#1 Factor Haunting the Celtics over these past 4 seasons?

[Kane3387]

Injuries.

KG's injury cost us a title in 2009, and probably in 2010.  Perk's injury sealed the deal in 2010.

Shaq's injury was huge last year, as was Rondo's injury in the playoffs.

This year, Bradley, JO, Green, and Wilcox were out for the year, and Pierce, Ray, and Stiemer were all banged up.

How can the answer be anything other than injuries?  The only year I really fault Danny for putting together a poor bench is in 2009, when we got worse in the off-season.  Every season since then, he's added strong players with the minimal money we've had available.  I can't fault him for that.

This.

[cltc5]

Injuries.

KG's injury cost us a title in 2009, and probably in 2010.  Perk's injury sealed the deal in 2010.

Shaq's injury was huge last year, as was Rondo's injury in the playoffs.

This year, Bradley, JO, Green, and Wilcox were out for the year, and Pierce, Ray, and Stiemer were all banged up.

How can the answer be anything other than injuries?  The only year I really fault Danny for putting together a poor bench is in 2009, when we got worse in the off-season.  Every season since then, he's added strong players with the minimal money we've had available.  I can't fault him for that.

This.

yup.  I see 4 EC championships at least during that stretch including this year.

[Fafnir]

Allow me to blow your mind right now:

During the playoffs, your starting 5 accounts for 94% of your wins. Your 6th man accounts for just an additional 5%, and the rest of your team is statistically meaningless (source: wagesofwins.com). So no, our bench had pretty much nothing to do with it; we lost because key parts of our starting 5 got injured (KG, Perk, Shaq).

If you subscribe to a statistic that assigns the value of defense solely to those who get defensive boards, steals, blocks, and not fouling.

[Fafnir]

http://wagesofwins.com/2012/05/26/making-the-picks-for-the-conference-finals/

This same statistic you're using which is used in this post also says that Greg Steismsa was on a per minute basis one of our most productive player and by far our best big man.

Meanwhile when he was on the court it was ugly and the Heat crushed us. They just walked into the paint and scored at will while often getting fouled....

[ballin]

http://wagesofwins.com/2012/05/26/making-the-picks-for-the-conference-finals/

This same statistic you're using which is used in this post also says that Greg Steismsa was on a per minute basis one of our most productive player and by far our best big man.

Meanwhile when he was on the court it was ugly and the Heat crushed us. They just walked into the paint and scored at will while often getting fouled....

I assume you realize that it's pretty easy to get distorted per48 stats when the sample size is so tiny. Nice straw man argument though.

[RockinRyA]

rebounding, offensive woes, inadequate bench- you can attribute all of these to injuries. we were the best team in 2011 when shaq was healthy, 2010 we mightve won game 7 if perk and sheed (back spasms) were both healthy. 2009 kg was injured, no guarantee of a championship there but i think we at least get to the finals if both kg and powe were healthy.

bench play can't be faulted as well if you have some of your best bench guys starting due to injuries to your starters.

can't say age is a factor when you had guys like green, west, davis, powe, bradley, rondo, t.allen, perk getting injured more than pierce/allen/garnett(save for 2009)

[StarzNBarz]

Rebounding.

You think it takes a toll on the players when they have to play hard nose, tought defense for multiple possesions at a time? We're talking 48-72 seconds every time down.

How do you think we lost the title in 2010?

[ManUp]

Injuries.

We would have repeated in 2009 if KG didn't go down. In 2010 KG wasn't fully recovered and Perk went down in game 6 of the finals. In 2011 Garnett was playing like a role player and Rondo went down against MIA. In 2012 our roster was simply ravaged Green, O'neal, Wilcox and Bradley with season ending injuries everybody else with minor nagging injuries that caused several missed games.

[bopna]

I firmly believe that we were a healthy Avery Bradley away from sealing the fate of the cHeatles.

He was so much a part of what we have done in the previous series against the Hawks and the Sixerds that having to extend Ray up to 40 min a game and asked to guard ThugWade was just too much to ask...Now if you factor in that we did not had Jeff Green nor Wilcox and to some extent JO, then how can we possibly say INJURIES did not hurt us considering we reached Gm 7 of the ECF with a decimated and banged up line up.

Our litany of injuries the last 4 seasons was not even a joke...A healthy SHAQ and Rondo, we get past Miami last year...a healthy Perk in Game 7 in 2010 and we could have managed to carom those lose balls, not allow Gasol all those boards and we could possibly have won that one as well...and 2009 was just pure heart that we reached Gm7 against the Magic when we did not have KG the entire post season.

We have been so bad luck stricken the last 4 years I feel it high time this team is due for a season that is injury free, then we can truly gauge what kind of team we have.

[ACF]

86.3 % got the answer right.

[celtics2]

I don't think Danny has done well either. He could have picked from a grab bag and done better. As far as the bench is concerned.

[Yoki_IsTheName]

Injuries.

We have a legitimate case for back to back if KG did not injure his knee.

We have a legitimate case in 2010 until Perk got done.

JO was a solid pickup, until his nagging wrist problems hurt us.

Same with Shaq and his legs.

Jeff Green adn Chris Wilcox, two of our athletic big guys went out because of heart problems. They could CLEARLY be a difference maker.

Bradley and his shoulder.

There's really no one to blame but injuries here.

[EDWARDO]

I don't think Danny has done well either. He could have picked from a grab bag and done better. As far as the bench is concerned.

Really? Who would you have taken with your super awesome 20/20 hindsight? Don't forget that the top 4 guys off the bench for us were Bradley, Green, Wilcox and Stiemsma. And Pietrus was never the same after banging his head in Philly. And we get one game from the Finals with all those injuries, plus Pierce and Allen hobbling around. And the 2 teams in the Finals happen to have the best 2 players on earth gift wrapped for them. But it's Ainges fault for not brining in who exactly? Who was going to come for next to nothing and be better than those guys?  

Pathetic. We were playing with our 8th, 9th and 10th players as the first 3 guys off the bench and they played their butts off. Guess what? Sometimes the odds are stacked against you so much, there's nothing even the best GM can do. Given Lebron and Wade in their primes, this was always Miami's conference to win or lose. Danny has been INCREDIBLY shrewd in getting together a 5 year title contender out of virtually nothing, but you've got your nits to pick. Good work.

[Boris Badenov]

I don't see how you can separate injuries and age.

The only reason we were able to acquire Allen and Garnett is because they were on the tail end of their careers, when injury risks are higher.

So, having gotten through fifteen player-years with the Big Three, and losing only three of those (two for KG, and one for Ray) to injury is about what you'd expect. Maybe even better.

And as far as other injuries (Bradley, Perk, Green, Wilcox) - I don't know that we've been more injury-prone than any other team. Look at LA with Bynum, or Chicago with Rose.

Where I think we went wrong, and I've said this before, is in signing bench/supporting players who were also old (JO, Shaq) or injury-prone (Daniels, Delonte). We needed guys who could play a lot, even if they were less talented.

[looseball]

Championship teams must be able to overcome adversity to win.
Injuries are part of the game, and are part of the adversity you need to overcome.

To believe we didn't win it all in 2010 due to an injury to our 5th best player is not saying much about the character of this team.  (Especially after Dallas won last year despite an injury to their 3rd best player.)  Even without Perk we had game 7 won, but we let it slip away.  The question is: Why can't we finish?

The only injuries that truly couldn't be overcome would have to happen to our top two players, Pierce or Garnett.  So, Garnett's injury in 2009 is a legitimate reason.  But all the other injuries listed for the last 4 years only count as adversity we failed to overcome.  (IMO)

Pierce and Garnett have been the driving forces on this team, legitimate superstars both, and anytime we've had them both on the court together we need to look for reasons other than injuries for us not having a dynasty.