The Russian team CSKA Moscow has offered Nenad Krstic a long-term contract, according to the Serbian website Sportske.net. (h/t sports.ru via NESN and CelticsLife)

CSKA Moscow are reportedly interested in signing Boston Celtics’ Serbian centre Nenad Krstic (27 years old, 213 cm). According to Serbian website Sportske.net, the Russian club has offered the player a long-term contract.

Meanwhile, commenting on this information CSKA president Andrey Vatutin has refrained from giving a direct confirmation or denial.

Two weeks ago, Doc Rivers said he expected Krstic to re-sign with the Celtics.

“He can play. He can shoot. He’s not going to be a dominant defender. He does things differently then a [Kendrick Perkins]. But he can help your basketball team. I think we’ll get him back and he’ll help us in the future,” Rivers told WEEI.

Even if Krstic signs in Russia, Shaq and Jermaine O’Neal both retire, and Glen Davis leaves via free agency, don’t worry: Danny Ainge has a plan. And, um, it might involve a football player who was recently drafted by the Canadian Football League and hasn’t played basketball since high school. (Leader-Post via ESPN Boston)

It’s believed that [Matt] O’Donnell has not signed because there has been some interest in the Canadian offensive tackle by the NBA’s Boston Celtics. O’Donnell, who is listed at 340 pounds, hasn’t played basketball since high school. O’Donnell and Hardaway could not be reached for comment Monday.

Taman had heard about the possible interest in O’Donnell by the Celtics, but that was the extent of it.

“The crux of the matter is we start rookie camp on Wednesday and (O’Donnell) may be the only draft pick (of five in the 2011 CFL draft by the Riders) we don’t have in camp at that point,” Taman said.

After a quick search for O’Donnell’s basketball past, I have decided his basketball past does not actually exist. At least not one in which he was any good. If there is any description of his basketball talent on the internet, I was unable to unearth it. The closest I got was this: (The Kingston Whig Standard)

“The big kid instantly anchored the Crusaders’ offensive line, a mobile force who sometimes played opposite gridiron grunts weighing a tad more than half his weight. He played senior basketball as well, but the angular athlete’s natural talent shone in the pigskin pastime.”

The New York Jets website Gang Green Nation discussed the possibility of using a late-round draft pick to select O’Donnell. Judging by the description, he’d be more Aaron Gray than Dwight Howard.

“At the East-West Shrine Game, O’Donnell was one of the worst players on the field against major conference prospects. He was consistently beaten to the edge and showed poor technique. … His big frame makes it tough for him to get low enough to play with proper leverage. It also takes a big effort to get him to have a quick burst. Short area speed is very important for a tackle. He looked several steps slow in the Shrine Game.”

And yes, I know: I just spent far too long discussing a possibility that almost certainly won’t happen. If Matt O’Donnell plays a second for the Boston Celtics, I’ll donate $10 million to the “Bring Rasheed Wallace Out of Retirement” fund.

The Boston Celtics will host their first draft workout tomorrow, but the players Danny Ainge scouts during the workout are not probable first-round picks.

“A lot of times the guys you are interested in don’t come in for a workout,” Ainge told the Boston Herald. “When you pick at 25, sometimes the guys you like think they are going higher.”

The Celtics will likely scout tomorrow’s crop of big men with their second draft choice (the 55th pick) in mind. I have already looked at most of the players, but the Celtics have added a few names to the workout.

Frank Hassell, Old Dominion (6’9, 255 lbs.)

2011 Stats: 15.1 ppg, 9.4 rpg

A self-proclaimed late bloomer, Hassell began the 2011 season as an Honorable Mention pre-season All-Colonial Athletic Association selection, thousands of miles from NBA scouts’ consciousness. But after turning himself into a First Team All-CAA selection and the 34th-best rebounder in the country this past season, Hassell played himself into the draft conversation. He still doesn’t have the type of athleticism to warrant serious NBA hype (at least from what I can see in highlight tapes), nor does he have any evaluations in his Draft Express profile (normally a red flag for prospective NBA players). But he’s a wide body with NBA strength; if he doesn’t catch on in the NBA, I would imagine he has a nice basketball future elsewhere.

P.S. – His nickname’s Frank the Tank. So if you see him streaking through the quad to the gymnasium, you’ll know why.

Lavoy Allen, Temple (6’9, 225 lbs.)

2011 Stats: 11.6 ppg, 8.6 rpg

A solid contributor throughout his four-year college career, Lavoy Allen surprisingly failed to improve during his senior campaign. If anything, he regressed, a slight slide Draft Express blamed on coasting.

“While there is no doubt that Allen is a talented player, effort and consistency have been significant issues that have plagued him throughout his career and continued to limit his potential as a senior,” Draft Express wrote in March, continuing, “Simply put, when Allen puts his mind to it, he can be an excellent rebounder with the fundamentals and energy to suggest that his abilities will translate to the next level. This is the case with much of Allen’s game. When he plays aggressively, his combination of size, mobility, basketball IQ, and fundamentals allow him to contribute at a very high level. He must show scouts that he can consistently be the player who finished the season averaging a double-double.”

Despite average to average strength and athleticism, Allen flashes a varied and well-rounded skill set. He can hit a mid-range jumper, rebound among the trees, and pass with both precision and creativity. But to find an NBA role, Allen will likely need to make two improvements to his game: 1) learn to consistently make jump shots, and 2) bring an energy to the game he didn’t always bring while at Temple. If he can do both those things, Allen has a chance to overcome his average athletic traits and find a place in the NBA.

Projected Pick: Undrafted

Draft Express Profile: Lavoy Allen

Keith Benson, Oakland University (6’11, 220 lbs.)

2011 Stats: 17.9 ppg, 10.1 rpg, 3.6 blocks

I was introduced to Keith Benson while watching the 2011 NBA Draft Combine. To judge a prospect’s vertical leap, evaluators set up a contraption. The very top of this contraption stood twelve feet in the air, so when a prospect jumped as high as he could, the evaluators could measure the height of each player’s vertical leap. Except for Keith Benson—he jumps too high and his arms are too long. On his first attempt, Benson reached higher than the twelve foot limit. After that, evaluators moved the contraption on top of a chair. Finally, Benson could measure his vertical leap.

Obviously, Benson’s athleticism makes NBA scouts write the word “upside” into their notebooks. But he’s not a sure thing, not by any means. Even while producing fine numbers during his final two seasons at Oakland, Benson showed holes in his game which will be exposed in the NBA if not fixed. Firstly, he’s too skinny. If a tumbleweed leaned on Benson, he might fall over. Secondly, he will need to become tougher.

“More of a finesse player who makes an impact with great timing and touch, Benson is not quite the banger or high energy hustle player that he will be pitted against and asked to be at the next level,” wrote Draft Express. “He rebounds the ball at a solid rate thanks to his exceptional length and solid athleticism, but isn’t one to aggressively track the ball in traffic or go outside of his area to recover a miss.”

If you want an NBA comparison for Benson, think Chris Johnson (who played for the Celtics briefly this past season). He’s athletic but raw, and built like a piece of seaweed. Like Johnson did in Portland at the tail end of last season, Benson can find a home in the NBA. But he will need to realize his limitations and become more willing to get his hands dirty.

Projected Draft Pick: Early- to mid-second round

Draft Express Profile: Keith Benson

Before signing with the Dallas Mavericks in early March, Corey Brewer was close to signing with the Boston Celtics. (Boston Globe)

Brewer, the seventh overall pick in 2007 by the Minnesota Timberwolves, received offers from the Mavericks and the Celtics after being released by the New York Knicks.

“I seriously considered the Celtics, a lot,” said Brewer, who is making his first career NBA Finals appearance with Dallas. “And eventually I thought I was going to go to Boston. But then at the last minute we struck a nice deal with Dallas and we felt like this was the best situation for us.”

Before you think, “If the Celtics signed Brewer, they never would have traded for Jeff Green,” remember Brewer got bought out after the Celtics had already traded for Green. In all likelihood, Brewer would have played a minimal (at best) role had he signed with the Celtics. This year in Dallas, he has averaged 3.8 minutes per game in the postseason, appearing in only six games. In Minnesota, where he earned significantly more playing time, he was shooting an awe-inspiring 38.4% from the field. He has earned his reputation as a defensive stopper, but the “Corey Brewer was *thisclose* to signing with the Celtics” news story is really a non-story because he wouldn’t have received much (if any) playing time anyway.

The real story is Brewer’s reason for almost choosing Boston:

“I known Doc for a while and I met when while I was in college,” said Brewer, who helped Florida to consecutive national titles. “It was kind of tough because I talked to Doc, talk to (team president) Danny (Ainge) and thought man it would be nice to go there and play for Doc with the relationship we already had and I would have had a chance to play a little bit, coming in with the second unit. It was a tough decision, but I feel like I could come in and help this team.”

When the Big Three grow old and retire to their beautiful wives, gorgeous homes and lifetimes of relaxation, Rajon Rondo and Doc Rivers are going to be the only draws left for Boston to entice free agents. Nobody’s coming to Boston for the weather. Nobody’s coming to Boston for the party scene. Nobody’s coming to Boston for the beaches. If anybody important does sign in Boston (keep in mind, the Celtics haven’t inked a top-flight free agent since Vietnam), the Celtics can thank Rondo’s unselfish play and/or Doc’s personality.

As valuable as Doc’s coaching has become (he’s the Secretariat of drawing up plays in the huddle), his ability to woo stars could paint the Celtics’ future; his recruiting skills could prove the difference between a long rebuilding process and a quick reloading process. Those skills almost helped sign Brewer, but Dallas was able to offer him more years and more money.

May Doc have better luck reeling in the bigger fish.

On multiple occasions, I wrote about the most indefensible trade Danny Ainge made this year: no, not that one—Luke Harangody and Semih Erden for a second-round draft pick. Trading away a seven-footer with potential (and Harangody) just to open a roster spot for Sasha Pavlovic (and Carlos Arroyo) made as much sense as reading with a blindfold on.

But there was a reason for the trade after all: the Celtics feared Erden would return to Turkey after this season because of a bout with homesickness. (Boston Globe)

Apparently, the Celtics traded Semih Erden to Cleveland because they felt he would return to Europe anyway out of homesickness. The Cavaliers have yet to see what they have in Erden because of shoulder and groin surgeries and a lack of conditioning. The Celtics relayed to Cleveland that Erden needed shoulder surgery, but the groin issue is new. Erden played in just four games after being acquired from the Celtics Feb. 24.

With the Celtics big man situation currently “Kevin Garnett and whoever A) decides not to retire or B) re-signs for a smallish contract,” the Celtics could have used Erden next season. But if he’s going to return to Turkey anyway,  trading him for a basket of potato chips makes more sense in retrospect.

With every game Lebron James wins in these 2011 playoffs, he draws one step closer to his first championship, one step closer to dignifying his decision, if not The Decision, one step closer to securing his career’s last missing piece, and if we’re smart, one step closer to changing the way we view championship rings.

In recent days, I have read a lot about James’s improvements, about the addition of a jump shot to his repertoire and how that has made him more or less unguardable. Watching the daggers he stuck in Boston and Chicago’s backs, that’s a reasonable observation. But what the media has failed to mention is that he actually shot a better percentage from the field and from the three-point arc last postseason, and he did that while compiling more assists, more rebounds, more steals and more blocks per game. If you prefer advanced statistics, Lebron’s PER, true shooting percentage, effective field goal percentage, rebounding rate, assist rate, and block percentage were all better last postseason. But everyone would rather forget about that, because, damn it, Lebron James was eliminated last season without a championship ring.

The ring is the NBA’s highest measure of success, not just for a team but also for an individual. Win one and we serenade you. Win more than one and we put you on a pedestal. Win five or six, or even more, and we bow down to kiss your feet and worship your very existence, then perhaps mold your body into a statue years after your retirement. Win none of them, on the other hand, and we will shun you, or if you are young enough like Kevin Durant or Derrick Rose, we will forgive you and offer you a little more time. Then, when that time expires, we will turn on you like a hungry pack of wolves. Just like we turned on Lebron last year.

When remembering the failures of Lebron’s playoff past, surely you will recall his inept Game 5 in last year’s bout against the Celtics. You will recall the oddly glazed-over eyes that accompanied the most-hyped case of sleep-walking I have ever witnessed. You will recall Lebron’s willingness to stand in the corner mostly useless as the Celtics yanked Cleveland’s season from his lifeless hands. That was the day we labeled Lebron James a quitter, a choker, a malcontent, and worst of all, a loser. That was the day we began turning on Lebron James, the day his imperfections smacked us in the face and made us bleed anger and disappointment. That was the day we decided he was old enough; we would afford him no more time. His grace period was over, and he needed to win at least one championship before he could finally earn his nickname “King James.” We took Cleveland’s failures and strapped them like a weight vest onto Lebron’s back.

In retrospect, blaming everything on James seems foolhardy and indefensible. He hardly played any worse during that series (what some would call the lowest moment of his career) than he did against the Chicago Bulls this past week. Allow me to reveal the statistics:

Series 1: 26.8 ppg, 7.2 apg, 9.3 rpg, 44.3% FG, 26.7% 3-pt

Series 2: 25.8 ppg, 6.6 apg, 7.8 rpg, 44.6% FG, 38.9% 3-pt

Not much difference, except for the three-point shooting. Yet because Lebron’s team lost Series 1 (aka last year against the Celtics), we chained him against a fence and threw stones at him. Since he won Series 2, (aka last week against the Bulls), we now worship at his altar, praise his improvements, and rush to crown him the game’s best and most complete player. Our different perspectives on the two series are daylight and darkness, Nikes and L.A. Gear, wheat bread and jambalaya, when in reality Lebron was almost the exact same player this time last year, just with a different set of teammates.

We challenged Lebron after last season because of his lack of rings, but the truth is that Lebron has been the NBA’s best player for the past three years, at least. And he has normally used the playoffs to remind us of his transcendent greatness. Just because he failed in Game 5 does not mean we should forget or discount the time he choked out Detroit by scoring 29 of Cleveland’s last 30 points. Nor should we forget his fruitless yet heroic 45 points in 2008′s Game 7 against Boston. We should not forget the way he out-dueled Paul Pierce but still could not coax a win from his overmatched teammates. If you are a Celtics fan, you should not forget the fear you felt in your heart every time he rose for a shot that day, nor should you forget the knowledge that the best player on the court wore not green but wine and gold.

We should not forget that Lebron James has almost always been masterful, even in the playoffs, nor should we forget that the Game 5 in Cleveland—when he shot 3-14, missed all his three-pointers, scored only 15 points and mustered “only” seven assists and six rebounds—only proved an exception to Lebron’s rule of greatness. Even that series, after which we tortured him with everything but tar and feathers, Lebron managed a do-whatever-it-takes 27-point, 19-rebound, 10-assist triple-double in Game 6. Yet we could not forgive him for the sins of Game 5, in part because he was finally old enough to warrant our unedited criticism and, most importantly, because his team lost the series.

If Lebron’s team reaches a different fate this season, that doesn’t necessarily make him a better basketball player. That’s how we will perceive it, though. The ring serves as an invisibility cloak for all a player’s flaws. It allows us to praise Kobe Bryant after his 6-24 shooting performance, to forget about the bricks and the misses and the poorly-timed shots, and to focus mostly on his rebounding and timely late makes. We bestowed Kobe with the Finals MVP that day rather than the barrage of insults we catapulted toward Lebron. We called Kobe a winner because his team won. We labeled him with the term “killer instinct” because he would not stop shooting, even if that also meant he would not stop missing. If he had lost, he would have been a thoughtless chucker, a ball hog who did not know when to give his trigger finger proper hibernation. Winning changes the prism through which we see events. So when Lebron lost last season, walking off the TD Garden court and into an early offseason, we tore apart his few flaws and made them seem more important than they actually were.

I’m not here to absolve Lebron of last year’s sins. His play in Game 5 last season certainly did not live up to his standards, and even his triple-double in Game 6 came equipped with nine turnovers. But the “rings is the only argument I need, Sean” argument should require more evidence. It was probably time to re-evaluate the rings argument after Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce and Ray Allen, three lifetime old maids, won a title by finally surrounding themselves with worthy talent.  But if Lebron can win his first title one year removed from being vilified as a quitter, we should finally see rings for what they actually are—an award given to the game’s best teams, not its greatest individuals. Stars can certainly be the difference between winning and losing: for example, how many titles would Chicago have won if Michael Jordan had been substituted with, say, Clyde Drexler? It’s difficult to say, but probably not six. But even if Lebron is the exact same player he was last season, the jump from Mo Williams to Dwyane Wade certainly didn’t hurt his title chances.

Rings come only when the league’s best players have a great supporting cast (or, in the 2004 Detroit Pistons’s case, when the NBA has a down year and the entire team makes up the perfect supporting cast). Michael Jordan, as great as he was, won so many titles because Scottie Pippen became a worthy second fiddle, Dennis Rodman could snatch a rebound from an alligator’s jaws, Steve Kerr and John Paxson could flat-out shoot, and yes, because Jordan himself was on another level. Winning almost always takes at least one superstar, but the players around him matter. A lot. Lebron may very well have improved since last season (stats say his midrange jumper became significantly more reliable, and the naked eye tells me he has become a defensive force akin to a tornado), but the most significant difference is that he has upgraded from Mo Williams and Antwan Jamison to Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh.

If Lebron wins a title this year, we might consider him a transformed player, someone who matured in the past year, someone who finally became a winner. In reality, very little has changed outside of the players surrounding him. Rings can fall short in defining a player’s impact, so the next time somebody tells you “Michael Jordan won six championships and that’s the only argument I need,” kindly tell him he needs more than that. Hell, Robert Horry has seven championships; to call Jordan the best ever, you need another argument. If you’re defending Jordan, it shouldn’t take much thought to extend your argument beyond his number of rings. And if you’re defending Lebron, against any perimeter player not named Michael, your argument grows stronger with each passing season, even when he falls short of winning a championship.

Brandon Roy's sad story illuminates The Decision.

As I emerged from The Hangover: Ad-libs, my  Twitter timeline was flying with tweets about LeBron James and his clutch performance in Game 5 of the Eastern Conference Finals. NBA Twiteratti were telling a story of vindication–140 characters at a time.

James’ nailed a series-clinching free throw jumper, advancing to the NBA Finals in his first season with the Miami Heat, proving James’ clutchness, greatness, and wisdom for  making The Decision, all in one moment.

Engulfed by flaming James rhetoric was a tweet from Portland that whispered a truer tale:

@JohnCanzanoBFT: Canzano: Asking Blazers’ Brandon Roy to retire is not the answer: The Trail Blazers Inc. brain trust wants to fl…http://bit.ly/jh9sBu

The link brought me to OregonLive.com, where I read in disgust that the powers of the Portaland Trailblazers were considering asking Brandon Roy to retire.

The same Roy who led a beleaguered franchise away from mugshots and jailhouses, towards title shots and penthouses. The same Roy who led the team in points, assists, steals and minutes during the 2007-08 and 2008-09 seasons. The same Roy who won Rookie of the Year, made three All-star teams and two All-NBA teams in just five NBA seasons.

And, after all that, when Roy’s balky knees wore down from the pounding of so many minutes, of carrying such a heavy burden for the Blazers, Portland is asking Roy for more. It’s not enough that he sacrificed his starting spot, his playing time, now they want him to sacrifice his career so that Paul Allen can save some luxury tax.

On a rapidly-moving Twitter stream, I expect most of Canzono’s followers didn’t see how sad news about  Roy could unlock a window into James’ mind, how timely the news was in light of James’ achievement. But I’m guessing James would see the connection.

LeBron was blasted my media and fans alike for deserting the Cavaliers, for leaving the hometown team for a better opportunity. James was disloyal, a traitor, the story goes.

But James knew what Roy is now learning. The NBA is about business, about serving one’s personal interest, about looking out for number one.

NBA owners, GM’s, and coaches want a player only as long as he is productive. As soon he can’t make an owner money, or win a coach basketball games, the player is forgotten, dismissed.

Now, I don’t know if the rumor is true or not, but yellow snow usually means a dog peed there. Portland may not ask Roy to retire, but they certainly have thought about it.

Paul Allen is not loyal to Brandon Roy and Dan Gilbert has shown how much he cares about James. Why should the players be held to a higher standard?

On James’ greatest night as a basketball player, it was Roy’s darkest day that showed us why James made the right decision.

Related articles

• VIDEO: Luol Deng Dunks As LeBron James Goes For Block In Pursuit (sbnation.com)
• LeBron James apologizes for “The Decision” (probasketballtalk.nbcsports.com)
• NBA Playoffs: Heat make stunning comeback, reach finals (probasketballtalk.nbcsports.com)
• Video: Watch Brandon Roy’s amazing fourth quarter (probasketballtalk.nbcsports.com)