Giddens deals with ups, downs

You can look at the Celtics' opening night roster through a few different lenses, but rookie J.R. Giddens sees it one way: shrinking.

There are 15 spots in all, but only 12 active, and more and more he finds himself thinking about where he'll fit in.

The NBA Development League is an option, but that's still hard to grasp for a first-round pick. As up in the air as Giddens is, he knows how he's supposed to handle the situation. It's just not easy.

Giddens is one of five Celtics eligible for the D-League, along with Glen Davis, Semih Erden, Gabe Pruitt, and Bill Walker. No matter how Giddens plays, or how much tape he watches, or how many reps he gets in practice, the ex-New Mexico star can't do any more to convince the team not to send him to Utah.

He talks about how he can't dwell on it and how just being affiliated with the Celtics is a blessing. But he looks like he's trying to talk himself into it.

"I know I'm going to have some ups and downs," he said. "Might be in the D-League, might not. Being injured. Not being injured. Playing good. Playing bad. You've just got to keep fighting to get better."

Pruitt had three stints in the D-League last season with Utah. In the third trip, he averaged 20.5 points, 4.4 assists, and 2.2 steals. The Celtics brought him up at the end of the season so he could practice with the regulars.

He's talked to Giddens about the experience.

"It's a process," Pruitt said. "If they send you down, it's not that they don't like you, it's that they want to get you better and do what's best for you. No one's happy to go down. But you've got to keep your attitude up."

At the same time, Pruitt doesn't want to spend any more time there.

"Obviously," he said. "This year, I don't want to make that move again. I want to take a step forward."

In the end, the decision is coach Doc Rivers's.

"It's no fun cutting, it's no fun telling someone they're going to the D-League, or they're on the injured list," Rivers said. "It's no fun, but it's a part of our job, it's a part of the business. We just tell them to keep working. You hope they get it, but if they don't get it, they still have to do it. As long as they do it with character."

Of the preseason in general, Giddens said, "I'm really trying to figure it out. It's hard for me to adjust to everything. It shows in my play. I don't have confidence in my movements, my actions offensively. Defensively I feel like I have confidence, but you have to play both ends of the floor. I haven't had a lot of playing time with a lot of these guys, so I don't have a lot of chemistry."

"He works every day," Rivers said. "Some days he gets frustrated. Most college guys, they want to play the way they played in college. No. 1, they can't do what they did in college, but they think they can still do it. No. 2, there are probably better players on the team than them, and for the first time in their lives, they have to be role players."

They are all lessons Giddens is slowly learning.

"Some things are just out of your control," he said. "What I can control is me and how I act towards situations, react to different things that occur in my life. You have no choice but to get through it."