Ray Allen gets cortisone shot, should return Wednesday against Spurs and would start
Ray Allen participated fully in Tuesday’s practice, which (I believe) was the team’s first session in more than a month and is likely to be the last practice of the regular season. Barring any setback in the next 20-some odd hours, he should return to the Celtics lineup on Wednesday against the Spurs.
Doc Rivers said Allen will start, which kills any “START AVERY BRADLEY — THE CELTICS ARE 5-0 WITH BRADLEY AS STARTING SHOOTING GUARD, GODDAMNIT!” momentum that has grown in the past two weeks.
Still, Rich Levine considered an aspect of the “who to start?” debate that has nothing to do with Boston’s current chances of winning as many games as possible: The future.
And on that level, there’s absolutely no question as to which is the right decision.
Listen, there are many people out there, myself being one of them, who believe that Danny Ainge whiffed at a chance to trade Ray at the deadline. That, as sorry as we all would have been to see him go, the move was to trade Allen for whatever you could have gotten — whether it be a draft pick or a younger body — and stockpile for the future. You know how Danny does it, it’s all about collecting chips. And this was a chance for him to grab one. A chance to head into this offseason with a whole bunch of cap room and possibly three first round picks! But he balked at the chance, and opted for one last futile run with his Big 3. He sacrificed a little piece of future to keep peace in the present. And other than for nostalgia — which definitely counts for something — it didn’t make sense.
Even more now that Bradley’s clearly capable of stepping in — and only getting better.
And looking ahead, I think that’s one of the biggest questions facing this franchise:
How good is Avery Bradley?
Now that his game has clicked, and it’s clear he’s not the next Gerald Green, where does it end? Is there something to this Rondo/Bradley backcourt? Is this the runningmate Rondo’s been waiting for? The first major piece of his Celtics puzzle?
If you told me at the beginning of the season that Avery Bradley would set himself apart as a key piece of Boston’s future, I would have poured out some liquor in honor of the soon-deceased Celtics franchise. But all of a sudden, the future Bradley-Rondo back court provides a glimmer of light at the end of the Big Three’s tunnel.
It’s unclear what path the Celtics will take following this season, but I’m now legitimately excited to watch Bradley begin nurturing his game and harnessing his potential. I’m not quite sure what his ceiling is — can he become a solid full-time starter? Better? Will his lack of true shooting guard height and/or point guard skills relegate him to Sixth Man duty for most of his career? Will he make All-Defensive teams? Will his offensive game ever become refined? Somewhere underneath that 20.8 percent three-point shooting and 9.56 PER is a jump shot that doesn’t look awful, but can Bradley ever improve it and become an offensive force who can do more than cut backdoor?
The answers to those questions will come in time, but for now, the fact that we can even ask them points to how much Bradley has proved during this lockout season. It will be nice to have Ray Allen back, but a legitimate case can be made that Bradley deserves his starting spot.
P.S. — It’s bad news 100 percent of the time when your 36-year old shooting guard with a history of balky ankles needs a cortisone shot in one of his ankles, even if the shot helped Allen feel better on Tuesday. (Green Street)
“I never liked taking shots or taking medicine. I tried to do everything as natually as I can. Sometimes your body needs a kick in the right direction. Physically, the time off was good. My ankle was kind of pissed off. I kind of gave it a little help and time off was good but getting that joint lubricated [was] more than it was otherwise.”
“I felt good to be out on the floor,” Allen said. “My legs felt great today. I had a shot in the ankle on game day the other day and had all day [Monday] for it to manuver through my body and coming into today, I felt like I had two new wheels.”
“Oh yeah, going through shootaround and kind of favoring it, holding it, feeling different feelings and wincing, I didn’t feel that at all today,” Allen said.
Related posts:
- Ray Allen on flight to Minnesota, which means he’s close to return
- West could return Sunday, Wednesday
- Report: Shaq receives cortisone shot, back in walking boot
- Doc Rivers says he doesn’t know whether Avery Bradley will start when Ray Allen returns
- Morning Walkthrough: Pierce, Allen now shot makers, not shot creators
Celtics Blog | Jay King | April 3, 2012
Cortisone is just a way to speed the bodies healing process. It’s not an issue, unless the body still doesn’t respond (Shaq last year) which then you’re dealing with a much more serious problem.
But the simple fact that he needed one, at his age, doesn’t surprise me, his body isn’t going to heal like it used to, and just needed a little help. Doesn’t mean it will necessarily become chronic.
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Doc’s stupid if he doesn’t ever try RA coming off the bench as the Sixth Man which RA is perfect for. You want instant offense and someone that can score consistently and RA is that guy. So now we’re going back to stand-round offense where RA runs around and looks for picks instead of the free-flowing offense that AB gives as he does not need those picks and everyone is free to cut to the basket area. Ergo, our offense will stagnate and I bet you all we will not be as efficient as we have been the last games with AB starting. Again, just another reason Doc isn’t a great coach and never will be. He has no cojones! Nor creativity. It has to be forced upon him by injuries and then when it works he bails on it as soon as the injured guy is back. Ugh! Go Cs…
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James, you are right.
I can’t freaking believe my computer didn’t just explode.
Doc is once again pandering to the veterans, it seems, as he did when Paul Pierce apparently freaked out because he wasn’t getting a big enough chunk of the offense because of Rondo shooting. Doc pandering to Pierce worked out because of two things. One, Rondo adapted, as he will adapt to this. He started shooting only enough to establish himself as a threat, and when the team really needed a spark, and otherwise stopped shooting. That calmed Pierce down. Now Pierce knew he was going to get his shots, and he felt good about that, and he functioned better.
Secondly, Ray went out with his injury, and the Celtics suddenly discovered that with Pierce and Rondo, they could run one helluva offense built around playing improvisationally off screens and picks, and attacking the lane and kicking back out, etc., with Rondo and Pierce taking turns handling the ball, but mostly Rondo taking charge. Notice how Rondo is firmly in charge with Ray gone? How he paces the offense much better, and constantly probes against the defense, looking for weaknesses? That’s because he’s not constantly waiting on Allen running his patterns, constantly trying to keep four shooters happy at all times, with no one but Garnett ever cutting to the basket.
Rondo and Bradley have a lot of energy and chemistry with each other. With Bradley in there, the Cs offense opens up, and the defense is much better. The Celtics have been starting halves with strong punches.
It’s not disgrace to Allen to suggest that he might give us the sixth man we’ve been wanting for a long time. We’ve been NEEDING a real scorer off the bench.
Ole Doc. Good ole Doc.
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I want to make it clear, though, counter to Levin, that I think the idea of trading Allen is sheer idiocy. Allen is not only still a superb player, but being loyal is a CRUCIAL ingredient to building a team, and so are great veterans. That, THAT is the Celtics way, for all you young ones who have no effing clue. Your whole Blow It Up philosophy is based on fantasy sports. It’s a virtual philosophy. And until life actually does fully take place inside a computer, virtual reality is still not reality, and virtual philosophy is still not philosophy. As long as sports still involves actual human beings, loyalty still means something. I’d say it means a lot, especially for the Celtics.
We should very badly want Allen back next year, regardless of whether he starts or comes off the bench. And Garnett too, of course.
By the way, notice how Garnett is already beginning to make the transition, while training up the young bigs. That guys is freaking priceless.
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Absolutely, no reason to trade RA and that’s why it did not happen. Our bench should have RA next year and KG the year after that and will be the best bench in the league for the next 3 years minimum. This team is potentially scary going forward as with the Core 4 still intact the Cs should get some FA attention as who wouldn’t want to go for a few title runs with RA and KG coming off the bench? We reload the starters with some young studs/rebounders and a center and we’re good through 2015 and beyond as then PP could be bench worthy. go Cs…
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James, you and I are definitely on the same page. Avery should be here for some time. Give him some run and bring RA off the bench. If RA wants too much to stick around or doesn’t want to come off the bench, Avery will have that much more experience.
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I don’t think RA would have any problem coming off the bench or taking a pay cut (KG, too) to help the team. He has at least 3 more good years based on his being in such tremendous shape. And, of course, the will to compete and win with these guys. Go Cs…
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