Boston Celtics: Return To Dominance

[Pezell04x]

After a disappointing loss in the NBA Finals to the Los Angeles Lakers in Game 7, a game that the Celtics had dominated up until the final 2 minutes, Wycliffe "Wyc" Grousbeck promoted Danny Ainge to President of Basketball Operations, thus leaving the General Manager position available.

Quote:

"We felt that Danny would be perfect for the role as President of Basketball Operations. With his insight and knowledge of the game, he will be able to not only teach our new General Manager the in's and out's of the NBA but also serve in a multitude of other roles" - Wyc Grousbeck

With the promotion of Ainge, the Boston Basketball Partners LLC (which Grousbeck is a part of) hired 27 year old Greg Ezell as their new General Manager. Ezell's pedigree comes at the college level where he coached Syracuse for three years, twice going to the NCAA Tournament.

Quote:

"Yeah he's a young guy, but there's nothing wrong with that. Like I said, we feel that Danny will be able to teach Greg the ins and outs of the NBA in a short amount a time. (Greg) worked well with the kids from 'Cuse and we feel he'll make a good edition to Celtics management" - Wyc Grousbeck

Ezell signed a 3 year contract and terms were not disclosed per team policy.

Quote:

I'm ready to take the team that Danny built and continue the dominance this team has shown for the past few years. Last season we were five minutes away from winning a second title in three years and while the Big 3 are in town, I expect championships. Boston has always been a great basketball city and this will be no different. We have the talent, drive and leadership to beat anyone in the East. Don't forget who the real Big 3 are.

Ezell will have the task to manage a roster that has five players (3 starters) who are past or nearing their 15th season in the NBA. Ray Allen (14), Kevin Garnett (15), Paul Pierce (12) and new comers Shaquille O'Neal (18) and Jermaine O'Neal (14) make up the oldest roster in the NBA with an average age of 34 years old.

[Pezell04x]

Pierce, Perkins In New Homes

- BOSTON, MA

It didn't take long for new Celtics General Manager Greg Ezell to trim away some years on this roster.

"I came in here knowing I had an aging roster. This team needed to get younger without risking it's chance to contend in the East. I feel that these moves made the Celtics a perennial championship team this year and for many years to come."

Granger will bring youth as well as scoring to the Celtics

The first trade saw Paul Pierce and Nate Robinson heading to Indianapolis for Danny Granger and James Posey. Pierce, who re-signed with the Celtics in the off-season, has only played for the Celtics his entire career.

"Paul's a great guy, but like I said, it's about making this team younger."

The 34 year old Pierce waived his no-trade clause under frustration. The 27 year old Danny Granger will more than likely lead the Celtics in scoring as he averaged 24.1 points in the 2009-2010 season.

"Danny will provide some youth while keeping up the scoring needed with Paul's departure. He's a solid player as his James Posey."

David Lee will bang the boards and start at center for the Celtics

An hour or so after that trade happened, Ezell sent Kendrick Perkins and newly signed Jermaine O'Neal to Golden State for David Lee, a 2011 2nd round pick and a 2012 second round pick.

Lee signed a 6 year, $79.54M deal with the New York Knicks in a sign and trade to Golden State.

"David will start for us at center. Last season he averaged a double-double (20 points, 12 rebounds) and will allow us to do things on the floor that couldn't be done before. We haven't had a center like him since 'Chief' (Robert Parrish)."

The Celtics depth chart looks something like this now:

The Celtics will open up the season at the TD Bank Garden against the Miami Heat and it's Big 3.

[Pezell04x]

Ray Allen scored 38 points for the new-look Celtics against the new-look Heat in a losing effort as Miami earned its first win of the season.

"You know, it was a hard game. We went out there with the game plan for anyone but Lebron James to beat us. Ilgauskas certainly helped their cause scoring 18 points," coach Doc Rivers told the Boston media "Both teams played really hard and Ray was amazing. He really kept us in the game."

Ray Allen's 38 points couldn't lift Boston over Miami

Newly acquired Celtics Danny Granger and David Lee pitched in as well as Granger scored 24 points and Lee scored 12, but both had some shooting troubles in the Garden. Granger shot 4-11 from behind the 3-point line while Lee was 6-16 from the field.

"I don't think it was first game jitters, I think it was just trying to adjust to some things. A brand new offense, brand new teammates, sometimes you just get lost in the shuffle a little." - Danny Granger

Granger was shooting well in the first quarter, scoring the team's first 10 points, but then had to go to the bench for most of the first half after picking up two quick fouls.

Lee had trouble stopping the Miami bigs

"Yeah it was tough having Danny on the bench," said Rivers "Those two fouls really hurt us and he wasn't able to get back into a groove because of all the time he was sitting on the bench. It's only one game against quite possible the best team in the East. Tomorrow we'll look at tape and move on, I'm not to worried."

Lebron James dropped 25 points in his Heat debut while Chris Bosh recorded a double double (23 points, 14 rebounds). Dwayne Wade had a quiet game, shooting 5-14 from the field and scoring 14 points.

The Celtics will travel to Cleveland to take on the Cavaliers on October 27.

Notes: This is Rajon Rondo's 6th time in his career he's had 15+ assists. The last time he did this was 2009-2010 season...Shaq scored his first points as a Celtic tonight but had some trouble at the free throw line shooting 2-6.

[dynastynation]

Nice dynasty! I'm definitely going to be following this one!

[ohvitser12]

Yeah i may follow it aswell, although im not big fan of Granger and Lee, i still think that they will help you out and this team will definetly challenge miami and orlando in the east.

Good luck!

[dehpierrot]

Great! I'll be following your Dinasty and comment about the games/trades.
Good luck there!

[Pezell04x]

I will be updating the schedule after every month. Also, starting at the end of October (only 3 games), I will be posting monthly league leaders.

Boston Celtics 2010 Schedule
DATE	OPPONENT	RESULT
Oct 26	vs Miami Heat	Lost, 103-99
Oct 27	at Cleveland Cavaliers	Won, 103-86
Oct 29	vs New York Knicks	Won, 96-78
Nov 2	at Detroit Pistons
Nov 3	vs Milwaukee Bucks
Nov 5	vs Chicago Bulls
Nov 7	at Oklahoma City Thunder
Nov 8	at Dallas Mavericks
Nov 11	at Miami Heat
Nov 13	at Memphis Grizzlies
Nov 17	vs Washington Wizards
Nov 21	at Toronto Raptors
Nov 22	at Atlanta Hawks
Nov 24	at New Jersey Nets
Nov 26	vs Toronto Raptors
Nov 30	at Cleveland Cavaliers
Dec 1	vs Portland Trail Blazers
Dec 3	vs Chicago Bulls
Dec 5	at New Jersey Nets
Dec 8	vs Denver Nuggets
Dec 9	at Philadelphia 76ers
Dec 11	at Charlotte Bobcats
Dec 15	at New York Knicks
Dec 16	vs Atlanta Hawks
Dec 19	vs Indiana Pacers
Dec 22	vs Philadelphia 76ers
Dec 25	at Orlando Magic
Dec 28	at Indiana Pacers
Dec 29	at Detroit Pistons
Dec 31	vs New Orleans Hornets
Jan 2	at Toronto Raptors
Jan 3	vs Minnesota Timberwolves
Jan 5	vs San Antonio Spurs
Jan 7	vs Toronto Raptors
Jan 8	at Chicago Bulls
Jan 10	vs Houston Rockets
Jan 12	vs Sacramento Kings
Jan 14	vs Charlotte Bobcats
Jan 17	vs Orlando Magic
Jan 19	vs Detroit Pistons
Jan 21	vs Utah Jazz
Jan 22	at Washington Wizards
Jan 25	vs Cleveland Cavaliers
Jan 27	at Portland Trail Blazers
Jan 28	at Phoenix Suns
Jan 30	at Los Angeles Lakers
Feb 1	at Sacramento Kings
Feb 4	vs Dallas Mavericks
Feb 6	vs Orlando Magic
Feb 7	at Chicago Bulls
Feb 10	vs Los Angeles Lakers
Feb 13	vs Miami Heat
Feb 16	vs New Jersey Nets
Feb 20	at NBA All-Star Game
Feb 22	at Golden State Warriors
Feb 24	at Denver Nuggets
Feb 26	at Los Angeles Clippers
Feb 28	at Utah Jazz
Mar 2	vs Phoenix Suns
Mar 4	vs Golden State Warriors
Mar 6	at Milwaukee Bucks
Mar 9	vs Los Angeles Clippers
Mar 11	at Philadelphia 76ers
Mar 13	vs Milwaukee Bucks
Mar 14	at New Jersey Nets
Mar 16	vs Indianapolis Pacers
Mar 18	at Houston Rockets
Mar 19	at New Orleans Hornets
Mar 21	at New York Knicks
Mar 23	vs Memphis Grizzlies
Mar 25	vs Charlotte Bobcats
Mar 27	at Minnesota Timberwolves
Mar 28	at Indianapolis Racers
Mar 31	at San Antonio Spurs
Apr 1	at Atlanta Hawks
Apr 3	vs Detroit Pistons
Apr 5	vs Philadelphia 76ers
Apr 7	at Chicago Bulls
Apr 8	vs Washington Wizards
Apr 10	at Miami Heat
Apr 11	at Washington Wizards
Apr 13	vs New York Knicks

[Pezell04x]

In a game where the Celtics were behind after three quarters, the defense stepped up in the fourth quarter. The green's D held the Cavaliers to just 16 points in the fourth.

"If we played like this all game then we wouldn't have needed to lock down like we did when the fourth quarter began. We had a lot of trouble stopping (Anderson) Varejao and (Antawn) Jamison." Said head coach Doc Rivers. "I think luck was on our side with Jamison fouling out so early in the 4th quarter."

Kevin Garnett scored a game high 17 points, shot 30% from the field and a masterful 11-11 from the free thrown line.

"KG was huge tonight for us. We spread the ball really well. I think we had 6 players in double figures tonight. Our inside game was great. Between David (Lee), Kevin (Garnett) and Shaq, we scored something like 50 points, almost half our points came from our bigs." Said Rivers.

Rajon Rondo scored his first points of the season and finished the game with 15 points on 6-15 (40%) shooting while going 3-5 from the free throw line.

Ray Allen hit a 3-pointer to quiet the dejected Cleveland crowd

Cleveland's star point guard Mo Williams was held to just 9 points on 4-10 (40%) shooting and just 1-4 from behind the arc.

"We were rolling and suddenly they locked down. We definitely have some things to work on, but we also did some good things out there. We out rebounded them and both Anderson and Antawn played well. I truly believe if we had Antawn in the 4th, we would have won this game." Stated head coach Byron Scott in his press conference.

Shaquille O'Neal had a big game off of the bench for the Celtics as the Boston benched scored 29 points while the Cleveland bench scored 20.

"I felt great tonight. Despite being a back to back game, I didn't notice any fatigue. Surprising considering when I was drafted some of these kids weren't born yet." O'Neal said with a laugh.

The Celtics will host the New York Knicks on Friday, October 29th.

Garnett's tough inside play caused Antawn Jamison to foul out early in the 4th quarter.

Oct 27, 2010 - BOS at CLE
TEAM	1ST	2ND	3RD	4TH	SCORE
Boston Celtics (0-1)	24	22	21	36	103
Cleveland Cavaliers (0-0)	21	28	21	16	86

Boston Celtics
STARTERS	MIN	FGM-A	3PM-A	FTM-A	REB	AST	STL	BLK	TO	PTS
Rajon Rondo	35	6-15	0-0	3-5	2	5	1	0	1	15
Ray Allen	28	5-11	2-4	0-0	1	2	2	0	1	12
Danny Granger	25	5-14	3-8	0-0	3	0	1	0	0	13
Kevin Garnett	27	3-10	0-0	11-11	6	1	2	2	1	17
David Lee	29	7-10	0-0	3-5	4	0	1	1	0	17
BENCH	MIN	FGM-A	3PM-A	FTM-A	REB	AST	STL	BLK	TO	PTS
Shaq	20	6-10	0-0	4-7	8	1	1	1	1	16
Glen Davis	22	0-2	0-0	0-0	4	1	1	1	0	0
James Posey	24	0-0	0-0	0-0	4	0	1	1	0	0
Delonte West	21	3-4	1-1	0-0	0	1	2	0	0	7
Avery Bradley	14	2-2	0-0	2-2	2	4	0	0	1	6
Marquis Daniels	-- DID NOT PLAY --
Von Wafer	-- DID NOT PLAY --
TEAM TOTALS		37-76	6-13	23-30	34	15	12	6	5	103

Cleveland Cavaliers
STARTERS	MIN	FGM-A	3PM-A	FTM-A	REB	AST	STL	BLK	TO	PTS
Mo Williams	39	4-10	1-4	0-0	2	6	0	1	6	9
Larry Hughes	36	6-10	1-1	3-4	2	1	1	0	3	16
Joey Graham	35	4-10	0-0	1-1	3	3	0	2	3	9
Antawn Jamison	27	7-13	0-1	2-2	14	1	2	0	0	16
Anderson Varejao	42	7-21	0-0	2-3	19	2	1	1	0	16
BENCH	MIN	FGM-A	3PM-A	FTM-A	REB	AST	STL	BLK	TO	PTS
JJ Hickson	19	2-9	0-0	1-2	3	1	0	0	1	5
Jamario Moon	15	2-5	2-5	0-0	1	1	0	0	0	6
Reggie Session	10	0-1	0-0	2-2	0	1	1	0	0	2
Anthony Parker	10	2-3	1-1	2-2	0	1	0	0	0	7
Leon Powe	8	0-1	0-0	0-0	0	2	0	0	0	0
Danny Green	4	0-0	0-0	0-0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Daniel Gibson	-- DID NOT PLAY --
TEAM TOTALS		34-83	5-12	13-16	46	17	5	4	13	86