Rollie might be the smartest blogger on this website.
This is an interesting question and I agree.
It is as if we just ended last season.
There are one or two posters who dominate this website with knee-jerk analysis. They make these bold proclamations and primarily stick to them. When the team loses, they say this is what was expected. Or if they win, they say it is remarkable what Stevens does and this team has grit but will never get anywhere without more talent.
I agree with Rollie that this is the time of the season which is very hard for players. They don't know if they are coming or going.
I see easy games on the immediate schedule. This is the time for the C's to start piling up some wins. If we don't do well above average in the next several weeks, Smart or no Smart, we may just have hit that first round and done ceiling.
I agree with everything Rollie says. Lee has been a complete bust. Amir is solid but not the young man he once was. Kelly is inconsistent or too shy on offense. Sully did not get into good shape.
I don't mind Amir Johnson. The Johnson signing made sense. The David Lee/Wallace trade did not. Or trading for David Lee did make sense in a roll the dice kind of way, but it didn't work out, so why can't he now be benched?
Tyler Zeller was productive last year. Lee should be in the Wallace end of bench mentoring role. Jordan Mickey would be perfect as the fifth big big going back and forth from Maine and Boston. Johnson, Sully, Olynyk, and Zeller should be the rotation for bigs.
Jerebko needs to show more soon or let him go, trade him.
Pruning is a perfect word. Or think about hair. If someone wants healthy hair, it is best for them to trim the ends. Then it grows better and faster with less split ends.
If you pruned David Lee out of games, there'd be one less fat ego draining energy from the team's bulb or whatever it's called that makes up the heart and soul of a plant.
As for Sullinger, let him play the Humphries/Bass one more year to go role. Trade him or reevaluate him at the end of the season. A lot of guys are on one year deals. Rollie is 100% correct. This happens every year. Once the trade deadline passes, all players can relax. Some players in particular let it get to themselves more than others.
I think Humphries and Bass were model players for an Ainge/Stevens administration. Everyone is respected and all players get their opportunities and the C's will try to do well by them.
The Celtics are at another fork in the road. It is called an easy schedule. We shall see whether they put together a nice stretch, sludge forward, or regress. No one knows until the games are played.
Knee-jerk reactions are foolish. Look at Brooklyn and how some posters were so happy they looked tough for a couple weeks and were bordering on looking like a 30-40 win team.
I see Brooklyn has the third worst record.
They are an awful team. They are not winning 30 games and might not reach even 25 wins.
The Celtics are currently outside of the playoffs. I will not knee-jerk. I expect them to do well in upcoming games. I then expect for the same posters dominating this website to say the same things they always do.
There will be no refreshing breaths of fresh air from them such as I was wrong, Brooklyn is awful, or that the Celtics have become a top Eastern Conference team despite playing only .500 ball so far.
The Celtics are going nowhere but up this season. Last year we were 14 games under .500 at one point. They have been playing a form of rope-a-dope, inho.
I still believe the Celtics will take or come close to winning 50 games, trades or no trades. They are in the tier right below Cleveland, San Antonio, Golden State and possibly Oklahoma. There are two to four teams this year which are the best, then there are the rest. We are part of the rest of the pack, but with a high ceiling.
Brad Stevens is a great coach, works hard, and his brain is always functioning. I have no clue, however, why he continues to play David Lee. The guy is cooked. He is holding us back. It is Brad's fault for playing him so much, but I figure Danny will do some pruning or Brad will figure it out soon and send him to the bench where he belongs. David Lee and Turner do not seem to fit in. They are not as egotistical say as Sam Cassell was, but they are not team players in the Celtics tradition.
But it is like a Rubik's Cube. You just can't go bing, bang, boom, and the roster is perfect. You have to be stuck with a Gerald Wallace to get high draft picks. Now we are stuck with David Lee. We used to be stuck with Jameer Nelson and Brandan Wright. Patience is needed. This is only the beginning of year three of the rebuild. The big question is whether we are a 40 or 50 win team while still owning three straight years of Brooklyn's picks.
Rollie nailed it with this entry. Everything is up in the air until the trading season ends when team rosters are set for the second half of the year.
Topic: is it allready" next season" (Read 2268 times)