Management, I’m pleading with you; blow it up!

[Moranis]

Serious point here:

Take a superstar and give him a 2nd star in support in Jaylen Brown. Give him a solid but unexceptional supporting cast of Horford, Timelord, Smart, Schroder and guys like Grant Williams, J.Richardson, Pritchard, Romeo, Kanter, Nesmith ... how good is that team?

That is a 50+ win team with a legit superstar. Take all of the guys you consider superstars and tell me how many of those teams are not 50 win teams? How many are 55-60 win teams?

Why is this team fighting for .500 with Tatum? Why is he considered a superstar if he cannot deliver what these other superstars can deliver?

Tell me this team does not win 50+ games with James Harden or with Joel Embiid. Nevermind a Giannis or Steph Curry.

Again, depends on what you call a superstar.  If a superstar is only top 5 players, then no, Tatum isn't that, but if you are talking about the top 15 to 20 players, then sure Tatum is absolutely one of those.  And for the record, Golden State was 39-33 last year with a fairly similar team to this year. 

Boston has played a very difficult schedule with players in and out of the lineup.  The C's will go on a tear starting in mid-January to mid-March (18-7 should be the worst case if they are healthy) and after that 8-5 should be the worst case, so even looking at the worst case (again if they are mostly healthy), when Boston ends the year something like 26-12 in the worst case, I'd like to see all of those posting now continue making the same type of posts.

Schedule matters.  Health matters.  Boston has, and still has a couple more weeks of, a very difficult schedule and the roster has been mess because of covid and other injuries.  If Tatum and Brown are healthy starting in mid-January, Boston will shoot up the standings.

So Boston is well on its way to better than 26-12 to end the year as the team has gone 17-5 thus far in the period I was identifying.  So they need to finish just 9-7 to match what I said would be the worst case if they were healthy.  They should hit that though the schedule is a bit tougher to end the year.

[nickagneta]

Another thread that in retrospect is looking like a seriously bad take.

I guess we have droopdog as another poster to thank for motivating the team

[colincb]

Another thread that in retrospect is looking like a seriously bad take.

I guess we have droopdog as another poster to thank for motivating the team

Another sinner looking for redemption.

[pokeKingCurtis]

Another thread that in retrospect is looking like a seriously bad take.

I guess we have droopdog as another poster to thank for motivating the team

Without hot takes from CelticsStrong, the team wouldn't be on the winning streak it is having today.

[nickagneta]

Another thread that in retrospect is looking like a seriously bad take.

I guess we have droopdog as another poster to thank for motivating the team

Without hot takes from CelticsStrong, the team wouldn't be on the winning streak it is having today.

I guess it's a good thing we still have posters with some seriously negative hot takes on the team, the coach and it's players still happening. With all that motivation the team will go undefeated the rest of the year.

🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

[tenn_smoothie]

Another thread that in retrospect is looking like a seriously bad take.

I guess we have droopdog as another poster to thank for motivating the team

Gosh Nick, we should all be so magnanimous and wise as you.
Takes a lot of courage to shoot someone's opinion full of holes months later after we have seen how it all turned out.

Warning: I am still not completely sold on this team or Coach Ime. It's been so much fun watching them play better basketball, but their playoff mental toughness still feels fragile to me. Also, I think that they still need a few crucial pieces to be a championship team.

[nickagneta]

Another thread that in retrospect is looking like a seriously bad take.

I guess we have droopdog as another poster to thank for motivating the team

Gosh Nick, we should all be so magnanimous and wise as you.
Takes a lot of courage to shoot someone's opinion full of holes months later after we have seen how it all turned out.

Warning: I am still not completely sold on this team or Coach Ime. It's been so much fun watching them play better basketball, but their playoff mental toughness still feels fragile to me. Also, I think that they still need a few crucial pieces to be a championship team.

Oh I have been shooting holes in the negative takes on the C's for 1 1/2 seasons tenn. It hasn't just started.

[Kernewek]

I'm glad Nick's doing the work of resurrecting the overreactions, honestly. It's a good reminder to avoid the dreaded and deadly destroyer of the ships of opinion.


That's right. The Small Sample Size Kraken, which is almost nine years old now:



In case you never saw this the first time, it's from the glory days of the Knickerblogger blog:
https://knickerblogger.net/nextish-day-notes-and-errata-timberwolves-knicks/

[Celtics2021]

I'm glad Nick's doing the work of resurrecting the overreactions, honestly. It's a good reminder to avoid the dreaded and deadly destroyer of the ships of opinion.


That's right. The Small Sample Size Kraken, which is almost nine years old now:



In case you never saw this the first time, it's from the glory days of the Knickerblogger blog:
https://knickerblogger.net/nextish-day-notes-and-errata-timberwolves-knicks/

I must say, I’m rather proud of the pre-deadline threads I started.  I have no fears of embarrassment should those be resurrected.

[ozgod]

Another thread that in retrospect is looking like a seriously bad take.

I guess we have droopdog as another poster to thank for motivating the team

I was browsing the forum for another thread I was looking for and there are quite a few takes from back in December and January that in retrospect are funny now. Blow up the team, fire Ime, break up the Jays...I guess that's why we the fans are not running the team, because we overreact too much 

[Vermont Green]

I don't think I had responded in this thread exactly but there were other "Fire Ime", "Break Up the Jays", and "Trade Marcus Smart" threads.

To be fair, for most of the season, it was hard to know if Ime was a good coach and/or if the team was responding to his coaching.  The team was underperforming collectively.  They did not project as a "well coached" team.  But I never understood the concern that the Jays together was some kind of problem or that Smart as a PG was going to be some kind of problem.  I was not seeing the problem with either.

The other refrain that you heard (and still hear) is "we need more shooting".  More shooting is always nice to have, it's not like anyone wanted less shooting, but I never saw that as a key flaw.  Our roster of bigs was the area of concern for me but both Horford and GWill have been shooting surprisingly well.

And now, after the trades, wing depth is a weakness.  Our starting wing duo of Tatum and Brown is probably the best wing tandem in the league but our 3rd wing is Nesmith who wasn't all that effective even before the injury.  In the last game (Nets) we played the entire game with 2 of GWill, RWill, Theis or Horford on the court at all times paired with 3 of Smart, Brown, Tatum, White, and Pritchard so we really didn't play a true back up wing.  Against Memphis, GWill was on the court as a wing quite a bit.

[td450]

And now, after the trades, wing depth is a weakness.  Our starting wing duo of Tatum and Brown is probably the best wing tandem in the league but our 3rd wing is Nesmith who wasn't all that effective even before the injury.  In the last game (Nets) we played the entire game with 2 of GWill, RWill, Theis or Horford on the court at all times paired with 3 of Smart, Brown, Tatum, White, and Pritchard so we really didn't play a true back up wing.  Against Memphis, GWill was on the court as a wing quite a bit.

What is different about this group now is that we don't need Tatum or Brown to cover at power forward much at all. What only a few months ago that seemed like a gaping weakness at power forward, now looks pretty good. Horford and GWill have been far better than we had a right to expect, and Theis can now cover a few minutes here and there too.

That pushes the minutes for Tatum and Brown down to focus almost exclusively at the 2/3, and Grant Williams can cover some of those backup minutes at the 3 pretty easily.

So, even though we suddenly don't have much wing depth, we don't need much.

[droopdog7]

Another thread that in retrospect is looking like a seriously bad take.

I guess we have droopdog as another poster to thank for motivating the team

Hey, I'm here to take my penance.

[Surferdad]

And now, after the trades, wing depth is a weakness.  Our starting wing duo of Tatum and Brown is probably the best wing tandem in the league but our 3rd wing is Nesmith who wasn't all that effective even before the injury.  In the last game (Nets) we played the entire game with 2 of GWill, RWill, Theis or Horford on the court at all times paired with 3 of Smart, Brown, Tatum, White, and Pritchard so we really didn't play a true back up wing.  Against Memphis, GWill was on the court as a wing quite a bit.

What is different about this group now is that we don't need Tatum or Brown to cover at power forward much at all. What only a few months ago that seemed like a gaping weakness at power forward, now looks pretty good. Horford and GWill have been far better than we had a right to expect, and Theis can now cover a few minutes here and there too.

That pushes the minutes for Tatum and Brown down to focus almost exclusively at the 2/3, and Grant Williams can cover some of those backup minutes at the 3 pretty easily.

So, even though we suddenly don't have much wing depth, we don't need much.

Grant has effectively been a 3 in many lineups.  This gives them a big frontcourt with either JT or Horford at the 4, and Horford or Rob at the 5. 

[Roy H.]

As a reminder, our rules don't allow bumping of old threads, particularly for purposes of calling each other out.  It's too easy to go from "all in good fun" to "pile on this person's opinion while shouting them down for their opinion".