Some Random British Dude Is More Adept at Covering the C's Than Most of the Boston Media

I'm not sure if this is subscription only, but ESPN's got this "Five Observations About the Celtics" column up from this guy named Ian Whittell, who it turns out is an NBA writer for the London Times (ESPN of course being too strapped for cash to send a basketball writer to Europe... please send donations). It's actually one of the best pieces of straight-up reporting I've read about the C's in recent months, which makes me think that maybe the Globe should just hook this dude up with a satellite dish, NBA League Pass and a free Skype account and hand him Peter May's job. Among other things, Whittell makes the cogent point that the NBA won't in fact be expanding to Europe anytime soon (a misguided notion that May himself occasionally belabors) due to European countries' unwillingness to invest in "NBA-standard facilities" (if this means Madison Square Garden, good for them).

This column also notes Glenn's plan to use Tony Allen at point guard, an idea which might be one of the worst in human history. I kind of like Tony Allen but he's honestly one of the worst decision-makers I've seen on a basketball court, and I'm not even referring to his highly unnecessary season-ending knee injury when I write that. Every time Tony Allen has the ball in his hands for more than 3-4 seconds I start to feel like I'm watching one of those old Rocky and Bullwinkle cartoons where the woman is tied to the train tracks and the train is on its way, except in the case of Tony Allen there's no awesome cartoon squirrel to come and rescue her and she invariably gets mutilated beyond recognition. Tony Allen is a walking unforced turnover: an exquisitely terrible ballhandler and a disturbingly erratic passer. And he's now our backup point guard... welcome back, Glenn Rivers. We've missed you.

As a sort of postscript (and I know we've mentioned this before, but it's worth repeating): this point guard situation continues to highlight the fascinating fact that the ideal point guard for the Celtics right now is none other than Glenn Rivers himself, circa 1992. There is no way that Glenn is not excruciatingly aware of this, every second of every practice. Come January I can almost see the Rivers resembling one of those obsessive Little League dads who blew out his knee in high school, missed a chance at the minors and tries to compensate by force-feeding his kid Tom Emanksi videos for six hours a day and starting him on weights at age nine. Get ready to be yelled at, Rajon... get ready to be yelled at a lot.