My dream scenario (as of January 30)

[Chris]

Over the last month, my opinion on this team has changed a few times, but I feel like right now, I am settling into a good place. 

As I was walking out of the game last night, and didn't feel the least bit of pain about the loss, even with the way it went down I realized exactly what I think would be best for this team (with the caveat that I am assuming a great deal for any of the key pieces on this team does not present itself).  I want them to win just enough to sneak in as the 8th seed, but try to get into the playoffs healthy, having rested the starters over the killer last few weeks of the season, again, just winning enough to get in.

At that point, they will have locked up a solid, mid first round pick in a strong draft, and I think this team could make some noise in the playoffs (with a lot of luck, of course).

At this point, they are too far out already to get home court against the teams that matter (Heat, Bulls), so they might as well face them early, before the compressed playoff schedule takes its toll.  And, even if they don't have what it takes to win 4 rounds, they absolutely have the ability to play spoiler against a Heat team that would overlook them, and might not be rolling at full speed, after cruising to the finish.  And if they can't win the championship, I will take that the 15th pick and Lebron James being sent home by the C's as a great consolation prize.  Anything beyond that would be gravy.

Then, they can begin rebuilding next season, or whatever they decide to do.  But at least we will have one last chance at glory (even if it isn't a championship), before the next 5-10 (or more) years of endless pain begins.

And, if they are able to upset the Heat in round one, you never know what can happen beyond that.  They would likely have an easier opponent in round 2, and could find themselves in the conference finals with some momentum and confidence.  Just look at the Mavs last year, who no one thought would even make it to the second round. 

Strange things can happen in the playoffs, and we have seen that Pierce and Ray can still turn it up from time to time.  That could be enough to steal their way, if not to the championship, at least to a memorable finish to the Big 3 era.

[TheBigTicket23]

Good story, nice opinion.

I just think we have to sneak in aswell but do anything to avoid the Miami Heat in round 1. I see us beat Chigago way earlier then the Miami Heat. We almost match chigago there defense, we got more experience and besides Rose they are not so athletic either.  So i rather face the Bulls. If you face bulls/heat (expecting they finish 1-2) you don't got them in a potential 2nd round.

Im with you about the rebuilding thing, i don't like to trade our players now. Only when a deal comes up which is that good. Hopefully we can make a run for an elite player in FA and still be a playoff team.

But one thing is for sure, if we manage to reach the playoffs which i think should be more then doable for this team I'm sure no single team wants to face the Boston Celtics in their first round match up.

[BudweiserCeltic]

Let's make the Clippers also sneak-in to the playoffs as the 8th seed.

[Interceptor]

I am not as excited for this team as I was for the 2010-11 crew (took me a month to pick my jaw up off the floor after I saw how well Shaq played with us in a limited role), but I still like these guys. We've got a lot of veteran experience, and that counts in the playoffs (just ask the Bulls). We're weak at C, but we just embarrassed the best C in the league twice in a row, while missing two of our best guys, and being forced to play a pair of guards that a couple years ago weren't even old enough to drink.

This soldier is not scared of Miami. Doc exposed their weakness to zone defense, even though we ultimately ended up losing that game. LBJ is not going to be raining back-to-back fade-away three-pointers into the bench two years in a row. Dwayne Wade is probably not going to pull a repeat arm-break on Rondo.

We've got our core four, JO, Wilcox, Bass, and Pietrus. Bring it on, NBA.

[PosImpos]

What you describe sounds nice.

My issue is that what I see much more likely is that this team will continue to follow their Detroit Pistons circa 2008-2009 trajectory and will end with a first round sweep / 5 game shellacking at the hands of the Heat or Bulls.  

Honestly, I'd much prefer either to miss or the playoffs altogether, or scrape a 6th seed berth and lose a tough-fought 6 or 7 game series to a team like the Pacers or Sixers rather than end the Big 3 era with an embarrassing showing against the Heat.  Last year's playoffs were bad enough.

I definitely value getting the best pick possible in the upcoming loaded draft over having a last hurrah in the playoffs which will likely be pretty anemic in terms of satisfaction compared to playoff series from years past. 

However, as you note, it's probably unlikely that we'll be able to parlay any of our major players into future assets, and we're probably also locked into a bottom playoff seed given the weakness of the Eastern Conference.

[BudweiserCeltic]

What you describe sounds nice.

My issue is that what I see much more likely is that this team will continue to follow their Detroit Pistons circa 2008-2009 trajectory and will end with a first round sweep / 5 game shellacking at the hands of the Heat or Bulls. 

Honestly, I'd much prefer either to miss or the playoffs altogether, or scrape a 6th seed berth and lose a tough-fought 6 or 7 game series to a team like the Pacers or Sixers rather than end the Big 3 era with an embarrassing showing against the Heat.  Last year's playoffs were bad enough.

The problem with Detroit is that they threw a lot of money at the wrong players when they got cap space to work with (including some poor decisions with trades). That is what I hope Ainge avoids, and the problem we could find ourselves with the poor free-agent crop coming up next year. Unless we get a franchise player with that cap space, which looks like it'll be a slim chance, I hope Ainge is wise in not locking up average players for more than a 2 year contract. But the pressure to compete from ownership might force him to make poor decisions for the rebuilding process.

[PosImpos]

What you describe sounds nice.

My issue is that what I see much more likely is that this team will continue to follow their Detroit Pistons circa 2008-2009 trajectory and will end with a first round sweep / 5 game shellacking at the hands of the Heat or Bulls.  

Honestly, I'd much prefer either to miss or the playoffs altogether, or scrape a 6th seed berth and lose a tough-fought 6 or 7 game series to a team like the Pacers or Sixers rather than end the Big 3 era with an embarrassing showing against the Heat.  Last year's playoffs were bad enough.

The problem with Detroit is that they threw a lot of money at the wrong players when they got cap space to work with (including some poor decisions with trades). That is what I hope Ainge avoids, and the problem we could find ourselves with the poor free-agent crop coming up next year. Unless we get a franchise player with that cap space, which looks like it'll be a slim chance, I hope Ainge is wise in not locking up average players for more than a 2 year contract. But the pressure to compete from ownership might force him to make poor decisions for the rebuilding process.

I'm confident Ainge won't complete the "Pistons 2008-2009" nightmare scenario by burning all of our cap space this summer on mediocre players.

However, as to the regular seasons, I see things playing out pretty much the same way.

I wonder which contender Ray (our Sheed) will join in the off-season and help take to the Finals?  

[Chris]

What you describe sounds nice.

My issue is that what I see much more likely is that this team will continue to follow their Detroit Pistons circa 2008-2009 trajectory and will end with a first round sweep / 5 game shellacking at the hands of the Heat or Bulls.  

Honestly, I'd much prefer either to miss or the playoffs altogether, or scrape a 6th seed berth and lose a tough-fought 6 or 7 game series to a team like the Pacers or Sixers rather than end the Big 3 era with an embarrassing showing against the Heat.  Last year's playoffs were bad enough.

I definitely value getting the best pick possible in the upcoming loaded draft over having a last hurrah in the playoffs which will likely be pretty anemic in terms of satisfaction compared to playoff series from years past. 

However, as you note, it's probably unlikely that we'll be able to parlay any of our major players into future assets, and we're probably also locked into a bottom playoff seed given the weakness of the Eastern Conference.

As far as the draft goes, I just don't think there is much of a difference between the 15th pick and the 10th pick, and I think that is pretty much our low range, short of major injuries killing the season completely (lets not get into that scenario right now...this is a happy place).

You will have just as good players available at 15 as you will at 10, and if you love the guy there at 10, it won't cost an arm and a leg to move up that much. 

Now, the 6th seed thing...well, I guess that is a personal choice, and I completely understand where you are coming from.  But I would much rather see them get swept by the Heat than to lose painfully to a lesser team.  If they are not going to end the season with some sort of glory, I prefer it to end quickly.

[PosImpos]

What you describe sounds nice.

My issue is that what I see much more likely is that this team will continue to follow their Detroit Pistons circa 2008-2009 trajectory and will end with a first round sweep / 5 game shellacking at the hands of the Heat or Bulls. 

Honestly, I'd much prefer either to miss or the playoffs altogether, or scrape a 6th seed berth and lose a tough-fought 6 or 7 game series to a team like the Pacers or Sixers rather than end the Big 3 era with an embarrassing showing against the Heat.  Last year's playoffs were bad enough.

I definitely value getting the best pick possible in the upcoming loaded draft over having a last hurrah in the playoffs which will likely be pretty anemic in terms of satisfaction compared to playoff series from years past. 

However, as you note, it's probably unlikely that we'll be able to parlay any of our major players into future assets, and we're probably also locked into a bottom playoff seed given the weakness of the Eastern Conference.

As far as the draft goes, I just don't think there is much of a difference between the 15th pick and the 10th pick, and I think that is pretty much our low range, short of major injuries killing the season completely (lets not get into that scenario right now...this is a happy place).

You will have just as good players available at 15 as you will at 10, and if you love the guy there at 10, it won't cost an arm and a leg to move up that much. 

Looking at a couple draft sites, it looks like the difference between selecting around 9 or 10 in this draft and selecting around 15 or 16 will be the difference between getting a Bradley Beal / Austin Rivers / Perry Jones and getting a Terrence Ross / John Henson / Tyler Zeller. 

So I don't know, maybe you're right.


It's true, though, that with our pick and the Clippers pick, we should have the ability to move up a spot or two if we like.  I maintain that Ainge will seriously consider packaging Rondo with either or both of our 1st round picks in order to move into the top 5 if he sees somebody he really likes.

[Q_FBE]

I was going to start another thread to consider where are going as a team but then as I was reading through the thread I thought it fit in here pretty nicely. I continue to take this 1 game - quarter - quadrant (1/4 of one quarter, 1/16, or 3 minutes - whatever you care to call it).

But in examining the overall Celtics schedule, the critical date to keep in mind is March 9 or our last home game with Portland before the 8 game roadie monster followed by more tough competition all the way to the end. After March 9, there is 27 games in 45 days with 18 of those on the road. The schedule maker boned the Celtics here. So we need to win 14 of our next 20 games to be at 23-16 after March 9. Once that hits, the war of attrition could work against us and lack of conditioning and old age might limit us to 12 and 15 after March 9 giving us a total record of 35-31 which would put us at hopefully a Six seed and a relatively favorable pairing against the presumed to be Atlantic Division Champions Philadelphia 76ers. I still think we can beat the Sixers in a 7 game series. The Second round against the Bulls or the Heat does not look promising for us at this point but can point the future direction of this club of whether to overhaul or reload further in the off-season.

Making mid-season deals to "shake things up" is likely to more long term damage than good. The lessons of the new CBA dictate not to tie up your resources (cap space) long term with Marginal NBA players (Rashard Lewis, Antwawn Jamison, Glen Davis and Metta World Peace are good examples) who might have had one or two good seasons and cut a deal with management who did not do their due diligence and end up in the amnesty pile.  

[Celtics18]

Over the last month, my opinion on this team has changed a few times, but I feel like right now, I am settling into a good place. 

As I was walking out of the game last night, and didn't feel the least bit of pain about the loss, even with the way it went down I realized exactly what I think would be best for this team (with the caveat that I am assuming a great deal for any of the key pieces on this team does not present itself).  I want them to win just enough to sneak in as the 8th seed, but try to get into the playoffs healthy, having rested the starters over the killer last few weeks of the season, again, just winning enough to get in.

At that point, they will have locked up a solid, mid first round pick in a strong draft, and I think this team could make some noise in the playoffs (with a lot of luck, of course).

At this point, they are too far out already to get home court against the teams that matter (Heat, Bulls), so they might as well face them early, before the compressed playoff schedule takes its toll.  And, even if they don't have what it takes to win 4 rounds, they absolutely have the ability to play spoiler against a Heat team that would overlook them, and might not be rolling at full speed, after cruising to the finish.  And if they can't win the championship, I will take that the 15th pick and Lebron James being sent home by the C's as a great consolation prize.  Anything beyond that would be gravy.

Then, they can begin rebuilding next season, or whatever they decide to do.  But at least we will have one last chance at glory (even if it isn't a championship), before the next 5-10 (or more) years of endless pain begins.

And, if they are able to upset the Heat in round one, you never know what can happen beyond that.  They would likely have an easier opponent in round 2, and could find themselves in the conference finals with some momentum and confidence.  Just look at the Mavs last year, who no one thought would even make it to the second round. 

Strange things can happen in the playoffs, and we have seen that Pierce and Ray can still turn it up from time to time.  That could be enough to steal their way, if not to the championship, at least to a memorable finish to the Big 3 era.

That's pretty much echoes the dream scenario I've had for a while.  Be sure everyone gets enough rest during the regular season.  Keep working in the bench players so everyone is ready come playoff time. 

Give me the Heat in the first round.  If healthy, I think we'll have a chance to take them out.  I'm not saying we'll be the favorites, but we'll have a punchers chance.  If we can pull off the upset of the Heat, anything after that would be icing on top of the cake as far as I'm concerned. 

As far as tank mode goes, it would take something that smells really bad to tank to the point where we move anywhere above the 10th pick.  In that case, I'll take 15 or 16 and root for the Clippers to lose games, as well. 

[2dark]

I agree with OP, and since I m still wearing my green googles I think 7th or 8th seed would be perfect.
It still gives us decent spot in deep draft, and it gives us either Miami or chicago in 1st round.

I think the goal of this team is not to pass the first round, so getting 4th,5th or 6th seed just to avoid miami or chicago in 1st round is not worth it IMHO.
My opinion is that goal with our Big3 should be championship each season, which means we have to go trough MIA and CHI anyway.
Keeping better pick in case of failure in playoffs is more worthy than any 1st round win ag Ind/whatever. It won't add or diminish anything about their legacy.

[greenpride32]

If this team's destiny is to get trounced in the first round by a far superior team I'd rather they miss the playoffs and get a higher draft pick.  You'll have a far greater chance of getting a true impact player in the lottery versus a mid-teens pick. 

I still expect this team to get a 4-6 seed and the potential to make some noise if MIA or CHI get upset.  I think we could beat one of those teams in a 7 game series, but no way are we going to run the gambit and beat 3 superior teams all on the road to win the banner.

[Celtics18]

If this team's destiny is to get trounced in the first round by a far superior team I'd rather they miss the playoffs and get a higher draft pick.  You'll have a far greater chance of getting a true impact player in the lottery versus a mid-teens pick. 

I still expect this team to get a 4-6 seed and the potential to make some noise if MIA or CHI get upset.  I think we could beat one of those teams in a 7 game series, but no way are we going to run the gambit and beat 3 superior teams all on the road to win the banner.

But, if we beat Miami in the first round, there aren't really any superior teams left.

[slamtheking]

Hmm, dream scenario?

I'd go with the C's getting into the playoffs with the #8 seed to get the best draft spot possible while making the playoffs. 
Then, hope to have a 1st round matchup with the Bulls who I think the C's could beat in a 7-game series.  I like that matchup better than the Heat.
Then, hope the Heat get knocked off in either their 1st or 2nd round playoff with the C's getting through their second and ECF  series without having to play the Heat. 
Then have them play the Lakers in the Finals and stomp them because beating the Lakers in the Finals is as sweet as it gets.  Not that I complained when they beat Houston twice in the 80's but the one over the Lakers was the sweetest.

for good measure have the Clips miss the playoffs but get the 11th pick in the draft this year.

That would be my dream scenario.  Hey, dream big or go home