When the Celtics acquired KG and Sweet Baby Ray, I knew immediately we were in for a special season not seen around here in a long long time. Racing out to 30 wins in record fashion has surprised many people, but not this guy. Some thought my high praise was premature but I saw it coming before the preseason even began.
In addition to KG and Ray, I loved what Ainge did building a nice veteran bench by bringing in House, Posey, and Pollard. But the one piece I thought the Celtics still needed to bring that 17th championship home was a veteran point guard to either start and bring Rondo off the bench, or to back Rondo up.
Here we are almost at the midway point of the season and Ainge has still not done anything to shore up the point guard position. Handing the job to Rondo from the get-go I thought was very risky, but it has worked out quite well and much better than I ever could have expected. Rondo has been real solid and is a player you can watch nightly and watch him grow before your eyes. He has made big strides since game one.
Even with all that, my position has still not wavered here. Eddie House is not a backup point guard. True the C's have been getting by fine utilizing him as such thus far. But that was before a Rajon Rondo injury. With Rondo out for quarters and now entire games, the point guard position is a glaring weakness on this team. House has been great for what he really is, which is a spot up jump shooter with a deadly 3-point eye. House is a tremendous catch and shoot guy. He is not a creator and his ball-handling skills while decent are just OK for that position. Teams know to pressure that position and turnovers will happen. It is even worse when Doc Rivers hands the ball to Tony Allen to play the point. Tony loses the ball or makes bad passes constantly when thrust into that position.
So I ask, where is the point guard help? Where is the veteran point guard who can at least hold down the fort and keep chaos from happening. A solid ball handler who has been there and can handle that on-the-ball pressure coming up the court. I can't say I am looking for any certain individual to come in here. I have heard Gary Payton and Travis Best names thrown around. I am sure there are others I have not heard who would raise my curiosity. I will leave that to the Celtics to evaluate and bring in the guy that they think will work best. But for god's sake, let's do it already! Who knows, maybe Rondo will even benefit further and elevate his game even more having a veteran guy around who he can pick his brain and learn from.
Last year's point guard draft pick Gabe Pruitt was a very nice selection and I do have high hopes for him. I have been wishing Doc would give him more minutes. But he is just not ready for heavy minutes yet. I am still surprised they at least haven't given him more of a shot here, especially with Rondo out now, but the coach must see something he doesn't like from the practices that I don't get the privilege of seeing. So if Gabe is not going to get some kind of shot here this season, then where is that veteran point guard? I still believe that is the last piece of this championship puzzle. The road still goes through tough Detroit in the East, so we need that vet PG now. There is still half a season to allow for mixing in and to gel with this team. Here's hoping that help is on the way soon!
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