NBA GM's Rankings of Celtics

[kp4000]

The GMs have spoken: Celtics get high marks

This afternoon, NBA.com released the results of its annual GM Survey, and as you might expect, the Celtics are well-represented throughout.

• First of all, two-thirds (66.7) of the league’s GMs picked Boston to win the Atlantic Division. This doesn’t come as huge surprise seeing that the C’s have won the Atlantic crown in each of the last five seasons, but what’s interesting is that — despite the Sixers getting Andrew Bynum, the Nets re-loading and the Knicks having another year of chemistry-building under their belt — more GMs picked the C’s to win this year, than last year (64.3).

• Only 3.3 percent of the GMs picked Boston to win the Eastern Conference, which isn’t great, but it’s 3.3 percent more votes than any team not named Miami. The Heat received the remaining 96.7 percent.

• In the positional groupings, Rajon Rondo picked up 6.9 percent of the votes for “Best Point Guard,” behind Chris Paul (69 percent) and Derrick Rose (20.7). Rondo also finished third in "Best Passer" and "Fastest with the Ball." KG was tied for fifth with Blake Griffin among power forwards at 6.7 percent.

One interesting twist here: LeBron was voted the leagues best small forward (73.3) and the league's third best power forward (16.7).

KG also finished second (23.3) to Chris Paul for "Best Leader."

• The C's were big winners in the off-season section, as Jason Terry (13.3) and Courtney Lee (10.0) finished second and third, respectively, in the "Most Underrated Acquisition" category. Keeping with that theme, Jared Sullinger (17.3) was voted the rookie most likely to be a "Sleeper Success."

• Defensively, Kevin Garnett was an honorable mention for "Best Defensive Player," Avery Bradley and Rajon Rondo (6.7) tied for third (along with Thabo Sefolosha and Andre Iguodala) as the league's best perimeter defender, and the Celtics finished third (23.3) in the Best Defensive Team category.

• Lastly, as you can imagine, Doc Rivers got a lot of love in the coaching categories, finishing second (13.3) in "Best Coach" and "Best Motivator" (40.0). In both cases, Gregg Popovich finished first.

So there you have it. Not a bad showing for the Celtics.

Think they should have done better? Fair enough. But don't get angry. Just consider the source. Despite their job description, most of these GMs don't exactly have the best track record when it comes to evaluating anything NBA-related.


Courtesy of CSNE Rich Levine

These are interesting, but mind stretching polls too. I agree that Get Miami finishing first as far as repeat champs, I mean they're the defending champs. With that said the Heat have to defend their crown. I'll put Rondo ahead of Paul and Rose as "Best pure PG", because so far Paul and Rose have not lead their teams into deep post-season runs.

One interesting twist here: LeBron was voted the leagues best small forward (73.3) and the league's third best power forward (16.7).

KG also finished second (23.3) to Chris Paul for "Best Leader."

I guess I can understand CP3 finishing first as "Best Leader", because he's the best player on the Clippers roster.  I agree Lebron is the best Small Forward, but 3rd best Power Forward? Are these GM's sniffing glue or simply drinking the kool-aid, because in case I missed something, Lebron is not a pure or legit PF.

That's like putting Garnett and Duncan behind Howard and Bynum as third and fourth best centers. Knowing that KG and TD aren't pure centers, but put at center by default.

 
Anyway what's u guys opinion?

[ianboyextreme]

I was ok (just ok) with most of the results except for three. The first is obvious- best passer in the league. Rondo came in 3rd which can only really be summed up to GM's stubborness to put him above Chris Paul and Nash. I mean theres really not much of an arguement that Rondo isnt the best passer in the NBA.

The second was "which player makes opposing coaches make the most adjustements?" Rondo diddnt even get a single vote but somehow Dwight Howard made the list along with the usual suspects (Lebron, Durant, Chris Paul). I mean 90% of what Spoelstra did in the ECF was decide how to guard Rondo.

The last one was "who has highest the bball iq?". Rondo did get a vote but he diddnt even place in the top 6. I mean the dude draws up plays on the sideline. More than any other Rondo arguement, to me, the fact that he has the highest bball iq in the league is the most inarguable.

Couple others that annoyed me were "most dangerous in open floor" where Rondo diddnt even get a vote yet Westbrook was 2nd; "biggest home court advantage" where Miami was second- I'm gonna go laugh for a year; somehow Mike Brown and Popovich came ahead of Doc in "Coach with best defensive schemes" (even though neither of their teams were even inside the top 10 in defensive rating) think ill have a laughing break again on that one.

So i guess there were more than 3. Miami was also voted a better defensive team than us even though we set defensive records last year. Ok im done. Nothing too terrible but I had a problem with those things.

[nostar]

• Only 3.3 percent of the GMs picked Boston to win the Eastern Conference, which isn’t great, but it’s 3.3 percent more votes than any team not named Miami. The Heat received the remaining 96.7 percent.

I did a bit of quick math and found out that 3.3% = 1/30. If there are 30 teams then there are 30 GMs. Assuming a GM can vote for his own team then I'm guessing that Danny Ainge picked the Celtics. Assuming that a GM can't pick their own team then I'm guessing Micky Arison had to pick a team not the Heat and he picked the Celtics. I think it's probably the latter of those assumptions.

What I'm saying is that 3.3% of a vote like this is virtually like 0%.

[mqtcelticsfan]

I'll put Rondo ahead of Paul and Rose as "Best pure PG", because so far Paul and Rose have not lead their teams into deep post-season runs.

Somewhere Derrick Rose is wondering what constitutes a deep playoff run, because apparently reaching the ECF does not count.

[kp4000]

• Only 3.3 percent of the GMs picked Boston to win the Eastern Conference, which isn’t great, but it’s 3.3 percent more votes than any team not named Miami. The Heat received the remaining 96.7 percent.

I did a bit of quick math and found out that 3.3% = 1/30. If there are 30 teams then there are 30 GMs. Assuming a GM can vote for his own team then I'm guessing that Danny Ainge picked the Celtics. Assuming that a GM can't pick their own team then I'm guessing Micky Arison had to pick a team not the Heat and he picked the Celtics. I think it's probably the latter of those assumptions.

What I'm saying is that 3.3% of a vote like this is virtually like 0%.

I don't usually pay attention to premature assumptions. I'll give Miami credit, because they're defending champs and we as fans like it or not have to acknowledge that. But clearly these GM's are blinded by Lebron and him only. The fact is Miami like every other team has flaws too. They're a very small team that lacks depth a center key positions Center, Point Guard and Power Forward. Sure, Lebron can play the #4, but he's not a legit PF.

Depsite them(HEAT) winning the NBA finals last season, they struggled mightly IN the PLAYOFFS against the Pacers and especially the Celtics. Yes, Bosh missed all of the Pacers/Heat series and a majority of the Celtics/Heat series, but the Heat struggled. The Celtics, if had a solid bench would of likely won the series in 5 or 6 games. A bench with Dooling, Pietrus, Daniels, Stiemsma, Hollins, Sasha, Moore, Williams; could only get the Celtics so far.   The jury is still out on the Miami Heat and their will be teams hunting for them.

I rather wait until the season starts before making predictions and assumptions about teams and title favorites. Just an opinion. 
 




 

[lightspeed5]

^pat riley is the gm of the heat and he voted for the celtics. 29 out of 30 picked the heat, and teams cannot vote for themselves.

that means danny ainge voted for the heat, and pat riley voted for the celtics.

[kp4000]

I'll put Rondo ahead of Paul and Rose as "Best pure PG", because so far Paul and Rose have not lead their teams into deep post-season runs.

Somewhere Derrick Rose is wondering what constitutes a deep playoff run, because apparently reaching the ECF does not count.

Well when Rose or Paul make it to the western and eastern conference finals 3x or the NBA Finals 2x or win a ring, then u can make an argument.

[BballTim]

I was ok (just ok) with most of the results except for three. The first is obvious- best passer in the league. Rondo came in 3rd which can only really be summed up to GM's stubborness to put him above Chris Paul and Nash. I mean theres really not much of an arguement that Rondo isnt the best passer in the NBA.

  While I generally agree with this I don't think it's cut and dried because I think that the phrase "best passer" is pretty vague.

[ianboyextreme]

I was ok (just ok) with most of the results except for three. The first is obvious- best passer in the league. Rondo came in 3rd which can only really be summed up to GM's stubborness to put him above Chris Paul and Nash. I mean theres really not much of an arguement that Rondo isnt the best passer in the NBA.

  While I generally agree with this I don't think it's cut and dried because I think that the phrase "best passer" is pretty vague.

It is a vague term but I think when most people are asked that question, they think- 1. who is the flashiest? and 2. Who is the best set up man. Now the first one doesnt really matter, its just how people think, but it just so happens, Rondo is number one in both of those categories.

[ianboyextreme]

I was ok (just ok) with most of the results except for three. The first is obvious- best passer in the league. Rondo came in 3rd which can only really be summed up to GM's stubborness to put him above Chris Paul and Nash. I mean theres really not much of an arguement that Rondo isnt the best passer in the NBA.

  While I generally agree with this I don't think it's cut and dried because I think that the phrase "best passer" is pretty vague.

I agree that there are a lot of different variables in being considered the "best passer". If taken literally, it means, who is the best at physically delivering the ball to his teammates accurately. When folks are asked that question, however, you might think that, but you might also think, who gets the most assists? Who is the flashiest? Who has the best court vision, etc.

[action781]

I was ok (just ok) with most of the results except for three. The first is obvious- best passer in the league. Rondo came in 3rd which can only really be summed up to GM's stubborness to put him above Chris Paul and Nash. I mean theres really not much of an arguement that Rondo isnt the best passer in the NBA.

  While I generally agree with this I don't think it's cut and dried because I think that the phrase "best passer" is pretty vague.

I agree that there are a lot of different variables in being considered the "best passer". If taken literally, it means, who is the best at physically delivering the ball to his teammates accurately. When folks are asked that question, however, you might think that, but you might also think, who gets the most assists? Who is the flashiest? Who has the best court vision, etc.

While people on celticsblog have generally been stubborn to agree with this, Lebron kind of flies under the radar as what I believe to be easily a top 5 passer in the league and I think he may be in the upper half of that top 5.  I think Rondo, Paul, Nash, and Lebron are all in the top level of passers and all are considerably above Rubio who is next at #5.

Court vision certainly plays an important part into passing ability.

[guava_wrench]

Rankings seemed reasonable to me. Nothing shocking or bizarre. There are things I disagree with, but that is my opinion. I thought saying Westbrook would have a breakout year was silly, unless they are talking about one of the greatest seasons in the history of the NBA. The guy has already been scoring like crazy.

I also can't stand Melo, so I cringed at giving him the last shot. On the other hand, if a coach could get him to stop taking stupid shots, he is a good option.

I think getting upset with these rankings would be a sign that someone's views about the NBA are out of whack. Polling GMs will get you good data because these guys really need to analyze all players.

[ianboyextreme]

I was ok (just ok) with most of the results except for three. The first is obvious- best passer in the league. Rondo came in 3rd which can only really be summed up to GM's stubborness to put him above Chris Paul and Nash. I mean theres really not much of an arguement that Rondo isnt the best passer in the NBA.

  While I generally agree with this I don't think it's cut and dried because I think that the phrase "best passer" is pretty vague.

I agree that there are a lot of different variables in being considered the "best passer". If taken literally, it means, who is the best at physically delivering the ball to his teammates accurately. When folks are asked that question, however, you might think that, but you might also think, who gets the most assists? Who is the flashiest? Who has the best court vision, etc.

While people on celticsblog have generally been stubborn to agree with this, Lebron kind of flies under the radar as what I believe to be easily a top 5 passer in the league and I think he may be in the upper half of that top 5.  I think Rondo, Paul, Nash, and Lebron are all in the top level of passers and all are considerably above Rubio who is next at #5.

Court vision certainly plays an important part into passing ability.

I am in no way stubborn to that. Just the other day I was ranking the top 5 passers in my head and came up with
1. Rondo
2. Nash
3. Chris Paul
4. Lebron
5. Rubio

I fully agree that Lebron is one of the best passers in the game.

[ianboyextreme]

Rankings seemed reasonable to me. Nothing shocking or bizarre. There are things I disagree with, but that is my opinion. I thought saying Westbrook would have a breakout year was silly, unless they are talking about one of the greatest seasons in the history of the NBA. The guy has already been scoring like crazy.

I also can't stand Melo, so I cringed at giving him the last shot. On the other hand, if a coach could get him to stop taking stupid shots, he is a good option.

I think getting upset with these rankings would be a sign that someone's views about the NBA are out of whack. Polling GMs will get you good data because these guys really need to analyze all players.

They need to analyze players yet just this offseason gave out some of the worst contracts in a while.
In no way should GM's opinion be taken as gold, just the good GM's.

[BballTim]

I was ok (just ok) with most of the results except for three. The first is obvious- best passer in the league. Rondo came in 3rd which can only really be summed up to GM's stubborness to put him above Chris Paul and Nash. I mean theres really not much of an arguement that Rondo isnt the best passer in the NBA.

  While I generally agree with this I don't think it's cut and dried because I think that the phrase "best passer" is pretty vague.

I agree that there are a lot of different variables in being considered the "best passer". If taken literally, it means, who is the best at physically delivering the ball to his teammates accurately. When folks are asked that question, however, you might think that, but you might also think, who gets the most assists? Who is the flashiest? Who has the best court vision, etc.

 Say, for instance, you think that Rondo makes some high degree of difficulty passes that CP really couldn't hit on a regular basis. You're saying that Rondo's a better passer because he can make that pass and CP can't. Someone else could argue that CP is a better passer because he doesn't attempt as many difficult passes so he makes fewer passing turnovers.