Poll: Is this year's bench better than the 2007-08 Celtics bench?

[Drucci]

They just seemed to shine in the right spots at the right time with really only Posey ever being a consistent force.

In my opinion the Posey era has been overly romanticized.

For example, I recall him being awesome early on in the Cavs series, then being a complete non-factor in the later portion of the series, to the point that he just couldn't be effective guarding LeBron, I remember screaming for Doc to put back Pierce in even though he was exhausted.

The I recall the Pistons series, in which really he simply couldn't help guard the fast players they had on that team, and recall one specific dumb turnover towards the end of one game, something that if it were Tony Allen we'd be crucifying him for it to this day, but we simply forget about it.

He was [dang] good for us in the finals though, particularly with his 3-point shooting in those LA games. His defense on Kobe though was not a good one, except in the last game but it was mainly because of a team effort to stop penetration that allowed him to succeed. Though his defense on Odom was completely awesome.

I think a lot of the attributed contribution to Posey really goes towards what Pierce did for us in that championship run. He really did cover a lot for what Posey was supposed to do for us. He handled LeBron, and he was the one who really took defending Kobe into his own hands when we needed it.

Now, Posey certainly was great for us, but he just seems like we think he did more than what he actually did. Love the toughness he brought though to each game, that certainly helped set the tone, but as far as a consistent contributor, he was up and down as everyone else I thought.

True, but I think fans tend to idealize his contributions because he often made huge plays at key moments of games. I remember him poking Tayshaun Prince for a huge steal in game 6 of the ECF, which helped us secure our lead and the win. This kind of play was what made him great, along with his clutch 3 pointers.

[2short]

tp for budceltic on the posey part
Posey was great for us but he does seem to be a mythical figure to the point people are saying bring him back now (he's cooked)
he did a great job, eddie shot lights out, pj brown for a partial season was great, tony helped, leon helped,davis helped
to me posey & house were the only consistant guys  however that entire bench seemed to take turns stepping up
tough call
what the 07 guys had REBOUNDING, what they were lacking a backup point guard, i used to cringe every time eddie was bringing the ball up, he had a career year shooting but we were so lacking in ball handling skills it was crazy
current bench on paper should be better, deeper squad, could argue 4 pg with daniels who might be the key
also remember green is out, he's on the bench this is a very very good squad
too early to tell

[BudweiserCeltic]

I know its only 4 games and this season could go in any direction. But before that championship season, that team's bench was considered by most pundits to be awful. Turns out they were dang good, maybe the best the team had had since the late 80's.

This year I think some thought this team was missing a bunch off the bench(centers and outside shooters) and had a lot of question marks as well(injury prone Daniels, black hole Bass, little defense Wilcox, Pietrus signed while hurt, basically 4 rookies) but had a few good players.

So what say you? Which bench is better. BTW I will leave the poll so that you can change your vote if as the season goes on you want to change it.

I thought our 2007-2008 bench sucked personally. What we did have was a great 7 man rotation, 8 when Doc finally played House, but he was used in spots. This became true though once Brown finally established himself for us during the Cleveland series, 2nd round of the playoffs, so we could go away from Davis and Powe who were highly inconsistent for us.

This

Actually, the exact opposite of this.

2007-2008 had a number of legit players:

Posey of course, who was in his prime and easily better than any backup wing we have currently (by a long shot). House, who again was better than any backup guard we currently have (we've given Avery Bradley minutes?? UGHH). And Powe, who if you don't remember (seems nobody does) had an absolutely ridiculous year, culminating in a 21 point outburst in the finals.

With the exception of Bass, I don't see much to like about this year's bench.

Oh I remember Powe, but he did not have an absolutely ridiculous year. In fact, he could barely make it to the floor during the playoffs because he was so inconsistent for us, particularly defensively. That's why it was so important the emergence of PJ Brown, because it allowed us to go in a 3 big man rotation for the most part with KG-Perk-Brown.

Seems like you're confusing one awesome game in the finals as a representation of what Powe actually did for us.

Powe was battling Baby throughout the whole year for minutes, no one capable of winning the role because of inconsistent issues.

Are we talking about the same people?

The same Powe who scored 21 points in the finals? Who had a 20.9 PER for the season (versus Glen Davis's 11.9) Powe, who had literally double the minutes than Davis during the playoffs (actually closer to 2 and a half times the total minutes)?

Powe, who shot 49% during the playoffs while Baby shot 41%?

And as for PJ Brown, he also shot a worse percentage from the field and had a terrible PER of 10.2 for the season. He also shot worse from the field than Powe and collected fewer rebounds during the playoffs.

Powe was better than PJ Brown and Davis, and though I could find about a billion stats that would say this, nothing compares to just looking at the old game film and seeing how much better he truly was that year.

I'm talking about Powe who had a good Atlanta series, when Doc put him ahead of Baby in the depth charts, the Powe that was putrid in the Cleveland series, losing his job to Davis, who also couldn't hold the position, and ultimately it went to Brown who forced Doc to use a 3-man rotation between Perk-KG-Brown because he couldn't rely on Powe. I'm talking about Powe who had another putrid series in Detroit.

I'm talking about a Powe who other than a decent rebounding game in the first game of the finals, and an awesome game 2 of the finals, was a complete non-factor for the rest of the games.

Does that sound to you like a ridiculous year? And PER is a crap stat in my opinion.

And through all of this, add bad defense which was his main problem throughout the year, often lost in our defensive system. And I don't know, but 49% from a PF during the playoffs is nothing to be glad about.

[OttawaCeltic]

How can our bench compare to the GOAT Scal? That's like comparing Lebron(2012 bench mob) to Jordan(Scal)! Don't go overboard!

[Inside-Out]

We'll have to see if our bench gels this season first.

But the starters have declined, too, so this team simply isn't as good.

[wdleehi]

That bench proved to be a good bench in the playoffs.


This bench has to prove something first.

[BballTim]

I know its only 4 games and this season could go in any direction. But before that championship season, that team's bench was considered by most pundits to be awful. Turns out they were dang good, maybe the best the team had had since the late 80's.

This year I think some thought this team was missing a bunch off the bench(centers and outside shooters) and had a lot of question marks as well(injury prone Daniels, black hole Bass, little defense Wilcox, Pietrus signed while hurt, basically 4 rookies) but had a few good players.

So what say you? Which bench is better. BTW I will leave the poll so that you can change your vote if as the season goes on you want to change it.

I thought our 2007-2008 bench sucked personally. What we did have was a great 7 man rotation, 8 when Doc finally played House, but he was used in spots. This became true though once Brown finally established himself for us during the Cleveland series, 2nd round of the playoffs, so we could go away from Davis and Powe who were highly inconsistent for us.

Is it just me or weren't Powe and Baby consistently inconsistent at opposite times so that one of them always seemed to be making some positive type of contribution at the PF spot that year from about mid December on?

Maybe I am misremembering.

You're correct, I'm mainly focusing on what went on during the playoffs. But as far as the season went, our bench was [dang] good, but with that weakness of missing a real PG which hurt us plenty of times, and also the lack of a big guy on the bench to help balance out rotations, instead of forcing us into small ball every time.

It's a shame about Pollard, he would have been really awesome for us.

  Posey was the only consistent performer off the bench in the 08 playoffs. Doc went back and forth with the other backups as they took turns playing their way out of the lineup.

[TA9]

Given that we havent seen Pietrus yet.. I cant decide.
Posey was big for our team back in 07. If Pietrus could bring the same effort as Posey did back in 07, then the choice would be obvious.

[gar]

Given that we havent seen Pietrus yet.. I cant decide.
Posey was big for our team back in 07. If Pietrus could bring the same effort as Posey did back in 07, then the choice would be obvious.

Agreed TP

Perimeter Defense has been an issue. If Pietrus is healthy by mid season we should be ahead of things; however KG has lost a bit as have the other vets.