Apologies in advance if this video has made the rounds elsewhere. I just stumbled upon it today. And quite frankly I'm not entirely sure what to make of it. First the clip in question:

Boston Celtics Tony Allen NBA Players Profile A Indepth Look (via djricog)

Check out reactions after the jump...

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First off thanks to reader Georgia for the Fan Post (see below) that gave me the heads up on this signing. I remember the C's worked Miles out earlier this summer, but I didn't really think it would go anywhere. And lo and behold it happened. Some thoughts on the deal.

1. My first thought? Blazers fans are not going to like this. Remember when Miles was waived the following came to light:

"Assuming that Miles does not pass another team’s physical and get picked up by another NBA franchise, the Blazers would be able to take the last two years of his $48 million contract off their salary cap."

That same article had a big time quote from Blazers GM Kevin Pritchard,

"The doctors had actually said…‘if you were my son, I’d never have you pick up a basketball again. I’m the kind of GM (that) I wouldn’t want that on my head that he ever had to have knee replacement." - Pritchard

I guess Danny Ainge is the kind of GM that is okay with it. As expected Blazers fans are not pleased. Lot of reactions there, especially after the thread picks back up following a detour of sorts. I found one comment particularly insightful. It's called "No wishing him the best: [Green Bandwagon UPDATE: Since the initial posting I've gotten some feedback from Blazers fans/Blazers Edge readers and the following does not represent the opinion of the vast majority of them. While it still may be useful in regards to the extreme or how things could go if Miles were to play sparingly in 10 games and get cut, it is now clear to me that it is definitely the exception and not the rule.]

"The procedure followed by the Blazers is that the league and the players union appointed an independent doctor to examine the evidence and issue a ruling. That ruling affected the Blazers, Miles, and any team interested in Miles. It was the Blazers, however, who had the risk. Miles was, after all, under contract. And when the ruling was issued, Miles was not willing to give the Blazers the same contract that he then went out and offered to all other teams. Instead, he kept the Blazers guaranteed contract, which they have to pay regardless of whatever contract he signed with NY. In sum, if NY pays the minimum, then the Blazers pay the difference between the minimum and the $9 million/year they owe Darius.

Darius and his agent, in sum, took advantage of the situation. Some of you who wish him the best should keep that in mind. If he’d offered the Blazers the same deal he offered all other teams – basically, let me play and I’ll show you I’m worthy of a roster spot, and I’ll also absolve you of liability if I reinjure myself – then I can understand your position.

But he didn’t do that.

As a Blazer fan, I have no sympathy for Miles or his agent. He was not a $9 million/year player – knew it, and every other team knew it. But the Blazers pay for it.

Now, if he should make the roster, the Blazers also lose the cap space, just as they lost the player. The cap space was nothing more than an off-set to the salary they must still pay – but gave them the ability to replace him without penalties.

Under the circumstances, its in my interest that he blows the knee out and never plays again.

So, no wishing him the best here." - Eben Calder

Anytime a person openly states a desire to see someone blow out a knee...well that's a clear signal the stakes are high. The Miles signing is definitely bad news in the midst of all the Greg Oden and Rudy Fernandez excitement. We could be watching the beginning of a Celtics/Trail Blazers blood feud. Henry Abbott summed the situation up nicely a while back:

"Everyone knows, however, that the Blazers have a business interest in keeping Darius Miles from playing in the League in the next two years -- if he plays ten games, his medical retirement is over, and Miles' salary is back counting against Portland's salary cap and luxury tax number." - Henry Abbott

More after the jump...

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Green Bandwagon is in serious danger of going from being an "Unofficial Boston Celtics blog" to "Officially not a Boston Celtics Blog". In my defense it has been a slow summer. No summer league team. No Olympians. And not that I'm complaining, no major trades, depending upon how you feel about Bill Walker of course. Ultimately it has been quiet ever since James Posey left town, opening the door for Eddie House and Tony Allen to re-sign. Still I wanted to throw out a few questions I have as the '09 season approaches, while simultaneously holding on to an admittedly tenuous grip on Celtics themed blog status. Here goes:

5. Will Gabe Pruitt bring anything to the table for a team that does not play its home games in Utah? This squad is all of the sudden full of questions. Will J.R. Giddens prove to be a model citizen while capitalizing on his potential? Will Bill Walker sign, pull a Leon Powe, and overcome a difficult injury past? And see #4. As a result Pruitt is flying under the radar a bit. For a guy entering his second NBA season I know shockingly little about him. He's not afraid to shoot, has good size if he ends up as a 1, and possesses a good looking jumper. What else is there?

4. Will redemption be spelled P.O.B.? That's right Patrick O'Bryant. He's 7 feet tall, with tremendous upside. At the same time Kevin Garnett provides a little MJ/Kwame Brown potential. And that's not a good thing. For the record I spent a fair amount of time last off season thinking about Jackie Manuel and Brandon Wallace. This seems better.

3. What's next for the Tony Allen experience? It's been a long, strange ride as is. He's allegedly healthy/confident and, believe it or not, is heading into his 5th NBA season. I'm hopeful because he's still in the NBA despite 2 knee injuries and the White Palace Grill incident. It will be huge if he provides perimeter D off the bench, while helping keep Ray Allen and Paul Pierce's minutes in check.

2. How much better will Rajon Rondo be this season? He improved significantly between his first and second seasons, will turn 23 in February, and, outside of roller skating, appears entirely focused on basketball. I encourage you to click on the roller skating link, read the 1st comment, remember how the 2008 season ended, and exchange a sick high five* with a friend. Bonus points if you are at work.

1. Last time I checked Doc Rivers' assistant coaches did not have contracts. Of course with all my focus on the Olympics this may have been resolved. Still my Internet searches have been futile. Just know that I expect to see Tom Thibodeau and Clifford Ray on the sideline when the LeBrons come to town for opening night (October 28th).

* If you are alone, a fist pump will suffice.

I wrote off Celtics Now before I ever watched it, only to see it surprise me on numerous occasions. In the long run I was wrong. It had plenty of nice moments, including a story on Eddie House's son, Jalen, attending home playoff games. It killed me for three reasons:

1. Tony Allen knocked Jalen down during one mini-celebration.

2. Jalen took part in one of the shirt throwing promotions.

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As I mentioned earlier Eddie House and Tony Allen appear to be back in the fold for two more seasons. With their imminent signings I thought it would be interesting to dive into the archives and look at some posts I wrote about them in the past year. There was a profile of House. Other than that he was mentioned in parts of numerous other posts. He's a role player in that regard. And yet Allen received way more attention. And he was somewhere between the 10th and 12th man. Still that attention was not without reason. At the start of the 2007 season I was incredibly focused on 7 young players - Tony Allen, Ryan Gomes, Gerald Green, Al Jefferson, Kendrick Perkins, Rajon Rondo, and Delonte West. They developed as follows:

Gomes - solid role player, traded
Green - talented enigma who will probably never get it, traded
Jefferson - double-double guy, traded
Perk - defensive beast
Rondo - defensive stalwart, rapidly improving, potential star
West - solid third guard, starting point guard with LeBron, traded

That leaves Allen who unlike the other six did not either get traded or develop significantly. In fact outside of possibly Green, Allen easily regressed the most, due in large part to that epic knee injury.  And yet I continue to pull for him. Check out the following posts:

Player Profile
2007 Season Recap
The Road Back
A Random Post detailing his possessions against the hated Bulls.

If you're too lazy to read those posts, and quite frankly I don't blame you, you can still enjoy two of my favorite exchanges from the 2007 season:

Tommy Heinsohn and Mike Gorman reacting to Allen's season ending knee injury:

"Dire straits. Dire straits. You know where dire straits is?" - Heinsohn

"Africa?" - Gorman when he finally got a word in.

"Just south of frustration." - Heinsohn

I still have no idea what that means.

And...

Allen's response to his mother when she complained about Brian Scalabrine driving them to the hospital. "This this is better than an ambulance. This is Scal!" - Tony Allen

The word out of Boston is that Tony Allen and Eddie House will wear the green and white for two more seasons. The pending deals would also leave the C's with some of the mid-level exception. As a side note I tend to underestimate the complexity of these dealings. Just last week Eddie House's agent told me I insulted his client in NBA Live 08 and then cut off all talks with the club. And I offered more than Boston did last year. Meanwhile, from a continuity and emotional standpoint it's good to see these guys back in the fold. Hopefully Allen has another good summer of working out, rehabbing, confidence building and all around (i.e. dribbling) improvement.

Hat tip to CelticsBlog for the link.

Over the course of the summer I'll look back at some of my favorite Celtics games from the 2008 season. Ironically I've decided to focus on a loss first. Let me set the scene. Following the All Star game the Celtics struggled through one of their worst stretches of the season with back-to-back-to-back losses to the Denver Nuggets, Golden State Warriors, and Phoenix Suns. However, it was not as bad as the record indicated (0-3) thanks to several reasons:

1. It was not much of a break for Ray Allen, Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce because they were part of All Star weekend. While players on the opposing teams, minus Golden State, had All Star reps as well they had the benefit of sleeping in their own beds.

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I expected James Posey to opt out of his contract and he did yesterday.  That same article reveals some other Boston Celtics related free agent news:
"One move was made last night when the franchise failed to make Tony Allen a qualifying offer, thus making the guard an unrestricted free agent, according to his agent, Mike Higgins." - Marc J. Spears
This interested me for three reasons:

1. As Spears noted the Celtics sent some strong signals once they drafted and traded for J.R. Giddens and Bill Walker respectively.

2. I find "the the franchise failed to make Tony Allen a qualifying offer" wording funny as if it was accidental. It's not like the time Terrell Owens' camp messed up his impending free agency. Although that appears to be the industry standard.

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Well the off season is officially upon us. To that end I enjoyed this Steve Bulpett article because it was packed with info:

1. Perkins may need more surgery on his left shoulder. Not cool. As a result he turned down USA basketball's offer to scrimmage with the Olympic Team this summer.

2. Rajon Rondo turned down his offer as well. No reason was given. Of course in addition to working on his shot and other aspects of his game Rondo has a strict roller skating regime. I'm not even remotely kidding.

3. Due to his drop in playing time at the end of the season Eddie House may not be back. Bummer...

4. Some interesting names thrown around for free agent bigs.

5. Tony Allen's future is a mystery.

Thanks to Loy's Place for the heads up on this one.

You have to give the folks at Reebok credit. The Rondo'd ad campaign was well done. In fact it inspired me to make verbs out of the rest of the Celtics. Obviously it's forced and given the way the season ended, overwhelmingly positive. Such is life. I'll start with Rondo, provided by Reebok, and go alphabetically from there.

Rondo'd

1. To move smoothly between large objects with dexterity and purpose.
2. To remove an object quickly without being detected.
3. To create a distraction followed by a quick change of direction.

Ray Allen'd

1. To rain 3 pointers down upon a squad with reckless abandon even if said squad has given up.
2. To run a defender off of numerous picks, slowly eroding his desire to defend.
3. To obsessively adhere to rituals, superstitions, and a lifestyle at all costs.

Tony Allen'd

1. To injure one’s self on a dunk after the whistle.*
2. To infuriate opposing fans, players, and broadcasters with off the back board alley oops, self-pass windmill dunks, and reverse alley oop slams, regardless of the situation.
3. To possibly black out briefly following dunks.**
4. To raise the blood pressure of a fan base with numerous ill-advised decisions primarily related to dribbling.

* It killed me to include that. But fair is fair.
** This is one of my favorite Celtics related theories. I'm not sure who came up with it. And though it sounds far fetched, watch this dunk. And this one. You think he has any idea where he is? As always thank you freeTA42.

Brown'd

1. To always let a player know he was fouled when an infraction is whistled.
2. To engage in stare downs, exchange trash talk, and then walk away with a subtle, “I would eat this guy’s lunch” smirk.
3. To play in a physical manner that includes moving screens, hard box outs, and essentially non-stop contact in a way that makes people wish you still had your athleticism.

Cassel'd

1. To talk to fans, teammates, referees, opponents, coaches, really anyone who will listen in such a non-stop fashion that it is simultaneously endearing and maddening.
2. To reveal one’s self to be the ultimate ball stopper who shoots without a conscience or a concerted effort to set up one’s teammates.
3. To provide the opposing team with a tremendous offensive advantage.
4. To establish one’s self as one of the most confident individuals within a 5-mile radius on a basketball court.
5. To create a celebratory dance that is easily more offensive than wearing jeans and a t-shirt to a game and yet never face the wrath of a fine happy, image conscious NBA.

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