What wins championships again?

[Eja117]

I actually think consistently good drafting helps.

There was a day where the Celts did that, but it was a looooonnngggg time ago.

[GranTur]

Paul Pierce, KG, and James Posey won us a championship in 2008. Period.

We would have won if KG was healthy in 2009.
We should have won in 2010 but we got robbed in the fourth quarter.


As for 2011, it's pretty simple: too old, too injured. Nobody's fault. Celtics did the absolute best they could, from coaching, to trades, to playing. It just wasn't enough.

[barefacedmonk]

We would have won if KG was healthy in 2009.

Maybe. Our bench was pathetic in 2009.

[cman88]

the celtics need someone to pick up the scoring slack from the big 3 next year...whether it be Rondo developing a consistent jumper and looking for his offense more, or jeff green playing up to his 6th man potential off the bench....the big 3 CANT continue to carry the load. it wore them out this year

look at the mavericks..jason kidd/nowitzki are great players, but its their bench and role players who really got them where they are...we need a bench like that to carry our team

the bulls, heat, knicks are going to be our competition in the east...and we need to match them by getting younger/more athletic. and beat them with overall depth

[paulcowens]

As for 2011, it's pretty simple: too old, too injured. Nobody's fault. Celtics did the absolute best they could, from coaching, to trades, to playing. It just wasn't enough.

Really?  I guess I can see "too injured", given Rondo's injury, but beyond that, the Celtics were healthy, unless you are referring to Shaq and Jermaine?   But that would bring us to The Trade, which left us two brave but gimpy old fellas at center, and you said that the trades were great, so you must not mean that.  As for too old, do you really mean to say that older teams can never win?  Do you mean that Dallas has no chance?

What I saw in the Heat series was one team that wanted it a lot, defeating a team that didn't want it as much.  We could have won a championship this year, and arguably, we should have.

[cman88]

As for 2011, it's pretty simple: too old, too injured. Nobody's fault. Celtics did the absolute best they could, from coaching, to trades, to playing. It just wasn't enough.

Really?  I guess I can see "too injured", given Rondo's injury, but beyond that, the Celtics were healthy, unless you are referring to Shaq and Jermaine?   But that would bring us to The Trade, which left us two brave but gimpy old fellas at center, and you said that the trades were great, so you must not mean that.  As for too old, do you really mean to say that older teams can never win?  Do you mean that Dallas has no chance?

What I saw in the Heat series was one team that wanted it a lot, defeating a team that didn't want it as much.  We could have won a championship this year, and arguably, we should have.

eh, I think part of the reason that the "big 3's" window had been extended was because Rondo had developed so much more as a player...this year hes been able to get them EASY open looks and run the offense with ease..

Delonte west is a good player, but you want Rondo in there at end of game situations to run the offense and deliver pin point passes....the Big 3 just cant take over at the end of a game themselves anymore..rondo being limited in his running of the offense was our biggest blow IMO.

we saw it durign the regular season too...how horrible the C's offense was when Nate was subbing for injured rondo

dallas is a different situation, because their depth is really whats carried them thus far. Jason kidd/nowitzki are still great players, but their bench can carry them.

[GranTur]

As for 2011, it's pretty simple: too old, too injured. Nobody's fault. Celtics did the absolute best they could, from coaching, to trades, to playing. It just wasn't enough.

Really?  I guess I can see "too injured", given Rondo's injury, but beyond that, the Celtics were healthy, unless you are referring to Shaq and Jermaine?   But that would bring us to The Trade, which left us two brave but gimpy old fellas at center, and you said that the trades were great, so you must not mean that.  As for too old, do you really mean to say that older teams can never win?  Do you mean that Dallas has no chance?

What I saw in the Heat series was one team that wanted it a lot, defeating a team that didn't want it as much.  We could have won a championship this year, and arguably, we should have.

Celtics had a scoring issue not a defense issue...we needed a backup SF and Danny got the best one available without giving up scoring. Celtics clearly had ridiculously good defense this playoffs.

I never said older teams can't win. Dallas is old, but they have a talented bench with scoring options. The only scoring option off the bench for the Celtics was Delonte West who was injured along with Rondo, Shaq, JO, Ray, and KG.

That's a lot of injuries.

BTW it makes no sense to say the difference was "which team wanted it more." Celtics clearly wanted it...but our best scorers are a little too old and the team was a little too injured.