the starting five - especially Rondo - have been struggling badly since The Trade. can it be any more obvious ?
Danny has damaged the chemistry and the psyche of his team because he made a move that he thought looked like an overall improvement on paper. but nba teams - especially this team - don't play their games on paper. just ask yourself - would Red have made that deal ? No Way, because Red understood people and that was his greatest strength and it is something Ainge seems completely oblivious to.
So tell me: what was our problem last season? We didn't look any better last season than we do now, if not worse, and all we did was trade Eddie House for Nate Robinson. I think Bill Simmons even went so far as to predict we would lose in the 1st round to the Heat. Whether that was silly or not was immaterial; THAT'S how bad we were playing. We were the 4th seed, and looking old as ever, as everyone wanted to tell us.
This season so far? We're STILL tied with the Bulls for
1st seed in the East, and subsequently tied for the
2nd best record in the NBA to the Spurs, even with our alleged woes lately. THAT'S how well we've played THIS season so far.