ESPN East Rankings (Celtics ranked 13th)

[Eddie20]

I'd like to think of it in a more optimistic way. The second half of the season we were essentially a 500 team and took the Knicks to 6 in the first round. From that team's rotation we lost KG, Pierce, and Terry, but have added Rondo, Sullinger, Olynyk, Humphries, Wallace, and Brooks.

[BudweiserCeltic]

"league's worst defense" <--- I'll eat my shorts if we aren't one of the best defensively.

Why?  The team lost the defensive backbone in KG.

Because we should have a vastly better perimeter defense, we should have improved rebounding, and we got a good defensive-minded coaching staff.

Because they downgraded Pierce to Wallace? 



And they lost their best rebounder.

Kris Humphries is currently a better rebounder than Kevin Garnett for starters.

Secondly, Sullinger has already established himself as being a better option than Bass, so you'll see Sullinger's playing time increase (provided he doesn't get into foul trouble) and Bass's ones decrease.

Pierce was terrible defensively last year, so you got a point there. Which also means more minutes for Green in favor of Pierce from a defensive perspective.

But you also forget that we no longer have Jason Terry, particularly a Jason Terry paired up with Rondo.

We have Avery Bradley healthy since the beginning of the season.

Bogans is a solid 3rd/4th string defender.

So yes, I easily envision our perimeter defense vastly improving this season, and hopefully our rebounding , with a coach that seems to like crashing the boards it seems too.

[PhoSita]

I think the Celtics will be a better defensive team than offensive team in the league efficiency rankings but won't be very good at either, probably 15th or lower in both. That said, I don't get this ranking by Haberstroh.

The Wizards? Really? Because they have Wall, Beal and Porter? Three guys with a total of 4 professionals years of experience will make the playoffs because Okafor and Nene have been , what, playing so well over the last few years they would be the backbone of a playoff team?

Wall, Beal and Porter might be good but probably never Durant, Westbrook Harden good and its not like they are being surrounded by players like Sefolosha, Ibaka, and others. Heck I would take Bradley, green and Rondo, guys proven to get into the playoffs, to lead a team to the playoffs over Wall, Beal and Porter.

The Wizards were 24-25 last season with John Wall.  They were well above .500 when Wall, Nene, and Beal played.

The Wizards don't really have to get better to make the playoffs, they just have to stay reasonably healthy.

[Galeto]

"league's worst defense" <--- I'll eat my shorts if we aren't one of the best defensively.

Why?  The team lost the defensive backbone in KG.

Because we should have a vastly better perimeter defense, we should have improved rebounding, and we got a good defensive-minded coaching staff.

Because they downgraded Pierce to Wallace? 



And they lost their best rebounder.

Kris Humphries is currently a better rebounder than Kevin Garnett for starters.

Secondly, Sullinger has already established himself as being a better option than Bass, so you'll see Sullinger's playing time increase (provided he doesn't get into foul trouble) and Bass's ones decrease.

Pierce was terrible defensively last year, so you got a point there. Which also means more minutes for Green in favor of Pierce from a defensive perspective.

But you also forget that we no longer have Jason Terry, particularly a Jason Terry paired up with Rondo.

We have Avery Bradley healthy since the beginning of the season.

Bogans is a solid 3rd/4th string defender.

So yes, I easily envision our perimeter defense vastly improving this season, and hopefully our rebounding , with a coach that seems to like crashing the boards it seems too.

How was Pierce terrible defensively last season?  Subjectively, from my TV screen, it looked he still moved his feet really well to contain dribble penetration and was not scored on frequently.  He was also a very good team defender who read plays and stopped passes from being made simply by cutting off the openings.  Statistically, he rated in the top 10 in defense against isos and he did it while guarding more starters and small forwards than Green did.  The Celtics' defensive rating also dropped 1.9 when Pierce sat, which was third on the team behind Garnett and Sullinger and he played a heck of a lot more minutes than Sullinger.

If you think a front court with no shotblockers and questionable defensive range can backbone an average defense, well, I don't know what to tell you. 

I thought the massive drop off in defense when Garnett sat was because 1) he's really freaking good 2) he sat for long stretches against starters 3) his backups weren't good defensively and they played against starters.  His backups still aren't good with little defensive presence.

[guava_wrench]

We have some bigs who can rebound, but no bigs to make people miss so that there are rebounds to get.

As Rondo plays himself into shape, he will be a defensive liability on the perimeter. By the end of the season though, our 2 guards can apply some serious pressure. The problem though with the pressure is if someone breaks it, who stops them from going all the way in for a layup?

The only thing silly about rankings is people who get bent out of shape over them. There are always clusters of teams that could be swapped around, but you have to place them somewhere.

[BudweiserCeltic]

"league's worst defense" <--- I'll eat my shorts if we aren't one of the best defensively.

Why?  The team lost the defensive backbone in KG.

Because we should have a vastly better perimeter defense, we should have improved rebounding, and we got a good defensive-minded coaching staff.

Because they downgraded Pierce to Wallace? 



And they lost their best rebounder.

Kris Humphries is currently a better rebounder than Kevin Garnett for starters.

Secondly, Sullinger has already established himself as being a better option than Bass, so you'll see Sullinger's playing time increase (provided he doesn't get into foul trouble) and Bass's ones decrease.

Pierce was terrible defensively last year, so you got a point there. Which also means more minutes for Green in favor of Pierce from a defensive perspective.

But you also forget that we no longer have Jason Terry, particularly a Jason Terry paired up with Rondo.

We have Avery Bradley healthy since the beginning of the season.

Bogans is a solid 3rd/4th string defender.

So yes, I easily envision our perimeter defense vastly improving this season, and hopefully our rebounding , with a coach that seems to like crashing the boards it seems too.

How was Pierce terrible defensively last season?  Subjectively, from my TV screen, it looked he still moved his feet really well to contain dribble penetration and was not scored on frequently.  He was also a very good team defender who read plays and stopped passes from being made simply by cutting off the openings.  Statistically, he rated in the top 10 in defense against isos and he did it while guarding more starters and small forwards than Green did.  The Celtics' defensive rating also dropped 1.9 when Pierce sat, which was third on the team behind Garnett and Sullinger and he played a heck of a lot more minutes than Sullinger.

If you think a front court with no shotblockers and questionable defensive range can backbone an average defense, well, I don't know what to tell you. 

I thought the massive drop off in defense when Garnett sat was because 1) he's really freaking good 2) he sat for long stretches against starters 3) his backups weren't good defensively and they played against starters.  His backups still aren't good with little defensive presence.

Pierce's problem was that he was being very lazy following players off the ball, no longer using his energy for that. He wasn't closing in on shooters either, and had plenty of problems with quicker players to the extent that I've never seen before from him. So on that regard, he wasn't keeping up with his responsibilities on a team defense scheme. It left us exposed often enough, and contributed to some of our defensive struggles throughout the year.

[86MaxwellSmart]

Jeff Green is gonna reach his Full Potential this season...First time for him to be Number ONE go-to-guy--!

[nickagneta]

I think the Celtics will be a better defensive team than offensive team in the league efficiency rankings but won't be very good at either, probably 15th or lower in both. That said, I don't get this ranking by Haberstroh.

The Wizards? Really? Because they have Wall, Beal and Porter? Three guys with a total of 4 professionals years of experience will make the playoffs because Okafor and Nene have been , what, playing so well over the last few years they would be the backbone of a playoff team?

Wall, Beal and Porter might be good but probably never Durant, Westbrook Harden good and its not like they are being surrounded by players like Sefolosha, Ibaka, and others. Heck I would take Bradley, green and Rondo, guys proven to get into the playoffs, to lead a team to the playoffs over Wall, Beal and Porter.

The Wizards were 24-25 last season with John Wall.  They were well above .500 when Wall, Nene, and Beal played.

The Wizards don't really have to get better to make the playoffs, they just have to stay reasonably healthy.

A half season or less of stats don't impress me. Bradley had a wonderful second half of 2011-12. Rondo was excellent the beginning half of last year. Green was excellent the second half of last year. Sully showed a half year of tremendous potential when looking at has per 36 numbers.

All meaningless, IMHO. It was the second part of the year and teams were not taking the Wiz seriously and they caught some teams by surprise. For a whole season, especially if they get of to a good start, I doubt it happens next year. Teams would be much more prepared. It would catch up to them. Kinda like Philly a couple seasons ago with Turner, Holiday, Vucevic, Allen, Iggy, Hawes and then teams started seriously scouting them and game planning them better and they fell apart.

A season or two later though, that could be a dangerous team.

[pearljammer10]

I put us at 8. I still say we make the playoffs as an 8 seed at worst. Theres no way the Bobcats, Magic, Raptors, Bucks, Pistons, and sixers are all better than us.

[Galeto]

"league's worst defense" <--- I'll eat my shorts if we aren't one of the best defensively.

Why?  The team lost the defensive backbone in KG.

Because we should have a vastly better perimeter defense, we should have improved rebounding, and we got a good defensive-minded coaching staff.

Because they downgraded Pierce to Wallace? 



And they lost their best rebounder.

Kris Humphries is currently a better rebounder than Kevin Garnett for starters.

Secondly, Sullinger has already established himself as being a better option than Bass, so you'll see Sullinger's playing time increase (provided he doesn't get into foul trouble) and Bass's ones decrease.

Pierce was terrible defensively last year, so you got a point there. Which also means more minutes for Green in favor of Pierce from a defensive perspective.

But you also forget that we no longer have Jason Terry, particularly a Jason Terry paired up with Rondo.

We have Avery Bradley healthy since the beginning of the season.

Bogans is a solid 3rd/4th string defender.

So yes, I easily envision our perimeter defense vastly improving this season, and hopefully our rebounding , with a coach that seems to like crashing the boards it seems too.

How was Pierce terrible defensively last season?  Subjectively, from my TV screen, it looked he still moved his feet really well to contain dribble penetration and was not scored on frequently.  He was also a very good team defender who read plays and stopped passes from being made simply by cutting off the openings.  Statistically, he rated in the top 10 in defense against isos and he did it while guarding more starters and small forwards than Green did.  The Celtics' defensive rating also dropped 1.9 when Pierce sat, which was third on the team behind Garnett and Sullinger and he played a heck of a lot more minutes than Sullinger.

If you think a front court with no shotblockers and questionable defensive range can backbone an average defense, well, I don't know what to tell you. 

I thought the massive drop off in defense when Garnett sat was because 1) he's really freaking good 2) he sat for long stretches against starters 3) his backups weren't good defensively and they played against starters.  His backups still aren't good with little defensive presence.

Pierce's problem was that he was being very lazy following players off the ball, no longer using his energy for that. He wasn't closing in on shooters either, and had plenty of problems with quicker players to the extent that I've never seen before from him. So on that regard, he wasn't keeping up with his responsibilities on a team defense scheme. It left us exposed often enough, and contributed to some of our defensive struggles throughout the year.

Dude, the numbers don't support it and personally, I didn't see what you saw, especially in running out and contesting shooters.  He's always been really good at that as well as running out with controlled aggression so as not to get beat on pumpfakes.  Are you saying he dogged it?

If you think Pierce was such a defensive liability last season that his loss is going to counteract the loss of Garnett on defense to a large extent, you're out of your mind.

[syfy9]

The rest of the Eastern Conference has made great strides.

They've all drastically improved, and we've gotten worse. It should be basically impossible to say that the Bobcats, Raptors, Wizards, Cavs, Pistons, and Magic haven't improved and that we haven't gotten worse.

2 things - Hungry young players that are looking to have break-out seasons (John Wall/Beal/Porter, Kemba/MKG, Valanciuanas/DeRozan, Kyrie/Waiters/Bennett, Knight/Drummond/Monroe, and Harris/Harkless/Vucevic) and really good veteran free agent signings (Josh Smith, Big Al, Andrew Bynum).


And what did we do?...

Wake up and take off those green goggles - if you think we have better talent or a better team structure, you are going to be very disappointed. From a glance, you can tell that our bigs are going to be completely abused this season. People act like our back-court defense will make up for it - did it make up for it when KG was off the court? Defensively, the center is the most important position in basketball. Realize that KG gave our guards a lot of confidence. They could play as aggressively as they want because KG would always be there to help them. KG's gone now, and the offensive talent pool we are going to be facing down low is substantially higher. We are going to get destroyed in the paint.

[LarBrd33]

Jeff Green is gonna reach his Full Potential this season...First time for him to be Number ONE go-to-guy--!

Jeff's full potential is 17-19 a night ... He's unlikely to ever make an all-star team.

The talent on this team isn't good enough to make the playoffs.  It's a former all-star (Rondo) and filler.

[BudweiserCeltic]

The rest of the Eastern Conference has made great strides.

They've all drastically improved, and we've gotten worse. It should be basically impossible to say that the Bobcats, Raptors, Wizards, Cavs, Pistons, and Magic haven't improved and that we haven't gotten worse.

2 things - Hungry young players that are looking to have break-out seasons (John Wall/Beal/Porter, Kemba/MKG, Valanciuanas/DeRozan, Kyrie/Waiters/Bennett, Knight/Drummond/Monroe, and Harris/Harkless/Vucevic) and really good veteran free agent signings (Josh Smith, Big Al, Andrew Bynum).


And what did we do?...

Wake up and take off those green goggles - if you think we have better talent or a better team structure, you are going to be very disappointed. From a glance, you can tell that our bigs are going to be completely abused this season. People act like our back-court defense will make up for it - did it make up for it when KG was off the court? Defensively, the center is the most important position in basketball. Realize that KG gave our guards a lot of confidence. They could play as aggressively as they want because KG would always be there to help them. KG's gone now, and the offensive talent pool we are going to be facing down low is substantially higher. We are going to get destroyed in the paint.

You're underestimating the effect of a strong perimeter defense. By far our worst weakness defensively has been penetration and needing stepping up from our bigs to defend it, leaving his man in the process.

In fact, if I told you that Bradley last season had 3 units who played over 100 minutes together, and that of those 3, the one with the best performance (both offensively and defensively), by far actually, was one that featured Green as a PF and Bass as a C, would you believe it? I'd say you wouldn't, and you would be wrong.

In fact, that was the most productive unit of our whole team throughout the full year.

I think what occurred with the Celtics last couple of years, how good Memphis is defensively, is proof enough of the impact that good perimeter defense has. Marc Gasol just won Defensive Player of the year, and this dude doesn't rebound defensively all that well, and is certainly no shot blocker (good defensive awareness though). And this is with Zach Randolph who's not winning any defensive awards any time soon.

So you can be skeptical of our roster and how it can play defense, but please I exhort you to not degrade perimeter defense unnecessarily.

The thing is that to have good perimeter defense, you need more players involved to make it work. When you ask for good interior defense, you can usually manage with just the one player... which distracts from the value of what each brings to a team.

As it is, the Celtics should have strong perimeter defense, and hopefully rebounding, and that should lead to being a good defensive squad, even without the presence of a shot blocker in their midst.

[makaveli]

1. Heat        1.Heat
2. Nets        2.Pacers
3. Bulls       3.Nets
4. Pacers      4.Bulls
5. Knicks      5.Knicks
6. Hawks       6.Bucks
7. Wzards      7.Cavs
8. Cavs        8.Atlanta
9. Bucks       9.Pistons
10. Pistons    10.Wizards
11. Raptors    11.Celtics
12. Magic      12.Raptors
13. Celtics    13.Hornets
14. Bobcats    14.Magic
15. Sixers     15.Sixers

I changed things up. As of right now before any kinds of trades I think this is closer to what it could be. Its tough because a lot of teams are really close.

Atlanta and Detroit are similar teams. I think Atlanta is a little worse this year because the Cavs and Buck got a lot better. Detroit also got a lot better, but its really going to depend on Drummond,Kinght and Pope.

The Bucks have added Pachulia,Mayo,Ridnuor,Delfino. Thats a nice back court and good center additions. Nice mix of scorring and D.

Cavs could be a wild card this year. If, and thats a big IF Bynum is healthy for most of the year thats a big improvement. Even if he and Verajao trade injury time, ones hurt ones on the floor at all times is still better than last year. Clark is a nice improvement. And like Detroit if the rookies play well they will be much better. And Irving a year older will do him wonders.

I think Wizards,Celtics, Hornets,and Raptors will be close. I have a feeling if Gay gets sent out, its because Raptors wants Wiggins and not looking forward to winning this year. Wizards I don't know, they could be good, but they are young as heck, could hurt them. Hornets, yeah I fixed that, could jump ahead of every one with Big Al on the team. But they are only a season removed from being the Bobcats, so I can't jump them up yet. Celts, well we all know. Right now until Rondo comes back it will be rough. I think if Rondo comes back by Dec, then by Feb the team could gel and get some good wins, but too much up in the air with this team right now.

No way the Magic are better than the Celts right now. I just don't see it. And well we all know the Sixers are tanking, full blown all out.

This list should change a lot by training camp. Too many players that need to be moved.

Bucks at 6...i respect your opinion, but that's never gonna happen with this roster

[SHAQATTACK]

sounds about right.........Rondo sits  out a few games at the end of the season. ,   not on purpose of course  .........Celtics should be sitting nice for a lotto pic

we play good early and suck horrible the last 25 games.