The Celtics interested in a small New York Knicks guard? It couldn't be! The Boston Herald reports the C's are closing in on a deal in which the men in green would acquire three-time dunk champ Nate Robinson, with sharpshooter/cartoon star Eddie House serving as the apparent return package. (Due to Robinson's contract status, there'd have to be some other finagling, either through a third team or with other minor players involved.)

All reports have placed Boston in the market for either an offensive capo to replace Ray Allen, or a defensive-minded back-up point guard to spell Rajon Rondo. Nate is neither. He's a scorer, plain and simple, but not a dude you build anything (except perhaps a moat) around. He's a brilliant spark plug, one of the select few in the NBA capable of 40 off the bench. But when he comes in for Rondo, that's a serious defensive downgrade.

And, assuming House is indeed the piece going back to New York here, don't discount that loss. Robinson is far, far better going to the rim, creating for others and rebounding in comparison with House. But a spot-up shooter with amazing confidence is valuable, especially to a team with a couple top-flight attention-getters. House has never in his career averaged 20 minutes a game. But those 10, 15 minutes he does give you are typically filled with made threes. (He's shot 39 percent for his career, and 38 percent this season. He shot an incredible 49 percent from three in last season's playoff run for Boston.)

Mike D'Antoni apparently doesn't much like Robinson, and while Nate would seem to be more valuable to New York's waning playoff hopes than House, the uncertainty of what will happen at the deadline and in the rotation in the subsequent 25 or so games is a bigger question mark. With the sort of deals New York is rumored to be involved in -- for Tracy McGrady, primarily -- Nate is a bit out of the spotlight right now. If D'Antoni would prefer to be rid of Robinson's concern, more power to him.

Source: Tom Ziller, FanHouse