Oden's Debut: Boston Notes

I just finished watching Portland kick-off their summer league in Vegas against the Boston Celtics. Oden's debut will obviously command much of everyone's analysis, but there was quite a collection of young talent on both squads to be excited about.

(Because of blogger length limitations, I've broken my Portland and Boston notes up into two separate posts: Portland Notes are here. Also, read why David Stern wants you to hate him.)

The Celtics won 74-66 (boxscore). It wasn't as close at the final score, Boston was comfortably in control a majority of the time:

Notes from the game:

Former Celtic and color commentator for the game Mike Smith made multiple blatant defenses of Danny Ainge during the game. He loves him very much and thinks he's doing a great job as GM. They have some good talent, but a great job? This guy must want a job with the front office very badly.

Leon Powe absolutely took it to Oden, or whichever Blazer was guarding him. He goes hard and adjusts his game well to make up for his lack of height much of the time. The other times, he gets swatted.

Gerald Green was the best perimeter player for the C's tonight. The ups looked as good as ever, putting up some nice highlights.

Pruitt brought it, despite very limited burn (box score shows 1:27 and 7 points). His impressive burst of points had me hoping he would get more minutes, but they never came.

Brandon Wallace can jump. I don't know much about the guy, but he had a few very nice athletic plays that got oooh's.

Basically, all the young C's can play. Powe and Green were the only Celtics to show consistency, you always knew when they were in the game. Rondo, Allan Ray, and Big Baby had shining moments, but would also disappear for long stretches.

All in all Boston fans should be happy with this group of young guys. But seriously, don't get too attached, or Danny Ainge will trade them for (insert worst nightmare here).