Familiar with the old adage "Fool me once, shame on you"? Well, shame on The Celtics for putting us through a painful regular season, going 50-32 while leading the fans to believe these guys had lost it. The run they made in the postseason proved that these guys are still championship contenders despite misleading us into believing they had given up on competing for #18. It was a shameful ploy but one that would have ultimately been forgiven had they come away with it.
But they didn't and the fact that they didn't really devalues the plan they tried t execute in the first place. Now, a year older, more injury prone and with stronger contenders in the East, I just see it being a very hard sell for the Cs to rally the fanbase behind them for yet another "one last run" if they fail to show up again in the regular season. I mean, really, when this team struggles to win 45 games this season and is locked in a battle for the 6th or 7th seed, am I, as a fan, supposed to sit there and smile as they put me through the agony that was the 09-10 regular season all over again? Because without the ability to make any substantial upgrades this off season besides replacing the old role players with new role players, does anyone here honestly expect this team to win 60+ games with essentially the same core of guys? Not unless our bench winds up being the Phoenix bench Part 2 I don't think.
Now, listen, I'm not saying they don't have a chance at making another miracle run through the playoffs, they absolutely can! They proved it once and I'll take their word at face value that they can do it again. But they're going to be hard pressed to get away with what they tried to pull last year, especially considering that ultimately, regardless of whatever excuse you can come up with, it just did not payoff.
It's kind of a lose-lose really, a double-edged sword. If they put everything they have into the regular season, they'll be too beat up to compete in the postseason. And if they take regular season games off again, they risk hurting the marketability of the franchise to season ticket holders and the fanbase (after all, thats what it's all about). All of this only to risk coming up with the same results as in 09-10.
Ultimately, the former is the best way for them to go if they have any hope at contending again for #18 while being in the best possible shape and form to do so. Face it, this isn't the 2008 team, the regular season is too grueling for these guys these days and the only way they can make it through is by picking their spots and preserving their bodies for when it counts.
But that's not the team I want to watch play. I don't want to watch guys takes games off and lose to teams with playing .200 ball while they make the likes of 3rd string scrubs look like future HOFers -- and I take it most other Celtics fans don't want to see that product on the floor either. It's a steep price to pay for the franchise to do what they did last season once again but I honestly don't see how else they can look to compete when it matters in the playoffs. And if they go that route, there's still no guarantee they come any closer than they did in Game 7. All we can do now is wait and see how they look coming out of the All-Star break, but one thing is for sure though, the shame is not going to be on me.
Topic: So... are fans expected to take the regular season off next season or...? (Read 1662 times)