According to ESPN analysts, we "lost" big baby, and have a shallow bench...

[manl_lui]

ok i officially hate ESPN "experts"

[Moranis]

Contrary to what ESPN said, we have depth (even more so now that we have Pietrus) and are well rounded with a weakness at the center, which most teams have anyway. There also aren't many teams with good offensive centers so I'm not worried about that.

Miami is going to make a bunch of highlight reels, which ESPN loves, but they have significant weaknesses at two positions with very little depth. They also loved the Cavs when LeBron James was there.

OKC, Chicago and the Mavs would be my favorites to win this year. They're one of the few only truly well rounded, well built teams. Even then, OKC and Chicago are young as heck and Rip Hamilton will have to stay really healthy for Chicago. The playing field is still fairly level at this point.

I forgot about Pietrus if he comes back the same player he's a very nice addition to the bench. Dooling, Daniels, Pietrus, Bass and Wilcox is a pretty solid second unit. Probably one of the best we've had in a while. It all depends on health, but we are pretty much set bench wise.

At the start of last season, the Celtics expected bench was Shaq, O'Neal, Davis, Daniels, Robinson, West, and Von Wafer.  Much deeper going into last year though injuries were there at the start.  That is a much deeper bench.  Even the bench heading into the post season (even without Shaq) was probably deeper/better with Krstic, Davis, Green, and West.

The year before the bench was Rasheed, Davis, House, Allen, Daniels, and Sheldon Williams.  Pretty deep and good bench.  The playoff bench was Rasheed, Davis, Allen, Finley, Robinson, and Daniels.  Much better than what is currently on the roster.

The same is true the year before and the year before.  The Celtics have no one on the bench this year that you would consider a starter level on a contending team.  And O'Neal who is starting this year was the third string center entering last year. 

Wait, so you wanted "starter level on a contending team" to fill our bench? Glad you are putting up money to bring in guys like LeBrinda, Dirk, Pierce, Westbrooke, and Melo to come off our bench! We know none of the guys on our BENCH aren't good enough to start on contenders, that's why they are BENCH players!! They may not be starters for true contenders but Dooling and Bass could start for some good teams! On all the other teams who are contenders the only people on any of the benches who could start for them are Jason Terry and Lamar Odom and they are on the same team! We have a very strong bench (on paper for now) considering the money we had and w/ the loss of Green! I'm sorry, the bench we had was NOT deeper or better last season... sure, technically Shaq would have been a bench player if Perk was to play but he was the starter, so you can't add him to the bench just because he was suppose to be there! So our bench was... JO (playoffs actually, so it was more like Erdin), Davis, Daniels, Robinson, West, and Von Wafer! Really... that's better than what we have now?? Come on man, just stop!

No but the true contenders all have players on their benches that could start and you wouldn't find it odd.  Even last year we had Shaq and JO on the bench (to start the year) and JO and Green (to end the year) that could start on a contender. 

The Celtics bench is poor and not very deep this year.

[Moranis]

Contrary to what ESPN said, we have depth (even more so now that we have Pietrus) and are well rounded with a weakness at the center, which most teams have anyway. There also aren't many teams with good offensive centers so I'm not worried about that.

Miami is going to make a bunch of highlight reels, which ESPN loves, but they have significant weaknesses at two positions with very little depth. They also loved the Cavs when LeBron James was there.

OKC, Chicago and the Mavs would be my favorites to win this year. They're one of the few only truly well rounded, well built teams. Even then, OKC and Chicago are young as heck and Rip Hamilton will have to stay really healthy for Chicago. The playing field is still fairly level at this point.

I forgot about Pietrus if he comes back the same player he's a very nice addition to the bench. Dooling, Daniels, Pietrus, Bass and Wilcox is a pretty solid second unit. Probably one of the best we've had in a while. It all depends on health, but we are pretty much set bench wise.

At the start of last season, the Celtics expected bench was Shaq, O'Neal, Davis, Daniels, Robinson, West, and Von Wafer.  Much deeper going into last year though injuries were there at the start.  That is a much deeper bench.  Even the bench heading into the post season (even without Shaq) was probably deeper/better with Krstic, Davis, Green, and West.

The year before the bench was Rasheed, Davis, House, Allen, Daniels, and Sheldon Williams.  Pretty deep and good bench.  The playoff bench was Rasheed, Davis, Allen, Finley, Robinson, and Daniels.  Much better than what is currently on the roster.

The same is true the year before and the year before.  The Celtics have no one on the bench this year that you would consider a starter level on a contending team.  And O'Neal who is starting this year was the third string center entering last year. 

I think on paper those teams look better but the current bench seems to be a better fit.  The bigs are better finishers and the guards are unselfish, defensive minded, efficient and know they are role players.
It would be better having Shaq and Green in the fold, but they aren't available.  Considering the team resources it's amazing how deep the bench is.

Pierce is out already, who steps in?  The Celtics aren't going to be much better than .500 unless they have near perfect health.  If they are healthy come playoff time they could challenge most teams, but won't get past the second round.  That really is the state of the team this year.

[soap07]

Uh, guys? Sasha Pavlovic is starting. STARTING for Paul Pierce. And we are up in arms that analysts think our bench isn't very good?

[greg_kite]

Contrary to what ESPN said, we have depth (even more so now that we have Pietrus) and are well rounded with a weakness at the center, which most teams have anyway. There also aren't many teams with good offensive centers so I'm not worried about that.

Miami is going to make a bunch of highlight reels, which ESPN loves, but they have significant weaknesses at two positions with very little depth. They also loved the Cavs when LeBron James was there.

OKC, Chicago and the Mavs would be my favorites to win this year. They're one of the few only truly well rounded, well built teams. Even then, OKC and Chicago are young as heck and Rip Hamilton will have to stay really healthy for Chicago. The playing field is still fairly level at this point.

I forgot about Pietrus if he comes back the same player he's a very nice addition to the bench. Dooling, Daniels, Pietrus, Bass and Wilcox is a pretty solid second unit. Probably one of the best we've had in a while. It all depends on health, but we are pretty much set bench wise.

At the start of last season, the Celtics expected bench was Shaq, O'Neal, Davis, Daniels, Robinson, West, and Von Wafer.  Much deeper going into last year though injuries were there at the start.  That is a much deeper bench.  Even the bench heading into the post season (even without Shaq) was probably deeper/better with Krstic, Davis, Green, and West.

The year before the bench was Rasheed, Davis, House, Allen, Daniels, and Sheldon Williams.  Pretty deep and good bench.  The playoff bench was Rasheed, Davis, Allen, Finley, Robinson, and Daniels.  Much better than what is currently on the roster.

The same is true the year before and the year before.  The Celtics have no one on the bench this year that you would consider a starter level on a contending team.  And O'Neal who is starting this year was the third string center entering last year. 

I think on paper those teams look better but the current bench seems to be a better fit.  The bigs are better finishers and the guards are unselfish, defensive minded, efficient and know they are role players.
It would be better having Shaq and Green in the fold, but they aren't available.  Considering the team resources it's amazing how deep the bench is.

Pierce is out already, who steps in?  The Celtics aren't going to be much better than .500 unless they have near perfect health.  If they are healthy come playoff time they could challenge most teams, but won't get past the second round.  That really is the state of the team this year.

Pietrus will start.  He's a quality player.

What's your point though?  Was Ainge supposed to do better? 

And I don't see every contender with bench players better than the C's bench.  Who on Miami's bench is better than Bass, Quis or Pietrus?  Or the Lakers?  Dallas has a good bench but Vince Carter and Haywoode start, so that negates the great bench a little bit.  New York's bench is terrible.  The Thunder had a great bench but now Harden and Ibaka are starters.

Couldn't you say any team would be around 500 without perfect health?  You take away Lebron or wade, Dirk or Durant and the best teams will be 500 teams.