Sam Cassell like a Celtic?

From the producers who brought you "The Basketball Blog," it's "The Basketball Bag" -- a pseudo-mailbag devoted entirely to NBA questions. Please don't confuse this with a real mailbag. As always, these are actual e-mails from actual readers:

Q: What are your thoughts on Sam Cassell (potentially) joining the Celtics? Does he have enough left in the tank? How will he mesh with the Ubuntu chemistry?
-- Pat D., Somerville, Mass.

SG: After watching Cassell up close for three years, I can report the following certainties: He's not washed up; he hasn't slipped so much defensively that he's a complete liability; he works the refs better than anyone in the league; he's a charismatic presence on and off the court; and he can still catch fire during games and carry a team for small stretches. It's hard to imagine a better fit for the Celtics, especially when you factor in his relationship with KG, the way he matches up against bigger, more physical guards like Chauncey Billups (the real reason the Celts passed on Damon Stoudamire), his knack for hitting big shots (which they need), and the fact Boston's big guys could protect him against quicker guards. And he would add one more super-competitive guy to an already super-competitive team.

So those are the good parts. On the bad side, Cassell's arrival could ruin Rajon Rondo's confidence, which is already in the process of being battered by Doc Rivers' penchant for yanking his minutes around. (The way Rondo was buried in Phoenix last week, when he was the only Celtic who could defend Steve Nash and make him work defensively, was an unequivocal disgrace.) By December, when it became established the Celtics were destined for a top-two seed, their only two goals should have been to keep Ray Allen, KG and Paul Pierce rested and healthy for the spring (somewhat of a failure so far) and building up Rondo's confidence even at the expense of a couple losses (a total failure so far). So the thought of bringing in Cassell scares the hell out of me. Can Rondo handle it? Hard to say.

And then there's this: Sam isn't a coach-killer, but he's a significant presence who could undermine a coach simply because his teammates respond more to him than anyone else. I've been to games in which a Clipper would run over to Sam for instructions as Mike Dunleavy was vainly trying to wave the same Clipper over. (You always hear the phrase "he's like a coach on the floor," but Sam really is a coach on the floor -- back in 2006, I devoted an entire column to Sam potentially becoming the first successful NBA player-coach since Lenny Wilkens.) So his coach needs to be secure enough to handle him ... and poor Doc is already wound up tighter than a kite string. By the time the playoffs roll around, he's going to look like he's passing a kidney stone while getting a colonoscopy at the same time. Could he handle Sam on and off the court? Would he feel threatened by him? Again, hard to say.

Finally, at this point of Cassell's career, his biggest strength doubles as his biggest weakness: His gigantic, absurdly large, gravity-defying balls in big moments. This is someone who would absolutely take the series-deciding jumper in a Game 7 against Detroit or Cleveland and not think twice. Do you really want a 38-year-old guy with a bad back deciding your season? The X-Factor is the Celtics don't have a money-in-the-bank crunch-time scorer -- Pierce is good but not great, Allen is pretty spotty at this stage of his career, and Garnett relies exclusively on turnarounds and fadeaways for whatever reason. That's my biggest fear about a potential Cleveland series, that no Celtic can match baskets with LeBron in the final two minutes of a close game. So Cassell fixes that problem a little, and I'd certainly rather have Sam shooting crucial 20-footers than Rondo.

The best-case scenario would be the Rondo-Cassell tandem working like Tony Parker and Speedy Claxton in the 2003 playoffs. Remember, the '03 Spurs were pretty flawed -- they had Duncan in his prime, Robinson at the end of his career, a not-quite-ready Manu Ginobili, a hit-or-miss second-year point guard (Parker) and a bunch of role players. If not for Claxton's ability to right the ship during Parker's off-nights, the Spurs wouldn't have won the title. (Don't forget, Parker was so up-and-down the Spurs pursued Jason Kidd right after the season.) Rondo's 2008 playoff experience will inevitably play out like Parker's did -- some good games, some stinkers -- and when he committed those two last-minute brain farts in Golden State last week, it was a grisly reminder that young point guards can self-destruct at any time, especially on the road in big moments. I like Rondo -- actually, I really like Rondo -- but you can't expect a 21-year-old point guard to play consistently well for two straight months in the playoffs. Over everything else, that's why the Celtics need Cassell and his gravity-defying testicles.

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