Are the Celtics Going to Be Any Good This Season?

[Bankshot]

I was horrified at what I saw last night in the game against Philly.   They looked pretty pathetic.  Now I know KG didn't play and we played the end of the bench, but Bynum didn't play and Philly played their end of the bench guys too.  Turnovers seem to be a staple with Doc's teams and it was on full display last night. 

Of course I think they'll be better than what I saw last night, but will they be good enough to contend?  I have my doubts.  I don't think there is any way we get by Miami, unless a trade is made for a top tier talent.

Of course I'll be rooting for them no matter what.


Just my $.02

[action781]

The title of this reminded me of The Onion's strongside-weakside articles when they always ask at the end... "Is he any good?"

http://www.theonion.com/articles/metta-world-peace,28250/  (usually they are about much better players though)

[fairweatherfan]

Nope.  Move over Bobcats, here comes 0-82.

...hey just trying to be ahead of the curve. 

Seriously, they'll disappoint some in the regular season, people will give up on them, then they'll make a crazy playoff run that will probably fall just a bit short.  C'est la C's

[action781]

I was horrified at what I saw last night in the game against Philly.   They looked pretty pathetic.  Now I know KG didn't play and we played the end of the bench, but Bynum didn't play and Philly played their end of the bench guys too.  Turnovers seem to be a staple with Doc's teams and it was on full display last night. 

Of course I think they'll be better than what I saw last night, but will they be good enough to contend?  I have my doubts.  I don't think there is any way we get by Miami, unless a trade is made for a top tier talent.

Of course I'll be rooting for them no matter what.


Just my $.02

1.  You're right in that KG wasn't playing.  That's pretty big for us. 

2.  Things got out of control in the third quarter with that string of turnovers in a row that all turned into baskets.  Scal even mentioned that in a normal game, Doc would have called TO to regroup, but in this game he was going to "make them try to figure it out themselves."  This wouldn't happen in the regular season.  The turnovers were a little concerning, but there's no way they play like that once the season starts.

I'm not worried at all about the Celtics from last night's game.  What it did make me realize is that Philly is gonna be a pretty good team with the addition of Bynum and won't be losing much in the backcourt turning Lou Williams into Nick Young.

[bfrombleacher]

Yes.

Teams have bad games. And we're not going in 100%. We're not even 70%. We're just 50%, practice intensity.

The Knicks and the 6ers on the other hand seemed to play really hard.

Obviously not happy with that game. But it's good that it's happening now.

[Rondo2287]

I firmly expect the C's to win their division and Push Miami in the playoffs. 

Right now they have 9 new players all learning to play together so they may look a little off at the begining but the infusion of youth on this team should pay serious dividends down the road this season.

[wdleehi]

The Celtics like to cruise in the regular season.



Pre-season, they are napping.

[ManUp]

We'll have the second best record in the East.

[Bankshot]

Thanks for the responses.  I feel a lot better now that no one here agrees with me. I kind of panicked after watching that game last night

[sofutomygaha]

Two things-

1) Rajon Rondo is taking it reeeeeeeeallly easy.

2) They look like they are trying to get new players involved more than anything.

but a bonus, third thing
3) there isn't any evidence yet that our second unit is going to be the Varsity-B we've been dreaming of. I might wait until some combination of Green, Terry, Lee, Darko, and Sullinger and other bench guys blows someone out of the gym before I pour myself another glass of kool-aid.

[Yogi]

   This team is completely different from any team we have seen before.  Paul and KG have changing roles.  We need them to score more but with much less isolation plays.  We don't have Ray Allen anymore.  Rondo's scoring is more important to our half court offense than ever before.  We are pushing the ball forward to multiple players now, not just Rondo and Paul i.e. Lee, Terry, Green.  We are posting up more players, i.e. Rondo, Green and Sullinger in addition to Paul and Kg. 
   We will have 8 players who are completely new to Celtics Offense and Defense.  Of the remaining 6, 2 have not played a full season with the Celtics in Wilcox and Green. 
   We're also younger than we have been in the past which means there is going to be a learning curve where mistakes will be made.  We played a horrible game yesterday, but that's about where we should be. 
   The difference between us and Philly is that we are trying to create a system that will win us a championship, while Philly was playing freely.  Philly's chemistry was impressive. 
   Getting a championship level roster is just step one.  Getting chemistry is step two, and we're well on the way.  This team does not have a lot of continuity from last year unlike Philly.  The team last year didn't have much continuity from the year before either, but Doc was able to get them to play the Celtics way by all-star break.  Hopefully with a full training camp and more practice time this year it will be much, much sooner. 
   This team will be average until the Celtics defense is established.  Having Rondo, Bradley, Paul, KG will make any unit elite defensively.  But it will take time for all the other line-ups to catch up. 

[Vermont Green]

So you can ask if the Celtics might be as bad as they looked last night but I think the other side of the question is whether the Sixers are as good as they looked.

I think the Sixers are going to be (already are) better than people think but that is no excuse for how bad the Celtics played.

Yes, Rondo is coasting, yes, it is just preseason, etc., etc. but that was a pretty clear warning signal that we may not be a good as we think.

[slamtheking]

too early to panic.  if the real line-up plays produces those results on opening night, then the critiques can commence.

[celtics2]

I firmly expect the C's to win their division and Push Miami in the playoffs. 

Right now they have 9 new players all learning to play together so they may look a little off at the begining but the infusion of youth on this team should pay serious dividends down the road this season.

Well they didn't look bad against the Knicks. In fact it was inspiring how they melded with each other. The Knick announcers were applauding the Celtic Organization with the new additions. They were brain dead in against Philly.

 I thought we were overloaded with tall types. Yet Philly did very well inside. There's a reason some guys get passed around the League. They just can't quite cut it. Boston has become a Beacon in the night for many wanderers.

Right now I like Sully and Terry. Guess that makes us better than last season because Allen became an anvil around our necks. If Avery doesn't come back with his energy and shooting we're in big trouble. Don't see much success because of Father Time wearing on KG and Pierce. Too likely to breakdown somewhere somehow. Actually just one of them would do it. We'll be entertaining as usual though. Enjoy and hope that one of these guys breakout like the Big Bang. Green's athleticism  could do it but right now his shot is a hair better than Rondo's. My guess is we're 3 or 4th in the East right now. After 20 regular season games who knows. With a comeback Avery the sky's the limit.

[j804]

it was just preseason but still Terry's lack of defense really showed and we saw post-trade Green lifeless and non aggressive same for Rondo. they better start getting it together because Miami is right around the corner waiting for us who are way more athletic than Philly who ran us out the gym, our conditioning was awful.