Celticsstuff Live hosted Jonathan Givony of DraftExpress, and he enlightened the guys on the prospects available in this spring’s NBA Draft, including Greg Oden and Kevin Durant. Givony was yet another excellent guest, but the C’s did their best to upset his draft-themed appearance by putting together their 4th straight win with a Double Overtime battle against Mark “Numb as a pounded thumb” Blount and the Minnesota Timberwolves. The Duke, despite evidence mounting to the contrary, continues to espouse his belief that the C’s will end up with one of the two worst records in the league, but Jug and JB seem think Pierce and Company may be in the process of playing much better basketball down the stretch.

A troika of callers gave their two cents on the goings on in world of green shamrocks, and emailed questions from listeners played a key role in the show yet again. If you wish to be a part of next week’s show feel free to send us an e-mail and we’ll do our best to make sure it is answered or call in yourself and give us your own take.

 3/4/07 - With Jonathan Givony [2:28:43m]: Play Now | Download

Our guest this week was Steve Bulpett of the Boston Herald, who has covered the Celtics continuously for 22 years. We remembered Dennis Johnson and Steve shared some of his favorite memories of DJ. We asked him all the questions submitted by our listeners while the interview extended over an hour thanks to Steve’s own willingness and ability to entertain. He also had some interesting insights on Antoine Walker when asked a question about Al Jefferson and what the Celtics current big man needs to do to start getting some calls going his way in the paint. We talked about what we are all doing as Celtics fans to survive until June. The show went 30 minutes longer than usual so as to make time for listener call ins and we had three great callers once again and are looking forward to next week.

 2/25/07 - With Steve Bulpett: Play Now | Download

Like most fans who follow the Celtics and read sites such as this, I am a bit on the young side and my recollection of events before 1986 are hazy at best or non-existent at worst. Because of that, I am among the worst people to try to put into the prawpah puhspective (Thank you Larry Johnson) the life and career of Dennis Johnson. However, as just a young kid I absorbed everything Celtics in that magical year of Sweet Sixteen and it goes without saying that DJ played a huge role in that.

Being only 28, I don’t remember DJ winning the MVP of the Finals in 1979, nor do I remember him being a great scorer in Phoenix. Instead I recall a player who had long since resurrected his career in Boston (not unlike the mythical bird, the phoenix) and considered as clutch of a performer as one would find. Johnson was a devastating defender who kept Magic Johnson in check on the way to the title in 1984, and transformed his game into being of the game’s great floor generals in 1986 and beyond. (more…)

Thanks to CelticNation.com for this bio:

Drafted by the Seattle SuperSonics (29th overall) in the second round of the 1976 NBA Draft. Member of one NBA World Championship team with Seattle (1979). Named NBA Finals MVP following that series against the Washington Bullets. All-NBA Second Team (1980). Traded to Phoenix Suns on June 4th, 1980, and was named All-NBA First Team (1981) a year later. Traded by the Phoenix Suns with 1983 first and third-round draft choices to the Boston Celtics for Rick Robey and two 1983 second-round draft choices on June 27, 1983. Member of two NBA World Championship teams while with the Boston Celtics (1984 and 1986). All-Defensive First Team (1979-83, 1987). All-Defensive Second Team (1984-86). Five-time NBA All-Star (1979-82, 1985). Praised by Larry Bird as the best player he had ever played with. Retired following the 1989-90 season. His number 3 jersey was retired by the Boston Celtics on December 13, 1991.

There has been little noise on the trading front and even Paul Pierce, who was scornfull of playing for the draft lottery has said that there is little reason to make a trade until the lottery order is known, but today, in Steve Bulpett’s Herald article, it is revealed the team has made calls and is actively pursuing a veteran.
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With many of the pundits giving mid season grades on the Celtics, there seems a recurrent theme as expressed by both Mark Murphy in Today’s Herald:

DOC RIVERS (C) - The coach was off the hook the moment Pierce and Szczerbiak went down. His job became that of a teacher. Judging from the way his youngsters have managed to absorb so much punishment, Rivers has done a good job keeping them hungry. But in a sense this is an incomplete grade, because Rivers was never able to deal from a full deck. His make-or-break season starts next fall.

DANNY AINGE (D) - Rondo was a resourceful pick, but the trade for Telfair - beyond helping to manage salary cap issues and save money for the owners - was a bust for the Celts’ director of basketball operations. True, the deal moved Raef LaFrentz’ huge contract out of town. But Ainge is also responsible for bringing LaFrentz here in the first place, under that same contract. Jiri Welsch is in Spain. Chris Mihm rarely plays for the Lakers. The fact remains that his draft picks have been of high quality, but his trades and free agent signings (he overpaid for Scalabrine and Dan Dickau) have been flawed. The shabbiness of this team’s construction was exposed once the injuries started to pile up. Ainge’s young roster has no depth.

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Celticsstuff Live finally returned to it’s regularly scheduled time with Eric Pincus of Hoopsworld.com, a credentialed writer for the Clippers and Lakers, who gave us the lay of the trade rumored land. It looks like it could be a very quiet 5 days until the trade deadline as teams seem a bit hamstrung by the possible entry of Greg Oden and Kevin Durant into this June’s draft. A key piece of knowledge Eric dropped on us included that the key contract that the Bulls can offer for Garnett or Gasol will expire in July, meaning that if nothing is done by the deadline the Celtics may surpass the Bulls as the leading candidate for Garnett and Gasol. Something to think about…

The CSL guys talked about Peter May’s disparate takes on racking up losses in 2006 and 2007, (I’m not sure how we can keep up with him) and our weekly debate about the future of the point guard position in Boston. Of course the first part of the show was dominated by Gerald Green’s winning performance in the Dunk Contest, which may very well be the highlight of the 2006-2007 Celtics season. My how the mighty have fallen.

 2/18/07 - Post Game Show With Eric Pincus: Play Now | Download

Bruce Allen of FSN’s Nothing But Net blog (and the highly acclaimed Boston Sports Media Watch blog) has YouTube clips of each of Gerald Green’s Dunk Contest winning dunks. I’ve posted my favorite of the four here, but you can find the others at the link below.

FSN’s Nothing But Net

We got this photoshop from CelticKid - a regular listener and contributor to the show. Anyway, we had to post it and give some love to G squared for tonight’s dunk contest. I can’t wait to see what he tries to pull off. I’m willing to bet that Danny gets a number of calls between tonight and trade deadline for the young athletic freak as a result of his showing tonight.

Paul Pierce guaranteed a win and then helped guide the Celtics to their first win in 19 games defeating the injury plagued Milwaukee Bucks 117-97. Gerald Green played a big part in erasing an early double digit deficit by going 6-7 from the field for 16 points in the first half. Jughead and The Duke host this jubilant podcap celebrating the end of the Celtics losing streak and discuss what it all means for the remaining 31 games of the season.

 Celtics - Bucks Podcap: Play Now | Download