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Your Morning Dump… The Gambler

Chuck - Red's Army March 27, 2010 Uncategorized 7 Comments

Every morning, we compile the links of the day and dump them here…
highlighting the big storyline. Because there's nothing quite as
satisfying as a good morning dump.

“Our entire bench said it,’’ Rondo
said. “I have the record for most steals and the most gambles in one
season.’’

“One of the guys
said, ‘Now you can go back to being solid,’ ’’ said Celtics coach Doc
Rivers.

Rondo said with a
grin he wasn’t aware of the gambles.

“We were,’’ Garnett said.

“I don’t know if we keep that stat,’’
Rondo said.

“We keep it,’’
Garnett said. “Don’t worry about it.’’

Globe – Rondo steals the show

Props to Rondo for his dazzling performance (offense and defense) last night. But… lets address the gambling. How many steals do you think Rondo gets by gambling (and by gambling we mean letting his defender pass so he can poke the ball away from behind)? Not many is my guess. I would say most come on strips and passing lane interceptions.

I think Rondo could still be the league's steals leader is he played straight up defense, a style that would make the team defense even stronger. In other words, know when to hold em, and know when to fold em, kid.

On Page 2, Doc explains the benching of Glen Davis.

Rivers angrily replaced Glen Davis with Brian Scalabrine in the third
quarter after the former committed a triple fault – a turnover,
followed by a foul, followed by a technical foul. Davis didn’t play
another minute.

“You don’t get a tech in that situation,” said Rivers. “When you’re
up 18 points and your team’s struggling, you’re not (Kevin) Garnett or
one of those guys. You don’t get the liberty, anyway, to talk to the
officials.

“And he wasn’t playing well, anyway, at that point. He was playing
like the score, and I just told him he’s not at that point in his life
where he can turn it on and off. We need him to be an every possession
player, and I didn’t think he was that tonight.”

Herald – Perkins in Pain

I get Doc's point, but I thought the benching was excessive and embarrassing. Rivers could have made his point without staring down Davis on the court. Yes, Glen is still a young player, but he's no rookie (3rd season). Doc is running the risk of alienating a good young player. And if Doc is going to use that technique, how about getting tough (in public) with 'Sheed or TA when they deserve it?

The rest of the links:

http://profile.typepad.com/redsarmy Red’s Army

Totally fine with how he treated Davis. Sheed’s at the end of his career… and that matters. And TA might make some boneheaded mistakes, but those are a little different. Besides, TA’s been essentially benched in favor of Finley.
Davis’ problem was with his behavior. His maturity. He needs to get checked when it gets out of hand. That was a dumb play last night.
http://profile.typepad.com/redsarmy Red’s Army

By the way… the days of Kenny Rogers songs like The Gambler being sung on a kid’s show like “The Muppet Show” are gone.
The old dude asked him for his whiskey and a cigarette. Imagine that happening on a kid’s show now?
Alex

I was fine with Doc staring Glen down. This kid needs to mature a lot more in my opinion. What a dumb play Baby did.
Adam Goodman

Glen Davis got exactly what he deserved with that benching. Committing boneheaded plays, throwing opponents to the ground, and then crying about it to the refs should earn anyone a one-way ticket to the pine. Tony Allen isn’t even in the same conversation. He makes his fair share of stupid plays, but you don’t see him assaulting players or barking at the refs (excessively that is). Glen Davis needed a reality check, and has one again renewed his nickname as “Big Baby.”
Jon with no H

It’s the person who ends up with the ball that gets credit for the steal, right? If that’s the case then you’re right in saying “not many” for how many of Rondo’s steals are the poke away from behind kind. The person who pokes it away is hardly ever the guy that comes up with the ball in those situations.
http://profile.typepad.com/6p01156f5ebb21970c JD

No you get credit for the steal if you deflect it and it causes a turnover.
KY Celts fan

Kids today are too soft. And the muppets were on a level of their own. I see episodes now that I watched as a kid, and there were jokes that went right over my head. Dirty ones, too!