambling here more so on Pruitt working out.

[Al-Haqq]

I guess this also means Ryan Gomes is not heading back to Boston.