All Millennium Team

I was reading this article on Crossover Chronicles about the NBA All Millennium team I found this a very interesting article and in Dueling Couches fashion and our unoriginal manor I'm going to do it, but better (with more grammatical errors). The premise is from 2000 on and who you think were the most dominant players.



PG: Jason Kidd:

Kidd was and always has been amazing. He brings an all around game to the point guard position,he can do it all rebound, shoot (although not the best shooter, 3rd all time from the 3 point line) and obviously is a pin point passer. He is a very smart player and can score in bunches and no knows how to take advantage of match ups whether it be in the post or knock down a wide open 3. He just capped off a Hall of Fame career with a championship last year and no one deserved it more than him.



Steve Nash is in consideration, but he lacks the toughness and ring obviously now.



SG: Kobe Bryant:

I hate to do it, I'm a Celtics fan so this is very painful. I personally didn't think of Kobe as "elite" until the Lakers beat the Celtics without Shaq in 7. Kobe has 5 rings and an 81 point game under his belt. Kobe is a great defender and is very clutch down the stretch. There is really no argument when it comes to the SG position.



Dwayne Wade is in consideration, but there is no real comparison between the 2 so far in his career.



SF: Paul Pierce:

Yea, yea, yea, I'm biased, but I believe this. Pierce is one of the most underrated superstars in the NBA. Everyone in their mother probably want to say LeBron James, but the last time I checked Pierce out dueled him twice on his way going to the championship. Also, Paul has the clutch gene and has shouldered the Celtics scoring load in the 4th quarter since I can remember. Pierce is obviously a great scorer, but he can rebound and play some stout defense. He is often put on the opposing teams best scorer. You could argue when his career is over that he is the best SF that has ever put on a Celtics uniform, and that's dangerous to say around here.



PF: Tim Duncan:

I wanted to put Kevin Garnett here, but rings speak pretty loud in this argument. The Big Fundamental has always been a great player in the NBA and has always made his team a competitor throughout the years. He's not flashy, you never hear from him, but he is always top in rebounding, defense and scoring for big men.



Just missed: Tie KG and Dirk.... again rings dictate this argument.



C: Shaq:

No other player can ever compare to Shaq. He is huge, dominant and a presence out there that can't be matched. I don't think we will ever see another Shaq, Dwight Howard is the next closest thing but I would take Shaq over him in a second. He demanded a double team, he was an underrated passer and clogged up the lane on defense. Shaq will be a guy that people talk about like how people talk about Kareem, Bill Russell and Wilt.



Dwight Howard is in second.

Paul Pierce Knows How To Deal With A Lockout

By gambling away all his money at the World Series Of Poker. While Deron Williams, Kobe Bryant and others are looking over seas "The Truth" is killing it in the World Series Of Poker as he advanced to the 2nd round. I didn't even know this was around anymore.

To be honest, I appreciate this more than people looking overseas to play. I actually am against people looking over seas to play, I don't trust them not hurting themselves. But I also don't trust Paul Pierce staying in shape this offseason, but whatever, there is nothing else to report about in basketball.

My Thought On The Celtics

Last night sucked...

It sucked not only because the Miami Heat and LeBron beat us, but it could be the end of an era. The Big 3 had their run and it may be time that the Lakers and Celtics hand the ball off to the young kids and let them run with it for a bit. But I don't think it's as gloom as people are making it out to be.

After the game we got some great news from Doc:
"I'm leaning heavily toward coming back," said Rivers. "I haven't made that decision, but I can tell you, I probably will. I've kind of come to that over the last couple of weeks. You know I'm a Celtic and I love our guys. And I want to win again here. I'm competitive as hell and I have a competitive group."

I'm going to trust him on his word that he's going to be back so the dominoes are starting to fall.

The second thing is Rajon won't have a flamingo arm and be able to play with both hands. People will overlook his ineffectiveness due to the arm when they talk about this series, but mark my words, if we had a healthy Rondo we would have won game 4 and we certainly would have won last night. We didn't score in the last 4 and a half minutes. He is the catalyst for this offense puts all the players in the position they need to be in to have the shot or drive they need. Him not being 100% was completely evident on how important he is to this team.

The turnover, I don't expect to see Troy Murphy, Sasha Pavlovic, Jermaine O'Neal, Shaq, Carlos Arroyo, Von Wafer and Glen Davis back. I would do everything in my power to bring Delonte back on a short term contract and go from there. Jeff Green will be back next year for around 5 million so we have something to work with. I don' know what is going to happen with the CBA, but getting into that already is too much to think about so I'm not going to get into it.

Kendrick Perkins trade time. Anyone who believes Perkins would have made a damn difference in this series is a fool. I'm sick of hearing about toughness and what have you, we have Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce, Ray Allen and Rajon Rondo we have enough of that. Perkins was a fan favorite and a guy I was saddened to see go, I feel like I lost a family member, but it would have made no difference. Everyone is making him out to be Kendrick Abdul Jabar and forget that he wouldn't have played in the final quarter in any of the games, he couldn't score and was a decent rebounder at best. I'm not trying to bash Perkins but him main objective every game was to take up room and have a scowl on his face. People's response will be, "well if we had Perkins the outcome wouldn't have been any worse" True, but we still would have lost the series.

The last thing is the Danny factor. Danny needs to have a better off season because the most underrated move that happened last summer was Chris Wallace scooping up Tony Allen. If Tony Allen was still on this team we wouldn't have had to move for a forward and everything would be status quo. Bob said it true last night, we would have been better off with Rasheed Wallace and Tony Allen. I don't know who will be a free agent, what the CBA will bring and what trades can be made, I just know Danny will need to do something drastic.

Paul Pierce Avoids Suspension

"Paul Pierce will not face further disciplinary action for his altercation with James Jones in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference semifinals, a league source confirmed Monday to CBSSports.com."

Good. It was nonsense he was even thrown out of the game in the first place. The first technical I can understand, it was stupid for Pierce to get in a guys face like that, but the 2nd one was a joke. First off, Wade was the one that tried to run through a pick, and then they kick Peirce out for swearing at him? Pretty weak, because if they always did that KG would never be allowed to play basketball.

Celtics could've had a chance to come back if Pierce wasn't kicked out, but I agree with DP that it can't be used as an excuse. I actually think this might help the Celtics, because you know they are going to come out angry in Game 2 tonight.

Paul Pierce....

The Truth is back and this is pretty cool

Time for Celtics to put the hammer on New York

If the Celtics want to give themselves a shot at recreating the magic of last spring, they’ll man up and knock the Knicks out tonight.

Beyond sending a message to the Knicks and the rest of the league, the Celtics need to come out and remind themselves how much better they are than New York and regain the swagger they’ve lost since “the deal.”

I have nothing to complain about and the Celtics shouldn’t be embarrassed over being up 2-0, despite some Knicks fans thinking that coming close in each game has put them up 2-0. After looking at film, I’m absolutely positive the Knicks won’t own the offensive boards again. Once the Celtics start actually boxing out and grabbing rebounds, the fast breaks will follow and the offense will be effective again.

With that in mind, it’s time for Rajon Rondo to start distributing the ball Paul Pierce, Ray Allen and Kevin Garnett while creating some continuity on offense. What’s happened to the great ball movement that used to be so common on this team? It’s inexcusable that the Celtics aren’t dropping 110+ points on this porous Knicks defense (one game with 9 blocks doesn’t change that). You can’t use the Kendrick Perkins excuse here. We all know the man had hands of granite.

Paul Pierce is right about the Celtic bench not playing well enough (I’m looking at you, Jeff Green). But shooting 6-16 for 18 points and 8-18 for 20 points over the opening two games is not enough for a volume scorer of Pierce’s stature. He should destroy Bill Walker and be going to the line 15 times. Also, I’m going to assume Doc has given Boston a simple message: Get the ball to Ray! Going 6-8 for 18 points and 9-15 for 24 points from the field won’t get it done either if you’re the greatest shooter of all time. It’s on every Celtic starter to ensure Ray takes 20+ shots tonight and Rondo doesn’t take end-of-clock three-pointers anymore.

Celtics 105, Knicks 93