Sorry, but are you trolling or have you made a 180° turn?
Everybody has the right to change his mind, but I went through some of your preseason posts and they are completely different than the vibe you're giving now. What has changed?
48 wins
Kemba will miss a good number of games due to managing his knee and what not, but the Celts have continuity that the other top East teams don't right now. They're also led by a couple young stars who won't be as fazed by the condensed schedule.
Other East teams will also have to load manage their top guys and will have some ups and down integrating new core pieces.
2 seed.
Yes, I think the Celtics can have a top 5 defense and a top 5 offense with those three at the heart of the team, and I think Tatum can mature enough as a crunch time scorer to take over / win games when the Celts need him to.
Tatum and Brown have already proven they are very solid #1 and #2 scoring options even in the playoffs. Main thing to improve on is crunch time execution.
TP for making me face up to my words of just a few months ago.
You're totally right --- I was optimistic that the Celts could have a strong start to the year given the short window of time between their impressive playoff run and the beginning of this condensed season.
I was focused on the fact that the main guys that mattered were still here -- Tatum, Brown, Smart, Kemba, Theis.
The starting lineup of the team that just made the ECF.
I also thought that Jeff Teague could be a better fit than Brad Wanamaker, and I thought Tristan Thompson would give them much of what Enes Kanter gave them but without the hologram-esque defense.
I agree --- I was too optimistic. I didn't expect Teague to be totally washed. I thought Thompson would be a better fit (his assist rate had increased a lot in his later years in Cleveland).
I thought that Nesmith would at least be able to come in and be a shooter off the bench for 10-15 minutes a night even if he wasn't able to do much else. I figured that would be a minor upgrade over Semi.
I thought Grant Williams was going to show some steady growth after getting meaningful playoff minutes.
I thought Rob Williams would have carved out more of a consistent role by now.
I knew Kemba was going to miss time to start the year; I wasn't that worried about how he'd play once he came back. I figured he would rest a lot and play limited minutes compared to last season, but I thought that he would look pretty much like he did in the playoffs last season. Instead, he's been very up and down and clearly doesn't look the same as before (still uncertain if that's permanent or not).
As you see in what you quoted, I also thought that Tatum and Brown would show growth and improvement as crunch time scorers. I thought that would carry the Celts past some tough opponents in some tight games.
How many games have the Celts lost this season so far that were within a couple possessions in the final minutes? I feel if anything they're actually worse in crunch time this season, somehow. Very disappointing.
Of course, I think a lot of what I was optimistic about is still true. The core of this team is very good. Problem is that the 5 guys who started playoff games last season have spent about 30 minutes total on the floor together this season even though we're almost halfway through the year. It's no surprise, then, that they're much worse than I thought, since I figured they would be a team with a very good starting lineup and a trick or treat bench.
In fairness to my past self, the Celts did start 8-3. A lot of what I thought would go right was going right at the start of the season. But the injuries, the lack of depth, Tatum getting COVID, and the two veteran additions just not being very good / not fitting in as well as expected have taken a toll.
That, and I think having a deep playoff run and then playing a condensed schedule, on top of everything else, is probably wearing out these guys more than I expected it would, even though they are young.
