ESPNBoston.com – The Boston Celtics are set to sign free-agent guard Delonte West, president of basketball operations Danny Ainge confirmed to ESPN Boston.

West, selected 24th overall by Boston in the 2004 NBA Draft, spent three seasons with the Celtics before being dealt to Seattle in the draft-day package that brought Ray Allen to Boston (along with the draft rights to Glen Davis).

West didn’t last a season in Seattle before being flipped to Cleveland in a three-way trade. He has spent the last two-plus seasons — seasons marred by off-the-court troubles — with the Cavaliers, saving his finest efforts in the 2008-09 postseason before losing his starting job last season. Cleveland traded West to the Minnesota Timberwolves last month and he was waived soon after.

West is likely to garner the veteran minimum, which for a sixth-year player is little more than $1 million. If it’s a one-year deal, the league will pay a portion of that salary, so Boston will only be on the hook for the salary of a two-year veteran, which is $854,000.

Should he make the opening day roster, West will be ineligible for the first 10 games of the season after being suspended by the league following a guilty plea on weapons charges in the state of Maryland.

This may be the single biggest pick up of the off season for the Celtics. Everyone knows the heat are going to go 81-0 next season, but when they get to the Eastern Conference Finals against the Celtics we’ll have the Trump card. The Celtics, voted the biggest trash talkers in the league according to SI.com, will no doubt remind Lebron every time he has the ball about that time in Cleveland where Delonte was banging out his mom. Then Delonte will just shoot him a wry smile and wink. BAM! Lebron neutralized. There just isn’t any coming back from that. It’s easy to ignore the “I laid yo mama” jokes when it obviously isn’t true. But when you know the guy actually hit your mom, you just need to bow your head in shame and let the man move on. Game, set, match. Celtics win.

White Sox to claim Manny Ramirez – Manny is expected to hit the waiver wire any time now. The Dodgers, like the Red Sox two years ago, are simply fed up with him and want him gone. According to FoxSports, the Chicago White Sox are prepared to claim him and try and work a deal. This was probably the best news that I have heard in a while because you know the Devil Rays would kill to add him to their lineup. And say what you want about Manny, when he is on the field, the dude can hit. If you put him in that Rays lineup they become that much better and you can bet your ass teams will fear him.

I love how Rajon Rondo quit on Team USA – According to WEEI.com, Rondo claimed there were family matters and other things he needed to attend to before the NBA season started. Call me insensitive, but I’m calling bullshit. Rondo was pissed that he wasn’t getting the love that he deserved so he walked out, and I am perfectly OK with that. The kid thinks he is kind of a big deal and demands the respect of a top player in the league. Nothing wrong with that. I guarantee you if he was the starter and not Derrick Rose he would not have quit the team, and you can take that to the bank.

Belichick on Maroney: “I think he’s ready” – Coach Bill talked earlier today about Laurence Maroney and whether or not he was over the case of fumblitis that he contracted last season, and it sounds like he is in pretty good shape. I have been waiting a long time for Maroney to put up an all pro year. In fact, I think I have predicted it for at least the last two, if not three seasons. He is like Alex Gordon (Roayls 3B). Every year I claim he will live up to his lofty potential, and every year he ends up on my fantasy team, and every year he ends up disappointing. Please don’t do me wrong again Laurence. I beg you.

Can we have Lackey pitch every game against the Mariners? Is there a way this can happen? Because he sucks against every other team, even the shitty ones, but for whatever reason dominates the Mariners. Yea, I get that they suck and all, but it’s not just that. The stuff he had in both his starts this year against them has been disgusting. First, he took a no no into the eighth inning out on the left coast earlier this year, and just last night he showed us a fastball that Boston fans haven’t seen since he mowed us down last fall in the playoffs en route to striking out ten over eight innings. Someone needs to play these two tapes on repeat until the guy can figure out his act and pitch like that every game. Please.

Mike Reiss took a look at the Patriots 2008 draft earlier today and the results were not pretty. Two third round picks are no longer with the team (Shawn Crable and Kevin O’Connell) and their second round pick is struggling to make the team (Terrence Wheatley). Good thing they cleaned up in 2009 and 2010 to make up for it.

Anthony Rizzo now has 23 home runs while playing most of the year at AA Portland. For those who don’t know, Rizzo is only 21 years old, and missed a season battling Hodkins Lymphoma. People need to keep an eye on this kid, because he is on the fast track to major league stardom. The Sox are due to produce a home run hitter from their farm system one of these years, maybe he can be the first.

Ryan Kalish can play for me any day – It’s only been four games, but how can you not love the way Ryan Kalish plays the game? The guy is a reincarnation of Trot Nixon (although Trot certainly isn’t dead). He plays the game hard and is above average in every aspect. I’m pretty sure no one in the park realized what was going on after he threw out Shelly Duncan at the plate on Monday night. I mean, a left fielder who can throw? Who’d have thunk. Obviously he isn’t going to hit .500 for the rest of the season, but he really impressed me in his short stint thus far, and I was already pretty high on him to begin with.

The Jeremy Hermida era was short lived – I mentioned last week that Hermida’s days may be limited. I said I would rather have Hermida than Eric Patterson, but unfortunately, Hermida got the axe Saturday. I’m still kind of puzzled by the move. Patterson adds no value to the club. As long as Lowrie is healthy, he will never see the infield, and once Ellsbury comes back, he should never see the outfield again. Long term, I still think Hermida is going to be a decent hitter. It would have been nice to find a way to keep him around for next year.

Grant Balfour hit the DL this week when he strained his oblique wrestling with his pitching coach. You know how I know he’s gay?

Kevin Youklis tore a muscle in his hand swing a bat. Could this injury have happened to anyone other than the Red Sox? I don’t know who sold their soul to who but this team is cursed. There are no ifs, ands, or buts about it. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, the amount of injuries this team has overcome is unfathomable. If they do any damage in the post season it has to go down as one of the best seasons ever, right?

On that note, looks like I need to start being nicer to Mikey Lowell – With Youk down, Lowell is going to see some significant playing time. Either that, or Kevin “I couldn’t drive in a run with the bases loaded in slow pitch softball” Cash will catch and V Mart will play first. Hopefully, it is the former. He started off right Tuesday hitting a two run homer and playing good D at the one bagger, keep it up and maybe I can go a few weeks without ripping.

Where was Jacoby Monday night? – I’m not blaming this on Jacoby as it seems like it was the teams decision, but why would they not activate Ellsbury on a night when Mike Cameron goes on the DL and your team is desperate for help in center field, even if it means doing nothing more than making the routine plays? He had already played five rehab games and showed no ill effects other than a little soreness. At a time where every game is magnified and every loss kills, you have to think, does Jacoby turn a 6-5 loss into a 6-5 win?

I love the Shaq to Boston news – Sure, he only averaged 20 minutes, 12 points, and 6.7 boards per game, but that’s right in line with what Perk would give you. The C’s needed a big man, and if Shaq was willing to come here for the veterans minimum, you’d have to think he is motivated to win a championship. If nothing else he will give you big man minutes that otherwise would have been for some stiff like Scalabrine. Best case scenario he gives you a down low presence on offense and grabs you some boards on D, something they couldn’t do against the Lakers.

Remember when the Rangers wanted Clay Buchholz for Salty? – Ha, those were the days. Instead we get him for a couple of prospects who will never become anything more than fringe major league players at best and a couple hundred thousand dollars (that was strange to say). Salty has been plagued by injuries and a case of the yips throwing the ball back to the pitcher but Red Sox scouts are confident that it is all behind him. He is still only 25 and at a position that usually develops late. After only a couple of games with Pawtucket they are already raving about his play behind the plate. If he can figure it out a little bit with the stick that this could become the deal of the decade for the Sox. And the best part is, we got to keep Clay.

I love the Patriots young defense – Obviously it’s impossible to judge players based on written reports of training camp practices, but the young players on this Patriots team really give you a reason to be optimistic about the future. Just from the past week I have read good things about TE Aaron Hernandez, CB Darius Butler, ILB Brandon Spikes, OLB Jermaine Cunningham, WR’s Brandon Tate and Taylor Price. The first pre-season game is a week from Thursday and it should be even more fun than normally with all the interesting young players on the squad.

I am not worried in the least about Tom Brady not being under contract – Would it be nice if he was locked up for the rest of his life? Sure, but I don’t think Robert Kraft is willing to risk the PR disaster that would be Tom Brady leaving the Patriots organization. Once it is all settled, Kraft is going to have to spend far more than he ever would have wanted to in order to sign Brady, but everyone knows it is for the best. I would advise Kraft to get a deal done sooner rather than later though as it would be advantageous for him to sign Brady before Peyton Manning and the Colts set the new ceiling for quarter back salaries. If this drags into the season I would be surprised. If I had to guess I would say a deal gets done a couple weeks for opening day.

There is a zero percent chance Brett Favre retired – This is nothing more than Favre being a media whore. He has tried to retired elevnty billion times to this point and has never stayed that way. Plus, as Jeff pointed out already, it wouldn’t be right if Favre didn’t come back to somehow screw the Pats. I do think he will miss some time in the regular season as he seems to come back later and later each year, but the dude is set to make $13 million this year. If he doesn’t play 75% of the games, I may be forced to quit this whole blogging thing.

I love that the Celtics open the NBA season against the Heat – Good work with the scheduling NBA. Lebron has opened the season against Boston two years in a row, so why not keep the tradition going? All everyone wants to see is a Heat/Celtics finals next year, so giving the people a sneak peak to open the year is brilliant. And at least now we can safely say, one of these teams won’t go undefeated.

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“I thought it was a great move picking up Jermaine [O'Neal], giving us an inside presence in case Rasheed [Wallace] retires, but sometimes I’m looking at all the players signing and wish we would get on the ball a little bit. I trust in Danny [Ainge] to put a good team around us, but I’m sitting here watching all these good players fall to other teams.”

Ummmm, does Paul Pierce understand the restrictions of the salary cap? He has been in the league for how long? Rather than giving him the benefit of the doubt, I’m going to go ahead and assume he is clueless. So Paul, here is the deal. Even though you and Ray Allen took significant pay cuts, the Celtics were so far over the salary cap that those cuts weren’t enough to bring them under. It helped in terms of the luxury tax, and the teams bottom line, but there is still no room to go out and sign free agents. The only thing they had was the mid level exception and it was just used on O’Neal. At this point all the Celtics can do is re-sign their current players (Nate Robinson), or manufacture a trade using Rasheed’s contract. Otherwise, you, Paul, need to get on the phone and convince some of your boys to come and play for the league minimum.

(Check out this grill)

Hold up, is this the same Adam Morrison that played in 31 games last season and averaged 2.4 PPG and 1.0 RPG?

The same Adam Morrison who hasn’t had a cut and shave since he hit puberty?

The same Adam Morrison who was the butt of this Jimmy Kimmel bit featured here on BSP just last month?

Tell me it aint so. If you have been to this blog more than once you may have noticed that I have two pet peeves: ugly people, and stupid people. Adam Morrison would fall into the ugly people bucket. If you remember last winter, I had a real hard time dealing with the John Lackey signing because the dude is just straight up not good looking. However, he made up for it by having a smokin hot wife from UNH and a stellar track record on the field. Well now that he sucks again, the ugliness is magnified and I am this close to running him out of town myself. With Adam Morrison, it is just nothing but ugly. No skill, no charisma, no track record, nothing.

Danny must have him confused with the other top college scorer from the 2006 draft, J.J. Reddick, because that was a guy that could have helped this team out. Not fucking Morisson.

(Big Papi helps take Sox into break on a high note)

I am really starting to believe that this town can’t survive without me. I don’t know what the deal is, but for whatever reason, whenever I leave, shit hits the fan. And it’s not only in Boston either, all around the sports world things go bonkers when I’m not paying attention. Here’s a recap of what happened since my last post.

Cliff Lee goes to the Rangers, not the Yankees – Not that I’m mad about this, but what were the Rangers doing here? I can understand the Yankees trading away one of the top 10-20 young hitters in the game, among other prospects for Lee because they can easily turn around and sign him for a huge contract. But the Rangers? They just gave up Justin Smoak for two and a half months of Cliff Lee. There is a 0% chance that he resigns there. Even if they get their ownership situation figured out, the Yankees will throw more money at Lee than any other team can, just like they did with A.J. Burnett and C.C. Sabathia. Now, it might be worth it if Lee leads them to a World Series win, but I would rather have Smoak under my control for six, cheap years than renting Cliff Lee.

Tony Allen agrees to deal with the Grizzlies – One of the unsung heroes of the season, and most definitely the playoffs, I thought Tony Allen would be one of the first players the Celtics took care of. Instead, he is leaving town for a multi-year in Memphis. With the amount of money that the Celtics have saved by re-signing Paul and Ray this offseason they must have a plan B, right? Furthermore, being over the salary cap, they cannot sign unrestricted free agents making it that much more important that they brought back their own players. Maybe there are more loopholes that I am missing, but I’ll tell you this, I’ll give 10-1 odds to anyone who thinks Nate Robinson isn’t coming back now. It’s going to be hard enough to fill out this roster as is, no way they let someone who they have Bird rights on leave again.

Adrian Beltre pulls up lame – Last time I went away it was the weekend Buchholz, V-Mart, and Pedroia all went down. This wasn’t nearly as bad as that, but Adrian Beltre did have to be taken out of the game Sunday afternoon with a tight hamstring. All signs are pointing to him being OK, but we were also told that Clay Buchholz wouldn’t miss a start either. Hamstrings are extremely hard to get a good handle on, especially right when they occur. The good news is that we would know by now if it was torn, but just because it isn’t doesn’t mean it can’t linger for a couple weeks.

Paul Konerko, not, Kevin Youklis added to All Star team – You would think Joe Girardi would have been smart enough to figure this out, but I guess I give him too much credit. Justin Morneau had to pullout from the All Star game due to injury and because he was voted in by the fans, Girardi got to choose his replacement. For whatever reason, he decided that Paul Konerko would be the best fit, fine, whatever, it’s all a matter of opinion anyways. But in this case, both were part of the Final Vote on MLB.com and Youklis beat him by a large margin. Keep in mind, this the fans vote. So it only makes sense to have Youklis, who got more votes from the fans, replace Morneau, who was originally vote in by the fans, right?

Jacoby Ellsbury bashes Sox again – The kid just won’t back down. It’s fine if this is what you really think, but what benefit do you get by coming out and continuing to say that the Red Sox fucked up and it’s all their fault that you are out for this long? I have made my feelings on Ellsbury clear already, but there are plenty of people around who still love the kid. Just shut up, get healthy, and get back on the field.

Dice-K pounded the zone and didn’t walk anyone – Dice needs to get a copy of this tape and watch it every night before he goes to bed. He threw 88 pitches over six innings, 62 of which were strikes. He abused the strike zone with his cutter and allowed only two runs, on six hits, and no walks, while striking out five. He worked quickly, and effectively, and the game only lasted 2 hours and 32 minutes. Without doing any research, I can all but guarantee you that is the quickest game he has ever pitched.

In a span of less than twelve hours, Celtics fans went from a mentality of  “oh shit, what the hell are we going to do now,” to “suck it Kobe, you still haven’t beaten us with all five starters in the game.” Why the sudden change of heart? All because of the recent news that Doc Rivers has decided to return to the team next season and coach the final year of his contract. The guy hasn’t seen his kids all his life, why start now, right? That’s what the summer is for and as long as they have Daddy’s credit card I’m sure they will love him all the same.

When people saw this morning that Paul Pierce had opted out of his contract, rumors were swirling that there was a chance he could not be back. I mean why not, theoretically, if Pierce and Allen left, assuming the dominoes fell correctly, the Celtics would have been able to offer a max contract to one of the big name free agents available this summer. Would this have been the best strategy? No. But people say stupid things when they are in a panic, anything really to get their minds off of the real problems in life.

But now that Doc is back, there is a zero percent chance that Pierce walks. You would have to think he felt pretty comfortable about his team being whole come the beginning of next season before he committed like that because frankly, why would he want to come back a coach a rebuilding team for just a year? Any idiot can stand on the sidelines watching his team tank games, I can’t imagine that is any fun for the coach. Doc has already had to endure that once before, no way he would agree to do it again.

What Allen is going to do offers a little more of a mystery. While his defense against Kobe proved to be invaluable, he really stunk it up offensively against the Lakers (sans of course Game 2). It’s hard to decipher though whether that was a product of fatigue from the season, having to be balls to balls on Kobe for seven games, the mental effects of his son’s illness, or maybe his skills all around are just deteriorating. Regardless, the Celtics proved that they could win big games with Allen being a non-factor offensively so this one could come down the the numbers. He would be a perfect compliment to Lebron James opening up the floor wherever he may land so I would not be surprised if some GM does something stupid and throws a four year $70 million deal at him. If this is the case he is likely gone. But if the offers he receives from other teams are more reasonable, I bet the Celtics could come in and snag him for a significant discount to his open market price. Boston offers arguably the best medical care in the world, and that is going to be a key selling point for keeping his family, and his sick son in place.

Celtics fans can rest easy for the rest of the summer because it’s really just a matter of hammering out the details. A summer of uncertainty suddenly becomes clear now that Doc is back. Had he announced his retirement today I would be telling you to run for the hills, but with Doc back, there is no doubt that the core of this team is going to be back as well. So buckle up for one more ride and lets see what this team has left in the tank.

Based on this ESPN.com video and other articles I have read it seems like Jordan Crawford is the name that comes up most often when talking about the Celtics first round pick this Thursday night. The thought process being that there is a good chance that Ray will leave and the Celtics will be left with no shooting guard and no cap space to go out and sign one. However, Crawford does not fix this problem. The kid is a good shooter and can finish at the basket, but he is undersized, does not commit defensively, and has an attitude problem as well as questions about his coachability. The lack of offense for the Celtics, particularly in the fourth quarter of games was more a product of the coaching/game plan (give the ball to Pierce and get out of the way) rather than the talent on the court.

While it would be nice to add a scorer to the bench and have someone to take over when Ray leaves (I think he signs a two year deal) there is a far more pressing need and that is size. If you didn’t notice, the Celtics lost the NBA Finals because they couldn’t rebound for shit. Now Perk has two torn ligaments in his knee and there are rumors swirling of Rasheed retiring. This leaves us with KG and Big Baby as the only big men under contract for 2011.  If we re-sign Nate Robinson and Ray Allen to go along with Baby, KG, Rondo, and Pierce we will have enough offense to get by, but we need a bigger presence under the basket for when we run into teams like LA who have dual seven footers.

This brings us to Solomon Alabi out of Florida St. Alabi measures at 7′1″ and and 237 pounds. For lack of a better term the kid is huge. He is extremely athletic for his size and would add a shot blocking aspect to the Celtics defense that they really don’t have. One of his biggest strengths is his ability to run the floor, something, that combined with Rondo’s play making ability, will make up for his raw offensive game on the post. Despite his size, there is a big red flag when it comes to his rebounding and toughness. Alabi somehow averaged only 6.2 rebounds per game as a sophomore despite his incredible vertical jump and size advantage. This rightfully so is going to scare some teams away making him a perfect fit for the Celtics at 19th overall. While worrisome, I think a year of practicing with the likes of KG, Big Baby, and eventually Kendrick Perkins will toughen the kid up real quick.

While I wish they end up taking someone like Alabi or another big man, whoever the Celtics do take is likely going to come down to who is available (yea, duh, I know). They need youth at pretty much every position, even point guard, just to a lesser extent. This means they aren’t going to reach for someone like Alabi if there is a much better rated point guard or small forward still available. I am usually against drafting for a specific need and always advise to take the best available player, but if there was ever a time to deviate from that strategy, I think this might be one of them.

Who do you want to see the Celtics take?

We may not have won the series, but there is one match up that we definitely won and it wasn’t even close. When all the experts out there break down who was the better non-factor bench player the are obviously going to have to go with Scal. At least he made it into one of the games. Morrison just hung out on the bench pestering the stars and picking his nose. Plus, Morrison was the 3rd overall pick in 2006, I think people were expecting a little more from him at this point of his career. Also, he just looks weird in that suit. At least Scal is freshly cut and clean shaven. So chalk one up for the good guys. It’s the little victories like this that make Game Seven seem further and further away.

P.S. In all honesty, this video made me laugh out loud. I didn’t even realize Morrison was on the Lakers until Game Three or something and even then I was asking what the hell Adam Morrison was doing running onto the court during a time out. Who knew.

Photo via AP

This was one of the worst played, most entertaining, most excruciating loss I have ever been a part of in my short 22 years on this earth. It ranks up there with Aaron “bleeping” Boone in 2003 and the Super Bowl that shall not be named in 2007. Just so hard to sit here afterward knowing how close we were to pissing up wind of everyone in the entire country. No one believed that this team was going to do anything when they finished the last 54 games of the regular season playing .500 basketball. Not going to lie, I thought they would squeak by Miami and get smoked by Cleveland. But all along Doc and the boys walked the straight and narrow saying they would be ready. Well my friends, you were right, and good for you.

Despite how tough of a game it was to lose I have nothing but the utmost respect for these guys. Playing game seven on the road is hard enough, but doing it without Kendrick Perkins, against Kobe Bryant, and in a game where stiffs like Ron Artest score 20 is damn near impossible. Yet not one player gave up. They may have got out rebounded 9273-4, but it wasn’t because of a lack of effort, it’s because the Lakers are just bigger. They fought hard all the way to the end and win or lose it’s hard to be pissed at them. Now we can only hope that Danny Ainge can find a way to keep these guys together for one more year. If they had got knocked out in the second round this year than fine, I could have given them up. But not this way. After watching this entire season, is there any doubt that they can cruise through the regular season and turn on the jets come playoff time for at least one more title run? I want to see it happen, I know everyone in Boston wants to see it happen, so lets get it done Danny. Get to work.

P.S. At least now we don’t have to hear about how no one on the Celtics deserved the MVP if they won it.

P.S.S Anyone else bet the Celtics +8 tonight? Yea, baby!