i agree with danny's opinion. a lot of what ive read on here seems to take stock of our team as the team that lost to orlando. we didn't have kg and paul and ray were gassed and banged up. to me, it feels like we need to remember that WE were the best team in the league last year until KG went down. then the cavs were the best in the east until orlando got hot in the playoffs.
if we look at our base rotation as perk/garnett/pierce/allen/rondo starting, with sheed and house and tbd as the 8/9 man rotation. we are much better than '08. rondo and perk will have all of last years growth plus this offseason and whatever improvement they put in during the coming season, sheed is better than anyone we had coming off the bench by a wide margin.
remember, one player doesnt make a whole bench, but we havent had anyone of rasheed wallace's caliber coming off the bench since bill walton. house is great at what he does. a solid back up wing, a fourth big that could still very well be glenn davis, and a point guard who plays more of a run the offense style than eddie for when we need that and i think we go toe to toe with anyone's team
Even with KG and Perk we were having trouble staying ahead of Cle and Orl, plus there was LA doing good in the West. And don't try to play the 'our poor guys were tired' card. Plus you can't say we were the best until our team proved it in the playoffs. Unless we were leading the league by 10 wins, it's not exactly considered 'objective' to say we were the best.
Also remember, we're not the only team that is better. Simply adding one guy in spite of what we have lost, might not be enough to ensure victory.
Keep in mind our 4 main competitors have all added good players, ALL of which have been added in a starting position. That sort of gives them more of an opportunity to improve. 3 of them were all stars and 3 of them were added for little to no price.
I don't think anybody has added more for less than the C's. We were in a 3-way tie for best team with the Cavs and Lakers when KG went down. Since then the C's have upgraded their biggest weaknesses (the Baby/Scal round mound of no rebounds and the absence of a competent back-up wing) and added some big weapons (3-pt shooting, shot-blocking and post-defense at the 5, and ballhandling at the wing) without losing anyone but maybe Baby and Powe.
The next best offseason is the Spurs, but they were so far behind the C's last year, that I doubt RJ and Dice brings them even.
I think the Cavs have stagnated (Shaq is going to hurt them defensively, and clog the court for LBJ. His offensive rebounding is nice, but nothing that Z and Varejao didn't already bring to the table. And did they really need more scoring? Parker's a good addition though.) and the Magic are treading water (Carter for Hedo is small upgrade, and Bass is a mild upgrade of Battie. If they don't replace Lee with an equivalent or better swingman, I don't see how they've improved).
I see the Lakers, granted Odom resigns, as the most significant threat. A Cavs or Magic EC crown would be fluky IMHO (and both would lose to the Lake Show). The C's are put together a lot better.
It is difficult to evaluate who has improved the most until we see guys on the court together. It is fair to say last year wasn't a sure-thing with KG, and it's unfair to say we definitely improved more than anyone else. So in my opinion, i feel things are up in the air until we get a feel for where other guys are. I would objectively give the advantage to the Celtics simply because our starting 5 has remained intact so we know we haven't changed TOO much from '08.
You mentioned the loss of Powe and possibly Baby, two big disadvantages. You said we replaced our weakness of a back-up wing, but that has yet to be seen, as has a back-up PG. UNTIL we sign a competent wing and sign SOMEone at the 1 and 4, i could not say we are significantly more talented than every other team, or our team in '08.
Topic: Ainge thinks the current Celtics are better than the '08 team (Read 7885 times)