Celtics old age is finally showing!?

[adrew35]

don't you hate when the Celtics lose that is what NBA "fans" say? We haven't been losing ever since the trade went down because of old age

[TradeProposalDude]

I don't think it has to do with age. The Celtics, as a team, aren't that old. Garnett's 35, Allen is 36, and Pierce will be 34 in September. Based on how they have played, their losing is indicative of lack of defensive intensity. There may be problems with Lawrence Frank's defensive system. Some others have suggested that the Celtics are bored with the regular season and basically want the playoffs to start ASAP. In a sense, I don't care if they lose because does home court vs against Chicago and maybe Miami really matter since they have shown that they can win on the road? Plus I am not convinced that there is a major problem since Shaq has been out for extended periods of time. The Celtics have seemingly been most effective while he's been on the floor. They really aren't a complete unit, so I feel that concerns are only apt to be addressed once the core pieces sitting out with injuries get back on the active roster.

[droopdog7]

I don't think it has to do with age. The Celtics, as a team, aren't that old. Garnett's 35, Allen is 36, and Pierce will be 34 in September. Based on how they have played, their losing is indicative of lack of defensive intensity. There may be problems with Lawrence Frank's defensive system. Some others have suggested that the Celtics are bored with the regular season and basically want the playoffs to start ASAP. In a sense, I don't care if they lose because does home court vs against Chicago and maybe Miami really matter since they have shown that they can win on the road? Plus I am not convinced that there is a major problem since Shaq has been out for extended periods of time. The Celtics have seemingly been most effective while he's been on the floor. They really aren't a complete unit, so I feel that concerns are only apt to be addressed once the core pieces sitting out with injuries get back on the active roster.

I don't think the bolded part helps your argument.  Those ages are relatively ancient in baskebtall years.  Shoot, historically players have started to fall off at about 33 years of age.

[Marcus13]

Im sure age has a lot to do with Ray's recent struggles as he has been playing amazing all year.

Rondo's lack of effort has really hurt Ray's game too but he has really just put in farrrr too many HARD minutes this season - his 35 year old body simply isn't going to last as long as a 25 year old's.

KG has his up-and-down games which definitely is the result of age but it's no different pre-trade than post-trade

[MBunge]

Based on how they have played, their losing is indicative of lack of defensive intensity.

That's not reflected in final scores.  Except for the Indiana game, all these other recent losses have seen the Celts play good enough defense to get a win.  In the 10 games before that, Boston scored 86, 87, 79, 92, 77, 89, 96, 87, 81 and 85 points.  When to struggle to score over 90 in the NBA, you aren't going to be able to beat anybody.

Mike

[ScoobyDoo]

KG, Pierce and Ray are all elite "race horse" type athletes who have all aged unusually well. I don't think  it's the age. Though I do think Ray has logged too many minutes, as always...but Doc has ground Ray into the ground every season since he's been here...

1. We have the 3rd best record in the league right now.

2. Our recent slide has coincided with one critical factor - it's the first time all, since the trade, that we have not had our "big goon in the middle" presence for the team.

* We had O'Neal, JO and Semih to start

* Then we had Perkins and Semih when Shaq went down and JO was still missing

* The post trade, we were left with only Krstic - who has no other "seven" foot help. It's not his fault, he has skills but not what this team needs in the middle in terms of length, presence, intimidation and enforcement.    

If/when we get those two guys back and they are healthy - many of our current problems will vanish.

Had we not lost this "rash" of recent games and kept on the average pace of wins we'd been keeping all season, we'd be in second place, possibly first by season's end the way San Antonio is playing.

It's actually remarkable that we are hanging onto 2nd/3rd place with all the injuries we've had.

That should be encouraging - especially if we can get the two O'Neal's back and keep the healthy throughout the playoffs.

You give the Lakers / Spurs / Heat / Bulls / Magic / Mavs the injuries we've had this year, they're all probably 10 games worse than their current records.

I don't think it's age necessarily.  

[Mike-Dub]

The C's age has been showing since '08-'09 with the KG injury.

[2short]

KG, Pierce and Ray are all elite "race horse" type athletes who have all aged unusually well. I don't think  it's the age. Though I do think Ray has logged too many minutes, as always...but Doc has ground Ray into the ground every season since he's been here...

1. We have the 3rd best record in the league right now.

2. Our recent slide has coincided with one critical factor - it's the first time all, since the trade, that we have not had our "big goon in the middle" presence for the team.

* We had O'Neal, JO and Semih to start

* Then we had Perkins and Semih when Shaq went down and JO was still missing

* The post trade, we were left with only Krstic - who has no other "seven" foot help. It's not his fault, he has skills but not what this team needs in the middle in terms of length, presence, intimidation and enforcement.    

If/when we get those two guys back and they are healthy - many of our current problems will vanish.

Had we not lost this "rash" of recent games and kept on the average pace of wins we'd been keeping all season, we'd be in second place, possibly first by season's end the way San Antonio is playing.

It's actually remarkable that we are hanging onto 2nd/3rd place with all the injuries we've had.

That should be encouraging - especially if we can get the two O'Neal's back and keep the healthy throughout the playoffs.

You give the Lakers / Spurs / Heat / Bulls / Magic / Mavs the injuries we've had this year, they're all probably 10 games worse than their current records.

I don't think it's age necessarily.  

can we quote you on the big goon line?

I still love the team danny has assembled we've just had injuries, some nothing to do with age, delonte, others age shaq/jermaine.  I would love to see delonte get a start and ray get a break.  I don't care at this point about wins, get everyone playing well and get breaks for all the guys that log minutes ie starters & davis.

[ACF]

Pierce will be 34 in September.

Sorry to nitpick but since I am a sucker for details, I'll just say that Pierce will be 34 on October 13.

[Dunn]

Old age is as dumb an excuse as tired legs were in last season's Finals. Doc and Danny just haven't learned much from last season. When circumstances repeat themselves it only lays blame to the the coach and GM for letting it happen again. It is their job to improve upon a problem that hit this team last season. I don't like how the rookies were managed this season, especially at the trade deadline. I don't like the signing of fragile players who I'm sure all together have missed 82 games. I also hate that while the last two seasons have mirrored this one, evaluations have sent every 2nd unit player away but one. Yet the second half trend continues. Once again we will had lost home court and #1 seed, so then I expect injury if the trend continues right. These two former NBA players need to stop wasting these near Hall of Famers' time.

[Marcus13]

Old age is as dumb an excuse as tired legs were in last season's Finals. Doc and Danny just haven't learned much from last season. When circumstances repeat themselves it only lays blame to the the coach and GM for letting it happen again. It is their job to improve upon a problem that hit this team last season. I don't like how the rookies were managed this season, especially at the trade deadline. I don't like the signing of fragile players who I'm sure all together have missed 82 games. I also hate that while the last two seasons have mirrored this one, evaluations have sent every 2nd unit player away but one. Yet the second half trend continues. Once again we will had lost home court and #1 seed, so then I expect injury if the trend continues right. These two former NBA players need to stop wasting these near Hall of Famers' time.

TP for the thoughts.  I completely agree that Danny is most-to-blame for this season but to think that age has NOTHING to do with it is kind of silly.  A 35 year old is not going to have the same bounce nad energy that a 25 year old is.

As far as Doc is concerned...what is he supposed to do?  Half of his bench has been depleted a majority of the season.  He played who he had available

[footey]

I said they were too old last year during their second half slump. It was a completely different team come play off time. They are probably coasting/resting right now, but I am confident that will dial it up in the play-offs.