Posted By Lynn Worthy, Sun Staff
Here is the quick and dirty on the two players selected by the Celtics in the second round of last night's NBA Draft, Gabe Pruitt and Glen Davis.
Pruitt, a guard, was selected 32nd overall and Davis, a power forward, was picked 35th by the Seattle Supersonics and traded to Boston as part of the deal that sent Wally Szczerbiak, Delonte West, and Jeff Green (the fifth pick) to Seattle.
Full Name: Gabriel Michael Pruitt
Position: Guard
Height/Weight: 6-4 / 170
Birthdate: April 19, 1986 (Los Angeles)
High School: Centennial HS (Compton, Calif.), then Westchester HS (Los Angeles)
College: University of Southern California
The Skinny: Played mostly as a combo guard of small forward … He shoots well … Pruitt, who entered the draft after his junior year, finished third in scoring for USC in 2006-07 with a 12.5 average … He also led the team in assists with 113 and steals with 47 in 26 games … He also led USC in free throw shooting (80.0 percent) … During the 2006-07 season, Pruitt became the 32nd Trojan in history to reach 1,000 career points scored and currently ranks 27th all-time at USC in scoring with 1,102 points … He also ranks fourth all-time at USC in three-pointers made (179) and sixth in steals (158).
Full Name: Ronald Glen Davis
Position: Forward
Height/Weight: 6-9 / 289
Birthdate: January 1, 1986 (Baton Rouge, La.)
High School: University HS (Baton Rouge, La.)
College: Louisiana State
The skinny: Overpowered smaller players in college with his size and strength … Missed four games this season with a strained quadricep muscle … He averaged eight rebounds or more each of his three college seasons … Led the SEC in rebounding this year with 10.4 boards per game … Davis was third in the league in scoring at 17.7 points per game and in the top 10 in field goal percentage (48.4 percent) … He is just one of five players in LSU history to block 100 career shots and is third all-time behind only Shaquille O'Neal (412) and Stromile Swift (130) on LSU’s career list with 110 bocks.
When the smoke clears, can anyone tell me how they're doing against the salary cap?
Still well above it, but pretty much every team in the NBA is. The only way you get below is to completely gut your roster.
It's not like the NFL's cap which is a hard number that can't be eclipsed. In the NBA, you're allowed to go over to keep your own players. Also, you can still make trades to keep you over the cap provided you send back as much salary as you're brining in.
That's why Theo Ratliff's contract is such a big deal. You can use a guy like him, and another mid-level deal to bring in a guy like Garnett who makes about 20-millin a year.
Don't worry too much about the cap, because to get under it means blowing the whole thing up and starting from scratch all over again. While some think that's the way to go, how exactly are you going to convince superstars to sign here if they don't have any surrounding talent?
The thing to worry about isn't the cap as much as it is the luxury tax threshold.
For example: Last year's cap was $53.135 million and $65.42 million.
Any team over the threshold must pay dollar-for-dollar.
The Celtics came in under the threshold and over the salary cap around $62 million.
As Teddy mentioned, there are also numerous exemptions that allow teams to add players while continuing to surpass the salary cap.
FYI: Last year those numbers (cap and threshold) were set in early July. As far as I know, they haven't been released for the 2007-08 season yet.
Seeing as how the C's owners have been pretty stingy the last few years when it comes to using those veteran's exemptions (allowed to sign mid-level free agents for a max of about $5-million, I believe), they should be more than willing to open the wallets this year and eat some luxury tax. The fans have been more than patient through this constant rebuilding process...time to reward some of that loyalty to put a winner on the court.
Before you go getting grandiose thoughts about what you can get for $5 million...
Brian Scalabrine makes $3 next year
Kendrick Perkins will make about $4.4 next year
Marcus Banks will make about $3.9
Brian Cardinal will make about $5.9
Just a little perspective.
Also, I'm not sure what the mid-level exception number will be or if that has been set already.
Quite the pessimist, for such a young man...LOL! You need to view the glass as half full!
The mid-level exemption last year was $5-million...will no doubt go up a bit this year since the cap rose. Now then, when you stink, you end up with a Scalabrine type. But when you're good, you get a Robert Horry type for $3.63-mil, Steve Finley for $3.103 or a Bonzi Wells for $2.284. Derek Fisher and Bobby Jackson, a couple of other veteran guards who might be just what this team needs go for 6.37 and 5.67 right now, but if/when they get dumped, they must settle for the veteran exemption. Those are the kind of guys the C's have to start attracting, and that only comes with them believing they have a chance to win.
That's why the Allen trade (and a possible Garnett trade) are so important to taking this team to higher levels. You need veteran players who've had their day and now realize they're not going to be superstars in this league, so they accept their roles, know what it takes to win and are willing to do it.
The problem with loading up on young guys like the Celtics have done is that they all still think they can be stars. They don't want to accept a lesser role yet because they want to be the one to play a lead role and make the big bucks. So you end up with a team that doesn't play like a team.
(Can you tell I've recovered from the draft lottery kick in the jimmies? I'm optimistic again...LOL!)