A return to Boston could be possible for the fan favorite.

Ryan Gomes has been officially waived by the Portland Trail Blazers, as had been expected since the Blazers acquired him from the Minnesota Timberwolves. Marc Spears wondered, via Twitter, whether that could pave the way to Gomes’ return to Boston.

Gomes has been the target of a lot of salivating from Celtics fans over the years. Fans remember Gomes’ basketball IQ, scrappy play, and ability to help a team out in a variety of ways. At least in Boston, Gomes was one of those guys who was underrated until he became overrated.

But it wasn’t just the city of Boston he attracted; he won over the Minnesota fanbase too. (A Wolf Among Wolves)

When Kurt Rambis remarked, on Friday, that “smart players don’t have a problem picking up any offense,” he was talking about players like Gomes. Gomes has never been a terribly dynamic player–by NBA standards he’s an average ballhandler and a slightly below-average athlete–but his feel for the game is almost preternatural.  None of his shots in that Memphis game came as a result of physical domination or extreme displays of skill. Instead, as he always does, Gomes allowed the game to flow to him. He found open space on the court; he made sharp, intuitive passes; he allowed the movements of the ball and the other nine players on the court to dictate his decisions. We could wish that his jumper were more consistent or that he were just a bit quicker, but the guy really knows how to play basketball.

On top of that, Gomes is an famously generous, open and friendly guy. He’s one of the only players I’ve met who seems to enjoy shooting the breeze about basketball as much as pasty nerds like me; he was routinely the last player in the locker room after a painful loss, patiently humoring reporters. Being a 5’10″ white dude in an NBA locker room can be a little intimidating; discovering that there was a player willing to look you in the eye and have an actual human conversation made things feel a lot less daunting. I appreciate that.

Amazingly, he seemed able to relate to his teammates even better than he did to reporters. Over and over I saw Gomes seek out frustrated or disgruntled players and, with his funny, rapid-fire banter, bring them back into the fold. Anyone wondering why,  during three years of constant, punishing futility, the Wolves never devolved into a churning, fractious mess should look no further than Ryan Gomes.

With Jeff Clark leading the way, all these bloggers and fans are trying their best to convince me to hop on the Ryan Gomes bandwagon. I resisted for a long time, but you know what? I’m almost there. If I read another piece about Gomes being a perfect utility man, flawless teammate and Albert Einstein-esque basketball player, I may have to jump full-bore onto the bandwagon.

As it is now, my brain is still leading the way. And it’s telling me that Gomes is a solid pick, but not a home run.

In other news, Spears reported that Michael Finley is not retiring. That struck me off-guard — didn’t Finley retire right before the playoffs?

(Note: I was at this game. And these two dunks were back to back. Straight-up ridiculous.)

Doc Rivers’ son Austin, who is the second-ranked rising senior in the high school ranks, is killing it in the FIBA Under-18 World Championships. His USA team finished pool play at 3-0. (Red’s Army)

Austin had 13 points and 3 assists in a win over Argentina.  And a glance at the leaders through 3 games shows Austin is 7th in scoring (15.7), 3rd in 3 pointers made (3 per game) and 3 pt % (52.9), and 5th in steals (2.0 per game).

By the way, Austin’s only a junior, so he’s playing with a lot of kids a year older than he is. He’s pretty good. Doc has spent the last week or so in San Antonio, watching Austin destroy competition.

But if you’re Doc, you’ve gotta get your priotities straight. Screw your son. Screw your family. Screw religion, and screw anything else you might care about. The Celtics come before anything else in life. Morals are morals, Doc, and anyone with a heart and a solid value system knows the Boston Celtics should always be the main concern.

Nick Johnson, a 6’2″ junior guard for Findlay Prep, puts on a delightful dunking display in lay up lines. Johnson is the 11th ranked shooting guard in the class of 2011. He is being recruited by Uconn, USC, Gonzaga and Stanford, among other schools.

I want Pierce as a Celtic forever... but not if it's going to set the C's back another ten years.

I was going to write a piece about how the Celtics should make sure not to overpay Pierce. It’s time for cold, hard logic and not sentimentality, ya know? 

I don’t want Pierce going anywhere, but… I’d rather not overpay him, flush the C’s future down the toilet, and then see Pierce hobbling around the court three years down the road while making $18 million. Pierce is a very good player, but anyone who thinks he’s still in his prime is nuts. He’s clearly lost a step, no longer dominates and he’s not getting any younger, folks.

So I was going to write about all that, but WEEI’s Kirk Minihane beat me to it. Kirk explains everything you need to know about Pierce’s potential opt-out and the ensuing situation facing the Celtics, concluding:

Is the smart move to work out an extension with the Celtics?

Makes too much sense not to happen, doesn’t it? Can’t Ainge and Jeff Schwartz (Pierce’s agent) find a number of years and dollars that work for both sides? How about three years and $42 million? Gives the Celtics some cap room over the next few years and Pierce keeps face with a solid extension. Pierce may not be the player he was a couple of years ago, but he’s still be decent value at that contract. And he gets one more payday before what will be a hugely restrictive CBA kicks in.

If I’m Danny that’s my best and final offer. Three years, $42 million. If Pierce doesn’t think that’s enough? You shake hands, wish him well, and get started on the rebuild. Remember, only so much room today for sentimentality.

In a perfect world Pierce would opt out, the C’s would sign both him and Ray Allen to two-year deals, and the Big Three’s contracts would all expire in 2012, at which time the Celtics could reload for the future.

Sadly, the world isn’t perfect. Which might be why the Knicks reportedly think Joe Johnson is a better player than Lebron James. I’m not even kidding. Whatever the Knicks front office (and the reporter who wrote the story) is smoking, please keep it away from my little brothers.

Basketball Reference did a study to find out whether Celtics fans have legitimate beef with NBA Finals officiating. The results? While the number of fouls called were right around where they should have been expected to be, there was a discrepancy in the number of free throws taken.

That’s only half the story, though — free throws are where the conspiracy buffs really make their case, since the Lakers shot 51 more FTA than the Celtics did despite Boston taking more shots in the immediate basket area. Using the same methodology outlined above, except with FTA/Poss instead of PF/Poss, we see that Los Angeles took .259 FTA/Poss in a league where average was .263. Boston conceded .285 opponent FTA/Poss during the season, so we would expect L.A. to take (.259 / .263) * .285 = .281 FTA/poss in a series with the Celts; instead, they took .335 FTA/poss. On the other side, we would have expected Boston to have .244 FTA/poss against the Lakers, and in reality they had .249.

This result is unexpected — Boston essentially had just as many FTA/poss as we would have expected based on team tendencies, but Los Angeles’ rate of FTA/poss is dramatically higher than we would have expected. However, neither team’s rate of fouls per possession was unexpected, so the only real unexpected outcome of the Finals in the fouling department was the number of free throws Los Angeles shot per foul drawn.

If there really was a conspiracy against the Celtics my question is,why? Why would the league want the Lakers to win the NBA Finals? Why does the NBA benefit if the Celtics lose to the Lakers? I don’t see any reason, other than maybe (and this is a stretch) making Kobe’s star a little bigger than it already was.

As such, I’d like to think the free throw discrepancy was simply a case of the Lakers being more aggressive going to the basket… but who knows? What do you guys think: Were the refs out to get the Celtics?

On another note: Compared to World Cup refs, NBA refs look like they were genetically engineered to never miss a call. And can’t we all just stop talking about the goddamn Finals already? Every time I try to stop thinking about it, something keeps calling me back.

Vinny, Vinny, Vinny.

I know I wondered why Vinny Del Negro was being considered for any head coaching jobs. But now things are urgent and I’ve changed my mind: He is super-qualified to coach the Clippers and they’d be fools to pass him up!

Why such a 180? Del Negro is reportedly on the “short list” of candidates to replace Doc Rivers, should Rivers retire and, well, I’d rather not see that happen.

Still no word from Celtics coach Doc Rivers to some of his closest confidants as to whether he will be back on the Boston bench next season. Vinny Del Negro, who along with Dwane Casey is a finalist for the Clippers job, is on the Celtics’ short list of candidates to replace Rivers if he steps down to spend more time with his family.

So, uhh, Vinny Del Negro is a legitimate option if Rivers doesn’t come back? Need I ask why? I know he’s from Massachusetts and everything, but so am I. And I probably have as good a head coaching resume as Vinny does. I once coached my high school varsity’s summer league team to the championship game and, even though we lost, I made a genius decision to sic our diesel, tough, 5’11″ two-guard on the opposing team’s all-league, 6’7″ center and completely locked the soft bastard down. If my team wasn’t completely out-talented, we would have taken home the ring. You know what they say about me? That I could coach five mules to victory.

They don’t exactly say that about Vinny. People are more likely to consider him the mule. And now he might coach the Celtics? Yikes. This Vinny on the short list thing is either a practical joke being played by some high-ranking Celtics official, or it’s true. Here’s hoping it ain’t true.

Look, Paul Pierce and Ray Allen’s decisions on whether or not to remain Celtics could hinge on who the C’s coach is next season. Something tells me Vinny Del Negro isn’t going to be a guy who will keep them around. So why doesn’t Del Negro make it easy on us and get hired by the Clippers? Then I’ll never have to waste another second trembling in fear at the thought of Vinny and his $3 haircut coaching my Celtics.

Doc, if you’re reading this, please come back. Please.