Simmons Article On Sheed

[Vermont Green]

Maybe we can trade Sheed in the off season for Noccioni.

[Andy Jick]

Just read the article...  Spot-on analysis.  The only positive I have about Sheed is the HOPE that he will show up come playoff time.  If not, then Danny got duped and let the rebuilding process begin...  Or, expect more of the same next year.

But I can't see anything in Simmons' article that I disagree with.  He is a product of my generation (ie. age, interests, humor) and I find his mix of basketball knowledge and the world of entertainment to be refreshing and funny.  I like him and I respect his opinion.

[gpap]

Personally, I am getting sick and tired of people putting down Sheed like he's the scapegoat of all the Celtics problems.

[Q_FBE]

i thought the article was fantastic. i was anti sheed from day one while many others were so excited about this signing (not saying I am always right, i have been wrong more than my fair share). i tried to see the good in him, but unfortunately, like jerry once said about newman, "i've looked into his eyes, he's pure evil."

i do think, like another post said here a while back, he has infected the whole team with a lazy, entitled, apatehtic attitude. i pray danny finds an equally bad contract in the offseason (http://www.realgm.com/src_checktrade.php?tradeid=5498271) and sends him anywhere in the nba. i loathe seeing him waltz into the game and pray we had a coach with enough courage to bench him for good.

Mark Blount might be an expiring contract to dump the Sheed. I'll bet my rent that there were discussions with Charlotte, NC on trading the Sheed down there.

[liam]

This article is the reason why I think Simmons is the 'Sheed of the sports writing world. The guy went from being the outsider fan who wasn't afraid to blast the big dogs (Kobe, Manning, etc) to just writing generic, bland stuff and becoming a part of the NBA overhyping machine.

I mean, if you could pick a celtics topic to write on (or to ask your favorite columnist to write on), and you had 4000 words, tons of resources to do research, and access to most people, would you basically rehash the same old Sheed bashing that you could read any night on this or other forums?

The fact that he is spot on is beside the point. It's a lazy column about a lazy, self evident topic.

Good point! Didn't Simmons pick against us in 2008? He's not a fan he's a BS reporter.

I agree. The only real fans are the ones who never concede their team might do anything but win the title.

We were clearly the best team in the NBA in 2008. If you can't even pick your team when they are clearly the best team then I don't think you're much of a fan.

So - if you watch all the games, cheer for them, and have done so for 30 years, but *don't* pick them to win it all - you're not much of a fan.

I don't think you're using much logic.

I was talking about in 2008. we had the best record in the NBA. It doesn't take a huge leap in logic to think your team could win it all. But if you want to think other wise that's fine. You be a fan in your way and I'l root in mine. I still think we have a chance this year.

[CelticG1]

Personally, I am getting sick and tired of people putting down Sheed like he's the scapegoat of all the Celtics problems.

TP...Although to be fair I think people have placed blame on everyone from the starters to the coach to the gm.

I can't argue with Sheeds numbers so far this season but I do get the feeling that we will see a different type of player come playoffs. I'm not saying he is going to be lights out or anything because after all he is a bench player and will probably only get 20 min a game or so anyway. I just see him being more efficient, playing better defense etc. I think when we are in big games and when he is playing in these big games against good big men I think he will take it up a couple levels.

I don't really have anything to back this up but I would just be surprised if Sheed is terrible in the playoffs. If he is than I will admit that he really doesn't care about the team and robbed the C's of some money. Let's wait and see what happens in the playoffs. I really could care less how bad he played in the regular season. I mean if i've been bored with the regular season I can't imagine what it's like to play a bunch of nobody teams all the time.

As for Simmons I just think that everytime I read his stuff it is the same thing. I haven't read anything of his in probably a year and as soon as I was reading this article it was just the same old thing. It's not that bad in small doses but seriously I can't imagine reading this guy regularly. I swear over the years he's referenced something from Lost in every other acolumn

[CbrewEra]

What got me most was...
"young guns (Kendrick Perkins and Rajon Rondo) rebelling against the old guard, legitimate alpha dog and chemistry issues, a coach who can't consistently motivate his team or settle on a rotation. "
 
That seems to be mostly what the media makes of it.  I dont know if any of that is actually true, because I feel Doc is doing the same things he was in 08, and Kendrick and Rondo "rebelling"... come on.

[Fan from VT]

What got me most was...
"young guns (Kendrick Perkins and Rajon Rondo) rebelling against the old guard, legitimate alpha dog and chemistry issues, a coach who can't consistently motivate his team or settle on a rotation. "
 
That seems to be mostly what the media makes of it.  I dont know if any of that is actually true, because I feel Doc is doing the same things he was in 08, and Kendrick and Rondo "rebelling"... come on.

I actually agreed with most of what simmons said. I don't agree with the "motivation" part entirely (but partly I do; I think he's done a poor job of keeping Perk and Rondo on board but most of what's blamed on "lack of motivation" seems more like "old legs" to me). I definitely think there's a real generational clash and real alpha-dog issues. And this is where I'd agree with you about Doc doing the same things as '08...which is a problem, because this is a very different team.

[jdpapa3]

What got me most was...
"young guns (Kendrick Perkins and Rajon Rondo) rebelling against the old guard, legitimate alpha dog and chemistry issues, a coach who can't consistently motivate his team or settle on a rotation. "
 
That seems to be mostly what the media makes of it.  I dont know if any of that is actually true, because I feel Doc is doing the same things he was in 08, and Kendrick and Rondo "rebelling"... come on.

They had problems with this last year and I'm not convinced it's still happening, but I still feel we maximized the talent by taking Orlando to 7.

[CelticG1]

What got me most was...
"young guns (Kendrick Perkins and Rajon Rondo) rebelling against the old guard, legitimate alpha dog and chemistry issues, a coach who can't consistently motivate his team or settle on a rotation. "
 
That seems to be mostly what the media makes of it.  I dont know if any of that is actually true, because I feel Doc is doing the same things he was in 08, and Kendrick and Rondo "rebelling"... come on.

I actually agreed with most of what simmons said. I don't agree with the "motivation" part entirely (but partly I do; I think he's done a poor job of keeping Perk and Rondo on board but most of what's blamed on "lack of motivation" seems more like "old legs" to me). I definitely think there's a real generational clash and real alpha-dog issues. And this is where I'd agree with you about Doc doing the same things as '08...which is a problem, because this is a very different team.

Maybe partially old legs but I think motivation for sure. I mean watching Pierce the other night against the Knicks he literally looked like he didn't care at all about the game. .It's hard to blame Doc and it's hard to blame Pierce. I think mostly it goes on Doc though cause as a coach you need to figure out a way to motivate your team no matter what and the Knicks games along with several other games the celtics have not looked motivated to play

[Witch-King]

I think Rasheed has played about as well as I expected him to play. I mean we all knew he wasn't going to magically stop getting technical fouls, and it's not even like he's the only player on our team who has gotten a tech this season. You might be able to blame his lackluster D and his unwillingness to play in the paint on the fact that he is getting older just as much as the fact that he may just be plain lazy but regardless he was the best talent we could've gotten over the summer and he's what we have right now so there's no way we are deviating from that.

I'll just say this - last season around this time we were KG-less, Leon Powe had that season-ending injury and Mikki Moore (last year's 'Michael Finley') was having a very tough time trying to contribute on either end of the court. Even though we had racked up way more wins by the end of last season nobody seriously believed that we had a legitimate shot to win the title if we weren't healthy for the post-season. This season teams like the Cavs and the Raptors are in a similar position to us last season. If the Cavaliers don't have Shaq back by the second round then they might not be able to make it out of the West and the Raptors might not even make the playoffs anymore since Bosh is out for the rest of the season. Either way the article was a fun read, as Bill Simmons articles usually are. You can't really take everything he says as 'gospel-truth' because he is quite prone to exaggeration and hyperbole.

[PosImpos]

"Am I excited about Sheed turning Boston into the biggest ref-baiting, trash-talking, fan-unfriendly, swaggeracious (I just made up that word) NBA team since the 1992 Knicks? Actually, not really... If it's a 67-win team, then, yes. I will put up with it... But if it's a 54-win team that looks old on back-to-backs, seems like more sizzle than steak, can't figure out its roles, and spends too much time in petty little battles with opponents and refs (and by the way, Doc Rivers was the No. 1 ref-baiting coach in the league last year), then no, it's probably not a good thing. So we will see."

That's from Bill Simmons at the start of the season.  Boy, did he nail it or what?

[dlpin]

TP for this post.

Simmons is anything but a bandwagon fan.

The hate for him comes from two places I think:

1) The "positivity only" brigade of Celtics fans who see any use of critical thought or rational analysis as treason.

and

2) Jealousy. He's a rich sportswriter (not something you see that often) and other people are convinced they could be the same. If only this. If only that.

Or maybe the "hate' for him comes from the fact that he went from being the voice of every fan, the guy you could relate to, to a Edited.  Profanity and masked profanity are against forum rules and may result in discipline.bag name dropper company man and has nothing at all to do with him as a fan or as a millionaire.

The idea that anyone who doesn't like him is either jealous or blind is the worst type of fanboyism.

I used to really like him, but I think it's been at least 3 years that I really enjoyed or thought "wow, I hadn't thought of it that way" while reading his columns.

Want a few examples?

- He's become sort of a Edited.  Profanity and masked profanity are against forum rules and may result in discipline. with his predictions, where he writes after the fact that something was so obvious that no reasonable person wouldn't have thought any other way. And often he himself thought the way he later comes to disparage. Take the Oden/Durant thing (at the time he thought Oden should be the #1, now he makes fun of that). This season alone he has at times picked the celtics, the magic and the cavs to come out of the east.

- The other thing is the complete 180 on overhyped celebrities. He would rip Isiah only to back down completely when he actually met him, and went as far as making what Isiah told him the central piece to his book. He would make fun of the ridiculous Kobe overhyping, only to overhype Kobe himself, going as far as saying that Lebron only played like he did last year because he saw Kobe practice for 2 weeks.

- Insistence on irrational topics. When he brought up the "I'd rather have Durant than the title" in a podcast with the Rocket's GM, he was promptly shot down, and yet he acts as if its a clear cut thing. And the worst was the "Ali vs Tiger" debacle, where he stuck to his guns while pushing the dumbest argument he's ever tried to make.

- Finally, he became the thing that he hated the most. Not too long ago he talked about how in newspapers guys got columns based on seniority and then gave no chances to younger guys starting out. Simmons now constantly calls out reporters asking for credit if an idea appeared in his column, even if it wasn't an original idea. He gets mad if another ESPN reporter gets an interview or piece he wanted and calls them out (Andy Katz more recently).

[Cman]

Why does Simmons bug me so much?
Because he so often takes the "easy way".  If you had to write an article on the Cs troubles, what better scapegoat than Rasheed Wallace?  Too easy.  If you had to live in some media capital, what better area than LA?  If you're from Boston originally, and had to root for one of the LA teams, it's a given you root for the CLippers, right?
The problem I have with Simmons is that when I read him, I no longer am reading anything unexpected.  It just isn't worth my time.

[rickyfan3.0...]

The most important part of this article is that it proves Bill Simmons reads Celticsblog!!!

About a month ago a posted something to the effect of "Rasheed has infected this team with lazy, the way MIB has been infected Sayid with evil"... He essentially stole that line for his opening line in this article. No way he thought of that on his own.