Delonte West plans to return tonight, but won’t be 100%
Delonte West plans to return tonight, against — wait for it — Tyler Hansbrough and the Indiana Pacers. But West says he will not be 100% the rest of this season. (CSNNE)
Delonte West has indicated that he plans to make his return from a sprained ankle when the Celtics take on the Pacers Wednesday. And though he feels healthy enough to play, he told CSNNE’s Carolyn Manno that he is still experiencing some discomfort.
“I’m not a 100 percent,” West said. “But I’m able to play and perform so I’m looking forward to it.
“I don’t think I’m gonna be 100 percent at all this year,” he added. “I’ve been told that the wrist is gonna take another six months to recover, still don’t have rotation. The ankle is a little sore, but no more sore than any other player is playing with right now.”
Prior to spraining his ankle (but after breaking his wrist), West had finally started to show why the Celtics expect so much from him. Jeff Green, Delonte West, and Glen Davis? Opposing coaches should have fits defending that crew. Those are three legitimate starters in the NBA, coming off Boston’s bench. All can score 20 on any given night. All (minus Green) can defend. All play smart (for the most part) basketball, and should fit well together.
With West set to return, it begs the question: What happens to Carlos Arroyo? I never thought I’d actually want Arroyo to stay in the rotation when West came back. But he’s played himself into the conversation, at the very least. He’s not going to score 30 or 40 points (and probably not even eight or 10), but Arroyo has run the offense well. Doc Rivers may want to put West at shooting guard to make room for Arroyo. Again, I never thought I’d want Carlos Arroyo playing minutes. When he signed, I thought he was just insurance. Now, I’m actually wondering whether he deserves a role.
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Celtics Blog | Jay King | March 16, 2011
If RR is injured then start CA and bring DW in as usual. This way RR gets rest, which he obviously needs, and CA can gain more time with the starters as opposed to the 2nd Unit, which may be needed in the playoffs if injuries occur. And let’s give JG more time and more than 9 games to become a better defender (and rebounder as he really needs to pick up that element of his game), as defense was not preached in OKC whereas it is the backbone of the Celtics’ arsenal. I bet he acclimates a lot better over the next 17 games than you are giving him credit for at the moment, which is unfair. Go Cs…get back on track please!!!
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Playoff roster should be, the starting five, Aroyo, West, Green, Davis, Shaq, JO and have Pavlovic and Murphy duke it out for the last spot. Wafer and Bradley can get a ring on the pine. The others are playing the way we need solong as they’re healthy.
I think I’d probably side with taking Murphy as the last spot because he can shoot (or at least he used to and it looks like he’s getting it back) and rebound, and he’s another big body.
If we have a playoff rotation of bigs of KG, Shaq, Kristic, JO, BBD and Murphy with Green playing spot duty at the 4 with the rest of the starters, I don’t think there’s any team that will be able to handle that crew’s versatility.
The more Bigs the better.
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I see that The King is editing comments again.
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I never, ever edit comments. What happened?
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West has actually been much better playing at SG over his career.
He’s an effective PG, but if you check his +/- numbers both in Boston (admittedly incredibly small sample size) and over his career, he’s actually been much better at the 2 guard.
So Arroyo, if he continues to play solid, will find minutes. Doc loves having two legit ball handlers on the floor, and rightfully so, there’s a lot that can do for your line up. I fully expect to see a guard rotation of Rondo/Ray/Arroyo/Delonte being used interchangeably for the rest of the season. You’ll see Rondo/Delonte, Rondo/Arroyo, Arroyo/Delonte for stretches. Wafer, much as his play improved this year, will likely be the odd man out.
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