Now that the Celtics have expressed interest in veteran shooter Michael Finley, Doc Rivers can admit to a bias. The Celtics coach and the former Spur, who is expected to clear waivers tomorrow night, are both products of Chicago’s Proviso East High School.
Via Red's Army
“Every team has some holes, and shooting is something we can’t have enough of,” he said. “You look at some of these other teams, their shooting was ridiculous. We’re looking around. I don’t know if I can even say anything about Michael.
I don’t think a veteran ever hurts. It always helps if it’s the right one.” … Rivers said that Kendrick Perkins, who missed this trip with a case of the flu, is expected to play tomorrow night’s game against Charlotte.
Interesting. It couldn't hurt, but it's nothing to get excited about. Here's Finley's statline for this year: 15.8 mpg, 1.5 rpg (0.3 orpg), 0.8 apg (0.5 TOpg), 3.7 ppg, .381 FG %, .317 3-pt. FG. Not too encouraging, nor attractive, but you have to look at him as a character guy at this point. He was on the '06-07 Spurs team which, as Red's Army mentioned, struggled during the meat of the regular season and ended up being the NBA champions come Spring/Summer.
My thoughts? If he's really that committed to winning a ring, there is absolutely no reason not to welcome him. We need another voice in there to rejuice these guys, and not only to give them energy, but get them angry. We need someone other than Garnett (and Pierce -- though we can't say how Pierce has been doing in terms of the clubhouse) to dig into these guys and fire them up. How do you think proud guys like Rasheed or young guys like Perk and Rondo are going to feel when a guy averaging 3.7 ppg is criticizing them?
