01-02 Celtics: What was the teams weakness?

[xmuscularghandix]

this was probably the fist celtics team that i REALLY knew. i knew all the players, i was convinced that all the young players would develop into stars, Rodney Rogers was my favorite player on the team (outside of paul and antoine), and i thought that tony battie was nasty.

But it seemed like in the playoffs PP and Walker would have to play UNBELEIVABLE, they combined for 86 minutes, 46.7 points, 17.2 rebounds, and 7.4 assists per game.

looking back on the statistics it seemed like they were lacking a stong inside presence, both offensively and defensively.

[16Bannaz]

that was a problem as well as they lived and died with the 3 point shot. if the threes fell we won, if they didnt we lost. most of the time it was a simple as that. made for a fun team to watch tho. considering that a team of their modest talents made it all the way to the ECF and a hair away from the finals, it's pretty amazing.

[dark_lord]

that team was easy to fall in love with, especially during the playoffs because they over-achieved so much.

the problem with the team was on the offensive end.  defense was very solid.  offensively, there was not enough spacing, movement, or attacking the hoop.  they settled for too many jumpshots and jacked up too many 3's part of their regular offense.

[xmuscularghandix]

who do you think could have helped this team? obviously i mean someone from that time frame, and that was good at that time. i think they could have used someone that operates more down low and is an effective scoring threat. theres obvious choices (shaq) but who was out there that would have fit into our team/payroll?

[bdm860]

who do you think could have helped this team? obviously i mean someone from that time frame, and that was good at that time. i think they could have used someone that operates more down low and is an effective scoring threat. theres obvious choices (shaq) but who was out there that would have fit into our team/payroll?

I would compare that team to today's Washington Wizards (or I guess last years Wizards would be a better example).  They had some exciting players, could win 45-50 games, but there is no way that team was going to win the championship, and that same team could have just as easily been a bad team (just like Wizards last year to this year, virtually the same team, completely different results). It's not like they were one player away or had one weakness that was easy to fix, they just didn't have the personnel.  Nothing short of a complete roster overhaul (which is pretty much what happened since with us).  I love Antoine, but if he's one of the top two guys you're hitching your championship dreams to you're not living in reality.  No cap room, no real tradeable assets that could bring in a superstar in return (just look what we got for Antoine, our second best player).  Complete roster overhaul (one step back, two steps forward) would be the only way to really improve that team I think.  The had good chemistry, players knew their roles, they all played hard and had a no fear attitude/swagger, but just not a whole lot of talent.

Hope that doesn't sound negative, I LOVED the 01-02 team, and still wonder what would have happened if a couple of shots fell different in the playoffs against the Nets and we made it to the Finals what would have happened to us in the against the Lakers...

[xmuscularghandix]

who do you think could have helped this team? obviously i mean someone from that time frame, and that was good at that time. i think they could have used someone that operates more down low and is an effective scoring threat. theres obvious choices (shaq) but who was out there that would have fit into our team/payroll?

I would compare that team to today's Washington Wizards (or I guess last years Wizards would be a better example).  They had some exciting players, could win 45-50 games, but there is no way that team was going to win the championship, and that same team could have just as easily been a bad team (just like Wizards last year to this year, virtually the same team, completely different results). It's not like they were one player away or had one weakness that was easy to fix, they just didn't have the personnel.  Nothing short of a complete roster overhaul (which is pretty much what happened since with us).  I love Antoine, but if he's one of the top two guys you're hitching your championship dreams to you're not living in reality.  No cap room, no real tradeable assets that could bring in a superstar in return (just look what we got for Antoine, our second best player).  Complete roster overhaul (one step back, two steps forward) would be the only way to really improve that team I think.  The had good chemistry, players knew their roles, they all played hard and had a no fear attitude/swagger, but just not a whole lot of talent.

Hope that doesn't sound negative, I LOVED the 01-02 team, and still wonder what would have happened if a couple of shots fell different in the playoffs against the Nets and we made it to the Finals what would have happened to us in the against the Lakers...

oh i'm not looking for a superstar center, or anything. just maybe a more productive center, just a third good player. not to take anything away from those guys, but tony battie, walter mccarty (<3), vitaly potapenko, these are backups. although i guess they were young at the time, so they had "potential". and hell maybe they would have been productive scorers if instead of antoine shooting 10 threes he just shot 5, and kicked it into the post.

[guava_wrench]

I'm not sure you could get more from that team than we saw.

[xmuscularghandix]

I'm not sure you could get more from that team than we saw.

i look back on that team with so much affection, but im just saying, i wish we could have gotten to play the lakers

kids that grew up in the 80's were bred to hate the lakers and the pistons. growing up late 90's early 2000's i hated the pacers 76er's and the nets. every argument started with "yea he can score", "yea he can pass", "yea he can hit threes", but reggie miller, jason kidd and allen iverson...suck. Now i have respect for all three of those players (still hate ron artest). But this is the team that basically trained me to be a celtics fan.

[JBcat]

That was a very exciting playoff run.  My friends and I went to all the playoff games and almost left the game at the end of the third quarter where they had the biggest comeback in playoff history against the Nets.   Of course I wanted to stay and convinced my buddies they should too.   Glad we did. 

[LB3533]

That team was missing a 3rd scorer.

That team was missing continuity and experience playing together.

Remember the Rogers & Delk trade happened kinda later in the season.

[xmuscularghandix]

That team was missing a 3rd scorer.

That team was missing continuity and experience playing together.

Remember the Rogers & Delk trade happened kinda later in the season.

good call, i think that if they had johnson all year, or rodgers and delk all year they could have been better, but i don't think either of those would have got them past the nets.

[greg683x]

"The Celtics finally die by the 3."

Thats the headline espn posted on their website after the Celtics were eliminated by the Nets that year, and I feel it pretty much sums up that team as well....

Living and dieing by the 3 is obviously the teams weakness, and to be more specific, the team played good defense, and they had to, to make up for the lower percentage that they'll shoot by all the 3 pointers they'd take.  If that team, loaded with 3 point shooters, had a reliable source for easy buckets down low *coughAntoinecough* they would have been even better.

[Sweet17]

Weakness? ****. The weakness was they didn't have any "A" players outside of Paul Pierce. Or put to put it another way - Antione Walker wasn't half as good as his fans imagine he was. A solid B player..that's all. And the rest mostly "rotation" quality players - not even NBA starter quality.

Imagine if we traded KG, RA, RR, and Perkins for Lamar Odom, Rafer Alston and Channing Frye. Heck those three are probably more talented then Kenny, Battie and Walker...

It had nothing to do with Jim Obrien's coaching strategy contrary to the opinions of some in this thread. That team OVERACHIEVED. He got MORE out of it then he ever should have. That was perhaps the least talented ECF in the last twenty years.

Walker COULDN'T score on the inside. Oh sure on occasion he did but not enough to be a real threat. Its like watching BBD try to score on someone taller then him..

Pete