Sports Illustrated rank Celtics 3rd worst team in East. Nets won't make playoffs

[D.o.s.]

The Suns finished with nearly 50 wins in an incredibly tough conference, mostly because they've got a better team (and a better coach)

No one thought they were going to win nearly 50 games last year because no one thought they were a good team or had a good coach.  Phoenix did a lot better than expected and Boston can do the same.

Mike

I didn't say that had a good team or a good coach, I said they had a better team and a better coach. Reading comprehension is vital.

The Suns finished with nearly 50 wins in an incredibly tough conference, mostly because they've got a better team (and a better coach)

I think we are in the ball park.  Your talking about a Suns team who featured the one and only Gerald Green.

Side by side, I think we matchup as good as if not better.  What they had in spades was chemistry, remains to be seen what this C's group can muster in that dept...

Rajon      =  Dragic
Smart     =  Bledsoe
Jeff         >  Gerald
Oly/Sully >  Morris twins
Zeller      =  Frye


In my mind it comes down to what kind of leader Rajon wants to be.
 
Can he get more from less the way Dragic can ---or does RR only shine when all his teammates are All Stars?  We'll go where ever he decides to take us, IMHO...

Rondo's play wasn't equal to Dragic to last year, and Smart still hasn't even touched a real NBA court.

Gerald Green's per36 stats are considerably better than Green, while shooting higher percentages, and Jeff Greens defensive rating was 109 last year. Gerald's was 108.

Exactly. It's easy to say "oh, we have basically the same roster, we can totally do what the Suns did, they have Gerald Green, Gerald Green sucks, etc." except that A) the Suns played their asses off last year with a better team than we have right now, and B) Gerald Green shot 40% from the three point line last year on over 500 attempts. That's not small sample size, that's elite shooting. That's better than any player that the Celtics fielded last year that's still on our roster.

The Suns were in the Top 8 of the league in offense and the top half of the league in defense.  The Celtics were not even close on offense (as I'm sure we all know), and were worse defensively -- and that's with the benefit of playing in the (L)Eastern Conference.