"too many question marks" ???

[gar]

Agree in principle with the too many line of thinking. However, this is why I basically would cringe every time Ainge would bring the ball up the court. He seemed completely out of control; but he made good things happen more often than not.

Last years main questions:

- is Rondo an NBA caliber starting PG?
- is Perk an NBA caliber starting C?
- can three stars buy into a team concept?

All three answered by the banner #17

Lingering questions from last year:

- will Pruitt be able to contribute?
- will T Allen be able to get his groove back?
- will BBD be able to keep his conditioning up / weight down?

All in all not major questions, although they did have to figure out how to integrate Cassell and PJ Brown toward the end - they were both healthy veterans.

New questions:

- has giddens learned from his mistakes?
- will walkers knee hold up?
- will POB find the spark?
- will D Miles be able to contribute?

Insurance:

Rondo / House / Pruitt

RAllen / TAllen / Giddens

PPierce / DMiles / BWalker

KG / LPowe / BScal

Perk / POB / BBD

PG - TAllen can play spot minutes @ PG (yikes)
SG - House or Pruitt can play SG
SF - BScal can play bigger (slower) SF
PF - DMiles and BBD can play PF
C - KG can play C (yes center is the weakest link at this point)

So, all in all, this roster is one only Danny Ainge could love. It is full of question marks; but also with enough overlapping depth and pure athleticism that I think it will work.

Whats your take?

[JR Giddens]

My prediction:

Tony Allen will recreate himself and Rajon Rondo will be a MIP candidate because he'll get way more minutes than TA. Rondo played 30 min last year and he'll play 30-35 min next year.

Rajon Rondo will prolly never be a shooter but he could be a Jason Kidd/Tony Parker type player.
TA will be that slaher that we were mssing in the Cleveland series where every1 was taking jump shots


Giddens, Walker, POB, and Miles no one really knows how they'll do! It could be bad or it could be good! I think 2 of these 4 will succeed tho for next year hopefully

[Amonkey]

That was a great post.  I never really thought it like that, but that was an insightful analysis.  TP for you.

[guava_wrench]

My prediction:

Tony Allen will recreate himself and Rajon Rondo will be a MIP candidate because he'll get way more minutes than TA. Rondo played 30 min last year and he'll play 30-35 min next year.

Rajon Rondo will prolly never be a shooter but he could be a Jason Kidd/Tony Parker type player.

What is the similarity in the games of Kidd and Parker apart from not being great outside shooters?

[cmburrill]

 Hmmm...my only question will be will Philly challenge us in the east. This team needed vet exp. last year, they got it. Now we wait and see how this benefited from those vets. Im sure we will see some maturity from Rondo, Powe and Davis.

The questions you had will not make or break this team. Has Giddens learned from his mistakes? If this guy plays 10 minutes a game i would be surprised.

Walkers Knee? He may be NBDL same as Giddens.

POB is a back up for situational matchups , and security against injuries. Thats what we need. If he gives us quality minutes great.

Miles is a cheap gamble, non guaranteed contract(Portland or their insurance company will be paying this cat)so again this a bu at the 4 if they play small, 3 if they play tall, but will be used sparingly and is a situational player.

The lingering questions from last year are answered sadly by...it does not matter. Pruitt could go NBADL, BB better be thin cause we signed 2 people that compete with his minutes. Same for you TA...you dont produce to rookies would love to take some of those minutes freed by Posey.

 This team will not have a 12 man rotation. The nucleus is set.Their is no team out their that has a better starting 5. We also have to give Doc some credit and allow him to make changes based on his knowledge of the C's strengths and weaknesses. Can they run the O through PP or Ray Allen instead of signing another PG?  Yes they dont need to sign anyone else and there is not a gm in the world that would not want to have this team. Its insane to think otherwise.

[gar]

Hmmm...my only question will be will Philly challenge us in the east. This team needed vet exp. last year, they got it. Now we wait and see how this benefited from those vets. Im sure we will see some maturity from Rondo, Powe and Davis.

The questions you had will not make or break this team. Has Giddens learned from his mistakes? If this guy plays 10 minutes a game i would be surprised.

Walkers Knee? He may be NBDL same as Giddens.

POB is a back up for situational matchups , and security against injuries. Thats what we need. If he gives us quality minutes great.

Miles is a cheap gamble, non guaranteed contract(Portland or their insurance company will be paying this cat)so again this a bu at the 4 if they play small, 3 if they play tall, but will be used sparingly and is a situational player.

The lingering questions from last year are answered sadly by...it does not matter. Pruitt could go NBADL, BB better be thin cause we signed 2 people that compete with his minutes. Same for you TA...you dont produce to rookies would love to take some of those minutes freed by Posey.

 This team will not have a 12 man rotation. The nucleus is set.Their is no team out their that has a better starting 5. We also have to give Doc some credit and allow him to make changes based on his knowledge of the C's strengths and weaknesses. Can they run the O through PP or Ray Allen instead of signing another PG?  Yes they dont need to sign anyone else and there is not a gm in the world that would not want to have this team. Its insane to think otherwise.

Great point. This topic is based on the idea posed by our fearless leader RH   and seconded by other vet posters in relation to the Dmiles post. My initial reaction was - you are right there are a lot of questions, but that is what makes this such a great season going in. Behind each question mark is great potential and like you said the best starting five in the NBA. TP

New Question:

- more important question - will championship MVP go to Pierce's head and throw off the whole umbutu (sp?)thing?

[Edgar]

Hmmm...my only question will be will Philly challenge us in the east. This team needed vet exp. last year, they got it. Now we wait and see how this benefited from those vets. Im sure we will see some maturity from Rondo, Powe and Davis.

The questions you had will not make or break this team. Has Giddens learned from his mistakes? If this guy plays 10 minutes a game i would be surprised.

Walkers Knee? He may be NBDL same as Giddens.

POB is a back up for situational matchups , and security against injuries. Thats what we need. If he gives us quality minutes great.

Miles is a cheap gamble, non guaranteed contract(Portland or their insurance company will be paying this cat)so again this a bu at the 4 if they play small, 3 if they play tall, but will be used sparingly and is a situational player.

The lingering questions from last year are answered sadly by...it does not matter. Pruitt could go NBADL, BB better be thin cause we signed 2 people that compete with his minutes. Same for you TA...you dont produce to rookies would love to take some of those minutes freed by Posey.

 This team will not have a 12 man rotation. The nucleus is set.Their is no team out their that has a better starting 5. We also have to give Doc some credit and allow him to make changes based on his knowledge of the C's strengths and weaknesses. Can they run the O through PP or Ray Allen instead of signing another PG?  Yes they dont need to sign anyone else and there is not a gm in the world that would not want to have this team. Its insane to think otherwise.

Great point. This topic is based on the idea posed by our fearless leader RH   and seconded by other vet posters in relation to the Dmiles post. My initial reaction was - you are right there are a lot of questions, but that is what makes this such a great season going in. Behind each question mark is great potential and like you said the best starting five in the NBA. TP

New Question:

- more important question - will championship MVP go to Pierce's head and throw off the whole umbutu (sp?)thing?

if theres something that is clear is that KG isnt an underdog or a follower
so nah dont worry
KG is there to keep pierce in one piece
or in 10000if he doesnt behave

i am pretty sure that pierce really know how much he owes to those two stars so again...no

[Jeff]

you stole my monday article idea!

well, I'll probably still write it and steal material from this thread 

[BudweiserCeltic]

We had even more question marks last year and we turned out quite fine.

[Surferdad]

We had even more question marks last year and we turned out quite fine.

Yeah that's right.  We're not used to being on top of the mountain.  Take a deep breath of that fresh air, hikers!

[ACF]

We had even more question marks last year and we turned out quite fine.

I think "quite fine" is
the understatement
of the year 

[Roy Hobbs]

We had even more question marks last year and we turned out quite fine.

In what way?  If you're referring to Perk and Rondo, I think they had both shown a lot more than P.O.B., Miles, and the rookies coming into this year.

I do think we have too many questions marks.  BBD, Tony, Giddens, Walker, Miles, Pruitt, and O'Bryant are all question marks or have proven to be wildly inconsistent, and Scal isn't that good.  That's 53% of our roster.

[BudweiserCeltic]

We had even more question marks last year and we turned out quite fine.

In what way?  If you're referring to Perk and Rondo, I think they had both shown a lot more than P.O.B., Miles, and the rookies coming into this year.

I do think we have too many questions marks.  BBD, Tony, Giddens, Walker, Miles, Pruitt, and O'Bryant are all question marks or have proven to be wildly inconsistent, and Scal isn't that good.  That's 53% of our roster.

Short memory have we? First, lets start with the question of how well our Big 3 will play together. Then we have Rondo, 2nd year PG who pretty much no one was counting on to get us to the promise land.

Third, Perk coming off his plantar whatever injury.
Fourth, Ray Allen coming off surgery.
Fifth, Tony Allen coming from his ACL injury.
Sixth, Eddie House who pretty much no one here liked as our back-up PG when we signed him.
Seventh, people thought of James Posey as a solid back-up, and no one expected him to contribute as much as he did last season.
Eight, Pollard and his injuries as our only back-up center.
Ninth, second year undersized PF Leon Powe, was he ready to contribute to a championship team.
Tenth, rookie undersized PF with weight issues.
Eleventh, inexperieced PG second round rookie with Pruitt.
Twelth, Scalabrine...
Thirteenth, "with our big 3 we'll have a potent offense, but will our defense be any good" sentimentality.
Fourteenth, who's going to fill our last two roster spots?

And these are just and the begining of the season, and I'm positive there were more questions... how about Tony Allen playing point, among others?

Then you add the addition of Sam Cassell and PJ Brown and the question marks they brought with them when signed, and yes, I'd say we had plenty of question marks.

As a percentage of our roster with question marks, I'd say just about our entire roster was full of question marks last year, especially at this point in the season.

Of course, we have new question marks this season, but after going one full season with pretty much almost the same roster as last year, give and take, many of our previous questions have been answered already.

[Roy Hobbs]

Short memory have we?

Eh...  I think you're operating with a healthy dose of revisionist history, yourself.  To somehow suggest that Posey wasn't expected to contribute in a big way is, just, well...  wrong.  That signing was greeted with universal enthusiasm on here because it was seen as the move that gave us a true bench.  The House signing wasn't panned, from what I remember, and also was actually met with some enthusiasm.  It wasn't really until the Detroit game that the "we need a veteran ball-handler" cries became loud. 

I don't remember anywhere near the same concerns with Ray that you seem to.  Once we got the "big three", I don't remember a lot of talk about injury concerns.  Age, maybe, but not injury (and we have those same age concerns this season).  There was some question about whether Perk or Rondo was ready, but I think most people were confident in both of them.  In fact, each player pretty much contributed what was expected:  an up-and-down season full of great moments and silly mistakes.

Anyway, even to the extent that last year's roster had question marks, I just don't see the players being in the same category.  Rondo, Perk, Posey, and Ray had all proven themselves to some extent or another coming into last season.  P.O.B., Miles, Pruitt, and the rookies have yet to show anything.

[Surferdad]

TP for you Bud.  Let me add one more very VERY big question mark:

KG, Ray and Paul are all all-stars but none of them have NBA Finals experience or a ring.

The questions we have this year pale in comparison to what we had last year.  C'mon folks, cheer up!