Has the Cs championship window already closed?

[BballTim]

If healthy, I'd expect to crush the Hawks.  And Rondo is the least of my conscerns heading into next year.  I think he will consistantly play like a star.  He pretty much already is.

  Agreed.

[Brickowski]

They were healthy two years ago and it took them 7 games to ge3t past the Hawks.  The Hawks are a better team now, and the Celtics are old, tired and injured.

Take off the emerald colored glasses.

[celticinorlando]

gotta hope they can get and stay healthy here for the stretch

[ssspence]

They were healthy two years ago and it took them 7 games to ge3t past the Hawks.  The Hawks are a better team now, and the Celtics are old, tired and injured.

Take off the emerald colored glasses.

I have to agree. With Doc's inability to keep minutes down for guys that have very high mileage on their tires, and our wildly overrated bench, they need additional resources.

I hope management and ownership will be honest with themselves about this.

[Fafnir]

They were healthy two years ago and it took them 7 games to ge3t past the Hawks.  The Hawks are a better team now, and the Celtics are old, tired and injured.

Take off the emerald colored glasses.

Because a 7 game series that the Celtics won the scoring differential by +15 per game should scare us?

There are many reasons to doubt the Celtics, the first round series of 2007-2008 is not one of them.

[hwangjini_1]

the celtics can win it all this year, if the injuries heal for the team.

next year? iffy but possible.

in 2 years or more? only if a major trade or FA come to town very soon.

failing that ... let the big baby era begin and the lottery threads commence.

[wdleehi]

They were healthy two years ago and it took them 7 games to ge3t past the Hawks.  The Hawks are a better team now, and the Celtics are old, tired and injured.

Take off the emerald colored glasses.

Two years ago, it took losing a game to Detroit in Boston to get the Celtics to play with the same intensity on the road as they did at home.


When the Celtics played with intensity that year against the Hawk, they would beat them by 20. 


Now the Hawks can beat the Celtics this year, as long as KG is out. 

But a healthy Celtics against the Hawks?  No.  They are not that good. 

[BballTim]

They were healthy two years ago and it took them 7 games to ge3t past the Hawks.  The Hawks are a better team now, and the Celtics are old, tired and injured.

Take off the emerald colored glasses.

  You mean the first playoff series that any of our top 7 had played with anyone else in the top 7 aside from a few minutes of Paul and Perk a few years earlier?

[Rondo_is_better]

They were healthy two years ago and it took them 7 games to ge3t past the Hawks.  The Hawks are a better team now, and the Celtics are old, tired and injured.

Take off the emerald colored glasses.

That's an ironic line at the end there. Wearing "glasses" implies that someone is omitting information from their argument, maybe consciously, to fulfill their own agenda.

Kind of like what you're doing....

[Brickowski]

So, do you expect the Celtics to be 100% healthy going into the playoffs?  I don't, expecially since Rivers overplays Pierce and Allen.

They will likely lose home court to boot.  I expect the Mavs to win tonight, with poor Scalabrine trying to stop Nowitzki.

[Fafnir]

So, do you expect the Celtics to be 100% healthy going into the playoffs?  I don't, expecially since Rivers overplays Pierce and Allen.

They will likely lose home court to boot.  I expect the Mavs to win tonight, with poor Scalabrine trying to stop Nowitzki.

So you expect us to be the fifth seed?

Or do you mean that the Celtics will be the 3rd/4th seed?

[wdleehi]

So, do you expect the Celtics to be 100% healthy going into the playoffs?  I don't, expecially since Rivers overplays Pierce and Allen.

They will likely lose home court to boot.  I expect the Mavs to win tonight, with poor Scalabrine trying to stop Nowitzki.

Because this terrible streak they are having right now, they only have the third best record in the league.  


They need to be healthy.  Everyone here has said so.  Every team needs their key players healthy come playoff time.  

I am not so worried about Ray and Pierce as I am with KG right now.  But, it looks like the team is sitting these guys quicker when there is an issue.  

[RAcker]

What's most frustrating now for me is the inability to work on chemistry with Daniels and Sheed since we're lucky to put together any kind of consistent lineup from night to night.  The only thing that would really worry me, though, would be if we don't have everyone back in time for a 4 or 5 week stretch before the playoffs begin so that we can get in a groove.

The real nightmare would be if we were being misled about KG again.  I'm trying not to think about that one.  If he is really okay to go if tonight was a playoff game, I feel a whole lot better.

[winsomme]

This is a perspective none of us want to believe, but from the average NBA fans point of view it is a fair question:

http://nba.fanhouse.com/2010/01/16/celtics-title-hopes-are-fading-fast/

For those that have seen / heard me pushing for another starting caliber NBA scorer, you know that I am of the belief that this team needs to add before it has a realistic chance to compete for a title this year. While I hope for the best, injuries are obviously an issue for this team, and I believe we must prepare for the worst.

In a separate thread the Cs cap situation (via RealGM), Roy Hobbs points out that Wyc and Co will continue to be high salery payers (including the lux tax), but are likely at their maximum in terms of total salary.

I feel that the Cs MUST be prepared to add some salary for the future this season (by trading our expirings that don't include Ray and Quis) for a player another teams needs to dump. I'll use Corey Maggette as an example (tho he is not the point): a productive NBA player who is probably slightly overpaid and therefore is available.

This month is crucial for the Cs. Wyc needs to decide whether he's prepared to pay for another NBA championship.

Of course if the Lakers trade for Bosh, we all might as well start watching Sox spring training because the rest of the league will be moot. But here's to keeping our collective fingers crossed that that doesn't happen. 

I think it's a fair question, but I don't think the window has closed. ORL is beatable IMO and ATL is still too young and CLE will have LeBron's potential departure hanging over them and that's a lot of pressure.

I think what the ownership needs to do is look at our window (this year and two more after) and allocate some extra funds to really make a go at this thing. I think that we could reasonably get two more Finals appearances out of this group and maybe another Title.

IMO there has to be a financial model in which it would make sense for them to spend some more money in order to reach these levels of success.

and honestly, I think the money needs to be allocated now because we have expiring contracts and could get in on some pretty interesting players without disrupting the core of the team. The ways to add players after this are going to be limited (even if the money is there to do it).

Like I mentioned in other threads, players like Murphy or Thomas or Hinrich would be nice compliments and would help us make runs at a Title for the next three postseasons...but it would cost some dough for sure.

[Brickowski]

There is no more window, unless it's got bars on it.  Unfortunately, Ainge doesn't have the cojones to blow it up now.