I hate to break it to you guys, but people outside of New England don’t sit and dream of one day living in Boston… It is cold and bitter there through the winter. A nightmare to get around, and face it. Although it isn’t the case, it has the stigma of being a racist place to be. Compare that to LA or Miami?! Do you really think a young wealthy kid wouldn’t rather be in a place with as much to offer plus all the outside benefits of those types of places? Once we break this thing up only luck in the draft (like Paul Pierce) will pull us out of the doldrums again. Even then we will have to pull a trade like with Ray and KG to get it to happen. That is why trading Rondo now for a CP3 if possible is the move to make. Rondo can’t do it alone because he can’t score and teams know that. Rondo needs 3 superstars to contend. It just isn’t going to likely happen here again.
Yeah, I think it's safe to say a team with 17 championships is not going to win again.
Boston is a large financial and educational metropolis and I am sure many people dream of a career there. I would move there if the opportunity arose, the weather isn't drastically different than where I live now, NYC.
Living in these warm weather cities to me is a crock. All of them have summer homes where they spend their time from April/May/June-September. During the season, how much time are you really going to spend outside of the gym, working, or travelling? A professional athletes entire career is short, they will have plenty of time to catch rays on the beaches.
Last year was an aberration because so many stars were FA's and so many teams planned well ahead to make runs at one/some of them.
Guess what? Miami and LA won't even be an option for D12 or CP3 if the hit Free Agency.
That said, the only way we become real players for Howard is if Ainge gets CP3, keeps Green and Delonte, and uses the MLE this season on someone with upside and not on the downside of his career. Couple that with the Big Three hanging around, and that is a GREAT situation to come to, especially with a franchise, fanbase, and city that the Celtics offer (which combined is unmatched).
I could see a lineup of:
Paul
West
Pierce/Green
Green/MLE
Howard
(with Ray and KG off the bench)
being a contender.