Marc Spears latest thoughts

[BudweiserCeltic]

I think the point is that although that team might win 60, PP and Ray will be so gassed by game 3 of the first round we can't get past Cleveland or Orlando..

Tell that to Doc.

[celticinorlando]

well i for one will not be very concerned about home court this season...you got to figure boston ends up in the top 3 in the east anyway...if it means more rest for key guys that they don't play heavy minutes vs the clippers in feb. so be it

[Birdbrain]

Yeah Boston will win 60 and then get eliminated early due to a lack of backup wing.  Doubt it very seriously.

[Chief]

I wish Doc would take a page from last year's Denver team and put a shutdown defender at the starting sg spot. Denver started D. Jones then brought in JR Smith off the bench. I think this would work great if Ray would accept that role. Let TA play the first 7-8 minutes then Ray Allen can come in with fresh legs. Plus, TA has always palyed better in the starting lineup.

Rondo
TA
Pierce
KG
Perk


Pruitt/Eddie
Ray
Walker
Baby
Rasheed

[DJ Bento Box]

......... And that's the kind of thinking that gets teams beat. If any team and their fans should understand the need for depth at every position it should be the Celtics.

Your All-World PF goes down for the season and his back-ups play admirably in his absence. Then one of them goes down and you're left with..... Mikki Moore. The rest of the teams All-Stars have to play too many minutes to keep up because the benchwarmers who normally don't play and normally don't matter now come in to major importance because of the injuries and aren't good enough to help out. The team gets eliminated and the lack of a "backup wing" (or backup PF or backup C or whatever) ends up costing the team.

Doubtful? Yes. Does it happen? Apparently, it does.  

[Fafnir]

I wish Doc would take a page from last year's Denver team and put a shutdown defender at the starting sg spot. Denver started D. Jones then brought in JR Smith off the bench. I think this would work great if Ray would accept that role. Let TA play the first 7-8 minutes then Ray Allen can come in with fresh legs. Plus, TA has always palyed better in the starting lineup.

Rondo
TA
Pierce
KG
Perk


Pruitt/Eddie
Ray
Walker
Baby
Rasheed

Neither Dahntay Jones or Tony Allen are shut-down defenders.

[celticinorlando]

tony starting? i just threw up

[SSFan V]

I wish Doc would take a page from last year's Denver team and put a shutdown defender at the starting sg spot. Denver started D. Jones then brought in JR Smith off the bench. I think this would work great if Ray would accept that role. Let TA play the first 7-8 minutes then Ray Allen can come in with fresh legs. Plus, TA has always palyed better in the starting lineup.

Rondo
TA
Pierce
KG
Perk


Pruitt/Eddie
Ray
Walker
Baby
Rasheed

I have to be honest, the idea of a Bruce Bowen type playing the two and having Ray & Sheed coming off the bench at the same time would be pretty intimidating for an opponent.
(TA is not a Bowen type)

[BballTim]

......... And that's the kind of thinking that gets teams beat. If any team and their fans should understand the need for depth at every position it should be the Celtics.

Your All-World PF goes down for the season and his back-ups play admirably in his absence. Then one of them goes down and you're left with..... Mikki Moore. The rest of the teams All-Stars have to play too many minutes to keep up because the benchwarmers who normally don't play and normally don't matter now come in to major importance because of the injuries and aren't good enough to help out. The team gets eliminated and the lack of a "backup wing" (or backup PF or backup C or whatever) ends up costing the team.

Doubtful? Yes. Does it happen? Apparently, it does.  

  Which team in the league would have done better than us in the playoffs than we did if you took away their best big and another ot their top four? People talk about this like it was a glaring weakness in Danny's planning. If that was the case then every team would have 5 bigs (if not 6) that were capable of making major contributions in the playoffs. That's not the case.

[Chief]

I wish Doc would take a page from last year's Denver team and put a shutdown defender at the starting sg spot. Denver started D. Jones then brought in JR Smith off the bench. I think this would work great if Ray would accept that role. Let TA play the first 7-8 minutes then Ray Allen can come in with fresh legs. Plus, TA has always palyed better in the starting lineup.

Rondo
TA
Pierce
KG
Perk


Pruitt/Eddie
Ray
Walker
Baby
Rasheed

Neither Dahntay Jones or Tony Allen are shut-down defenders.

I think Tony is an excellent defender. Maybe not shutdown but better than average. His problem is injuries have killed his confidence. Every-time things start clicking, he goes down for a game or ten. To be honest, I'd much rather have Bruce Bowen play this role, but this is just a response to the Marc Spears post about not signing anymore wing players. So this, IMO is the best solution to the problem. Ray could still be an all-star type while keeping the Celtic tradition of great 6th men.

[CoachBo]

I wish Doc would take a page from last year's Denver team and put a shutdown defender at the starting sg spot. Denver started D. Jones then brought in JR Smith off the bench. I think this would work great if Ray would accept that role. Let TA play the first 7-8 minutes then Ray Allen can come in with fresh legs. Plus, TA has always palyed better in the starting lineup.

Rondo
TA
Pierce
KG
Perk


Pruitt/Eddie
Ray
Walker
Baby
Rasheed

Neither Dahntay Jones or Tony Allen are shut-down defenders.

I think Tony is an excellent defender. Maybe not shutdown but better than average. His problem is injuries have killed his confidence. Every-time things start clicking, he goes down for a game or ten. To be honest, I'd much rather have Bruce Bowen play this role, but this is just a response to the Marc Spears post about not signing anymore wing players. So this, IMO is the best solution to the problem. Ray could still be an all-star type while keeping the Celtic tradition of great 6th men.

This is one of the most overused Celtic fallacies on the Internet. Allen is an average defender, at best. He's as vulnerable to the upfake as your average 7th grader, and as the playoffs demonstrated, his attention span is about that short, too. If Doc couldn't risk putting him on the floor during the playoffs last year, when we're shorthanded, he is no solution to anything this year.

If Ainge is serious about year 7 of the Tony Allen lie, then there are some legitimate questions to be asked about his comptence. Allen isn't smart enough to be a winning NBA player. His low basketball IQ dominates his performance. He has no perimeter game. His judgment with the ball is horrible.

Allen is not an acceptable solution to the backup 3, Danny. You're not fooling anyone but yourself here.

[hpantazo]

I wish Doc would take a page from last year's Denver team and put a shutdown defender at the starting sg spot. Denver started D. Jones then brought in JR Smith off the bench. I think this would work great if Ray would accept that role. Let TA play the first 7-8 minutes then Ray Allen can come in with fresh legs. Plus, TA has always palyed better in the starting lineup.

Rondo
TA
Pierce
KG
Perk


Pruitt/Eddie
Ray
Walker
Baby
Rasheed

Neither Dahntay Jones or Tony Allen are shut-down defenders.

I think Tony is an excellent defender. Maybe not shutdown but better than average. His problem is injuries have killed his confidence. Every-time things start clicking, he goes down for a game or ten. To be honest, I'd much rather have Bruce Bowen play this role, but this is just a response to the Marc Spears post about not signing anymore wing players. So this, IMO is the best solution to the problem. Ray could still be an all-star type while keeping the Celtic tradition of great 6th men.

This is one of the most overused Celtic fallacies on the Internet. Allen is an average defender, at best. He's as vulnerable to the upfake as your average 7th grader, and as the playoffs demonstrated, his attention span is about that short, too. If Doc couldn't risk putting him on the floor during the playoffs last year, when we're shorthanded, he is no solution to anything this year.

If Ainge is serious about year 7 of the Tony Allen lie, then there are some legitimate questions to be asked about his comptence. Allen isn't smart enough to be a winning NBA player. His low basketball IQ dominates his performance. He has no perimeter game. His judgment with the ball is horrible.

Allen is not an acceptable solution to the backup 3, Danny. You're not fooling anyone but yourself here.

wait, I thought Tony Allen was going to be our 3rd point guard this year, isn't he? I mean, Doc has been telling us for years how tony can play the point.

[Birdbrain]

......... And that's the kind of thinking that gets teams beat. If any team and their fans should understand the need for depth at every position it should be the Celtics.

Your All-World PF goes down for the season and his back-ups play admirably in his absence. Then one of them goes down and you're left with..... Mikki Moore. The rest of the teams All-Stars have to play too many minutes to keep up because the benchwarmers who normally don't play and normally don't matter now come in to major importance because of the injuries and aren't good enough to help out. The team gets eliminated and the lack of a "backup wing" (or backup PF or backup C or whatever) ends up costing the team.

Doubtful? Yes. Does it happen? Apparently, it does.  

Not sure what you mean.  KG got hurt last year and Boston signed Wallace for that very scenario.  Again I don't consider the backup wing nearly as important.  Hopefully the C's resign BBD as well for even more insurance.  They have wings let them play.

[Chief]

I wish Doc would take a page from last year's Denver team and put a shutdown defender at the starting sg spot. Denver started D. Jones then brought in JR Smith off the bench. I think this would work great if Ray would accept that role. Let TA play the first 7-8 minutes then Ray Allen can come in with fresh legs. Plus, TA has always palyed better in the starting lineup.

Rondo
TA
Pierce
KG
Perk


Pruitt/Eddie
Ray
Walker
Baby
Rasheed

Neither Dahntay Jones or Tony Allen are shut-down defenders.

I think Tony is an excellent defender. Maybe not shutdown but better than average. His problem is injuries have killed his confidence. Every-time things start clicking, he goes down for a game or ten. To be honest, I'd much rather have Bruce Bowen play this role, but this is just a response to the Marc Spears post about not signing anymore wing players. So this, IMO is the best solution to the problem. Ray could still be an all-star type while keeping the Celtic tradition of great 6th men.

This is one of the most overused Celtic fallacies on the Internet. Allen is an average defender, at best. He's as vulnerable to the upfake as your average 7th grader, and as the playoffs demonstrated, his attention span is about that short, too. If Doc couldn't risk putting him on the floor during the playoffs last year, when we're shorthanded, he is no solution to anything this year.

If Ainge is serious about year 7 of the Tony Allen lie, then there are some legitimate questions to be asked about his comptence. Allen isn't smart enough to be a winning NBA player. His low basketball IQ dominates his performance. He has no perimeter game. His judgment with the ball is horrible.

Allen is not an acceptable solution to the backup 3, Danny. You're not fooling anyone but yourself here.

TA is a rhythm player. He has played much better when he starts and gets consistent minutes. Especially on defense. The problem is that he always gets hurt. Putting a rusty TA in and asking him to guard a red hot Ben Gordon in triple overtime is just bad coaching. Having said that, starting TA or someone else, is more about saving Ray's legs than anything else.

PS-As I said before, I'd much rather pick up Bowen and have him play this role.