Chris Paul isn’t just reportedly demanding a trade to New York (a report he and two league sources denied, for what it’s worth). He’s also reportedly reaching out to Dwight Howard in hopes that he and Howard can team together.

Would you like anything else, Chris? A rocket ship, perhaps? A date with Jessica Biel and Megan Fox, both at the same time? A parakeet that can fetch your coffee in the morning? (Yahoo! Sports)

Paul has reached out to Orlando Magic center Dwight Howard recently, encouraging Howard to find a way for the two to play together, sources told Yahoo! Sports. That would be a difficult scenario for the Knicks to make happen. Paul’s desire to join the Knicks was cemented after he spent so much time in New York over the summer with close friend Carmelo Anthony.

If Paul were to opt out of the final year of his contract and become a free agent after this season, he could sign a maximum four-year, $74 million deal with another team. The Knicks currently would have enough salary-cap room to offer him a four-year, $55.5 million contract with a starting salary of $13 million.

I’ve said it before and I’m saying it again. Ainge is planning his second coup of the past five years. He wants to reload on the fly, and he’s shooting to add both Chris Paul and Dwight Howard to the Boston lineup.

If Paul wants to play in New York and only New York, the Celtics are (obviously) screwed. But if he’s also open to teaming with Dwight Howard somewhere, there are two teams I immediately think of with the assets, management, financial flexibility and major market to entice the tandem: Boston and Los Angeles.

It’s still a pipe dream. A ridiculous, why-even-bother-thinking-about-it improbability. But Ainge has done it before.

Today, in two consecutive tweets, Orlando Magic player rep Chris Duhon explained what fans (and David Stern) hope will come from this week.

His first tweet mentioned that the Magic will support the new proposal. His second tweet noted, quite succinctly, “this deal sucks.”

As fans, we know the players are getting screwed with this proposal (as much as the NBA pretends otherwise). We just hope they decide to accept a bad deal anyway, for two reasons:

1) We’d really love to see NBA hoops this season.

And

2) If the players don’t accept the current proposal, um, does anyone have a reasonable plan to encourage a better proposal? (Silence. Yeah, didn’t think so.)

If NBA players vote to accept the latest collective bargaining proposal, I doubt many fans will shout, “But the owners are such bullies! Take it back, players! Extend this NBA lockout until you can get a fair deal!” Fans will be too busy rejoicing the (finally) approaching NBA schedule.

I realize that it’s harsh to root for players to accept a bum deal. They should have principles, they should stand up for themselves, they shouldn’t let owners shove them around, et cetera, et cetera. I agree. But at the same time, as a fan, I just want basketball.

Butting heads?

Sometime during Doc Rivers’ Orlando Magic days, asserts Peter Vecsey, he attempted to ruin his own player’s good name.

Darrell Armstrong had always been a fan favorite in Orlando, partially because he played hard; partially because he earned NBA success after playing only three seasons of organized basketball prior to professional basketball (one high school season and two seasons at Division II Fayeteville St.); partially because he was no bigger than many of his fan; and partially because he was one of Orlando’s bright spots in the post-Shaq, pre-Dwight era. As recently as 2009, the Orlando Magic blog “Orlando Pinstriped Post” conducted a poll examining whether the Magic should retire Armstrong’s jersey — 63% of readers responded yes.

Keep in mind, this was Darrell Armstrong. He averaged double digit points only five times in his entire career, averaged more than four assists only five times in his entire career, never made an All-Star team or came close, and is probably best known for making a layup in the NBA’s slam dunk contest. Sure, every Magic team Armstrong played for (he played for nine of them) won at least 50% of its games. Yeah, Armstrong’s the only player in NBA history to win Sixth Man of the Year and Most Improved Player in the same season. But he was a lot more Dana Barros than Chris Paul. Clearly, Orlando fans held (and still hold) an (unreasonable?) degree of love for Armstrong.

But Armstrong caused problems for Rivers, says Vecsey, and thus Rivers tried to stain Armstrong’s legacy — it would be easier to dump him that way, as the story goes.

I remember Doc Rivers, celebrated as a player’s coach by the unenlightened or those supplied by info, once pulled me aside in Orlando after a game. He told me Darrell Armstrong supposedly had said stuff during halftime intermission that contradicted people’s perception he was an ideal team leader.

The scheme was to use me to expose the Magic guard and thus make it easier to dump Armstrong, which transpired in due course . . . without my collaboration.

Keep in mind (and this is not to paint Vecsey in an unworthy light, just to explain the situation to those who may not be familiar with Vecsey), Vecsey’s reputation is not exactly stellar. In a Deadspin column detailing Vecsey’s writing style, Will Leitch wrote, “Forgive the analogy, but it occurred to us that a Peter Vecsey column is a lot like going hunting with Dick Cheney. If you’re loud and obnoxious enough to scare the little critters out of hiding and keep loudly blasting away, you’re bound to hit something eventually. And those innocent people who get in the way and take a little bird shot to the face? Collateral damage.”

By all indications, Rivers has been nothing short of a player’s coach since he came to Boston. Maybe thinking that makes me “unenlightened” or “supplied by info,” but enough evidence suggests that 1) players like Rivers, 2) players like playing for Rivers, and 3) the previous two points come as a result of Rivers treating his players well. The most concerning locker room tale I can think of since Rivers joined the Celtics was the Delonte West-Von Wafer fight. And the Celtics definitely did not leak that tale, actually attempting to quiet the press by treating it like a non-story.

Only one rumor (or truth) I can think of might have been leaked by Boston’s front office: Rajon Rondo being late for a playoff game, back in 2009. At least one prominent Boston writer, Charles Pierce (who writes for the Globe’s Sunday magazine) has suggested that the front office might have leaked that rumor. The front office could have been bracing the Celtics fan base in case the team did not resign Rondo to a contract extension, and Rondo’s name was reportedly floated around in trade rumors during the ’09 offseason. Of course, the Celtics did sign Rondo to an extension — just not before Ainge publicly exposed some of Rondo’s faults, perhaps driving down Rondo’s price while simultaneously preparing Boston for potentially losing Rondo in the process. (Goodness, that was some accidental alliteration.)

I’m not saying the Celtics necessarily had ulterior motives for discussing Rondo’s faults. But it does seem like an odd time for the team to finally discuss his poor punctuality and stubborn nature, no? Yet Rondo did not take offense when Ainge aired his immaturity for all to hear. Instead, he took responsibility, signed his contract extension and changed his attitude. Rondo and Rivers now, by all accounts, have a strong relationship.

What I’m trying to say is this: Could the Darrell Armstrong incident have occurred? Yes, it could have. But I, for one, will continue to admire Rivers as a player’s coach, whether or not that makes me “unenlightened” in Peter Vecsey’s opinion.

Rajon Rondo dribbled baseline, and passing didn’t even register as a thought in his mind. Dwight Howard awaited him in the paint, and Rondo would normally look to find an open shooter on the perimeter. But this wasn’t “pass-first, pass-only” Rondo. This was “Jack the Ripper” Rondo, a cold-blooded, aggressive point guard with murderous eyes and an indomitable will to end human lives. Rondo rose to dunk, rather than passing. And though the Magic fouled Rondo and knocked him on his ass, Jack the Ripper bounced right back to his feet. The message was sent. The Magic weren’t stopping Rondo. Not on this day.

The Celtics fell behind early, and Dwight Howard was playing in video game god mode. Lefty hooks, spin moves both ways, crowd-silencing alley oops; Howard had his entire offensive repertoire on display, and the Celtics couldn’t stop him. (Wait — he has an offensive repertoire?) But the Celtics kept doing what they do. They single-teamed Howard all night, allowing them to close out on shooters (Orlando shot 3-24 from the arc) and limit everything non-Howard.

The Celtics also used a brute physicality. Every time Howard rose for a shot, he was bumped. Every time Hedo Turkoglu came around a screen, he was bumped. Every time Ryan Anderson received the ball down low, he was bumped. Jameer Nelson recently talked about how the Celtics wanted to “bully” the Magic when the two teams played. And that’s what they did today.

The win would feel a lot better, of course, were it not for Marquis Daniels’ neck injury. Daniels went down hard, as if knocked out cold, after hitting his head against Gilbert Arenas’ shoulder. He lay on the ground motionless for a minute or two, while the TD Garden crowd held its collective breath. A stretcher arrived to lift a still-motionless Daniels off the court, as the Celtics kneeled in support around their felled teammate. On his way off the court, Daniels lifted his thumb into the air, and the crowd sighed with deep relief. He was taken to a local hospital, where he was able to move all extremities. Keep him in your prayers.

Orlando GM Otis Smith called the Boston Celtics fake tough guys, and I responded on CelticsBlog.

If Otis Smith thinks toughness should be measured by “number of opponents knocked out,” well, then I guess he has a point. If that’s the only measurement, the Celtics aren’t very tough, because they don’t often throw haymakers at their opponents. (Although Nate Robinson once bodyslammed the bejesus out of J.R. Smith, though I digress.) But fights are not what toughness in basketball is all about, and it bothers me when people think they are.

I say a lot more about why the Celtics shouldn’t be considered fake tough, and I even quote Jay Bilas. So check it out, if you want to read some pro-Celtics propaganda today.

I liked Glen Davis’ contributions last night. Loved them, even. Getting away from his “take the first open shot regardless of when it comes” mentality, Davis returned to efficient offense. 15 points on ten shots, two blocks, and — even if his rebounding work was (as usual) few and far between — I’ll subscribe to what Davis offered last night.

One of Davis’ first plays revealed the more mature mentality he displayed last night. He caught the ball underneath the hoop, and it would have been easy to force a tough, contested shot in the paint. The Davis we’ve seen for the last few weeks probably would have done just that. But instead he dished to a teammate. When Davis gives up the ball, just like Doc Rivers had said after the Charlotte game, he usually gets it back in better scoring position. He sprinted to the corner, and Rondo (or at least I think it was Rondo) found Davis open. Davis stepped into an in-rhythm jumper, and scored two points. Give it up to get it back.

But as much as I appreciated his play, Davis should shut his mouth when the subject is Dwight Howard. What follows is the transcript of a conversation Davis had with Bill Doyle from the Worcester Telegram. (Boston Globe)

GD: “Make [Howard] shoot over the top, put my body into him, contest. Just make him a finesse player.”

Reporter: “Is that the biggest challenge for you to guard anybody out of anybody around?”

GD: “No.”

Reporter: “He’s one of the best around. He’s like the top center in the league.”

GD: “He is? Oh. He’s a great player, you know, but he’s not the hardest to guard. I think it’s easy to guard him.”

Reporter: “Really? How so?”

GD: “Because he doesn’t — you know, he’s a finesse guy. It would be different if you didn’t know which way he was going. But if he’s just going one way or making one move, you know, it’s hard to power over big dudes who are just as strong as him.”

Rule number one: Stop your opponent from scoring 33 points. Rule number two: If you fail to stop an opponent from scoring 33 points, don’t talk shit about said opponent after the game. Even if the aforementioned opponent failed to score during the final 5:22 seconds of game time, or — in other words — from the time Davis re-entered the game during the fourth quarter.

Is Dwight Howard less difficult to defend as someone like Andrew Bogut? Maybe. Perk has called Bogut the toughest cover in the league, and Milwaukee’s Aussie certainly has more intriguing post moves than Howard. But even if you think that, Glen, just keep your mouth shut. Howard just scored 33 points against your team, Glen, as well as 13 rebounds. To give you a frame of reference, Glen, both those totals would be your career highs. Yes, your career highs.

To recap, Dwight Howard just produced what would have been (by far) the best game of Glen Davis’ career, and a fair share of those points and rebounds came against Davis himself. After the game, despite Howard’s individual brilliance, Davis said, “He’s not the hardest to guard. I think it’s easy to guard him.”

Anyone else confused?