The Bratwurst - Milwaukee Bucks Blog

The Boston Herald is reporting that the Celtics — in their quest to find remotely capable bodies behind their big 3 — are looking at Ruben Patterson.

Well, it’s about freaking time!

Patterson is coming off of his best season in the last 6 (which, at his age, is sort of a red flag) but he was the Bucks’ healthiest and most consistent player all season.  He was solid on both the offensive and defensive ends of the court (.8404 offensive IPM and .8138 defensive IPM, which are both solid rankings).  The character issues, which had dogged him throughout his career, seemed to stay in the background (remarkably, in the last year of his contract, though).

Another advantage to Patterson is that he is strong enough to play a little power forward in a small-ball lineup and the self-styled “KobeBuster” can even guard shooting guards (but don’t expect him to shoot).

With the C’s already in luxury tax territory they will only be offering him a contract at the veterans minimum, so the relatively small investment in Patterson will also serve to keep the potential character problems in check.

Patterson will be a much better fit for Boston than the other players they are apparently chasing now that Reggie Miller figured out that he has no business suiting up any longer.  James Posey is a moderately better defender than Patterson but nowhere near the offensive player, and Dahntay Jones has no business being in the NBA.  He was the worst player on Memphis last year, which really says something.

Good luck to Ruben. Hopefully he winds up on Boston in the role he was supposed to have on the Bucks — providing multi-position backup help on a winning team.

UPDATE: The Celtics signed James Posey for a large portion of the midlevel, which will probably end their pursuit of Patterson.

Morons.

Posey has had 3 pathetic seasons in a row, is nowhere near the offensive player that Patterson is, and is a worse defender.  If it’s always a red flag that a player has a great year in the last year of his contract, is it an even bigger red flag when a guy has an awful year in his contract season and is even suspended by his team for being out of shape?