So far, we've had a lot of threads about just how bad the start of the season has been, with just as many threads mocking those threads and telling us to just let the team develop a rhythm. It's the internet so, of course, there's no in-between.
Here's my question: At what point does it become socially acceptable to panic? Do we have an official time where we fear that we won't be able to reverse the trends of Jaylen Brown shooting like Marcus Smart, Jayson Tatum shooting like Kobe, Terry Rozier shooting his mouth off about playing time, etc?
It would be very helpful to me, and I'm sure many others, if we had a defined time frame in which simple nervousness turns to sheer, blind hysteria?
Personally, I'm looking at it the same way that I look at games: by quarters. The first quarter is figuring out who belongs where and how the lineup will look. We should be doing better by now, but I'm okay with a slow start. We are, however, approaching the second quarter, where we should have the kinks worked out and be accelerating toward dominance (although I thought we'd be further up the curve by now). Third and fourth quarters should be steady state, top-2 team.
Personally, I'm going to start panicking around Christmas, game 33, with a full state of terror by the new year (game 37). And it's a good thing that I didn't pick Chanukah, since I just realized that it it's early this year and starts in a little over a week. Sorry, kids, your presents will be a little late this year...
Mike