State of the Celtics - Marcus Smart

So the Boston Celtics traded Malcom Brogdon and Dalino Gallinari for Kristaps Porzingis and we all praised Brad Stevens. But then he trades Marcus Smart to Memphis and we all scratch our heads wondering what to make of the deal.

Marcus was taken with the sixth pick in the 2014 draft and the Celtics made the payoffs every year since, Smart and his talent and heart were a big part of that. Some franchises would kill to make the playoffs 9-years in a row. It was clear that Marcus was Boston's emotional favorite. He was also, perhaps, Danny Ainge's favorite. When Marcus's mom passed - Ainge went out of his way to console his star guard. This did not go unnoticed.

Did Brad Stevens take emotions out of the equation and make the right play or did he just stamp the Celtics as his team by removing Smart? Perhaps he's done both? Marcus's numbers should be easy to reproduce but his heart is another story, He's played the second most games in a Boston uniform since Paul Pierce and everyone has commented on how he's lost a step these past couple seasons. Two first round picks for a guy taken nine years ago is a fair return, For Boston's sake I hope this works.

To be clear this move not only marks this as Brad Stevens team but also Jason Tatum's team. It makes sense but it still hurts.

Flotsam and Jetsam

Miscellaneous thoughts and observations.

There has been no confirmation to the rumor that Joe Biden's Secret Service code name is "Disaster Pants." I repeat - no confirmation!... The definition of a badass... I think if you did a Venn diagram of the people who support the Palestinians over Israel at every turn with the people who supported Antifa's takeover of Portland, Oregon - it would be a circle within a circle... After reading the book Operation Paperclip I kept thinking that the death of Frank Olson from LSD would make an interesting movie. Just learned that there's a documentary on Netflix called Wormwood about Frank Olson. I'll have to check that out... It should also be noted that Joe Biden's name does not translate into Japanese as "Buddhist hell." Not sure how that misunderstanding got started... Celtics coach Brad Stevens kind of looks like a young Chuck Yeager. Am I the only one who sees this?... If you're a New England Patriots fan who is not rooting for Tom Brady - I don't understand you. Not understanding outside of understanding that your parents must not have raised you the right way... 

Flotsam and Jetsam

Miscellaneous thoughts and observations.

Worcester - the birthplace of barbwire, the shopping cart, the birth control pill and modern rocketry. Site of Ted William's first pro home run and soon to be the new home of the Pawtucket Worcester Red Sox...  I think we've all stood upon Mount Stupid at one time or another... It's OK Omarosa. On the Internet nobody knows you're a dog... Life lesson - if a man is dropping a deuce at a bar late at night he either has stomach problems or is a vampire just waking up... Fantastic life advice from Brad Stevens... The advice from Coach Stevens reminds me of this quote from Teddy Roosevelt, "Do what you can, where you are, with what you have."... Which then reminds me of this quote from Tom Peters, "Excellence is the next five minutes... Forget the long term. Make the next five minutes rock!"...

Five Years Ago

Five years ago this week Danny Ainge announced that he had hired Brad Stevens to be the new coach of the Boston Celtics. Since then Stevens has won 25 games, then 40, then 48, then 53 and last season won  55 games. Would anyone be surprised if Vegas pegs the Celtics wins over / under at 60 wins next year?

It was also five years ago that Danny Ainge made the fateful trade that has since "netted" Boston Jaylen Brown, Jason Tatum and Kyrie Irving. And yet not once during the past 5-years has Ainge been voted the NBA Executive of the Year.

Linky Links

Stuff I found interesting or amusing and thought I'd share.

- Glad to see Stan Lee taking back control of his life. Elder abuse is very real.

- My feelings about Elon Musk and how he runs his companies is very conflicted.

- Sure he says its not "his thing" but I think he's protesting too much and was serious the first time.

- Excellent advice when it comes to motorcycles. And remember - May is Motorcycle Safety Awareness Month.

- Heh Heh

- Brad Stevens on the key to unlocking potential. Good advice for coaches at any level.

- Michael Keaton is awesome!

State of the Celtics

The Celtics are up 2-0 against the Cavaliers and are just 2 more wins away from being the biggest surprise team to ever make the NBA Championship. And they are doing this without Kyrie Irving and Gordon Haywood who both will be back full strength next season. And they have a pile of high draft picks in 2019. So I guess you could say the State of the Celtics is GREEATTT!!!

How are they doing this? Well according to one "rival front office guy" Boston finds themselves just 2 wins away from the NBA Championship because;

"They are a team full of killers. Some are loud like [Marcus] Smart and [Marcus] Morris. Others do it quietly like [Al] Horford, [Jayson] Tatum and [Jalen] Brown. And the best, quietest killer of all is on the sidelines because you never see it coming."

That's right - Brad Stevens the quietest killer of all. His nickname should be Brad "Hypertension" Stevens because he's such a silent killer. Celtics fans appreciate that Stevens is the best coach in the NBA despite not even getting a single friggin' vote for NBA Coach of the Year. And if you hear anyone point out that Brad is just .500 in the playoffs (21-21) you can be 100% sure that the person that said or wrote that is a jackass who knows nothing about basketball.

And let's not forget the front office led by Danny Ainge. Trading what ended up being the 8th pick in this draft for Kyrie Irving was a trade Red Auerbach would have been proud of. And no disrespect but when's the last time you heard any Celtics fan mention Avery Bradley?  Ainge traded him for Morris who has been the best defender in the league on LeBron James.

You could go right down the starting line-up:

Al Horford - signed as a free agent to a max deal and worth every penny. It should be remembered that at the time Horford signed Ainge was also pursuing Kevin Durant who had narrowed his choice between signing with either Boston or Golden State. That says a lot about how players are viewing Boston as a desired destination these days.

Terry Rozier - taken with the 16th pick in the 2015 draft. A pick that was roundly criticized by "experts" who are now seeing what Danny Ainge saw back then in Scary Terry.

Jaylen Brown - taken 3rd overall in the 2016 draft. A pick that was booed in Boston!

Jayson Tatum - also taken 3rd overall but in the 2017 draft. Ainge said he would have taken Tatum first overall but instead got a potential 2019 lottery pick from Philadelphia for basically waiting a half hour.

Marcus Smart - taken 6th overall in the 2014 draft. His stats don't come close to explaining how much Smart means to this team. I hope he doesn't leave as a free agent after this magic run is done this season.

That's a lot of talent on the court right there. Talent that can hold their own against anyone in the NBA as they are showing against Cleveland. And hopefully they can show against either Houston or Golden State in the next round.

The State of the Celtics right now and for the foreseeable future is excellent!

Linky Links

Stuff I found interesting or amusing and thought I'd share.

- Good recap of the defensive scheme the Celtics used to dismantle the Cavs yesterday.  Look for Cleveland to try to make adjustments to their offense to counter. Also look for Brad Stevens to be ready for it.

- Frank Sinatra died 20-years ago today. That's meaningful for some but many don't even know who Sinatra was at this point. In 20 more years he'll be all but forgotten. 100-years ago Al Jolson was the most famous person in America and called "the world's greatest entertainer". How many people do you think remember Jolson today? Carpe diem!

- Got to admit Trump is winning me over.

- EU statement opposing US Embassy move to Jerusalem blocked by "New Europe" coalition. The US Embassy is opening today.

- 10 US commercial drone services given green light

- RIP coach Chuck Knox

- Heh Heh

Coach of the Year Awards

Dwane Casey was just voted NBA Coach of the Year. No offense to Mr. Casey but he can't carry Brad Stevens jock when it comes to coaching. This award is a joke. But then again all these "Coach of the Year" awards seem to be.

This year's voting immediately reminded me that Red Auerbach (the best coach in NBA history) only won one NBA Coach of the Year award. And that was for the season the Celtics won their eight of nine consecutive championships.

It also reminded me Bill Belichick, despite being the consensus best coach in the league for the past 15 years, has only won 3 NFL Coach of the Year awards. His teams during those 3-years went a combined 44-4 so I guess they kind of had to give him the award those seasons.

Just to emphasize how much of a joke the NBA Coach of the Year is - not only did Brad Stevens not win - he did not receive any votes! Doc Rivers received a vote! (I agree with those who suggest that Doc voted for himself.)

Coach of the Year awards are crap!

Linky Links

Stuff I found interesting or amusing and thought I'd share.

- Warren Buffett in his own words. 122 hours of recordings of Buffett from the annual Berkshire Hathaway shareholder meetings.

- Here's a quote to ponder today.

- I for one welcome our robot overlords.

- Is there nothing Trump can't do?

- Interesting look at the strategy employed by Celtics coach Brad Stevens.

- More good advice

- So flying cars has morphed into "passenger drones" and Porche is developing one.

Linky Links

Stuff I found interesting or amusing and thought I'd share.

- Wow - never knew Marcel Marceau was such a hero.

- Steve Wozniak goes on epic rant against Elon Musk. He's got a point.

- Ordering egg whites is a huge health mistake. Just eat the whole egg. And have some bacon.

- Heh heh - Brad Stevens is the best

- Good profile of the man who will probably be the Patriots next defensive coordinator

- This explanation really makes sense

- The line that can't be crossed with Tom Brady

State of the Celtics

The news that Isaiah Thomas is about to start a rehabilitation with the Cavs G-League team got me thinking about the NBA and in particular all things Boston Celtics.

I'm still amazed that Danny Ainge turned the assets from the Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce and Rajon Rondo trades into Kyrie Irving, Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum. And don't forget that he also turned Doc Rivers as coach into Brad Stevens as coach. There's not a single NBA team that would rather have Rivers over Stevens as coach at this point. Not one single NBA team.

Rivers didn't want to stick around in Boston because he didn't want to go through a rebuilding process. Since leaving the Celtics - Rivers has been 18-22 in the playoffs with the Clippers. Meanwhile in that same span the "rebuilding" Celtics have been 11-17 but poised to greatly improve on that playoff record this season and in the years to come.

Whatever the Celtics do in the playoffs this season is pure gravy. Fans are really interested in what can be accomplished next season with the addition of Gordon Haywood for a full season and another first round pick (or two) plus the probable absence of LeBron James from the Eastern Conference.

Speaking of draft picks - currently Brooklyn (11-18) has a better record than the Lakers (10-18). Hope that continues and somehow LA falls to between 2nd and 5th in the draft.

Good luck with the rehab IT4! Boston fans are pulling for you!

State of the Celtics

The state of the Celtics right now is fantastic! Fresh off a beating of the World Champion Golden State Warriors - Boston now has a 14-game winning streak going. Not only did the Celtics beat Golden State -they held the high scoring Warriors to just 88 points! In a now "3 and D" league nobody in playing better "D" than Boston.

The team was led the other night by second-year star in the making Jalyen Brown who turns out was playing despite the fact his best friend committed suicide the night before. Danny Ainge took a lot of heat for taking Brown with the 3rd overall pick in the 2016 NBA Draft but Brown is shaking out to be at least the clear 3rd best player from that draft class and an argument can be made that he's the best overall with many preferring him over the second pick Brandon Ingram and 1st pick Ben Simmons not yet showing he's durable enough for the NBA. (Don't sleep on Milwaukee's Malcolm Brogdon who was the 36th pick in that draft either.)

Ainge should also be praised for clearly winning the trade that brought Kyrie Irving to Boston. Even if the Nets pick ends up being number 1 overall in this year's NBA Draft and even if Isiah Thomas returns from injury to once again be an All-Star - Kyrie Irving has been the perfect fit for Boston on and off the court. How can you not like a guy who picks number 11 for his uniform to honor his dad whose number 11 is retired by Boston University. A dad who insists on letting his son be the "big baller" on the court while he quietly supports his son from the stands.

Oh and about that Nets pick - right now the Lakers (6-10) actually have a worse record than Brooklyn (6-9) and the Celtics own LA's pick. There's currently 8 NBA teams with a worse record than the Nets. Danny Ainge knew what he was doing.

Speaking of Ainge knowing what he's doing - how about Jayson Tatum? Tatum was the 3rd pick in this year's draft but he's easily been the best player out of that draft so far. Trading the first overall pick for Tatum and the Lakers' number one next year is making people think of the Joe Barry Carroll trade for Parrish and McHale. Ainge knows what he's doing.

Ainge clearly knew what he was doing when he signed Brad Stevens to be the coach. You cannot mention the best coaches in the NBA without bringing up Stevens' name. Players now want to come to Boston because they know Stevens will make them better players.

I'm going to end this State of the Celtics by bringing up Al Horford. This is not an afterthought. Horford to me is to the Celtics what Phil Hartman was to SNL. He's the glue that holds the show together. Al Horford quietly does so many things well - 15.5 points per game, 9 rebounds and 4.4 assists - that he's easy to overlook. Celtics fans know his importance and how good an overall player Al is. And we appreciate that as a free agent he chose to play here.

The State of the Celtics right now is fantastic! Danny Ainge knows what he's doing.

Gordon Haywood to Visit Celtics Today

Hopefully the Celtics don't let him leave until he agrees to a contract.

Photo via

Linky Links

Stuff I found interesting or amusing and thought I'd share.

- How Muhammad Ali wanted to be remembered.

- I really want to hear this story too

- Dropbox CEO Drew Houston's advice for new graduates

- Why Brad Stevens wife wants him to smoke an Auerbach victory cigar

- This week marks the anniversary of the Battle of Midway. One of the most important battles in US history.

Linky Links

Stuff I found interesting or amusing and thought I'd share.

- As an Irish-American this story is very disturbing and makes me want to avoid any future purchases of Hasbro products.

- Why Brad Stevens might be the next great NBA coach

- Axl Rose is new lead singer for AC/DC. The conversion of AC/DC to a cover band is now complete.

- Yup - sounds like Ted Kennedy

- Season 2 of Bill Burr's F is for Family is official! (NSFW language) If you haven't seen the first season go do so now!

- Dark Side of the Rainbow. Wizard of Oz synched up with Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon.

Top 5 - Things I Want to See in Boston Sports

If I had my way - here's the Top 5 things I'd like to see in Boston Sports (knowing that most of these might not happen):

1. I would have Tom Brady file both a $200 million defamation suit against Roger Goodell and the NFL AND file a $200 lawsuit against Roger Goodell personally for creating a Hostile Workplace.

2. Brad Stevens is half-way through his 6-year contract and I think it is time to extend him for another 4-years for a total of 10-years. A long term commitment to Stevens sends a message to both existing players and also to NBA free agents (the job Stevens does in Boston hasn't gone unnoticed by the players on other teams).

3.  Have the Patriots target free agent running back Matt Forte as a number one priority. I know the offensive line has to be the first problem to be addressed but Forte as a pass catching bruising running back would be such a great weapon in the New England offense.

4. Speaking of the offense line - bring back Dante Scarnecchia as the offensive line coach (looks like this is actually happening).

5. Move the Pawtucket Red Sox to Worcester.

Defending Danny Ainge

Since Danny Ainge took over as President of Basketball Operations in 2003 only 11 teams have reached the NBA Finals (Boston did it twice) and only 7 teams have actually won (the Celtics won it all in 2008). Yet that level of success isn't enough for some in Boston. The griping of some people after the Celtics failed to make a blockbuster trade Thursday night is mind-boggling to me.

This is a guy who turned a disgruntled coach in Doc Rivers into a 1st round pick and Brad Stevens. Is there any NBA GM who would trade Rivers for Stevens straight up at this point? If in just 12-years Ainge accomplished two finals and a championship for the Knicks there would be a statue of him outside of Madison Square Garden right now. Can you imagine the roster Ainge could have assembled in Cleveland around LeBron James?

Ainge has put together a very deep roster for the Celtics. Sure there are no First Team All-NBA players but that's a tough order when you are constantly picking in the second half of the first round. The roster is deep and the quality is constantly improving. No NBA team looks forward to playing Boston and that's all Ainge's doing. No NBA front office feels comfortable when dealing with Danny because they know he's more savvy than they are. Yet that's not enough for some people.

It is more than enough for me. I not only trust that Ainge knows what he's doing - I am very grateful that he's in charge of the Boston Celtics.

Flotsam and Jetsam

Miscellaneous thoughts and observations.

Clay Buchholz is the only regular starting pitcher on the Red Sox with an ERA under 5.00 (and his is 4.58)... Explaining TV to a kid 20-years from now...  I read a headline that said "ISIS Could Buy Nuke" but my mind read it as "ISIS Could Buy Nike". I'm not sure which would be more impressive... This photo is real? I always just assumed it was some sort of photoshop... If I were to run a scam it would be as a pet fish medium. How could anyone prove you weren't actually communicating with a beloved dead goldfish?... Interesting - how far did Sam and Frodo walk?... Do you think there are any NBA GM's out there who would rather have Doc Rivers over Brad Stevens at this point? I mean besides the Clippers GM (who is also Doc Rivers)... Roger Goodell will have to answer this question in court... If you think about it most Popeye cartoons boil down to Brutus trying to rape Olive Oyl and Popeye trying to stop him... I always get a kick out of this animation...

Linky Links

Stuff I found interesting or amusing and thought I'd share.

- Where does the expression "hands down" come from? I love language tidbits like this.

- Interesting - Doomsday predictions from the first Earth Day

- Kurt Vonnegut's "Shapes of Stories" as an infographic poster

- Celtics Brad Stevens finishes fourth in NBA Coach of the Year voting. There is no way that Jason Kidd deserved to finish with more votes than Stevens. No way.

- NASA study pays $18,000 to lay in bed for 70-days

- Is this the first real break in the Isabella Stewart Gardner art heist?

Flotsam and Jetsam

Miscellaneous thoughts and observations.

I know the Celtics are going to lose to the Cavaliers in the first round but I think the experience Brad Stevens gets coaching in the NBA playoffs far exceeds the value of dropping down a few spots in the draft...   I'm rooting for Tim Tebow. I hope his throwing motion and confidence have been fixed (although hearing people describe his passes as looking like a guy throwing cans of paint is kind of funny)... Interesting look at Josh Whedon and his place in the Marvel Universe... MLB is just two more Tommy John surgeries to starting pitchers away from some team calling up Jamie Moyer to ask if he's been keeping in shape... Public Service Announcement - please do not taunt the dynamite monkey...