Are we just about guaranteed a top 10 pick?

[tarheelsxxiii]

Sounds like a default game-plan -- they haven't had a big man 

[Edgar]

  Ainge is going after 18. Starting now.

I really think hes focused on showing he can do it again

Hope one or 2 teams out there better suited than those 2008 Lakers do not ruin his plans in a couple of years

Danny is a man of missions ( that not always work) but i do think hes truly a Celtic

[vjcsmoke]

This is one reason we cant deal Rondo.  We need leadership to will us through the droughts and tight games.  I know interior defense has been talked as a concern but I also think we will not be terribly efficient on offense at times this year either.  Those Nets we added are not efficient scorers.

Yes, I remain optimistic that we can finish a bottom 10 team as long as we have guys like Marshon Brooks and Crawford heaving up the ball.  Give Melo some spot starts as well and the tank is full on!!   

You know a guy like Antoine Walker might not be bad to have at a time like this, tosses up a lot of shots, helps you lose games, and then can be traded for decent value once you done tanking!  Hopefully Brooks or Crawford fills that bill!  LOL

[Moranis]

I have to admit this thread is kind of blowing my mind.   They won 41 games last year (granted w/o rondo) and people are predicting 35 wins to playoff appearances?? I don't understand how losing two HOFers  who were also your two best players last year does not result in a significant amount of losses. 

I think the Celtics under-performed last season and their talent level should have resulted in more than 41 wins.

really?  who underperformed?  And make sure you actually look at career stats and trends when you claim people under performed.  Losing Rondo was huge, but they were .500 team with him and a .500 team after him.  Him coming back is not going to replace PP and KG.  This team will not win 35 games as presently constructed and will be lucky to win 30.

[hwangjini_1]

I have to admit this thread is kind of blowing my mind.   They won 41 games last year (granted w/o rondo) and people are predicting 35 wins to playoff appearances?? I don't understand how losing two HOFers  who were also your two best players last year does not result in a significant amount of losses. 

I think the Celtics under-performed last season and their talent level should have resulted in more than 41 wins.

really?  who underperformed?  And make sure you actually look at career stats and trends when you claim people under performed.  Losing Rondo was huge, but they were .500 team with him and a .500 team after him.  Him coming back is not going to replace PP and KG.  This team will not win 35 games as presently constructed and will be lucky to win 30.

not to pick too many nits, but with rondo the celtics last year were 18-20. yes, they were BELOW .500.

[pearljammer10]

I actually don't think we are even going to be in the lottery. I see us as an 8th seed in the east if rondo comes back early enough.

[SHAQATTACK]

yeah 30 wins would be a lot.

with out major star to put up big numbers night in and out  like Pierce ,  This is mostly a team of secondary players all good , when playing along side guys like KG .  on their own ,  I 'm not expecting many wins.

unless the coach turns out to be a boy genius.

also Brad will do as DA says

[LooseCannon]

I have to admit this thread is kind of blowing my mind.   They won 41 games last year (granted w/o rondo) and people are predicting 35 wins to playoff appearances?? I don't understand how losing two HOFers  who were also your two best players last year does not result in a significant amount of losses. 

I think the Celtics under-performed last season and their talent level should have resulted in more than 41 wins.

really?  who underperformed?  And make sure you actually look at career stats and trends when you claim people under performed.  Losing Rondo was huge, but they were .500 team with him and a .500 team after him.  Him coming back is not going to replace PP and KG.  This team will not win 35 games as presently constructed and will be lucky to win 30.

Looking at monthly splits, Brandon Bass was abysmal in November and December.  Jason Terry was horrid in December and January.  Courtney Lee started off slow.  Jeff Green was much better in the second half of the season because he was still recovering in the first half.

The team was on an upward trajectory when Rondo was injured.  The timing of Rondo's injury has lead some people to think that Rondo was the cause of their problems, but he wasn't.  If those four guys had played the way they could at the beginning of the season and if Rondo and Bradley had been mostly healthy for the entire season, the team would have been better all season long. 

Was it Doc's coaching?  Would it have helped if Ainge had gotten better bigs than Darko Milicic and Chris Wilcox to fill out the big man rotation?  We'll never know for sure, but I think the team might have won 50 games if things had been different.

[Yogi]

really?  who underperformed?  And make sure you actually look at career stats and trends when you claim people under performed.  Losing Rondo was huge, but they were .500 team with him and a .500 team after him.  Him coming back is not going to replace PP and KG.  This team will not win 35 games as presently constructed and will be lucky to win 30.

Rondo was the only one to show up in the first half of the season and he was absolutely brilliant. 

1.  Bradley was out with injury. 
2.  Sullinger was learning the NBA game, scouting report, conditioning all while dealing with rookie calls. 
3.  Jeff Green was coming out of heart surgery and was half as productive as he was in the latter half. 
4.  KG was leading one of the worst defenses in the league before Bradley returned. 
5.  Paul was struggling as well. 
6.  Courtney Lee and Jason Terry could not buy a shot in the first half of the season. 
7.  Brandon Bass after losing a lot of weight in the off season was struggling with his shot.  He was shooting worse than any point in his career.

It is a miracle that Rondo lead that awful team to a .500 record.  He was carrying the team on his back for the first half of the season. 

[hwangjini_1]

even if we accept the above points in the previous posts AND take a leap of faith that neither rondo nor sully will have slow starts as bradley and green did last year, they still do not, in my mind, meaningfully address the losses of pierce and KG.

last year, even if rondo did miraculously manage to load a dysfunctional and injury riddled team on his back and carry them to a below .500 record, i fail to see how basically having a team that replaces pierce and kg with bradley and green will make rondo's heroics significantly more successful.

gone is the KG intensity. gone is the scoring of pierce & KG. gone is the need for opposing defenses to focus on those two instead of green and rondo. gone is the only credible interior defender the celtics had.

teams will be able to score in the paint against the celtics. look at last year when KG sat down to rest and you will see a preview of upcoming attractions.

the celtics are going to have trouble scoring, especially when there is 8 or less seconds on the shot clock. pierce and kg will not be there to bail them out. and if/when green has an off night or the defense locks on to him, i think there will be some ugly games for us celtic fans.

indeed, i still at a loss as to how a 41-40 team can improve to 50 wins when 2 out their top 3 players will be gone. but then, we each have our thoughts and hopes. in the end we will see what happens.

that is why they play the games. 

[snively]

I have to admit this thread is kind of blowing my mind.   They won 41 games last year (granted w/o rondo) and people are predicting 35 wins to playoff appearances?? I don't understand how losing two HOFers  who were also your two best players last year does not result in a significant amount of losses. 

I think the Celtics under-performed last season and their talent level should have resulted in more than 41 wins.

really? who underperformed?  And make sure you actually look at career stats and trends when you claim people under performed.  Losing Rondo was huge, but they were .500 team with him and a .500 team after him.  Him coming back is not going to replace PP and KG.  This team will not win 35 games as presently constructed and will be lucky to win 30.

JET, Green, C. Lee, Bass and above all Paul Pierce were severely underperforming before the ASB.  Pierce was playing the worst basketball of his career, by far, in the weeks leading up to the break. 

Green and Pierce went on to be stellar in the 2nd half of the season.