<div class="quote_poster">Quoting MrJ:</div><div class="quote_post">I think Marcus Williams, possibly Brandon Roy, and maybe Rudy Gay are better players. While I agree this draft is below average, the move is risky considering Telfair hasn't stepped up like Everyone thought he would. Boston should have tried to take one of their later picks.</div>Brandon Roy and Rudy Gay are not needed in Boston. It was clear that we wanted a point guard, so we were limited to Williams. As for Telfair not stepping up, that's a weird thing to say when it was an injury that slowed him down last year. And how can both of you say that they are better when they havent stepped foot on a NBA court?
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting 44Thrilla:</div><div class="quote_post">Brandon Roy and Rudy Gay are not needed in Boston. It was clear that we wanted a point guard, so we were limited to Williams. As for Telfair not stepping up, that's a weird thing to say when it was an injury that slowed him down last year. And how can both of you say that they are better when they havent stepped foot on a NBA court?</div> Roy isn't a point guard, but his versatility allows him to play a good amount of minutes there on the NBA level. I was more concerned with Telfair's decision making more than anything. Still, I think Williams is the better prospect having gone to college for three years and playing at an elite program in Connecticut. 8.6 assists per game from a NCAA point guard doesn't come too often. Even if they haven't played an NBA game yet, players like them tend to pretty successful in the NBA. Roy has more tools to use and Williams, as I said, is more polished and gained valuable experience in college. But I see your point though. With the Celtics ridding themselves of LaFrentz's contract, the deal evens itself out somewhat. I thought the deal was straight up at first.
Do we really need a PG? I think we needed a Center more, and Ratliffe is a vet, and better defensively than Raef. I'm more excited about Ratliffe thn Telfair--I think the starting line next year is: PG: West SG: Pierce SF: Wally PF: Gomes or Big Al C: Ratliffe with Perk logging significant minutes.
It comes down to who would you rather have, Randy Foye or Sebastian Telfair. Telfair seems like he could become a good player, I don't really mind this trade to much. I just hope we don't see one of the top six fall to the number seven pick. Portland is in nice position here, drafting at #4 and #7.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting MrJ:</div><div class="quote_post">Roy isn't a point guard, but his versatility allows him to play a good amount of minutes there on the NBA level. I was more concerned with Telfair's decision making more than anything. Still, I think Williams is the better prospect having gone to college for three years and playing at an elite program in Connecticut. 8.6 assists per game from a NCAA point guard doesn't come too often. Even if they haven't played an NBA game yet, players like them tend to pretty successful in the NBA. Roy has more tools to use and Williams, as I said, is more polished and gained valuable experience in college. </div>I totally agree with you about Roy, but why would we draft him with Pierce, Allen, Green, Wally, and West on our roster? Aren't we better off getting a player who plays a position that we actually have a need at? As for Williams, we worked him out multiple times and simply weren't impressed with him. I think Telfair is better right now, and that's without the benefit of college. I don't understand how much people have soured on Telfair. He was touted as the future in Portland, and one injury later, everybody gave up on him. His decision making may be questionable right now, but so will the decision making of every point guard in this draft for the first couple years. Young players make mistakes, you have to live with them. You have to put those aside when you judge young talent. Basically, in my opinion...
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting 44Thrilla:</div><div class="quote_post">I totally agree with you about Roy, but why would we draft him with Pierce, Allen, Green, Wally, and West on our roster? Aren't we better off getting a player who plays a position that we actually have a need at?</div> Gotcha, but I think Roy could still be valuale despite the glut being able to fill in at positions 1-3. <div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">As for Williams, we worked him out multiple times and simply weren't impressed with him. I think Telfair is better right now, and that's without the benefit of college. I don't understand how much people have soured on Telfair. He was touted as the future in Portland, and one injury later, everybody gave up on him. His decision making may be questionable right now, but so will the decision making of every point guard in this draft for the first couple years. Young players make mistakes, you have to live with them. You have to put those aside when you judge young talent.</div> You're right about Telfair, but I think it says something about Telfair if the Blazers are willing to give up on him after two years. But no, this move isn't terrible at all. We'll just have to see what happens.
Well the one reporter during this draft coverage stated that the Telfair deal had no relation with the Iverson rumors...
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting H.ayes:</div><div class="quote_post">THEO RATLIFF!!!!!!!!!! YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSs.</div> There's a Blazer e-card for every occasion.
Here's an email about Telfair that Bill Simmons shared with the people at Celticsblog. Reading it makes me even more excited to have him on the Celtics. <div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post"> Hey everyone... Thought you guys would enjoy this email I received from a reader about Telfair yesterday... it definitely got me a little more excited for the Telfair Era. --Simmons ************* subj = Sports Guy mail comment = I coach Varsity Basketball in New York State. This does not qualify me as a super NBA scout, but I do have a pretty good knowledge of basketball. I just wanted to share with you a few incidents regarding Sebastian Telfair that most people probably have never heard about. Every year the New York City champions travel to Upstate New York and play for the Federation title at the Glens Falls Civic Center. Three years in a row Sebastian Telfair led his team to New York City Public School titles. This is something that has never happened before and likely never will again. He also won a Federation title as a junior and then lost as a senior in his last high school game vs Mount Vernon, a team featuring five division one players. Three different occurances at the Federation Tourney sum up what type of kid Sebastian Telfair is and how different he is from 99% of the McDonald's All american types we see nowadays. A) In his Junior year Telfair led his team to the Federation title and was awarded the MVP trophy during the ceremonies. This is the biggest honor you can receive in New York basketball other than the Mr. Basketball award (Which he won his senior year). However in the championship game the hero in overtime had been his teammate Antonio Pena. After Telfair was handed the MVP trophy, he walked over to Pena, gave him a hug, and then presented him with the MVP trophy, which to this day Pena still has. The place erupted in applause. As a Senior Telfair was absolutely mobbed with young autograph seekers(two of them my children) on the floor of the Civic Center after a semifinal win. I would estimate there were about 50 young kids all hoping for an autograph. It was after 9PM and these were all young kids needing to get home soon. MSG network approaches Telfair just as he had begun to sign autographs. They request he begin a interview which would be seen on the network that night. Now the scene was what interested me. You had a 17 year old being asked to go on TV and have himself shown to a huge audience, while he pondered turning away or delaying signing for 50 kids. Telfair took the gentleman from MSG aside and told him that he would love to do the interview, but ONLY after every child who wanted to get an autograph had received one. He then proceeded for a good twenty minutes to sign every single autograph. And I don’t mean just a quick signature. This kid looks the children in the eye, asks them how old they are, if they are doing well in school, do they listen to their parents, who is their favorite player, etc? I was stunned. NO ONE does this at age 17, NO ONE. C) In his final game ever in High school Mount Vernon High school badly outplays Lincoln and Telfair loses his chance at repeating as Federation Champions. The next day he will fly to the McDonalds All american game. He already seems a lock to go to the NBA draft and is close to signing a million dollar sneaker contract. He already has won three straight city titles, was named NY state Mr. Basketball, set the Alltime New York state scoring record and is on the cover of Sports Illustrated. I would think that most kids in this situation would be disapointed they lost, but more than ready to move on to all these other great things. Not Telfair. He was absolutely inconsolable after the game. Devastated, in tears he clearly could not stand the fact that his team had lost. All he cared about was winning. All he does care about is winning. People knock kids who cry after losing. I remember Bird after losing to Magic in the 79 finals sobbing into a towel. I love kids who cry after a loss, because it tells you where their priorities lie. With Telfair, Bird and probably the Morrison kid everyone is laughing at. At least with these kids you know winning is number one on their list. If Sebastian Telfair does not make it big in the NBA, It will not be due to a lack of heart, smarts, class, court vision or love for the game. I am quite sure if he had gone to Louisville for two years and was in this draft, there is a great chance he would have been picked by Toronto at number one, they badly wanted a point guard. At the absolute worst he would have been a top five pick. I have to laugh when people like Jay Bilas and Dick Vitale are saying Marcus Williams or Randy Foye are better. I would bet anything, if Sebastian was leading either UCONN or Villanova this past year, they wouldn't have been teams that missed the final four. And I seriously doubt either Marcus Williams or Randy Foye would have won three straight New York city titles like Telfair did. He is a winner like no one else who has ever come out of New York City. He led them to three straight city titles when numerous alltime greats have failed to do so. Alcindor, Hawkins, Erving, Anderson, Mullin, Mashburn, etc, have all tried, and no one ever did it. This is the first pure point guard in Boston since Sherman Douglass. But he is much more talented than Sherman ever was. I have been watching New York City point guards for the past 25 years. Kenny Smith, Kenny Anderson, Derrick Phelps, Rod Strickland, King Rice, Adrian Autry, Pearl Washington and several others. Not one of these kids was close to Telfair as far a pure god given court vision and awareness. Not even close. This is a case of a kid who was forced financially to come out early. He then goes to the WORST team he could have possibly gone to and far away from home no less. He is just 18 years old and still shows several early flashes for a young kid with no one to dish to. His role models/go to guys on that team are Zach Randolph and Darius Miles? If he had gone to college for two years, which he couldn’t afford to do financially, it would be obvious how good he is. I don’t think anyone in Boston has any idea what is about to happen. Basketball is about to be fun again. Get ready for an array of thread the needle passes, penetration and winning plays. An absolute non stop motor from end to end. The losing ends now. He is special. Ask Lebron James what he thinks of this kid. Ask Shawn Livingston or Dwight Howard. They all know how good he is. It is just a matter of this year or next, it is about to happen. How the Celtics finally had something good happen is beyond my comprehension. But NBA ticket will now have to be purchased in my household. The Celtics are about to be back in a big (or 5' 11") way and I actually want to see it. **END** </div>
<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">If he had gone to college for two years, which he couldn’t afford to do financially, it would be obvious how good he is.</div> OR Going to Louisville could have exposed all of Telfair's weaknesses and he would wind up like Darius Washington (ranked #2 Point Guard from Telfair's high school class), <u>undrafted</u>.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting shapecity:</div><div class="quote_post">OR Going to Louisville could have exposed all of Telfair's weaknesses and he would wind up like Darius Washington (ranked #2 Point Guard from Telfair's high school class), <u>undrafted</u>.</div>Did he cut you off in traffic or something? At least explain your vendetta against him.
Wow, I just thought of something. When Telfair had committed to Louisville, Rondo had also committed, so once Telfair signed on the dotted line, Rondo decided to backout of his committment because Telfair was the favorite to get the starting point guard job. So Rondo moved onto Kentucky and Telfiar ulitmately decided to go NBA. Then poor Pitino ended up with no point guard. But anyways, it looks like it's deja vu all over again for Rondo.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting 44Thrilla:</div><div class="quote_post">Did he cut you off in traffic or something? At least explain your vendetta against him.</div> I don't have a vendetta, I'm just playing the Devil's Advocate. The article written seems far too optimistic on how Telfair's career is going to turnaround. Sebastian Telfair won't be able to dominate games in the NBA like he did in high school. He's too short and not strong enough to get into the paint, get hit, and still get a shot off. Being short hurts his court vision, he gets by his defender with an explosive first step, but once the defense collapses on him Telfair usually coughs up the ball or takes a low percentage shot. On defense he's going to be a liability. He can't defend in the post, and he doesn't bother player's on their shots because of his height. Most guards can easily raise up on him and shoot jumpers right over the top. The only way I see Telfair having a chance is if he can develop a jumpshot off the dribble and if Boston can get a lowpost scorer. Maybe he can develop a style similar to Tony Parker, but with better passing abilities. Right now Tony Parker's style works because of Tim Duncan's presence in the post. Defenders usually don't leave Duncan to rotate over and stop Parker, so it leads to wide open layups. Parker also improved his range so defenders couldn't cheat off him and just dare him to take jumpshots anymore.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting shapecity:</div><div class="quote_post">I don't have a vendetta, I'm just playing the Devil's Advocate. The article written seems far too optimistic on how Telfair's career is going to turnaround. Sebastian Telfair won't be able to dominate games in the NBA like he did in high school. He's too short and not strong enough to get into the paint, get hit, and still get a shot off. Being short hurts his court vision, he gets by his defender with an explosive first step, but once the defense collapses on him Telfair usually coughs up the ball or takes a low percentage shot. On defense he's going to be a liability. He can't defend in the post, and he doesn't bother player's on their shots because of his height. Most guards can easily raise up on him and shoot jumpers right over the top. The only way I see Telfair having a chance is if he can develop a jumpshot off the dribble and if Boston can get a lowpost scorer. Maybe he can develop a style similar to Tony Parker, but with better passing abilities. Right now Tony Parker's style works because of Tim Duncan's presence in the post. Defenders usually don't leave Duncan to rotate over and stop Parker, so it leads to wide open layups. Parker also improved his range so defenders couldn't cheat off him and just dare him to take jumpshots anymore.</div>That's cool. But as far as I can remember, he's the first point guard ever drafted out of high school. So I think you need to give him more time to develop. His height will hold him back on D, but in time, he'll learn to use his quickness to make up for that. Everything else, including a better jump shot, is on the way too. Nobody is saying he's the next Magic Johnson, just that he's better than any point guard in this draft.
Id be lying if I said that letter didnt get me kind of ecxited, even if it is a bit too good to be true. I kinda hope we dont trade him away now, but if its for AI? well just have to see. at any rate the celtics now have a certifiied ass-load of talent on the team. Im kind of glad its not my job to decide who I think is gonna be the ones we need to keep around for the long haul.
Telfair has to be involved in a package to Philly. The Celtics wanted to get a good veteran to help out the team, Telfair isn't exactly that. Sixer's GM King recently stated in an interview on nba.com that he was really looking for another athletic swingman, I would think Telfair could fit that mold.
Telfair is not an athletic swingman. Pierce, Tony Allen, Green, and Delonte West could be considered posibly as athletic swingmen. Telfair is a quick point guard who looks to score a lot, not a superior athlete in any area but quickness, and he doesn't have half as much of that as Iverson.
