Celtics sign project in O'Bryant

Players that are over 7-0 will continue to get a chance in the NBA as long as they’re young. The Celtics signed Patrick O’Bryant, who hardly received any playing time with the Golden State Warriors, but was a force in the NBADL. A sidebar to the idea that O’Bryant didn’t play in his first couple of years in Golden State is that Golden State was one of the best teams in the Western Conference and they have a tendency to go small rather than load the floor with bigs. In addition to that Warriors coach Don Nelson has a reputation not playing young players. He’s a coach that would rather rely on veteran players. Rookies seem to have to do a lot to impress him enough to make an impact and judging by the lack of playing time, it’s clear he didn’t do that. Effort was the main problem cited in today’s Globe story. The hope is Kevin Garnett can inspire him enough to change. Maybe, but Garnett is over 30 now. He might know what O’Bryant needs to do, but can he still do the things he did in the offseason when he was in his early 20s? It might be more difficult to lead by example. Another thing is it will be interesting to see if Garnett can keep his intensity as high as it was before now that he’s won a championship. The trend in recent years has been for the champion to rest on its laurels the following season.