If Doc Rivers had his wish, he’d have all three of the Big Three in Boston back next season, it sounds like. Now it’s time to parse how much of that feeling is sentimental or practical on the Celtics’ part. We’ve read a lot of reports saying that Kevin Garnett is the most likely to return after his playoffs where he got nasty and snarly like his old 2004 self. Ray Allen is the question mark we are the most interested in seeing how it plays out. Read More »

Despite going 13-5 since the much-needed All-Star Break, no one is really talking about the Celtics. Except for Danny Ainge. Ainge has had an odd run as Boston’s President of Basketball Operations. He’s been in New England for nine years now, and for much of his first three, Bostonians lamented his obsession with youth, potential and the future at the expense of the present. Eventually, he swung for the fences, connected on two trades in one summer that changed everything, and suddenly looked like a genius in a suit. Ainge has never shied away from making a move, and now with the Celtics on the edge, he has to choose again: the future… or the present? Read More »

The 3 p.m., March 15 trade deadline has come and gone as fast as your brackets will be busted by this weekend’s end. Most cats around the league can now breathe easy, knowing they haven’t been dealt and can focus on the remaining part of the schedule. Others, however, must deal with the reality they were shipped out like yesterday’s garbage. Either way, this a time for them to regroup and stop commenting on every rumor that appears on blogs and Twitter. Read More »

Just as we wrote in the Dwight Howard versus Andrew Bynum debate, normally you’d scoff at this comparison. But with the way this season is shaping out – there are definitely going to be a few highly-popular players who lose out on All-Star spots to lesser-known studs – Kyle Lowry and Rajon Rondo is a legitimate argument. Doc Rivers put the keys to the Celtics in his point guard’s hands, and Rondo is playing more aggressively than ever. He’s averaging a career-high 15 points, and is warning opponents that his shot is now built to destroy. Read More »

On a team known for its experience – and bad knees – Avery Bradley is an anomaly. The 21-year-old combo guard is the youngest player on the Celtics’ roster. In fact, it was just three years ago that Bradley was putting up 19.1 points per game at Findlay Prep, a feat that earned him the No. 1 ranking in the ESPNU 100, four spots ahead of John Wall. Read More »

HOW TO SUBMIT: E-mail dimebag@dimemag.com with your question/story/idea and include your name and hometown.

Ah, the perils of no training camp, a condensed schedule and disgruntled players. Let’s get to it. Read More »

You have Chris Paul, asking – demanding – for a trade, hanging suspended in limbo at the fingers of the master puppeteer David Stern, playing for a team with no talent in a city where no one shows up on game nights. You have Dwight Howard going back and forth, worried “Will this make them hate me? Will they call me names?” One day he wants out. The next he never wants to leave. You have J.J. Barea, who recently broke the traditional sports code: left a championship team for more money. He went for the cash, and wasn’t looking back. But then you have Paul Pierce, the old cowboy who never left his post, and survived the Antoine Walker era, coaching changes, a nearly fatal stabbing, an 18-game losing streak and the steely glare of Red. Read More »

Deron Williams is probably feeling mad lonely right now over there in Jersey. Dwight Howard this, and Chris Paul wants to go here and everyone wants to team up. Well Williams is sort of stuck in a weird spot in Jersey: He’s with a team in transition, a franchise that has a future but aren’t quite sure what it is yet and while he holds a lot of power, his situation isn’t as sexy as CP going to the Big Apple or Dwight moving to Hollywood. He does have the game to back up any talk, and yesterday he made it perfectly clear: He will play out this season in Jersey and then take his chances as a free agent. So the Nets better get spending. Read More »

Yesterday’s ambush of trade and free agency talk tipped off with a rather awkward rumor: The Celtics weren’t actively shopping Rajon Rondo, but that they’d be open to a deal should anything materialize. In the sports world, that’s basically code for other teams to start calling so they can start the bidding. Danny Ainge and Boston were hinting at something. We just didn’t know what it was yet. So naturally the response from most fans was: WTF? It didn’t help that Rajon Rondo trade rumors are an offseason rite of passage by this point. It doesn’t feel right unless we get a few of them. Read More »

A few weeks ago, I listed Glen Davis as one of the top five pending unrestricted free agents in the NBA Playoffs. And even though he all but disappeared during the Celtics’ short postseason run – averaging an abysmal 4.9 points and 3.6 rebounds per game – I’d still put him on this list. But as Big Baby enters the summer with no locker to hang his jersey, the reality begins to set in that he may be taking his talents elsewhere. Read More »