Sniff. Sniff. I Smell Banner #18

[LEHGOCELTICS]

Barring any injuries, this team is stronger than our championship team from 2008. Heat, Lakers, Nets, Pacers, OKC: bring it on. I think our mix of depth and talent is enough to overcome any of these teams.

[MJohnnyboy]

That all depends if we have the full squad this season. The 2010-11 Celtics should have been a really deep team too.

Fully healthy rotations of the 2010-11 Celtics and the 2012-13 Celtics

10-11: Rondo-Ray-Pierce-KG-Perkins-Shaq-JO-Baby-Delonte-Quisy-Nate-Semih

We never had that core fully healthy. Now here's our core right now:

12-13: Rondo-Bradley-Pierce-Bass-KG-Terry-Green-Lee-Wilcox-Sullinger

Bradley will be back December. Hopefully Danny does not do any tweaking mid-season like in 11. But this is all on paper. We'll never know what happens till the season comes.

[Fafnir]

Solid rotation guy at SG while helpful doesn't greatly alter our overall talent level or potential as a team.

[TheBig5]

We all know injuries are the only reason why this Team hasn't been able to hang up #18 and maybe even #19. Then again we don't have a bunch of corpses in the roster this coming season.

[droopdog7]

Let's not get crazy here.  Miami, LA, and OKC should still be the favorites.  Ultimately, the further development of lebron in Mia, Durant in OKC, and Howard to LA could be more significant factors for who wins the title (as opposed to us signing Lee).

Each year is different.  We don't just add Green, Bradley, and Lee and assume we beat Mia next year.

[ACF]

[Celtics4ever]

Whomever David decrees with his refs are the favorite, I doubt it will be us.

[action781]

Solid rotation guy at SG while helpful doesn't greatly alter our overall talent level or potential as a team.

He will help our win total and playoff seeding by giving us a better squad at the beginning of the year and he'll provide depth for us to limit minutes for our key players.

I'm starting to think that we should consider AB as a point guard again for minutes purposes.

Rondo(35)/AB(13)
Lee(22)/Terry(26)
Pierce(28)/Green(20)
Bass(30)/Sullinger+Green(18)
KG(30)/backup C or combo of players(18)

Loving this lineup.

[ImShakHeIsShaq]

Solid rotation guy at SG while helpful doesn't greatly alter our overall talent level or potential as a team.

That's probably true BUT our biggest weakness over the past few seasons have been INJURIES (regardless of people talking about rebounding or scoring). More quality players should take care of us if a key player goes down (outside of the New Big Three)! All we need is a Darko (underrated to me) or Blatche and I am telling you that teams are fearful of us with no games played! We were the second best defense last season, now we don't have Ray (a liability last season on D) and replaced him with Lee (who is known for defense)! Wilcox is a good defender, Green can be at the 3, and a healthier PP (God willing)... our defense got even better!!! Not only do we have upgraded defense (if all stay relatively healthy when the playoffs go on) we drastically upgraded the offense!! I won't declare us champions like other people but I love our chance to upset some teams... we have as good a chance as one could have given the money we DIDN'T have LOL (on paper at least)!

[Smokeeye123]

Sniff Sniff, Dwight Howard might be on the Lakers.

[tarheelsxxiii]

Sniff Sniff, Dwight Howard might be on the Lakers.

It's gonna happen 

[Django]

Not sure Im willing to go that far. However, I do think it will be an ECF rematch.


Bosh/Darko?
LeBron/Haslem
Battier/Rashard Lewis
Wade/Ray Allen
Chalmers/Cole

vs.

KG/Wilcox/Melo
Bass/Sully
Pierce/Jeff Green
Lee/Terry
Rondo/Bradley/Dooling

Should be interesting

[manl_lui]

we shouldn't get overconfident. If the Lakers get Dwight, they'll be hard to beat. The Heat and Thunder will always be there. Don't count out the Spurs too. They may be old but they're definitely experienced. With the Atlantic Division getting stronger with the Knicks and Nets. I don't see Nets as a super threat this season, but Deron, Joe Johnson, and Gerald Wallace makes a good back court.

The Heat are the defending NBA champions, so they'll definitely be the team to beat.

Rose may be injured, but their rebounding is still our kryptonite since we still need to find a center.

We improved a bit from last season but in my opinion, a fully healthy squad in 2010-2011 was definitely the best team on paper. If everyone was healthy we would've won and I truly believe that. Shaq/Perk/JO/KG/Baby with Rondo/Ray/Nate and Pierce/healthy Marquis (if Marquis never got injured in that Orlando game, we would not have traded Perk, I always view that as the first domino to fall).

[ayer]

If we continue to be healthy we have a great chance on banner 18, and one more thing, we need another ligit center, if KG gets injured our chances will become slim.

[celticinorlando]

need one more big

need to stay healthy

need Sully to really develop

but they are much better than last season when they faced the heat