Okay, I understand why, but .....

[nickagneta]

I understand, there is a huge section of the fan base here at CelticsStrong that just prefers to be hyper negative. There is a section that lives day by day and refuses to look at the larger picture. It has always been that way and always will.

But come on!!!

The Celtics have won 11 of 13 and 18 of 24. They now have the 2nd best defense in the league and it's been the best by a historically wide margin for 6 weeks. There is so much to be positive about.

The defense
The cohesion of the rotation and specifically the starters
The passing
The ball movement
The increase in pace
The development of both Jays playmaking
The climb up the standings
The prospects in the playoffs

Things are looking up yet some just only want to look down

Yes, they lost two of their last 4 games, those two games being against bad teams. But those bad teams played well and this is still the NBA where even the best of teams can lose 2 of 4 while losing to 2 bad teams if those teams play great. It happens a lot.

And in those two games the Pistons and Pacers shot a combined 33 for 63 from three point land. An unreal 52.3% rate. Boston, in both games were missing at least one starter. Two against Detroit. I don't care how good a team you are, if you're missing important starters and the opposition plays inspired ball while shooting over 50% from three at a high volume, there's an extremely good chance you're going to lose.

It doesn't matter how or why you get knocked down. It matters that you get up and how you respond. The Celtics have three tough games coming up. Let's see how they perform there.

You can't win every game and teams made up of a bunch of guys 27 years old and under are going to stink on occasions. But if the Celtics can play great defense and overall play top notch basketball the rest of the way, record be da(m)ned, this team is going to make some major noise come playoff time

And, in the off-season, they have picks to trade, TPEs to trade players into, the taxpayer MLE and some interesting pieces to trade to upgrade the team, including the bench, like Horford and/or his contract, Grant, Smart, White, Pritchard and Nesmith. Now, I'm not advocating trading all or even any of those guys, but as a package for a star or amazing upgrade at the PG or PF position, then yeah, they are available.

Overall, I am really excited for this team, this year and beyond. I hope most everyone else would be too. But I get it. I understand. It's CelticsStrong. Expecting anything more than silence from some during times of amazing play is probably setting myself up for disappointment.

[Silas]

I'm with you and all good points.  TP for your post and thanks.

[Birdman]

That’s Sports for u…no matter what team ppl support, they will complain about anything

[Who]

I wonder if it is along the lines of "The Social Dilemma" documentary where folks on social media are more engaged when they get angry / upset than when content.

I wonder if the same thing happens on sports forums -- well it does, we all see more posts and topics when things are bad and we are trying to figure out why than when things are good and most are fairly happy with everything and do not have much to say.

What I see here is no different than I see on other NBA forums in terms of criticism / praise of their team. Well, some smaller sites manage to keep things jollier but ... that changes once they get more voices on their sites.

And some people are naturally just more "glass half empty" and some are more "glass half full". You are always going to have both on a site.

[todd_days_41]

Good post Nick. I suspect you'd call me negative (mostly because I pick on JB's tunnel vision and turnover sprees ( ), but i like a lot of what has been happening and evolving this season.

I like where Ime is headed, i like improvement i've seen from Tatum and Smart, and Williams continues to show how great he could be going forward. Despite some groaning in the media about what he said, i was pleased to hear Tatum defend his relationship with Jaylen and them wanting to be together prior to the AS game.

Here's the rub: I despised the Trade Deadline. I believe it's going to set this team back, and that's infuriating. I find it difficult to understand where this team is going to find improvements it still very much needs to be taken seriously. So i'll admit i've been pretty negative since Feb 10th.

[Goldstar88]

In Boston sports, the expectation is to win championships. At times there will be praise and other instances fans will be critical. That is not something unique to this site and I don’t really view it as negativity. Season has been up and down and the fanbase is going to question/critique the players, coach and GM which in turn provides discussion. I think the site would be pretty boring without it.

I really liked the group going into the season and thought Brad did an incredible job adding pieces to the Smart, Brown, Tatum core. Defensively, Ime has been very good coach and I’m hopeful that he can improve with his offensive play calling. So far, I’m not sold on the trade deadline moves, but we shall see how that pans out. The C’s might have the best duo of players 25 and under with JT and JB. Smart and Timelord are our defensive anchors, Al is the glue. The team has played incredible defense and this in turn has given them an identity. A lot of positives...

[Redz]

It could be worse

We could be the Lakers 

[liam]

I can see some positives in the season but last night they looked lost and disinterested. You have to call that out. If this was a kind of scheduled loss due to the schedule it would've been easier to take if Ime had run with the young guys on the deep bench in the second half just to see what they have. I have seen Pop and other coaches do this type of thing many times. This could've been more of a big picture loss if Ime had used it as such.

[slamtheking]

I've been generally positive about the team even when they stunk (between the Antoine and KG years) but the past few seasons have been very trying on me as a fan and I'm sure, on a good part of the fanbase:
- Hayward lost 5 minutes into his first game
- the IT injury which basically required a trade for an intact PG which happened to be Kyrie who is not mentally intact
- Kyrie becoming a lockerroom fiasco
- the just-miss on Durant
- the anti-Celtic attitude of AD when Danny was trying to get him
- the mishandled draft picks/assets by Danny where he had a few drafts where he squandered the picks on bad players or traded them for peanuts
- the heavy toll taken on the team due to Covid
- the flame-out of Kemba who was an iron man prior to coming here
- and from a personal perspective, Brad overpaying in this past trade deadline for a guy that's not nearly worth what we gave up and the deals overall reducing the level of talent on the team

I'd like to be positive.  I really would but I need to see this team put it together the rest of the season.  I'm still optimistic the J's are great building blocks and Timelord has developed into a really good center.  GWill has bounced back this season and looked like a really good rotation player.  Smart's played, well, "smart" basketball most of the year.   The team needs to do better to get the fanbase back to feeling good about it.

[PhoSita]

I try to be positive, but if the team makes me feel stupid / bad for doing so over an extended period of time (as they did for most of last season and the first half of this season), I'm going to be slow to come back from that.

That said, I always *want* to believe in the team when they're playing well. 

[Neurotic Guy]

Thank for this thread!  Sometimes it feels like being positive is viewed as delusional, green-glasses thinking rather than just a different, viable point of view.   I absolutely prefer Derrick White and Daniel Theis to Shroeder and Richardson.  We'll see how it plays out with the picks, but I disagree that that the deadline deals were bad deals -- but of course that will become clearer in time.

Last year and 1st half of this year were incredibly frustrating. While the past 25 games have provided a revival in spirit and excitement, the recent losses definitely play into a sky is falling feeling -- that possibility that what we've seen recently is fool's gold and the C's really aren't the threat that they appeared to be over this stretch.   I keep looking around the next hill and thinking that if they get just get past "x" then I can truly believe in them.  The next test is Atlanta, Memphis, and (nearly full-strength) Nets.  If the C's aren't competitive in all with at least 1 win it will be crushing. 

Lastly, the supporting cast, just feels better. After the Jays, with Rob, Smart, White, Al, Theis, Grant, and PP -- it feels like a pretty decent top-9 - especially if Pritchard can find his Microwave or his House.   As Nick said, this team looks much more now like it can add a key piece or 2 with a package, MLE, TPEs, and be in the upper echelon in the next year or 2. 

[dannyboy35]

  You can guarantee people will complain too much in sports. But even more than that you can count on people saying everybody is losing their minds snd overreacting to present themselves as calm snd cool and someone who doesn’t overreact. Its an ego thing.

[liam]

  You can guarantee people will complain too much in sports. But even more than that you can count on people saying everybody is losing their minds snd overreacting to present themselves as calm snd cool and someone who doesn’t overreact. Its an ego thing.

WHAT!!!!!!!???

 

[Surferdad]

I disagree with most of the positive mental attitude stuff from the OP. 

The Indy game was hugely disappointing but not nearly as bad as the DET game when they were up by 8 with only a couple of minutes to go.  Good teams do not lose those games, let alone great ones.

They are beating bad teams and teams missing key star players.

D-White has come down to earth and is not better than J-Rich.

JT is not hitting shots this year. Both JT and JB still fall back into bad habits, and turn the ball over at an alarming rate.

Al Horford is washed up.

Ime Udoka is a rookie coach who hasn’t found his groove yet.  I see no reason why this team should progress past the 2nd round in the playoffs, but more likely it will be 1st round exit.

I suppose there’s some off-season cap flexibility but not picks.

Signing at least 3 G-league players instead of one good experienced vet, preferably a big banger, was a mistake.  Theis is not physical enough.

There’s only one bright spot this season: Robert Williams III (with Grant honorable mention).

[action781]

I'm very optimistic about the direction of this team.  I think we could definitely make noise this postseason, but we're really set up to make noise for the next three postseasons, which is also awesome.  I think this playoffs will be a learning experience for Ime as a head coach and he will gain from it and be better in future seasons when we're an even stronger contender.