2012 Celtics: Defeat Bad Teams, Lose to Good Ones

[CelticG1]

Current playoff teams we've beaten, Bulls, Indiana, Rockets, Bucks (or Knicks), Magic (Twice), Grizzlies and Clippers.

We've lost to playoff teams as well but it's not as bad as people make it out to be.

[RyNye]

When has blowing it up ever really worked? The past few championship teams have all been put together through trades, not the draft.

[xmuscularghandix]

When has blowing it up ever really worked? The past few championship teams have all been put together through trades, not the draft.

The Oklahoma City Thunder and Memphis Grizzlies come to mind. In 2008 both teams traded their superstars (Ray Allen, Gasol) for younger players and draft picks. The Grizzlies were  win away from the WCF and the Thunder were in the WCF.

Obviously Memphis isn't that great this season but that's completely because of the injury to Zach Randolph.

I truly beleive that blowing it up can work. The strategy must be to acquire picks and build through the draft, it can't just be to let contracts expire and sign 2nd tier "almost stars" then try to sell them as stars (Detroit Pistons with Charlie V and Ben Gordon.)

Obviously this required that you sit through a couple lean years but with Rondo the Celtics sort of already have that first piece going forward.

[CelticG1]

When has blowing it up ever really worked? The past few championship teams have all been put together through trades, not the draft.

The Oklahoma City Thunder and Memphis Grizzlies come to mind. In 2008 both teams traded their superstars (Ray Allen, Gasol) for younger players and draft picks. The Grizzlies were  win away from the WCF and the Thunder were in the WCF.

Obviously Memphis isn't that great this season but that's completely because of the injury to Zach Randolph.

I truly beleive that blowing it up can work. The strategy must be to acquire picks and build through the draft, it can't just be to let contracts expire and sign 2nd tier "almost stars" then try to sell them as stars (Detroit Pistons with Charlie V and Ben Gordon.)

Obviously this required that you sit through a couple lean years but with Rondo the Celtics sort of already have that first piece going forward.

How many championships do those teams have?

And how long have they been bad for?

[OmarSekou]

When has blowing it up ever really worked? The past few championship teams have all been put together through trades, not the draft.

The Oklahoma City Thunder and Memphis Grizzlies come to mind. In 2008 both teams traded their superstars (Ray Allen, Gasol) for younger players and draft picks. The Grizzlies were  win away from the WCF and the Thunder were in the WCF.

Obviously Memphis isn't that great this season but that's completely because of the injury to Zach Randolph.

I truly beleive that blowing it up can work. The strategy must be to acquire picks and build through the draft, it can't just be to let contracts expire and sign 2nd tier "almost stars" then try to sell them as stars (Detroit Pistons with Charlie V and Ben Gordon.)

Obviously this required that you sit through a couple lean years but with Rondo the Celtics sort of already have that first piece going forward.

OKC is not a model for success. The likelihood of us landing a lottery pick and that pick turning out to be a player like KD is slim. We were almost in that position that year...and we would have taken Oden.

Memphis was a win away from the WCF and it doesn't look like they'll get closer this year.

I don't want 2nd tier players either. The key is to be patient and wait for the best deals. If there aren't any deals, you put more effort into developing young talent and retaining a credible team. Then you cherry pick from losing teams whose players want to leave or winning teams who are willing to overpay to get a piece they think can put them over the edge.