It's time for the media to put out the season's report cards and both the Herald and the Patriot Ledger have theirs out today. I am working on one to post here soon and I am sure we will be seeing them everywhere during the lull between season's end and the lottery. I was very surprised to see Bulpett give Ray a higher grade than Rondo.

The Globe is reporting what ESPN and FoxSports reported yesterday: Oden is set to declare for the draft. The official announcement is expected to come today. Teammates Conley and Cook will also be declaring but not hiring an agent. This sets the table for one of the strongest drafts in recent memory with not one, but two franchise players available. Let's hope that after all these years of tragedy and bad luck for the Celtics, we finally have something go our way when the lottery comes.

While a lot of talk has been thrown around about the Celtics tanking, the team who has tanked the most obviously the past two years has been the Timberwolves. Who can forget Madsen's three point barrage last season to give them the pick above the Celtics. Or this year's tank job of losing their last 7 games and the grand finale of being blown out by the Grizzlies in the final game to keep their pick this season. If they had fallen out of the bottom 10, they would have had to surrender their pick to the Clippers and 2 years later a pick to the Celtics. But by masterfully dropping to the bottom 10 teams for the second season in a row, they keep their pick. If the Celtics are questioned about Gomes' comments, they HAVE to question the Wolves.

The Indy Star points out that Rick Carlisle has likely coached his last game in Indiana. In spite of his success as a coach, Bird stepped down after 3 years because he believed that after that period, a coach loses his team. Carlisle just finished his 4th season in Indy and their finish out of the playoffs would seem to seal Carlisle's fate. Hey Danny! Doc has been in Boston for 3 years now and it would be a great time to bring in a coach with a Celtics pedigree.... If Carlisle is available, Danny should go get him.

A few other links to check out include a few articles on Al Jefferson from the Herald, Patriot Ledger and Can Danny. Also, several articles call for optimism with an eye on the upcoming lottery, including The Patriot Ledger, Projo, and the MetroWest Daily.

There is this from the Patriot Ledger article.

Think Pierce was the leader of this team? Think again. Allen’s on-court electricity carried over to his teammates - once he turned himself loose after his original knee surgery. ‘‘As the light went on, as a coach, it was probably for me the proudest stretch I had for individual players,’’ Rivers said, ‘‘to watch him go from where he was to what he was becoming. Probably the biggest disappointment for me was when he went down because I saw where he was about to go, even this year.’’