First off, obviously another year means another year older, but even last year, they were right there with the Heat they just really fell off after Rondo's injury. This year however, we are better than last. DA has built a stronger bench, (Still a little slim at SG but other than that it's solid). We will have more time to integrate Jeff green who will only get better from last year, we will have players like Bass who can legitimately score off the bench, Dooling who is a very solid backup to Rondo, and who knows about Wilcox and JJJ? Maybe one of them surprises us.
All I'm saying is that there is a chance for 18. Nobody expected the Mavs to win it all last year and look what happened. Maybe Lebron breaks his leg. Who knows. I think we can beat the Bulls and if we can somehow win a series against the Heat then we can make it to the Finals.
What I do know is the Pierce, Garnett, and Allen will give us everything they have, because they are class acts and have nothing to lose.
I read these boards all the time and I ocassionally post.
It is amazing to me that people who watch the Celtics religiously can claim that this team has no shot to win a championship.
"But they lost in the second round!!" they'll say. To which I reply: they lost to the eventual
conference champions in the second round. Not only that, but if wasn't for a busted elbow and two fade-away hail mary three pointers by a career 30% 3-pt shooter, things very well may have turned out differently.
Now let's look at what the problems were with last year's team:
- They had very little depth, if any
- They had little athleticism, outside of Rondo
- They had too few shooters
- They were average to below average offensively
- Their 4th quarter scoring was terrible
Nothing hurt them more than their lack of offense, particularly their disastrous 4th quarter offense (again, if I remember correctly, they were beating the Heat late in the 4th quarter in two of their losses).
So where have they gone this offseason?
- They added better athletes: Dooling, Wilcox, Bass, JJJ
- They significantly improved depth (see above)
- They beefed up the 4, which should allow Jeff Green to play the 3, where he is a more dynamic offensive threat
- They improved, though not by much, their bench offense
At the very worst you could say they side-graded in some of these moves. In no way is this a worse team than last year. At best, you could say they have addressed as many needs as they possibly could given the flexibility they had. It would have been a dream to get David West (bye bye offensive woes) but we'll have to settle with a season of Jermain Oneal, who at least is a legitimate center and played great defense at the 5 in the playoffs when healthy.
In summary - this team has improved over last years team, which was competitive for a championship and they will be competitive again.
Topic: I think you guys are underestimating the Celtics... (Read 9826 times)