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Report: Celtics interested in Darko Milicic

Chuck - Red's Army July 14, 2012 Celtics News, Rumors 49 Comments

The Celtics are reportedly interested in one of the biggest draft busts in NBA history – Darko Milicic.

The Wolves amnestied Milicic earlier this week. Here’s his salary situation, via ESPN’s Ric Bucher:

Milicic has two years and $10 million remaining on his contract, but only $7 million is guaranteed. Once finalized, Milicic will go through a modified amnesty process. Teams with cap space will be able to make blind bids to pick up a portion of his remaining salary. If no team makes a bid, Milicic will become an unrestricted free agent.

Here’s the problem with Milicic – he’s awful. Can’t score and can’t rebound. He does block shots.

I’d rather have Ryan Hollins. The only bright side to have Darko is Boston is that it would drive John absolutely nuts.

German

WTF ?
http://www.redsarmy.com KWAPT

Please God no. I mean, we do need a center, but…ugh.
Sammy46

Anybody but him…. Seriously anybody!
http://twitter.com/dustdaughter Didi Jenning

Didn’t Brendan Haywood get amnestied? Has some other team snapped him up?

Also, can’t Wilcox and Sullinger play center for a bit to rest KG?
- KY Celts fan
  
  charlotte grabbed him.
ryan

Please no. We need scola. Can that happen?
KY Celts fan

oh, God, no. I’ve been making fun of my Sixers friend the past few days for signing Kwame. If we sign Darko, I’ll have no ground to stand on.
zippittyay

I guess we missed out on Kwame Brown…
I’m hungry

What are you people taking about? He’s exactly what we need. He’s a bust because he was the 2nd overall pick but he’s not as bad as I’m reading here. He’s the dominating center we’re looking for.
- Pauly
  
  Yes!
- Caterpillar from Italy
  
  Dominating center? Wow. Did you ever watch him play? He’ the luckiest guy in the world: there are still people willing to throw money on him after he clearly proved he can’t play in this league.
  - Shawn
    
    When motivated, Darko is a usable center. His problem is he is lazy, loses focus, and easily gets frustrated. When his game is on, he can be a difference maker here and there.
LG

Every bit of me wants this not to be true. I hope Danny would target Aaron Gray, Brendan Haywood, Jordan Hill, Ryan Hollins, Nazr Mohammed, Joel Przybilla, or some other average center before attempting to sign the non-existential Milicic. However, if this report is, in fact, true I’ll be praying that Stiemsma wants/decides to stay in Boston.
- sev
  
  he’s not that bad and I would take him over Ryan Hollins anyday. Przybilla and Nazr are around his talent level, but yea obviously I would rather have Haywood or Jordan Hill, but…..
http://Red'sArmy 38

That’s exactly what we need…don’t need him to score. He would be a defensive weapon. We have more than enough offensive weapons.
Phish33

Should have went after Jordan Hill, Ian Mahinmi or Krylo Fesenko

Blatche may get amnestied
Ralph

He can’t get rebs, he can’t really score… But he can Block shots and that really helps.
Astarot

It’s too late now but Elton Brand got something around 2mln yr from Mavs. Comparing him to Milicic… well we all know it. But I admit I don’t know what it’d be like with the salary he suppose to get from Sixters I guess Sixters pay him that so Boston could fight for him.
Astarot

Maybe Ainge will match the offer for Stiemsma (assuming it will still be reasonable)
hebertofnh

Darko is fucking awful. I was getting excited about this team. No way. Dear God, no Darko.
colaroaster

steamer’s going to sota one way or another. why not do a 3 way w/houston and grab courtney lee?
zippittyay

Hey, we need someone to take Scal’s place…
zippittyay

He’s got a youtube highlight reel.
http://twitter Wayno

In 24 minutes per game he would average 8 to 10 pts- about 6 rebounds and a couple blocks. That’s not too bad ? He’s still young. Gets some offensive rebounds and would be worth taking a chance at vet.min.$$. Do you start him w/KG at PF and a bench of JET-Bass and Jeff Green-Sully and hopefully C.Lee ??? That just might work ???
- Reggie35RIP
  
  Ok you are either crazy, delusional or both if you think Darko’s going to put up numbers like that. For starters he’d be lucky to get anywhere in the vicinity of 24 minutes a game. He is a terrible injury prone waste of space.
  
  The only time he came close to playing a full season was 06/07. And his career average in minutes played is 18.5. I have no idea how you came to the conclusion he would be averaging those numbers. If he could get anywhere close to those numbers he might be worth signing, but then you have to face the fact he would most likely only give you – if you were lucky – around 40 games.
  
  If we sign Darko I will cry like a new born baby.
BillRussellTheGreatestOfThemAll

Initial reaction: Oh, HELL naw!

Reaction after a minute: Darko sucks!

Reaction after 5 minutes: Boston can’t do any better? Really?

Reaction after 10 minutes: Well, he IS a legitimate 7-foot-1, 275 pound Center entering his prime (27 years old) and Boston does needs more size

Reaction after 15 minutes: Can he be had for the veteran’s minimum and nothing more?

Reaction after 20 minutes: Garnett will either successfully re-mold him … or break him into a million pieces!

Reaction after 20 minutes, 3 seconds: Get him.
- Reggie35RIP
  
  Always go with your gut instinct.
  
  Honestly this would be as good as re-signing Jermaine.
  
  Also “prime” and “Darko” should never EVER be mentioned in the same sentence.
  - kg215
    
    Also the word legitimate lol. But he would be another big body with 6 fouls, and yea he can block some shots which is useful especially if we lose Stiemsma.
KG

He’s better than Melo right now…A good shot blocker…he can hit the 18 foot jumper and he got the left hook shot…Im just worried about his work ethic..We dont know what darko will show up every night…sometimes he scores double digits grab 8 rebounds and block a couple of shots a night sometimes he doesnt exist…

he doesnt back out on blocking shots tho…saw him block blake griffin twice in a game…

any available center besides him?
Chief

PLEASE GOD NO!
- Reggie35RIP
  
  What he said.
msnthrop

I’d like to see us go after Josh Harrellson…
KG

are you serious? josh harrelson? darko is definetly better than him…darko is a lefit 7 ft and a good shot blocker. josh doesnt block shots and he’s slow and fat.. are you serious? josh harrelson? darko is definetly better than him…darko is a lefit 7 ft and a good shot blocker. josh doesnt block shots and he’s slow and fat..
- employee77
  
  Just to add to your points. Darko is definitely better than Josh Harrelson……Darko is a ‘lefit’ 7 ft and a good shot blocker. Josh doesn’t block shots and he’s slow and fat
Nick

Kwame and Darko are both huge busts for where they were drafted… but to think Greg Stiemsma is better than either of them is insane. Stiemsma has this stupid fucking cult following because he is a big white goober who fought his way to the league. Darko is much better than him. Bigger stronger, better touch, runs floor better. some boston fans are just insane, I applaud stiemsmas effort but cmon now
- employee77
  
  I gotta agree here, I do like Stiemsma but I think Darko is an upgrade and it’s not like we are asking him to start and become a force. We just need a big off the bench who can provide some interior D.
  
  Melo is not even close to being ready to contribute (and people LOVE this guy) so who else do we have at the 5. KG doesn’t wanna play there. Get Darko
- kg215
  
  Totally agree about Stiemsma. There are some people that think he is an allstar or something and that if we had the money we should offer him 5 million plus a year. He was useless in the playoffs, and though he is a legit shotblocker he is too slow to be a good pick and roll defender and not a great rebounder which this team desperately needs.
check this

i looked at the mix. and granted i know mixes just show the good stuff. but this guy is entering his prime but i could see that he could potentially just be delayed in his growth. it doesnt seem like this should be an excuse for a high-level professional athlete, but the fact is that we all deal with sub-conscious issues and in sports, especially one like basketball , they can really throw any good player off. Look what happened to so many former stars. and that was once darko. And honestly there’s a starkly different culture in the Celtics – like someone said above^ the Celtics will either re-mold him or break him into a million pieces. But for a guy that’s already carried so much shame, it would surely be his last straw before being provoked into so much intensity. And also like what has been said above – he’s not even that bad of a player right now and i think he’s got more assets that stiemsma , haywood , and whoever else is available right now. he’s 27 he could have an epiphany in boston it’s almost like the perfect storm in his career you know what i mean?
check this

he’s 7′ 1 and can defend , and make easy buckets. the celtics will bring his intensity out. I know how open minded of a guy KG is and I think he would just be FASCINATED by this guy , and KG would think of all the things i’ve thought about , especially the glaring one of how much of a draft bust he was. They would make him feel like there’s nothing left but to just go beserk. really. Celtics desperately need a center and some more interior defense – something that so few people on all the celtics forum will talk about, all they want to talk about is courtney lee and oj mayo . another thing – people keep saying they would INCLUDE avery bradley (like just him himself isnt too much already) in a trade for Josh Smith , but josh smith doesnt add the other end of the spectrum in height or defense, and most importantly avery bradley probably has one of the biggest upsides in the entire NBA , like i truly think this guy is one of the biggest secrets. I even think that maybe avery bradley had a big dose of this underdog mentality because he was ranked number 1 in the country coming out of high school but didnt get as much attention in college and fell to 19 in the nba draft. part of his psyche must of been pent up , and i think he’s going to explode this next season. So all in all when it comes down to it , all of us in the blogosphere hear about the front office pursuing darko milicic and most of us complain and think we know stuff but the front office keeps showing us that they are the geniuses.
- Jeremy Etom
  
  You have a very vivid imagination.
Reggie35RIP

I honestly don’t get this whole “If we get [insert player name] he will miraculously become a better player just by being in Boston and KG will take him under his wing and school him, making him even better.”

Damn the way things are going KG’s not going to have any time left to do anything. He’s going to be schooling almost every damn player on the team.

Yes Darko is only 27, but he has been in the league for 9 seasons. He has played for 5 different teams. Bust or not he hasn’t broken out meaning we’ve seen his ceiling and it’s not very high. He’s inconsistent, injury prone and lacks mental toughness. He can block shots, he can rebound ok, he can’t shoot freethrows.

So best case scenario he’ll give us some inconsistent minutes off the bench sporadically for half the season if we’re lucky.

Surely there’s someone else…
- kg215
  
  KG certainly won’t save him, but “he can block shots and rebound ok” that’s all we need from our backup center at this point. Darko would be better than Stiemsma or Sean Williams.
- MJ
  
  There isn’t anyone else. That’s why the Celtics are interested.
kricky

Darko’s is a bust and has character issues too. We’re better off with Hollins. Or if we have a few bucks extra from the Terry trade maybe we can match Minni extend a 3 million offer to Stiemer?
Greg

To everyone saying he is a bust, sure, but he is a seven footer that might be had for the vets minimum or bi-annual exception. It’s not a blockbuster deal, but it could definitely pay off.

The Celtics haven’t had a scoring center during the entire Big Three Era so acquiring an offensively challenged big man wouldn’t hurt that much. He can block shots and has actual size. We can’t be picky when we are working with no money this late in the offseason.
Chris

It’s not the poor guy’s fault that Detroit picked him ahead of Anthony, Bosh and Wade. I like watching Kevin Love and so saw a bit of Darko this year. He doesn’t give a great effort, but he’s no beanpole like fellow 7 footer Ryan Hollins. And he is wildly better than the “untapped potential” of Sean Williams. I’d rather have someone else but being realistic, we could do much worse.
Brick James

“Here’s the problem with Milicic – he’s awful.”

Hilarious
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