Marc Stein's winners & losers of the '09 playoffs.

[nickagneta]

Decent 2 part article by Marc Stein giving the winners and losers of the '09 playoffs that I thought people might want to take a look at. He lister "the oter Celtics" as a winner because of the play of Rondo, Baby, and Perk in the playoffs and thinks that if the team returns with all these guys and the Big Three, then they would be even deeper than the '08 club.

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/playoffs/2009/columns/story?columnist=stein_marc&page=PlayoffWinners-090616

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/playoffs/2009/columns/story?columnist=stein_marc&page=PlayoffLosers-090616

Interesting that the first three entries on the loser list were all associated with the Cavaliers. Says a lot about what the Lebrons expectations were and just how wrong basketball experts can be. They had LeBron winning it all this year and Kobe last year. 0 for 2.

[PosImpos]

Well, when you have the leagues best record and you are labeled as the "chosen" team and then get stuffed in 6 games by a team that people gave about a 10% chance of making the Finals (a team that then goes on to lose the Finals in 6 games in a rather sad fashion), then it's not surprising that you will be labeled as the "losers" of the post-season because everybody will be trying to figure out how you messed up so badly.

Honestly, I think it's fantastic.


What bothered me about that article, though, was that in the bit about Orlando having a bright future, they said they defeated the defending champions without even mentioning that the Celtics were missing Garnett - as if Orlando proved they were better than the Celtics at their best.

[Hoyo de Monterrey]

What bothered me about that article, though, was that in the bit about Orlando having a bright future, they said they defeated the defending champions without even mentioning that the Celtics were missing Garnett - as if Orlando proved they were better than the Celtics at their best.

Yes, but Stein went to great lengths to point out how good the Celtics will be next year with a healthy team because Perkins was great against Howard, Rondo's numbers were great, and BBD started hitting shots. He claimed them possibly deeper then the 2008 title team. I wouldn't read into the thing with Orlando, as he claimed they could be deeper then a title winning team with that nucleus intact.

[the_Bird]

Winners?

BBD's agent.
Rondo's agent. 

Both guys had great offseasons and may well have priced themselves out of the Celtics long-term plans (I can live with BBD signing elsewhere, it would REALLY suck if they end up trading Rondo because he's looking for too much money). 

[Cman]

labeled as the "chosen" team

Well, we were all "witness" to the implosion of the "chosen" ones.  good riddance.

[PosImpos]

labeled as the "chosen" team

Well, we were all "witness" to the implosion of the "chosen" ones.  good riddance.

Yep