Poll: Is the Cs roster better than last season?

[Csfan1984]

Tristan Thompson and Jeff Teague are worse than nothing.

I seriously lol at that one. I don't like either signing but I'm not going that far. Good post.

[gouki88]

Teague and Thompson both suck now.  You guys literally celebrate any garbage Ainge brings in.   
Is this part of the great rebuild plan?  What a joke.

Yeah, our first double-digit rebounder in 15 years and a solid 12PPG veteran are sooooo bad

[hwangjini_1]

Teague and Thompson both suck now.  You guys literally celebrate any garbage Ainge brings in.   
Is this part of the great rebuild plan?  What a joke.

Yeah, our first double-digit rebounder in 15 years and a solid 12PPG veteran are sooooo bad

actually, per 36, kanter was the better rebounder than thompson. expect thompson's numbers to drop under CBS. but his assists and screens will increase, which is fine.

so....

basically at this point, the relevant players are (in which I do not include Waters, Edwards or Tacko):

G - Smart, Kemba, Teague, Pritchard, Nesmith
F - Brown, Tatum, GWill, Langford, Semi
C - Theis, Thompson, RWIII

this is a good group. the bench is clearly better than last year.

[Bobshot]

With Thompson and Teague, I'll say they are better. Thompson gives them an inside presence, which was their biggest weakness. Teague is a great backup for Walker.

[RPGenerate]

Teague and Thompson both suck now.  You guys literally celebrate any garbage Ainge brings in.   
Is this part of the great rebuild plan?  What a joke.

Yeah, our first double-digit rebounder in 15 years and a solid 12PPG veteran are sooooo bad

actually, per 36, kanter was the better rebounder than thompson. expect thompson's numbers to drop under CBS. but his assists and screens will increase, which is fine.

so....

basically at this point, the relevant players are (in which I do not include Waters, Edwards or Tacko):

G - Smart, Kemba, Teague, Pritchard, Nesmith
F - Brown, Tatum, GWill, Langford, Semi
C - Theis, Thompson, RWIII

this is a good group. the bench is clearly better than last year.

Thompson also has the benefit of not moving like he has two cinder blocks tied to his legs, so he'll actually be playable against most of the league.

But yeah, I agree his rebounds will drop. Brad's system favors getting back on defense over getting offensive boards.

[ozgod]

Definitely a downgrade overall. But not as bad a downgrade as it looked initially.

Basically:

Subtractions:
- Hayward
- Kanter
- Wanamaker
- Poirier

Additions:
- Thompson
- Teague
- Nesmith
- Pritchard

You could argue that Thompson > Kanter, you could argue that Teague > Wanamaker, and that losing Poirier is negligible, and that Nesmith and Pritchard fill gaps in the team, but there's no one player we've signed that will replace Gordon's production. But the good news is that we may not need to replace his production with an external player. The Jays will likely take up the slack as will Marcus and Kemba, and the rest of the bench. Remember last season our bench wasn't the greatest in terms of production. So I think we're worse than last year but I don't think it will affect us much.

I think the issue will be that when one of our top 4 are injured, it will put more pressure on the others. We don't have the luxury of having a Smart on the bench to step into the starting lineup. The good news is that the bench is probably deeper overall.

[moiso]

Definitely a downgrade overall. But not as bad a downgrade as it looked initially.

Basically:

Subtractions:
- Hayward
- Kanter
- Wanamaker
- Poirier

Additions:
- Thompson
- Teague
- Nesmith
- Pritchard

You could argue that Thompson > Kanter, you could argue that Teague > Wanamaker, and that losing Poirier is negligible, and that Nesmith and Pritchard fill gaps in the team, but there's no one player we've signed that will replace Gordon's production. But the good news is that we may not need to replace his production with an external player. The Jays will likely take up the slack as will Marcus and Kemba, and the rest of the bench. Remember last season our bench wasn't the greatest in terms of production. So I think we're worse than last year but I don't think it will affect us much.

I think the issue will be that when one of our top 4 are injured, it will put more pressure on the others. We don't have the luxury of having a Smart on the bench to step into the starting lineup. The good news is that the bench is probably deeper overall.

I don't think it really requires an argument to say that Thompson is better than Kanter and Teague is better than Wanamaker.  The only person that we lost that will have an effect is Hayward.  We will miss him but we seem much more balanced as we are now.  One huge thing for me is how Nesmith plays.  The guy should be able to hit shots from day 1.  I don't think he will be a Carsen Edward type case of a supposed shooter who isn't actually that great of a shooter.  He could fill a role that I have wanted for this team for years- a young Kyle Korver type role.  I can see Nesmith scoring double digits by the end of the season just based on his shooting ability.  If that happens I think the current team is quite a bit better and more well rounded than last years team. 

[Neurotic Guy]

The incalculable part of this question is always going to be how remaining players from the previous year progress.  In the case where many previous year players are young and talented and have already been getting minutes the more likely this variable favors improvement.

I think it is not unreasonable to expect the following players to be better unless a better incoming player takes their minutes (a sign of roster improvement):  Tatum, Brown, Bob, Grant and Romeo. 

Given improvement by the youth cluster plus Nesmith who should get minutes, and with additions of Teague and Thompson, this team should have more depth and versatility than last year.

And Danny’s not done.

[DefenseWinsChamps]

I think people are gonna be really disappointed in Teague this season. There's a good chance Pritchard is marginably better at this point.

I watched him some last year. I don't think he's better than Wanamaker.

They got him because they wanted a veteran point guard and he was one of the veteraniest veteran point guards left.

[jambr380]

Marcus Smart started the vast majority of games for us last year in both the regular season and playoffs, and that was definitely not the plan. So if you're looking at our actual line-up last season compared to a basically healthy line-up this season, I would say we are slightly better (although I voted 'about the same').

Obviously I agree that losing Hayward stinks, and he is probably now going to turn into an NBA ironman, but our playoff line-up got appreciably better and more of our bench became actually playable. That will be big - especially in the regular season - when we are trying to limit players' minutes in a condensed season.

[jambr380]

I think people are gonna be really disappointed in Teague this season. There's a good chance Pritchard is marginably better at this point.

I watched him some last year. I don't think he's better than Wanamaker.

They got him because they wanted a veteran point guard and he was one of the veteraniest veteran point guards left.

I think that's exactly why he was picked up. If he proves to play very effectively in Brad's system, then that's fantastic; but if Pritchard proves to be better than him and he falls back into the 3rd PG (which is also fantastic) he is old enough now to maturely fall back into a situational role w/o affecting team chemistry.

[Sophomore]

The incalculable part of this question is always going to be how remaining players from the previous year progress.  In the case where many previous year players are young and talented and have already been getting minutes the more likely this variable favors improvement.

I think it is not unreasonable to expect the following players to be better unless a better incoming player takes their minutes (a sign of roster improvement):  Tatum, Brown, Bob, Grant and Romeo. 

Given improvement by the youth cluster plus Nesmith who should get minutes, and with additions of Teague and Thompson, this team should have more depth and versatility than last year.

And Danny’s not done.

All of this. Danny needs another piece - a wing/swing - and then we should have a supporting cast that’s better than next year. The real question is whether the Js will make another jump. We go as far as they can take us.

[Sophomore]

I think people are gonna be really disappointed in Teague this season. There's a good chance Pritchard is marginably better at this point.

I watched him some last year. I don't think he's better than Wanamaker.

They got him because they wanted a veteran point guard and he was one of the veteraniest veteran point guards left.

I don’t think it’s about better/worse; his game is different than Wana’s. Wana was usually good at knocking down an open shot, and he was stout on d. Teague is a much better distributor and setup man for other players. He’s also a somewhat better scorer. I think that’s closer to what we needed on the bench, and if he needs to play some minutes with the starters to rest Kemba’s knee he can fill in there too.

[cman88]

hopefully danny goes out and gets some Veterans for the Vet-min.

I hope he learned from watching Igoudala burn us in the ECF that sometimes having an experienced player come off the bench is better than going with young guys.

[Moranis]

Thompson is a better defender than Kanter, but they are similar players overall.  There is probably a small upgrade there, but not significant.  I think Teague will be a fine back-up PG and certainly a better spot starter than Wanamaker, but I'm not sure he will be a better situational back-up than Wanamaker was, as I don't believe he will be as good a shooter as Wanamaker (at least going forward).  The team will miss Hayward a lot.  Having your 4th guy have the ability to score 20 on any given night is huge and none of the rookies will replace that and I don't think Langford is ready for that sort of role either.  So overall, the loss of Hayward is big and he wasn't replaced.  I think that will be the issue and why I don't think the team is any better.