Love our starting five, even without Perk, as I think JO will be an adequate fill in. Perk, however, I don't see coming back 'til playoffs and then at only a fraction of his true self. Look how long it took TA to make it all the way back, and Perk tore all 3 major knee ligaments, not 2 like Tony.
It's what comes after the starters that's getting VERY worrisome. Big Baby and that's it! Two rookies, two nonguaranteed FA's. Nobody showing real interest in us from what's left of the pathetic FA market, and very marginal players still getting more than the vet min, bodes very poorly for us. Heck, JO only signed cause he got the full MLE which is probably more than he should have!
With our aging starters ever more and more injury prone what's gonna be left to plug into the starting lineup is not pretty. Almost started a thread titled "who's left that is desperate enough to sign with us?"
Maybe Danny didn't have any choice but to do it this way, but starting from scratch this year might not have been the worst way to go!
Before long we may be pleading to resign Scal and Sheldon. Real ugly real fast could easily become reality.
You can say the same thing about the Heat right now, but everyone is creaming their pants about their top 3 players. There roster is nowhere near complete.
Right now, the Celtics have BBD, AB, and Semih Erden signed on for next season, not including non-guaranteed contracts like Harangody, Gaffney and Lafayette.
That's three players, of which only one has a definite spot in the rotation. Of course once Perk comes back, that shifts JO to the bench.
JO and BBD are about as good of a backup tandem as you will find.
KG and Perk are one of the best starting bigs in the NBA, and definitely the best defensively. Couple that with the Celtics mighty PG-SG-SF trio, they are probably the most complete starting unit.
The Celtics are in dire need of a quality wing or two decent ones (can Bradley be one by the playoffs?). Then backup PG, which with Rondo playing 38-40 mpg in the playoffs, it's not high on the priority list. Plus we can afford Nate.
I'm not nearly as pessimistic as some (or most) of you guys are. Let's see how these next two seasons play out.
Last year we came out the gates like gangbusters, to a record-setting start of 27-2. We were the team to beat until that infamous February game in Utah.
This year, we again started off clobbering opponents like they were college teams. Then injury after injury, setback after setback, and we were down and out. Then we got healthy and came within another knee injury of winning another championship.
What I am alluding to is that it's difficult to predict what will happen in season, let alone in two, three, five years.
Ainge has proven he knows what he is doing. Take a look at the 2003 Celtics roster that DA inherited. Exactly five years later, we raised another banner.
Anything is possible!
Topic: Real ugly real fast! (Read 2299 times)