No Subject

I went to both Celtics games at UMass-Boston over the last two nights.
Since the local coverage was so piss-poor (as usual), here are some
unedited notes: 

Everyone in the organization is beyond fired up about Kedrick Brown
(phenomenal athlete, coachable, good instincts and so on) ... from what I
saw, he possesses so much athletic ability that it won't matter how raw he
is - he'll find his way on the court for 20-25 minutes somehow this season
... there's a good vibe coming from him - confident but not cocky ...
definitely has three-point range and can make that little tweener
10-footer ... should wreak havoc defensively in the press ... more
importantly, the other teams in the summer league have been buzzing about
him behind the scenes, a good sign ... 

KB jumps so high that he actually conserves his jumping during games - he
only really lets loose like 2-3 times because he jumps so high that he's
seemingly afraid to get hurt ... apparently he unleashes at least one
"WOW!" play per day during practices ... the young Dominique Wilkins and
the young Dan Majerle were two names that jumped to mind when I was
watching him (obviously he might not become nearly as good as either of
them) ... KB also has that same "lazy, loping along yet moving fast"
running style that MJ had ... anyway, you'll see for yourself in a couple
of months. I'm not sure how much he'll help this season but he'll
definitely be the most intriguing subplot ... put it this way: if you
wanted you wanted to bet me $100 at 5-to-1 odds that Kedrick Brown was
going to win the Rookie of the Year, I wouldn't take that bet ... I can't
emphasize enough how fired up people with the Celts are about him.

I actually liked Joe Johnson's game more than Kedrick's game ... totally
unselfish, smooth, can handle the ball in the open court, textbook jumper,
three-point range, basically everything they were looking for with that
10th pick ... JJ does a lot of the same things that Tim Thomas does, with
the added bonus that he's a better ballhandler ... looks like he can
create his own shot ... had a couple of mean crossovers ... much more
polished than I thought he would be ... guaranteed 30 minutes a game from
him next year ... I wouldn't be shocked if they played a crunch-time
lineup with Brown, Johnson, Walker, Pierce and one of the centers at some
point (point guards be damned).

As for Joe Forte, it was too hard to tell with him in a pickup game - he
needs to be coming off picks and stuff ... between Brown and Johnson,
there won't be enough minutes left for him anyway ... it didn't seem like
he was a good enough ballhandler to play point at this stage.

Also, Jerome Moiso looks just as lost as he did last year - don't buy all
this "he put on muscle and he's coming around!" talk floating from the
Celts camp (they're just being nice and trying to boost his self-esteem)
... Palacio looked terrible but that's not surprising - he doesn't have
the type of game that translates well to pickup games (for instance,
Khalid El-Amin's game is perfect because it's mostly one-on-one stuff) ...
speaking of El-Amin, no matter how good he looks, it won't matter because
they don't have a roster spot for him ... Mark Blount looked good, not
that it matters ... Kris Clack looked like Walter McCarty if Walter spent
the summer on the set of "Oz."

As for the rest of the summer league experience, well...

The refs were wearing shorts that made them look like extras in an
all-male porn movie ... Steve Bulpett was strutting around like he was the
Pope of UMass-Boston or a member of the Gaston family, even walking across
the court at halftime on Monday to talk with Jim OBrien ... GM Chris
Wallace has apparently inked a summer league clothing deal with Tommy
Bahama ... seen in the crowd: Vin Baker (wearing a giant pair of overalls)
and NBA ref Steve Javie (I fought off the urge to yell "Javie, you suck!"
for old time's sake) ... Garth Joseph!!!!! ... the "groupie factor" seemed
to be pretty high both nights ... I inadvertently sat one row in front of
Jerome Moiso's girlfriend on Monday night - she was telling her friend how
unhappy Jerome is in Boston because his confidence is low and he doesn't
think the coaching staff likes him (high comedy - I was dying to turn
around and say, "No really?") ... Kwame Brown looked like the real deal
... Billy Curley played for the Knicks team and has apparently aged in dog
years since college - he even made Mike Mardesich look good.

One more Celtics note: look for them to come to terms with Paul Pierce on
a contract extension within the next week or so. It's been in the works
for the last couple of weeks - seven years, $100 million-plus (not $71
million as the Globe reported today).