Rollie continues to prove he is one of the top basketball bloggers on this forum. He can break down each player. He seems to neither condemn players (except for Lee) nor does he give an over the top Tommy Heinsohn analysis.
Isaiah Thomas makes one wonder how the Patriots would have done if they'd gone with Flutie when he was young and built an offensive line around him. They said he was too short, etc..
Rooting for Pressey probably makes me look like an idiot. But for some reason all these other young players were allowed to get away with mistakes. Pressey was as young as any of them and he quite often was the only thing keeping us together for rhythm.
Basketball is like a well-produced movie. It looks great. None of us watched the rehearsals, the rewrites, and all the sweat put into the final product.
The bottom line is what Rollie says above. Isaiah does things on the court few can do. It doesn't matter that he is small on offense. Everyone agrees on that. And if we look back on how Pressey was able to terrorize the opposition when he was on defense, and that Isaiah has the same speed and BB IQ as Pressey if not more so, then we should have faith that Isaiah Thomas can be one of our Big Three of the future.
Or maybe it will be a Big Five. Maybe guys like Isaiah and Jae simply have ceilings that prevent them from Big Three type inclusion. But turn that into a Big Five or Big Eight, in the tradition of Celtics teamwork, and we could be that Pistons type champion that wins it all despite not having one of the few transcendent stars like LeBron or Curry.
We could possibly make a big move and speed everything up, but then we would have to relinquish a lot of "the assets" Danny has magically accumulated since blowing up the last era.
I don't think Danny wants to do that unless he can get younger stars like KG and Ray. The problem with that is younger stars cost a lot more than older stars approaching the end of their prime years.
And I see Danny has come up again with his obligatory mid-season we are not as good as it seems speech. Danny agrees with us that the team is fun, but that it's just not that easy to make the next level. He warns that this is when GM's tend to make mistakes. They want so much to boost a team from treadmill to champion contender, that they basically gut their team or otherwise make things worse due to impatience.
The NBA is a brutal league and I appreciate Rollie reminding us of how many people have actually played basketball and never so-called made it. There are so many factors involved. This is not really a sport to follow for half a year or by the year. Perhaps it should be seen in regards to two or three year chunks.
We are finishing up the first 2-3 year chunk. I think Danny might want to ride with this team for the whole year and see if it can win 50 games. I expect some minor tinkering. Trading Sully and/or Turner to me would be such a move.
It is all speculation. There's no point in anyone's stomach churning. We are a 45-50 win team right now. We are trying to show we are the Toronto or Washington of last year. That is not a treadmill. It is about getting the same results of those teams but with a much brighter future. I might be downplaying Toronto as a team.
Danny doesn't think we can win a title this year. I disagree. The odds are low, but I think by the end of the year we will be top ten NBA team. It will be accomplished on the backs of young players such as Isaiah, Avery, Jae and Kelly, players who are just starting to assert themselves. That is an amazing core Danny has put together.
I am not upset the Lee trade failed. I am happy with the Amir trade. This could end up like the Big Baby season the year KG got injured. No one thought we had a chance to win it all, but despite not winning it all, that team was fun and took us on a good ride, same as this season seems to be shaping up.
Topic: we didn't tank but we got isaiah and crowder (Read 1477 times)