Author Topic: The 10 Most Disappointing Celtics Seasons of the Last 30 Years  (Read 4855 times)

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Re: The 10 Most Disappointing Celtics Seasons of the Last 30 Years
« Reply #30 on: March 22, 2019, 01:17:39 PM »

Offline CptZoogs

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The list seems a little scattered to me and I think that may be due to how we are defining “disappointing”.  For some of the seasons, the disappointment seems to purely be a function on expectations vs. results.  But then some of the seasons were just bad seasons. 


I agree with you -- it's important, and difficult, to define what is meant by "disappointing."


I began making this list by looking at the seasons where there was the biggest gap between the winning percentage of the season before and the winning percentage of the following season.

That will leave out a lot of seasons where the team won a lot of games in the regular season but had a disappointing result for whatever reason.  It also leaves out seasons that might have been disappointing but were preceded by an even worse season.


I agree that the key distinction is between seasons where the end result was bad or frustrating, and seasons where there was a huge gap between expectations and results.

For the most part I was looking at "disappointing" as a function of the latter.

I do think that that kind of disappointment is the most appropriate comparison to this season, since in many respects this has been a perfectly fine season by lots of objective measures, yet many people seem to be really down on the team because the pre-season expectations were so high.

Completely fair.  I maintain that losing out on Duncan was one of my most disappointing non-death related moments as fan.  Although back then I had nowhere near the grasp of probability I do today.
« Last Edit: March 22, 2019, 01:46:09 PM by CptZoogs »

Re: The 10 Most Disappointing Celtics Seasons of the Last 30 Years
« Reply #31 on: March 22, 2019, 02:46:40 PM »

Offline Big333223

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The list seems a little scattered to me and I think that may be due to how we are defining “disappointing”.  For some of the seasons, the disappointment seems to purely be a function on expectations vs. results.  But then some of the seasons were just bad seasons. 


I agree with you -- it's important, and difficult, to define what is meant by "disappointing."


I began making this list by looking at the seasons where there was the biggest gap between the winning percentage of the season before and the winning percentage of the following season.

That will leave out a lot of seasons where the team won a lot of games in the regular season but had a disappointing result for whatever reason.  It also leaves out seasons that might have been disappointing but were preceded by an even worse season.


I agree that the key distinction is between seasons where the end result was bad or frustrating, and seasons where there was a huge gap between expectations and results.

For the most part I was looking at "disappointing" as a function of the latter.

I do think that that kind of disappointment is the most appropriate comparison to this season, since in many respects this has been a perfectly fine season by lots of objective measures, yet many people seem to be really down on the team because the pre-season expectations were so high.

For sure. The '14 season was bad but I wasn't disappointed because the expectations were: tank. This season, there was never even a fear of missing the playoffs but it's been incredibly disappointing, because of the expectations.

So yeah, expectations are instrumental in creating disappointment.
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Re: The 10 Most Disappointing Celtics Seasons of the Last 30 Years
« Reply #32 on: March 22, 2019, 11:20:18 PM »

Offline SparzWizard

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'08-09.

If KG doesn't get hurt, I think they repeat.   You also have to wonder how that waterfalls into the '09-10 season.


That's a good one to bring up that I didn't consider.  They were so good to start the year, and then when KG went down it lowered the ceiling on the season.

They did win 62 games and got to Game 7 against the team that went to the Finals.  But it does hurt that they were almost certainly the best team in the league before KG got hurt.

Idk if we'd beaten the Lakers that year though. They were also unstoppable with their triple threat of Gasol/Odom/Ariza. Not to mention that Kobe was having a solid season. We couldn't even beat them in the regular season with Garnett.

We would've beaten the Lakers in 2010 if Perkins didn't go down, and if the refs didn't fix Game 7.


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Re: The 10 Most Disappointing Celtics Seasons of the Last 30 Years
« Reply #33 on: March 23, 2019, 12:08:23 AM »

Offline gpap

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I think #10 and #9 should be #1 and #2 respectively, at least for the younger generations.

But 2010 NBA Finals will sting badly. I still have not bothered rewatching that NBA Finals, and every time I scroll through YouTube that Game 7 thumbnail always happen to pop up and I just never bother viewing it or I just scroll past it. We had like a 13-point lead and blew it, and the Lakers had a 21-4 FT advantage in the 4th quarter? Absurd. The Celtics should've been the one celebrating on the Lakers' home floor that night even if it was 7 games.

As for 2012 ECF, that was just a trash ending. The Celtics had the series had they won Game 2. I still remember that classic PP34 clutch 3-pointer over LeBron James in Game 5 (hence my sig). That would have been sweet for Boston to celebrate the Eastern Conference Finals trophy in Miami. Instead, Game 6 happened, LBJ played like he was supersaiyan. And Game 7, Chris Bosh showed up big- effectively putting an end to that Big 3 era.

And the kid yelling "good effort" at Lebron (lol.)

I just added to my prior response that imagine if Ainge was able to trade Rondo for Chris Paul before the season began as was rumored.

I think we definitely would've beaten Miami.

Oh yeah the infamous good job good effort  ;D

Heck, imagine if the David West deal followed through. The Celtics would have creamed that Heat team and the Eastern Conference. They'd have the physicality to abuse Miami. I think the Celtics could've also seriously won a championship in that lockout season too, dang it. Another wasted opportunity. Boston could be working on like banner 20 right now if they'd won in 2010 and 2012 lol.

That's right, I forgot about the David West thing. He chose Indiana over us. I guess the leprechaun left the building after 2008.

Re: The 10 Most Disappointing Celtics Seasons of the Last 30 Years
« Reply #34 on: March 23, 2019, 12:34:19 AM »

Offline ozgod

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The list seems a little scattered to me and I think that may be due to how we are defining “disappointing”.  For some of the seasons, the disappointment seems to purely be a function on expectations vs. results.  But then some of the seasons were just bad seasons. 


I agree with you -- it's important, and difficult, to define what is meant by "disappointing."


I began making this list by looking at the seasons where there was the biggest gap between the winning percentage of the season before and the winning percentage of the following season.

That will leave out a lot of seasons where the team won a lot of games in the regular season but had a disappointing result for whatever reason.  It also leaves out seasons that might have been disappointing but were preceded by an even worse season.


I agree that the key distinction is between seasons where the end result was bad or frustrating, and seasons where there was a huge gap between expectations and results.

For the most part I was looking at "disappointing" as a function of the latter.

I do think that that kind of disappointment is the most appropriate comparison to this season, since in many respects this has been a perfectly fine season by lots of objective measures, yet many people seem to be really down on the team because the pre-season expectations were so high.

For sure. The '14 season was bad but I wasn't disappointed because the expectations were: tank. This season, there was never even a fear of missing the playoffs but it's been incredibly disappointing, because of the expectations.

So yeah, expectations are instrumental in creating disappointment.

That's pretty much what it is. You can be satisfied with one of the team's worst seasons because you're not expecting any better. But when your expectations aren't met, even a season like this year, which isn't a bad season from a pure numbers point of view, can feel worse than those 20-30 win Pitino seasons because you expected so much more.

The question in hindsight for me is: did we overrate our team at the start of the season? Did we think it would be like NBA2k where you just slot in 2 All-Stars into a team that made the ECF and they would immediately fire on all cylinders? For me, I wasn't expecting them to have immediate chemistry, given the reduction in minutes for everyone, but I didn't expect that it would take nearly the entire season to figure it out. It suggests there's either been ongoing resistance during the season from the players or they're too passive to step on each other's toes and should have defined roles much earlier.
Any odd typos are because I suck at typing on an iPhone :D

Re: The 10 Most Disappointing Celtics Seasons of the Last 30 Years
« Reply #35 on: March 23, 2019, 01:23:20 AM »

Offline SparzWizard

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The list seems a little scattered to me and I think that may be due to how we are defining “disappointing”.  For some of the seasons, the disappointment seems to purely be a function on expectations vs. results.  But then some of the seasons were just bad seasons. 


I agree with you -- it's important, and difficult, to define what is meant by "disappointing."


I began making this list by looking at the seasons where there was the biggest gap between the winning percentage of the season before and the winning percentage of the following season.

That will leave out a lot of seasons where the team won a lot of games in the regular season but had a disappointing result for whatever reason.  It also leaves out seasons that might have been disappointing but were preceded by an even worse season.


I agree that the key distinction is between seasons where the end result was bad or frustrating, and seasons where there was a huge gap between expectations and results.

For the most part I was looking at "disappointing" as a function of the latter.

I do think that that kind of disappointment is the most appropriate comparison to this season, since in many respects this has been a perfectly fine season by lots of objective measures, yet many people seem to be really down on the team because the pre-season expectations were so high.

For sure. The '14 season was bad but I wasn't disappointed because the expectations were: tank. This season, there was never even a fear of missing the playoffs but it's been incredibly disappointing, because of the expectations.

So yeah, expectations are instrumental in creating disappointment.

That's pretty much what it is. You can be satisfied with one of the team's worst seasons because you're not expecting any better. But when your expectations aren't met, even a season like this year, which isn't a bad season from a pure numbers point of view, can feel worse than those 20-30 win Pitino seasons because you expected so much more.

The question in hindsight for me is: did we overrate our team at the start of the season? Did we think it would be like NBA2k where you just slot in 2 All-Stars into a team that made the ECF and they would immediately fire on all cylinders? For me, I wasn't expecting them to have immediate chemistry, given the reduction in minutes for everyone, but I didn't expect that it would take nearly the entire season to figure it out. It suggests there's either been ongoing resistance during the season from the players or they're too passive to step on each other's toes and should have defined roles much earlier.

We have a top-scoring point-guard, two #3 first-round draft picks in their sophomore and junior year, a 1x 2017 NBA All-Star, a 5x NBA All-Star and 2018 All-Defensive second team, a defensive hustler and they are the 5th seed.

This team is way too talented to be a middle-tier playoff team. I didn't expect there'd still be chemistry issues this late into the season. If any chemistry issues, it should've been resolved by Christmas time.

If this team gets bounced in round 1, it will be utter disappointment. I expected an ECF appearance with this roster.


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Re: The 10 Most Disappointing Celtics Seasons of the Last 30 Years
« Reply #36 on: March 23, 2019, 05:02:57 AM »

Offline mr. dee

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2010-11

Looking on the paper this team is so unstoppable. They signed Shaq for a vet min and Jermain O'Neal as his backup. And they looked invincible as advertised. However, injuries and trades derailed this team. Shaq injured his achilles that marked the end of his career. And Danny made a move that he shouldn't have in the middle of the season: trade his youngest rotation center in Kendrick Perkins. After the All-Star break, the team had a 16-12 record.

They managed to swept the Knicks in the first round, only to get demolished by the Heat in 5 games due to injuries.

Re: The 10 Most Disappointing Celtics Seasons of the Last 30 Years
« Reply #37 on: March 23, 2019, 06:38:06 AM »

Offline perks-a-beast

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i Personally enjoy the seasons where we Over achieve like 11-12 & 16-17. Easily the most enjoyable seasons for me other than 07-08.

Re: The 10 Most Disappointing Celtics Seasons of the Last 30 Years
« Reply #38 on: March 23, 2019, 09:50:47 AM »

Offline Triplenickle

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Definitely 93-94 for me. I was gutted by Reggie's death and the entire season had a pall of gloom over it for me.

Hands down thee worst years for me.  Don't forget Mike's pops got murdered, then Reggie, and a couple months later my moms. And 12 months after that, my sis.

It was like living in the world of the terminators after that and didn't get out of that fog till 98.

Bad times, man. Shame on yall for bringing it up :)

Re: The 10 Most Disappointing Celtics Seasons of the Last 30 Years
« Reply #39 on: March 23, 2019, 11:07:33 AM »

Offline gpap

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2010-11

Looking on the paper this team is so unstoppable. They signed Shaq for a vet min and Jermain O'Neal as his backup. And they looked invincible as advertised. However, injuries and trades derailed this team. Shaq injured his achilles that marked the end of his career. And Danny made a move that he shouldn't have in the middle of the season: trade his youngest rotation center in Kendrick Perkins. After the All-Star break, the team had a 16-12 record.

They managed to swept the Knicks in the first round, only to get demolished by the Heat in 5 games due to injuries.

I agree. To this day, I still don't understand why Ainge made that stupid trade. The team was a jumbled mess after Perk got dealt. Krstic and Troy Murphy were busts. Shaq got injured which made the Perk trade look even stupider. Jermaine O'Neal came back post all star break and was somewhat competent but then I believe he either got re-injured or was just inactive and Doc starting going with Big Baby at center.

If you recall, the Celts were 3-0 vs Miami that season before the Perk trade. And by the way, Jeff Green accomplished and provided the team with absolutely nothing that season (or the following seasons, for that matter.)


Re: The 10 Most Disappointing Celtics Seasons of the Last 30 Years
« Reply #40 on: March 23, 2019, 11:07:47 AM »

Offline mctyson

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'08-09.

If KG doesn't get hurt, I think they repeat.   You also have to wonder how that waterfalls into the '09-10 season.

Agree.  That injury maybe cost them 2 banners.

Re: The 10 Most Disappointing Celtics Seasons of the Last 30 Years
« Reply #41 on: March 23, 2019, 06:38:26 PM »

Offline celts10

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I agree. To this day, I still don't understand why Ainge made that stupid trade. The team was a jumbled mess after Perk got dealt. Krstic and Troy Murphy were busts. Shaq got injured which made the Perk trade look even stupider. Jermaine O'Neal came back post all star break and was somewhat competent but then I believe he either got re-injured or was just inactive and Doc starting going with Big Baby at center.

If you recall, the Celts were 3-0 vs Miami that season before the Perk trade. And by the way, Jeff Green accomplished and provided the team with absolutely nothing that season (or the following seasons, for that matter.)

I believe the reason why Ainge traded Perk for Green mid-season was because we desperately needed a backup wing to Pierce after Marquis Daniels went down with that freak season-ending back injury. It makes you wonder how different things would have been that year had Marquis not gotten hurt. I'm pretty sure Perk doesn't get moved until the offseason.

Re: The 10 Most Disappointing Celtics Seasons of the Last 30 Years
« Reply #42 on: March 23, 2019, 07:55:33 PM »

Offline SparzWizard

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I agree. To this day, I still don't understand why Ainge made that stupid trade. The team was a jumbled mess after Perk got dealt. Krstic and Troy Murphy were busts. Shaq got injured which made the Perk trade look even stupider. Jermaine O'Neal came back post all star break and was somewhat competent but then I believe he either got re-injured or was just inactive and Doc starting going with Big Baby at center.

If you recall, the Celts were 3-0 vs Miami that season before the Perk trade. And by the way, Jeff Green accomplished and provided the team with absolutely nothing that season (or the following seasons, for that matter.)

I believe the reason why Ainge traded Perk for Green mid-season was because we desperately needed a backup wing to Pierce after Marquis Daniels went down with that freak season-ending back injury. It makes you wonder how different things would have been that year had Marquis not gotten hurt. I'm pretty sure Perk doesn't get moved until the offseason.

Big men dominated the league back then. Doc could've done better with rotations making Ray Allen play SF while Wafer and Pavlovich at SG and rest them interchangeably.

Krstic and Green were bad moves. At least I won a free shirt predicting what number they each would wear lol!


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Re: The 10 Most Disappointing Celtics Seasons of the Last 30 Years
« Reply #43 on: March 23, 2019, 08:40:34 PM »

Offline TheReaLPuba

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Easily the most disappointing season considering the TALENT AND EXPECTATIONS prior to the season beginning.

I don’t know this team just seems like they want to look good more than winning ugly.

Maybe there is a thing as too much talent.

Re: The 10 Most Disappointing Celtics Seasons of the Last 30 Years
« Reply #44 on: March 23, 2019, 11:34:02 PM »

Offline nickagneta

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I agree. To this day, I still don't understand why Ainge made that stupid trade. The team was a jumbled mess after Perk got dealt. Krstic and Troy Murphy were busts. Shaq got injured which made the Perk trade look even stupider. Jermaine O'Neal came back post all star break and was somewhat competent but then I believe he either got re-injured or was just inactive and Doc starting going with Big Baby at center.

If you recall, the Celts were 3-0 vs Miami that season before the Perk trade. And by the way, Jeff Green accomplished and provided the team with absolutely nothing that season (or the following seasons, for that matter.)

I believe the reason why Ainge traded Perk for Green mid-season was because we desperately needed a backup wing to Pierce after Marquis Daniels went down with that freak season-ending back injury. It makes you wonder how different things would have been that year had Marquis not gotten hurt. I'm pretty sure Perk doesn't get moved until the offseason.

Big men dominated the league back then. Doc could've done better with rotations making Ray Allen play SF while Wafer and Pavlovich at SG and rest them interchangeably.

Krstic and Green were bad moves. At least I won a free shirt predicting what number they each would wear lol!
No he is right. Once Marquis went down before the trade deadline, the concern was that the team would need another wing presence, especially defensively to get through LeBron and Kobe to win it all. Also, the thought was Shaq would return but it just kept being pushed back, then he came back for one game and was lost until the playoffs where he played, I think one more game.