Dan Shaughnessy Article on Celts chances

[CelticG1]

http://www.boston.com/sports/basketball/celtics/articles/2009/04/16/with_or_without_garnett_repeat_unlikely/

I really didn't like this article. He basically counts the Celtics out as champions and the playoffs haven't even started. I remember reading his articles during last years playoffs and he pretty much counted us out of the cavs, pistons, and lakers series. I don't feel like looking up the articles but i remember him talking about how lebron was too good, and after each game him (and bob ryan) jsut kept talking about how when lebron "went off" that we'd be in trouble. Then it was the pistons who had more playoff experience, chauncey billups etc. And then lastly it was the lakers where pretty much everyone counted us out. I remember reading his articles during each series and just disagreeing with him everytime....Now in this article he states how last year "just felt like the Celtics year" I'm not so sure it "felt" like the celtics year exactly. The regular season was great but many people thought that the playoffs woould be a challenge, and they were. Pretty much at no time did i feel like it was "our year" until our comeback win in game 4 of the finals.....What are your guys thoughts? Do we really have no shot even with garnett? I think not.....

[TatteredOnMySleeve]

I embrace people counting the celtics out...

Still a dumb decision to count out the defending champs who finished with the 3rd best record in the league...thats pretty  disrespectful...and stupid

[FLCeltsFan]

Shaughnessy should go and write for ESPN.  All but one writer there counted the Celtics out last season and see where it got them. 

[Roy Hobbs]

No surprise here; this is what Shaughnessy does.

[CoachBo]

He's what's known in the academic world as an "adversarial journalist." He's not unique.

With that said, I'm not at all prepared at this point to say he's wrong. Or right, for that matter.

[Redz]

I know everyone needs to have an opinion on everything, and Shaughnessy probably needed to do a Celtics column, but honestly, how can you have any idea what the Celtics chances are until you see what, if anything, KG has to offer?

[nickagneta]

As much as I think Shaughnessy is a complete self indulgent, conceited, blowhard and just a horribly negative person in general who's overbloated opinion of himself and who's acidic personality comes through in his columns, I don't know that this article was all that negative.

First off, a large percentage of that article was quotes from people so there wasn't much opinionating going on. Doc and Danny and Ray Allen all spoke about a tough season and speculated on KG's return. Danny said it would be tough to repeat without KG. Is that really all that negative or different from what most of us think?

And he said LA and Cleveland were better this year. Can anyone here really argue with that? I think they were. Our record versus those two teams was 2-4 and they had better records and point differentials than we did. They were better.

But here's the great thing about the NBA playoffs. Much of the time, maybe a majority of the time, the team with the best regular season record doesn't win the championship. All bets are off at this point. Cleveland has to play Detroit and LA has to play Utah and that's just thier first round matchups. I thionk both of those opponents could cause some problems for Cleveland and LA.

So I guess what I am trying to say is that I just don't think this artcile by Shaughnessey is the right article to rip on him for. He's an easy target and normally I would join in on the fun, but, I have to agree with most everything he wrote there.

[CoachBo]

Frankly, we didn't begin playing championship-caliber basketball last year until midway in the Detroit series. Playoff predictions, be they positive or negative, are a waste of bandwidth.

The only real point to be made is that we're playing below the level of basketball that we took into the Atlanta series, especially on the defensive end, and I find that frightening.

[Eja117]

Last year I learned to my shock that a team that wins a championship doesn't necessarily have to play like a champion the whole time. In fact they can play like downright losers at times. I didn't think for a second that a team that struggled with the Hawks and then practically seemed to be planning on going 7 games in every series could win a championship, but I was wrong.

I don't like predicting teams that don't do championship type things to win championships. This year I don't like predicting a team who's star player and seemingly the whole bench missed about a quarter of the season can win it all. That doesn't mean they won't. I just think it would be irresponsible to pick them and their problems over teams like the Cavs that have done everything right.

But I don't like counting out defending champs and pre-annointing other teams before they've done anything either cause you still have to go through the champs.

The only thing I'd say is to say it this way. It just sorta looks like the Cavs year this year. But then again for a minute it looked a lot like the Faker's year last year too

That's why they play the games

[Fafnir]

Frankly, we didn't begin playing championship-caliber basketball last year until midway in the Detroit series. Playoff predictions, be they positive or negative, are a waste of bandwidth.

The only real point to be made is that we're playing below the level of basketball that we took into the Atlanta series, especially on the defensive end, and I find that frightening.

But our level of basketball was fine in the Atlanta series, at home. We just couldn't put it together on the road.

Regardless its all on KG and his knees right now. If he can play at a high level even with the injury, we can repeat.

[celticinorlando]

the merm is trying to rile up the troops....who cares

[TatteredOnMySleeve]

Frankly, we didn't begin playing championship-caliber basketball last year until midway in the Detroit series. Playoff predictions, be they positive or negative, are a waste of bandwidth.

The only real point to be made is that we're playing below the level of basketball that we took into the Atlanta series, especially on the defensive end, and I find that frightening.

But our level of basketball was fine in the Atlanta series, at home. We just couldn't put it together on the road.

Regardless its all on KG and his knees right now. If he can play at a high level even with the injury, we can repeat.

Yeah, we were definetly playing championship level basketball at home all throughout the playoffs last year, but it wasnt until detroit where we started playing it on the road.
we were also pretty awful to start off every game in LA, having to come back from double digits in all those games, luckily we made it all the way back in game 4.

As far as KG, This is a guy ive seen struggle with conditioning after missing 3 games, nevermind 8 weeks...He isnt gonna be healthy imo, and certainly wont be in game shape.
Shaughnessy isnt too far off, our chances are lower then the lakers or cavs but pretty good after that

[QuinielaBox]

http://www.boston.com/sports/basketball/celtics/articles/2009/04/16/with_or_without_garnett_repeat_unlikely/

I really didn't like this article. He basically counts the Celtics out as champions and the playoffs haven't even started. I remember reading his articles during last years playoffs and he pretty much counted us out of the cavs, pistons, and lakers series. I don't feel like looking up the articles but i remember him talking about how lebron was too good, and after each game him (and bob ryan) jsut kept talking about how when lebron "went off" that we'd be in trouble. Then it was the pistons who had more playoff experience, chauncey billups etc. And then lastly it was the lakers where pretty much everyone counted us out. I remember reading his articles during each series and just disagreeing with him everytime....Now in this article he states how last year "just felt like the Celtics year" I'm not so sure it "felt" like the celtics year exactly. The regular season was great but many people thought that the playoffs woould be a challenge, and they were. Pretty much at no time did i feel like it was "our year" until our comeback win in game 4 of the finals.....What are your guys thoughts? Do we really have no shot even with garnett? I think not.....

In all fairness to Dan Shaugnessy, he has been around as long as me and Bob Ryan since the beginning of time. Both of them know we don't have a snowballs chance in hell of winning this basketball tournament. Still it is our obligation to watch and compete and I intend on doing just that. For me this has been going on since 1968. Why should I stop now because we don't have our star player? Let's get out there and learn something.