Filling Six Spots: One Down, Five to Go
Patrick O’Bryant Signs
The Celtics signed their first free agent of the 2008-09 season by agreeing to a 2-year $3M deal with Patrick O’Bryant on Friday. The 9th pick from the 2006 draft played a 3rd string role at center for the Golden State Warriors the last 2 years, and rumor has it that Don Nelson had enough with the underachieving 7′ 0″ center. He is a rebounding and shot-blocking specialist, and has a good shooting touch to 15 feet for a big man. But Nelson preferred playing the 6′ 9″ Al Harrington behind Andris Biedrins before letting O’Bryant see daylight. And it could be argued that Don Nelson is just trying to get back to his Run TMC roots, and didn’t have the patience for a big young center to develop.
To the Celtics benefit, there are several positives about having O’Bryant on-board:
- His last name will look comfortable on the back of Celtics jersey.
- He signed at the minimum, which means the full $5.8M is still available for the mid-level exception. Sweet!
- O’Bryant is younger than the Celtics 1st round draft pick this year, J.R. Giddens, but has 2 years of NBA experience. The potential is certainly there, and you can’t teach height, and
- The Celtics have one of the best big man coaches in the league in Clifford Ray, a former Golden State Warrior himself, to bring POB along. And of course, Robert Parish played pretty well for the Celtics after testing the Golden State waters too.
From Danny Ainge’s perspective, as presented in a Boston Globe interview the upside of the O’Bryant signing is this:
“The presence of veteran guys, especially Kevin Garnett, will be a blessing for [O’Bryant] seeing that work ethic. . . . Perkins, Leon [Powe], Big Baby [Glen Davis] work really hard. We’ve done a good job developing our big guys.”
Ainge said O’Bryant will have the tough task of earning playing time off the bench over Powe and Davis. O’Bryant will spend much of the offseason working out at the Celtics’ training facility in Waltham and will attend assistant coach Clifford Ray’s big man development camp in Orlando, Fla.
And here’s a tip of the hat to returntoglory at realgm.com who started a thread entitled “We should take a close look at Patrick O’Bryant” about a week ago. To wit, returntoglory wrote today “I posted this thread about 5 days ago. I happy with this signing. Give me a job Danny.” LOL - give the guy a crystal ball!
Five Spots Left
Here’s how the depth chart looks as we speak:
PG: Rajon Rondo | FREE AGENT1 | Gabe Pruitt
SG: Ray Allen | J.R. Giddens** | FREE AGENT3
SF: Paul Pierce | FREE AGENT2 | Billy Walker **
PF: Kevin Garnett | Leon Powe | Brian Scalabrine
C: Kendrick Perkins | Glen Davis | Patrick O'Bryant
Stashed in Europe: Semih Erden (C)**, Alberto
FAs: JPosey, EHouse, PJ Brown, TAllen, SCassell, SPollard
** - unsigned draft pick
Everyone was wondering what the Celtics were thinking by drafting two wings this year (Giddens and Walker) when they had Ray Allen and Paul Pierce, but with Tony Allen released and James Posey on the fence, J.R. Giddens and Billy Walker may come in very handy indeed.
If Billy Walker plays in Europe as is being rumored, the FREE AGENT3 spot becomes even more essential to the Celtics roster, and a FREE AGENT4 spot would open up which could be filled later in the year. This is a tactic that Danny Ainge exercised twice late last season by signing Cassell and PJ Brown, so you know that the last spot or two will be left open if the perfect fit is not found.
FREE AGENT1 has been discussed as being the resigning of Sam Cassell, but there has been recent mention of KG’s buddy, Tyrone Lue. Supposedly the Suns are courting his services, which may make his market value beyond the the Celtics’ desired range.
FREE AGENT2 is James Posey spot. Please bring this guy back Danny. The Celtics need him, but there are obvious concerns in signing him at the full MLE because of the $ for $ luxury tax they will inevitably pay on Posey’s salary, and they may need portions of the MLE to fill out the roster with that back-up point guard. But still, you have to give the guy his due for his assistance in getting Banner No. 17. Get it done DA . . . other folks that have worked out to take on Posey’s role aren’t even worth mentioning . . . and he is the top-rated free agent out there from Chad Ford’s FA ranking list.
FREE AGENT3 doesn’t have to be veteran, but I think Tony Allen or Eddie House could easily come back if part of the MLE is available to sign them.
FREE AGENT4 could enter the picture late in the year if in fact Billy Walker is in Europe for the year. Enter the 3rd coming of PJ Brown later this season? We could only be so lucky!
Lots of interesting twists and turns remaining for the Celtics, but the Posey situation is the one that has every Celtics fan waiting with bated breath . . .
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5 Responses to “Filling Six Spots: One Down, Five to Go”
July 13th, 2008 at 9:38 am
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July 13th, 2008 at 9:42 pm
Manchy, I like the signing on a number of different levels. Basically POB must have been the best available big man for the price without baggage. Danny must have figured he wolud get snapped up to sign him so early. C’s also worked him out before the 2006 draft as well.
Of course this signing is not without risk, but I have to think that GS just wasn’t the right place for him. Makes you wonder why they chose him to begin with but that’s water under the bridge now.
Celitcs have a long tradition of having some big stiff at the end of the bench, but POB strikes me as more talented than many I can recall (Pollard, Kandi, Bruno Sundov, Grant Long, Hank Finkel, etc.)
If POB can finish an alley-oop dunk he will already be a step ahead of Perk offensively. However, it may take time for him to bulk up and be able to even approach Perk defensively. That said, I read he is a good weak-side shot-blocker and his blocks numbers bear that out.
July 13th, 2008 at 10:45 pm
I don’t see Walker playing in Europe this year. Just a hunch. I think he’ll be a d-league/nba guy.
July 14th, 2008 at 9:15 am
JR Giddens is not yet signed and missed mini-camp. What is he a mule?
July 15th, 2008 at 12:05 pm
Hopefully, the Celtics can get Posey signed soon, so they don’t have to worry about him for the rest of the summer. Along with POB, another big man the Celtics have been intrigued by are Chris Anderson, which would be a good signing with his energy and hustle on the court, and he wouldn’t take up much cap space. I’d like to see them resign Eddie House since they didn’t take any small guards in the draft, and there other chucker, Sam Cassell, is most likely not coming back. As for Bill Walker and J.R Giddens, I see them signing Walker to a more long-term deal, considering he might have a been a lottery pick, not suffering that torn ACL. I don’t see Tony Allen coming back, nor Scot Pollard, and PJ Brown will probably retire.
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