Even the most optimistic C's fan has to realize it's highly unlikely that this team is going to be hanging any banners in the Garden.
I agree it's highly unlikely, but it's not impossible.
At the same time, our chance of competing this season is zero if we blow trade out KG and Pierce, and probably will be zero for the next 5 years.
As we are now we still have a fighting chance. We still have the talent to make the playoffs, and the East is pretty weak - we are very capable of grinding past most of the teams (Indiana, Milwalkee, Atlanta, Brooklyn, Chicago) in a 7 game series just as we did past Philly and Atlanta last year.
Today proved we are CAPABLE of beating Miami if we face them without Rondo. Remember that we won today with our defense and effort - our offense was actually pretty unspectacular, and we didn't really play outstanding basketball...we just won with pure effort and will. Same as last season's approach, and last season that almost took us to the finals.
What if we lost to Atlanta - could they have beaten Philly and Miami? Who knows. If we lost to Philly, maybe they would have grinded out a win against Miami and made the finals. Neither of those teams were considered contenders, but in the playoffs any team can win if they just give it all they have.
Miami struggled past Indiana and Past us, then they pretty convincingly beat the Thunder..so no telling what we could do if we get past Miami and/or NY in the East.