Posts Tagged ‘Fab Melo’

Green Could Be A Problem This Season

October 23, 2012  ·  9:52AM

 

HANG TIME HEADQUARTERS – Jeff Green never makes it into the frame for the photo-op with the Celtics’ revamped Big 3 of Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce and Rajon Rondo.

Spending a season in street clothes away from the court and the public consciousness has a way of forcing a player, even one as talented and accomplished as Green, into the background.

Green spent all of last season recovering from heart surgery, missing out on the Celtics’ run to the Eastern Conference finals and the Celtics’ missed out on all that the dynamic hybrid forward brings to the party.

He’s back now, in a major way. Anyone who has seen the Celtics during the preseason has seen it. He’s flying around on both ends of the floor and making plays at the rim (check out that block above) and in transition in ways that no other player on the Celtics’ current roster can.

A 6-foot-9, 235-pound forward with the length and athleticism to match up against power forwards and the range and ballhandling skills to work on the perimeter as well, Green brings another dose of firepower to the Celtics’ attack (along with newcomers Courtney Lee and Jason Terry) that was lacking last season.

We’re not saying that a healthy Green pushes the Celtics past the Heat in that conference finals clash last season, but you never know …

(more…)

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in 2012 Training Camps / Comments (14) /

Rondo Leads Celtics’ L.A. Retreat

September 26, 2012  ·  3:27PM

 

The player who allegedly was the source of the Boston Celtics’ deepest friction last season now seems determined to be the spark of deeper togetherness.

Point guard Rajon Rondo, cited as one reason teammate Ray Allen bolted the Celtics for Miami over the summer, was the ringleader of a Boston-in-Los Angeles week, as reported by Yahoo! Sports NBA writer Marc Spears. The feisty playmaker who has been such a love/hate/trade object for basketball boss Danny Ainge took it upon himself to plan what Spears called “a week of bonding.”

One of the first steps was welcoming a couple of new teammates — Jason Terry and Courtney Lee — to Boston’s L.A. retreat.

“I wanted J.T. to play with Kevin [Garnett]. I wanted Courtney to see how Paul [Pierce] likes to play. I wanted Paul and Jeff Green to go at each other,” Rondo told Yahoo! Sports. “I wanted to play with those guys. It was getting guys away from our actual training facility to get a new view.

“I wanted the guys to have fun. When you’re with me I want you to say, ‘Man, I had a good time with Rondo.’ And I think that’s what they did.”

So the Celtics worked out together at UCLA, broke bread and spent free time together (Pierce and Garnett own homes in the area). For five days they hung out, newcomers, rookies and veterans alike – only the most recent signee, Darko Milicic, wasn’t there.

They even crosstrained, Spears wrote.

To add some fun, Rondo also put together a flag football game at UCLA that included referees. Rondo said the only Celtics that didn’t play were Pierce and 7-foot, 255-pound rookie Fab Melo “because he might hurt somebody.” Atlanta Hawks forward Josh Smith, a close friend of Rondo’s, also played.

“My team won,” Rondo said. “We dominated. I had seven touchdowns and zero interceptions. I had a nice kickoff return back. We had fun. K.G. was the quarterback of the other team, but they had to sub him out because he wasn’t getting any touchdowns.”

For all the good fellowship, a lot of focus remains on a player who wasn’t there – Allen, so vital to the Big-Three-Plus-One success for five seasons. A personality clash between the shooting guard and the point guard, both on and off the floor, was said to contribute to Allen’s snub of a fatter free-agent contract offer from Boston. And earlier this month, when Rondo made an appearance on BET’s “106th & Park” show, he blew off a question about Allen by saying, “Oh, that guy.” (more…)

Tags: , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in 2012 / Comments (34) /

Celtics’ Melo Slowly Picking Up The Nuances

July 16, 2012  ·  7:29PM





LAS VEGAS – It has already been a difficult transition, before summer league is half over, before training camp with the real Celtics, and definitely before the regular season alongside a certain demanding power forward as opponents force Fab Melo to step outside the lane for a change.

“That guy’s feet hardly ever left the paint,” one general manager said of Melo’s two seasons with the Syracuse zone.

It took all the way until Monday, Boston’s first game here after five in Orlando, for Tyronn Lue, the assistant coach running the bench in summer league, to note that Melo’s coverages have been off, at least partly because of the extra work involved now that the No. 22 pick in the June 28 draft can’t hang back under the basket in the zone all the time. So it was that Melo had four fouls in just 18 minutes of the 87-69 win over the Hawks at Cox Pavilion.

“He was just in the middle, standing,” Lue said. “Now, you’ve got to go out and show, you’ve got to get back, you’ve got to rotate, you’ve got to close out. It’s a lot more work for him, but he’s getting better and better.

“Especially with the five men in this league being able to shoot the ball, he’s going to have to come out a little bit. It’s going to be hard for him at first, but I think he’ll figure it out. He has good feet. So just learning the coverage and learning our system, he’ll do a lot better.”

Melo’s work on defense as a 7-foot, 255-pounder means everything because that projects as his only area of impact. There will be little scoring, although the Celtics are hoping for production on the boards as a meaningful contribution on that end.

Tags: , ,
Posted in 2012 Summer League / Comments (4) /

Celtics Hopeful On Allen, Green

July 1, 2012  ·  11:11PM




At last February’s trade deadline, Boston Celtics president Danny Ainge sounded like he was ready to break up the team’s vaunted Big Three of Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce and Ray Allen to start over in 2012-13, either rebuilding around Rajon Rondo or dealing Rondo and starting over altogether. But a few months later, the Celtics look like they are determined to keep the band together and make another run at a championship next season with their veteran core.

The Celtics, according to sources, are increasingly optimistic they’ll be able to re-sign unrestricted free agent forward Jeff Green to a new contract, and are also more hopeful now they can keep Allen in the fold instead of losing him to the Miami Heat. The final decision is Allen’s, of course, and he’ll weigh offers from several teams (including the Heat and Grizzlies) in the next few days.

But Boston is hopeful that the last few days’ worth of events, starting with Garnett’s decision to agree on a three-year extension, combined with the selection of Jared Sullinger and Fab Melo in last Thursday’s Draft and the team’s strong showing in the East finals, will convince the 36-year-old Allen to accept the team’s two-year, $12 million offer.

That offer is more than what Miami, which only has its mini mid-level exception starting at $3.09 million, can offer Allen. The Grizzlies have their full mid-level exception starting at $5 million, however, and want to sign Allen to replace O.J. Mayo, the now-unrestricted free agent that Memphis did not tender with a qualifying offer last week. The Celtics had initially targeted Mayo as a primary free agent possibility, but now believe he’s going to get more money elsewhere. Several other teams, including the Pacers, are interested in him.

(more…)

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in Free Agency 2012 / Comments (76) /

Miami In The Plans For Ray Allen?

June 29, 2012  ·  11:51AM





HANG TIME HEADQUARTERS – LeBron James has abandoned the subtle approach in identifying the next veteran he’d love to see join the Miami Heat’s quest for a repeat championship next season.

With his son Bryce serving as the perfect accomplice, James took to Twitter during the Draft to court one-time rival Ray Allen, the soon-to-be free agent and former Celtics star:

While watching the Draft my son Bryce ask “Is Ray Allen gonna play for the Heat”. I said “I don’t know, I hope so”.

James probably won’t be the only superstar courting Allen this summer. Even with an injured ankle that cost Allen and the Celtics dearly in the playoffs, the future Hall of Famer will be a coveted prospect on the free agent market.

With the Celtics apparently searching for a younger replacement (O.J. Mayo?) at shooting guard, Allen should listen to the recruiting pitches of James and others (the New York Knicks and Phoenix Suns, run by Allen’s former agent, Lon Babby, are also rumored to be among the teams preparing to court him). Allen’s emotional departure from the Celtics after their Game 7 loss to the Heat in the Eastern Conference finals was a fitting tribute from one of the classiest players the league has seen and probably had Celtics fans choked up a bit.

(more…)

Tags: , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in Free Agency 2012, HT News / Comments (282) /