We have one option TANK!

[Phil125]

There are no other options.  There is nothing we can do in free agency that will even let us sniff a championship next year.  We have the best draft in 10 years coming up. 

Trade everybody from last year but:  Sully, Rondo, Bradley, and Green.

Keep Rondo out until after the All-Star break. Train the rookies and lose as much as we can.

The talk about us signing a few people so we can finish 7th in the East and get bounced is ridiculous. 

Maybe we can get Green kidnapped in some 3rd world country for a few months of the season.  Somebody buy him plane tickets to Columbia.

[lightspeed5]

worded perfectly. let rondo sit, and let the team lose. its that simple to get the lotto balls we need.

[GreenEnvy]

I agree. If people think we can keep Rondo AND not land a top 6 pick and be fine, they are mistaken.

One or the other (or possibly even both) have to happen to not be a non-factor for the next decade.

[Ogaju]

lol TANK mode is not chill dude.

I say we try our best to put the best product on the court and go with it. We are the Celtics and we are not tankers.

There is nothing wrong with rebuilding in Danny and Brad we trust.

I love a coach that really really wants to be there for the team, the organization. I hope this coach will not tell us he does not need the job because he is independently wealthy .

I hope he will move his family to Boston so he does not miss them too much and tell us he needs to spend more time with his family  .

So we should be excited we are the Celtics and it should be onward ever backward never.

[lightspeed5]

I agree. If people think we can keep Rondo AND not land a top 6 pick and be fine, they are mistaken.

One or the other (or possibly even both) have to happen to not be a non-factor for the next decade.

rondo will be sitting this year.

[tarheelsxxiii]

Do you play basketball, or have you? Either on a team, or just pick-up... and regularly, competitively?

[syfy9]

I think that there's a difference between tanking the season and tanking individual games.


We should try to tank the season, but keep some sort of an identity. The worst records in the NBA seldom produce #1 overall picks.

[vjcsmoke]

Do you play basketball, or have you? Either on a team, or just pick-up... and regularly, competitively?

pickup basketball or whatever you are talking about has nothing to do with winning at the NBA level.  At the NBA level you need TALENT.  Superstars win championships.

9 out of the past 10 NBA champions had at least 1 superstar/franchise level talent along with a strong supporting cast.  The only 'ensemble' crew to win was arguably the 2004 Pistons who only had Billups (a top 5 guard at the time) plus some 'very good' but not elite supporting players - prince, rip hamilton, wallace/wallace, etc.

[Yoki_IsTheName]

I dont mind losing, I dont expect this team to win games anyway.

But if were on purposely trying to lose, thats disgusting. Not only you tell your newly hired cosch that he cant do anything to win this year, youre telling your competitive players to do tje exact thing, that does not bode well for team morale and chemistry. Youre playing with pride here, thats not a good thing.

Losing but trying hard to win is fine, tanking is too risky.

[tarheelsxxiii]

Do you play basketball, or have you? Either on a team, or just pick-up... and regularly, competitively?

pickup basketball or whatever you are talking about has nothing to do with winning at the NBA level.  At the NBA level you need TALENT.  Superstars win championships.

9 out of the past 10 NBA champions had at least 1 superstar/franchise level talent along with a strong supporting cast.  The only 'ensemble' crew to win was arguably the 2004 Pistons who only had Billups (a top 5 guard at the time) plus some 'very good' but not elite supporting players - prince, rip hamilton, wallace/wallace, etc.

Every one is familiar with who has been winning championships.

OP didn't respond yet, and my intention wasn't to attack him. My point is this: if you're a competitive person, you've worked very hard at your game for many years, you don't "give in." You don't tank a game, for example, because there's someone on the sidelines that you can pick up for your 5th next game who will give you a far better chance of winning. That's not how winning is done.

Maybe it's a matter of semantics. I just think there's a difference between purposely making yourself awful, giving players and coaches the impression you don't care and/or expect them to learn give in... and taking a few steps backward (shedding contracts) in order to grow in the future.

Edit: What Yoki just posted is what I was getting at...

[Phil125]

I say we try our best to put the best product on the court and go with it. We are the Celtics and we are not tankers.


So we should be excited we are the Celtics and it should be onward ever backward never.

So your going to be happy being the milwaukee bucks? Or at best the Atlanta Hawks. 

You know how we got the assets to do the Ray Allen/KG trades.  We had to suck to do it. And we had to suck to draft Paul Pierce here to even get their interests.

Nobody in the NBA in their right minds wants to move to Communist Boston and pay those taxes. We need to suck to draft talent to lure in more talent.  Period!

[Phil125]

OP didn't respond yet, and my intention wasn't to attack him. My point is this: if you're a competitive person, you've worked very hard at your game for many years, you don't "give in." You don't tank a game, for example, because there's someone on the sidelines that you can pick up for your 5th next game who will give you a far better chance of winning. That's not how winning is done.

I'm not saying we lose games on purpose.  I'm just saying play with what we have and develop it.  Bringing in some crap overpaid free agent is a waste of time this season.

[GreenEnvy]

I think that there's a difference between tanking the season and tanking individual games.


We should try to tank the season, but keep some sort of an identity. The worst records in the NBA seldom produce #1 overall picks.

I agree that we shouldn't purposely lose games.

We should set this team up for the future instead of the now, which should generate many losses on its own. Weaken the roster and let them play hard. Just don't do something counterproductive like getting Josh Smith.

This draft is supposed to be so good that we won't even need the top spot (but would be nice!) to be successful.

[tarheelsxxiii]

OP didn't respond yet, and my intention wasn't to attack him. My point is this: if you're a competitive person, you've worked very hard at your game for many years, you don't "give in." You don't tank a game, for example, because there's someone on the sidelines that you can pick up for your 5th next game who will give you a far better chance of winning. That's not how winning is done.

I'm not saying we lose games on purpose.  I'm just saying play with what we have and develop it.  Bringing in some crap overpaid free agent is a waste of time this season.

That makes sense to me. I just read a ton of threads filled with posts focused on how we can become worse, tank, suck, blow it all up, etc. That doesn't make sense to me, strategically nor psychologically.

No matter how irrational or pathetic it sounds, I'll still root for this time to win. I feel like you have to. You talk yourself into it, even when you know it's not going to happen, just because you're invested and want it to work. Maybe this is a more old-school mentality - sticking with your guys because their "our team," and really identifying with and pulling for the players that wear Celtics on the front of the jersey. But I'm gonna be locking down and talking junk to my puppy and/or annoyed girlfriend in the living room when we are in a nail-biter with the Bobcats next year. And I can't wait.

[Boston Garden Leprechaun]

There are no other options.  There is nothing we can do in free agency that will even let us sniff a championship next year.  We have the best draft in 10 years coming up. 

Trade everybody from last year but:  Sully, Rondo, Bradley, and Green.

Keep Rondo out until after the All-Star break. Train the rookies and lose as much as we can.

The talk about us signing a few people so we can finish 7th in the East and get bounced is ridiculous. 

Maybe we can get Green kidnapped in some 3rd world country for a few months of the season.  Somebody buy him plane tickets to Columbia.

I'll put in a call to griselda blanco for you...oops wait she was killed last year in Medellin, Colombia. oh well.