Ainge thinks the current Celtics are better than the '08 team

[Mr October]

All the C's need to do is add 2 more small pieces, and it would be the best bench Boston has seen in decades.

The Sheed factor is huge. Team defense looks great when there is a smart, talented 7 footer roaming the paint. Offense looks great when you have a smart talented 7 footer who can abuse backup bigs in the post and stretch defenses all the way out to the 3 point line.

We just need a 7th man and an 8th/9th man (House is the other). Give me Davis and a 3.

[JHTruth]

**Pulling hair out**

Danny, PP NEEDS A BACK UP!!!!!!

[dang]!!!!

[celticinorlando]

here we go again....i just don't know what danny sees in tony, giddens and walker

[Brickowski]

To buy Ainge's statement you have to assume that KG, Pierce and Allen will be able to perform at 2007-08 levels notwithsanding that each player is two years older and that KG is coming off an injury.

If you feel comfortable making that assumption, then yes, this team is better because Rondo and Perkins have become better players and because Sheed is an all-star caliber big man.

[Evantime34]

If everyone stays healthy I might take our team this year verses the championship year. The problem is the players are older now, thus they are more likely to get injured. Rondo is better now, so is Perk. House played better his second year in the system and there's nothing that says that improvement won't continue.
 
We still need people to fill the Posey and Sam I am roles. To be considered noticeably better in my opinion.

[celticinorlando]

If everyone stays healthy I might take our team this year verses the championship year. The problem is the players are older now, thus they are more likely to get injured. Rondo is better now, so is Perk. House played better his second year in the system and there's nothing that says that improvement won't continue.
 
We still need people to fill the Posey and Sam I am roles. To be considered noticeably better in my opinion.

yep...we still need a posey and maybe a pj brown...sorry danny but other than sheed and eddie...the bench as it is (without baby and powe) stinks. if you think walker, giddens, tony, scal are going to be key ingredients to a title run then danny is crazy....they still have work to do to make this a complete basketball team...positions 1-7 are fine...baby would make 1-8 fine...it is the final 3 spots on the active roster that need addressing

[Fafnir]

If everyone stays healthy I might take our team this year verses the championship year. The problem is the players are older now, thus they are more likely to get injured. Rondo is better now, so is Perk. House played better his second year in the system and there's nothing that says that improvement won't continue.
 
We still need people to fill the Posey and Sam I am roles. To be considered noticeably better in my opinion.

yep...we still need a posey and maybe a pj brown...sorry danny but other than sheed and eddie...the bench as it is (without baby and powe) stinks. if you think walker, giddens, tony, scal are going to be key ingredients to a title run then danny is crazy....they still have work to do to make this a complete basketball team...positions 1-7 are fine...baby would make 1-8 fine...it is the final 3 spots on the active roster that need addressing

Sheed is better than PJ.

[celticinorlando]

sheed is better than pj but the bench as a whole without baby, powe and a legit wing is not better..if they address those needs, then yes i think it will be a better bench. right now as it stands...no they are not

[Fafnir]

sheed is better than pj but the bench as a whole without baby, powe and a legit wing is not better..if they address those needs, then yes i think it will be a better bench. right now as it stands...no they are not

Powe and Baby weren't all that good or important to our 07-08 run. They were very hit or miss, each only had one really notable playoff appearance.

I agree that we need a wing to backup before I'll say our bench was better. But the upgrade from Rasheed from PJ is huge. A vet min SF would mean our current bench is a lot better than the 07-08 team.

[Donoghus]

If they remain healthy all season and get a competent SG/SF backup then I tend to agree. 

But, the health is a BIG question mark and the well is starting to run dry for a competent vet backup SG/SF.

[hwangjini_1]

given a 7 game series, ainge may be right. the starters and top 2 off the bench are better than in 2008. the 8th man will probably be allen, and i dont think he is substantially worse.

my question is about the regular season. i am worried that pierce and allen will wear down, or, that the celtics will lose 3-4 more games because of the bench. 3-4 games would probably give away the home court advantage. and that could make the difference in a play off series.

but, just to be upbeat, if ainge does sign a credible sf, and at almost any sort of pg, the celtics would be much better than 2008.

[mgent]

07/08 vs 09/10

PJ Brown vs Rasheed
Davis/Powe vs Nobody
Posey vs Nobody
House vs House
Cassel vs Nobody

Tony, Scal, and Pruitt vs Tony, Scal, Pruitt, Walker, Giddens

HOW IS THIS A BETTER TEAM???
Rasheed is great, but PJ was no slouch.
We currently have no effective PF:  Davis is up in the air, and Powe is gone.  Two BIG parts of our bench.
Posey was our 6th man and we currently have no effective SF.
House is the exact same player (when he's hot, he's hot)
Cassel was useful, to say the least, in resting Rondo and gave us playoff exp where Rondo had none.
Last year injuries made Tony horrible and it is unclear whether or not he can be of use.  Scal is the same guy.  Pruitt has no more experience than when he was first drafted.  Walker and Giddens have failed to prove productive and it is likely one of them will be cut.
I would say Rondo has slightly improved, maybe Perk.  Outside of them the only way we are better is via ONE bench guy, Rasheed Wallace.  Other than that our team is certainly worse in terms of depth.
One other thing i have to bring up, Ray might be starting to decline.  Only time will tell, but he didn't look the same in the second round of the playoffs (13ppg, .190 3p%)
Someone should tell Ainge to hold his tongue until he signs a back-up SF and PG, and until he locks down BBD.

[BudweiserCeltic]

Last year's team was easily better than the 2008 championship team. Health just killed us, but we were a much better team. And this year with Sheed and the people we currently have on the roster, we should already better than both the previous seasons.

Too many people are dismissing some of our players simply because they don't like them. Our SG/SF situation is quite solid at the moment. Our PG situation is alright, nothing that will make us or break us. We need better depth with our big men. But other than that, we're good enough as is for a championship run. To be a well rounded team, we simply need to solidify our PG depth and our big men depth. Take care of those two things, and we're golden. There's no need to find another wing... if an improvement comes along, take it, but it's not a necessity.

[Fafnir]

07/08 vs 09/10

PJ Brown vs Rasheed
Davis/Powe vs Nobody
Posey vs Nobody
House vs House
Cassel vs Nobody

Tony, Scal, and Pruitt vs Tony, Scal, Pruitt, Walker, Giddens

HOW IS THIS A BETTER TEAM???
Rasheed is great, but PJ was no slouch.
We currently have no effective PF:  Davis is up in the air, and Powe is gone.  Two BIG parts of our bench.
Posey was our 6th man and we currently have no effective SF.
House is the exact same player (when he's hot, he's hot)
Cassel was useful, to say the least, in resting Rondo and gave us playoff exp where Rondo had none.
Last year injuries made Tony horrible and it is unclear whether or not he can be of use.  Scal is the same guy.  Pruitt has no more experience than when he was first drafted.  Walker and Giddens have failed to prove productive and it is likely one of them will be cut.
I would say Rondo has slightly improved, maybe Perk.  Outside of them the only way we are better is via ONE bench guy, Rasheed Wallace.  Other than that our team is certainly worse in terms of depth.
One other thing i have to bring up, Ray might be starting to decline.  Only time will tell, but he didn't look the same in the second round of the playoffs (13ppg, .190 3p%)
Someone should tell Ainge to hold his tongue until he signs a back-up SF and PG, and until he locks down BBD.

Cassel sucked, a vet min. PG will fill his production.

Powe/Davis weren't very good nor did they get big minutes in the playoffs. The upgrade from PJ to Rasheed covers them. Plus we can easily sign a 4th big to replace their regular season minutes if BBD leaves.

Only at the wing are we worse than 07/08. Plus the Big 3 are all older, but Rondo and Perk are better to help with that. Get another wing because we can't count on Tony and our bench is solid as is.

[mgent]

07/08 vs 09/10

PJ Brown vs Rasheed
Davis/Powe vs Nobody
Posey vs Nobody
House vs House
Cassel vs Nobody

Tony, Scal, and Pruitt vs Tony, Scal, Pruitt, Walker, Giddens

HOW IS THIS A BETTER TEAM???
Rasheed is great, but PJ was no slouch.
We currently have no effective PF:  Davis is up in the air, and Powe is gone.  Two BIG parts of our bench.
Posey was our 6th man and we currently have no effective SF.
House is the exact same player (when he's hot, he's hot)
Cassel was useful, to say the least, in resting Rondo and gave us playoff exp where Rondo had none.
Last year injuries made Tony horrible and it is unclear whether or not he can be of use.  Scal is the same guy.  Pruitt has no more experience than when he was first drafted.  Walker and Giddens have failed to prove productive and it is likely one of them will be cut.
I would say Rondo has slightly improved, maybe Perk.  Outside of them the only way we are better is via ONE bench guy, Rasheed Wallace.  Other than that our team is certainly worse in terms of depth.
One other thing i have to bring up, Ray might be starting to decline.  Only time will tell, but he didn't look the same in the second round of the playoffs (13ppg, .190 3p%)
Someone should tell Ainge to hold his tongue until he signs a back-up SF and PG, and until he locks down BBD.

Cassel sucked, a vet min. PG will fill his production.

Powe/Davis weren't very good nor did they get big minutes in the playoffs. The upgrade from PJ to Rasheed covers them. Plus we can easily sign a 4th big to replace their regular season minutes if BBD leaves.

Only at the wing are we worse than 07/08. Plus the Big 3 are all older, but Rondo and Perk are better to help with that. Get another wing because we can't count on Tony and our bench is solid as is.

You're arguing that we could easily be better (which i agree with), but it's crazy to say we're currently better.  Cassel wasn't anything fancy but he was a PIECE to our puzzle, a piece we don't have right now.  Pruitt won't cut it and neither will Walker and Giddens.  There's a reason Doc prefers to play the older guys.  We lost a piece in Brown and we replaced it with a better piece, but we gotta do stuff like that every year to keep up, every other team does.  Making your team better is what you're SUPPOSED to do, Ainge isn't God for signing Rasheed and he can't stop just because he signed one good player.  Davis and Powe weren't the same thing Rasheed is gonna be, but they were still PIECES of the championship, pieces we still need to replace.  Until we do don't be counting chickens.