ESPN Poll today

[Onslaught]

On the front page of  the NBA section of ESPN.com today they have a poll asking "Who could the Celtics least afford to lose for any significant amount of time?" As is stands right now as I'm posting this the numbers look like this.

Ray Allen 5%
KG 49%
Paul Pierce 23%
Rondo 16%
Rasheed 8%

I'll admit that I'm much more of a Pierce fan than I've ever been of KG. But I personally feel that while we can't afford to lose any of these people. Pierce is the one that is the most irreplaceable. We don't have anyone on the team that can do all the things that he can.
And he's the hands I want the ball in at the end of a close game.

[Rondo2287]

The celts cannnot with a title without Perk, I think thats my bottom line. 

[ManUp]

The celts cannnot with a title without Perk, I think thats my bottom line. 

That can probably be said for anyone of the starters.

[Redz]

I think the votes for KG are just a trigger reaction by voters based on his popularity, and what they saw last year when he was out.  I think the effect of KG being out would be a lot less severe with Sheed here this year.

Any way you slice no PP, no KG, no Rondo, no Perk, no Ray = NO TITLE

[jdpapa3]

I think we'd be the most cooked if we lost Pierce. There's no duplicating what he brings.

[footey]

I think we'd be the most cooked if we lost Pierce. There's no duplicating what he brings.

I agree. And Rondo is a close second, IMO.

[MrTripleDouble10]

I think we'd be the most cooked if we lost Pierce. There's no duplicating what he brings.

I agree. And Rondo is a close second, IMO.

How much time are we talking about here?  If they were to lose anyone for say (gulp, knock on wood) the season, you'd see it most if Rondo was gone.  Doc has said this himself.

[Celtic]

Pierce is definitely the guy, he has the most versatile game, can create his own shot, dribble the ball, rebound and play D, and is the most capable of completely going off in a game. He is one of the best all around players in the NBA.

[Donoghus]

Pierce is definitely the guy, he has the most versatile game, can create his own shot, dribble the ball, rebound and play D, and is the most capable of completely going off in a game. He is one of the best all around players in the NBA.

Agreed.

Losing Pierce would be devastating.

[jdpapa3]

Just look at Orlando last year: they were able to replace Jameer with Rafer Alston. You can kind of get a stopgap pg without losing as much as you would with losing one of the wings. I mean, just look at the construct of this team: We'd need to rely on Walker, Giddens, or Scal as the 3rd wingman. And we have 5 very capable big men on this roster.

[jasail]

With the way the roster is constructed at this moment I would have to say Rondo.  While I do not doubt that loosing Pierce/KG would be huge, loosing Rondo would be the biggest loss.  We have no one with experience behind him.  Hudson has looked good in garbage time, but that is garbage time, not managing those personalities 30+ min a night. 

I think a combination of players could pick up the slack if PP or KG went down, but there is no one that could do the same if Rondo went down.

But knowing that we could probably pick up a serviceable pg somewhere down the road it would have to be PP. He brings too much to the table: leadership, scoring, defense, match ups, post play, rebounding, and maturity.

Lets just all knock on wood and pray this doesn't happen.