ESPN predicts Celtics to finish #12 in the East.

[slamtheking]

Frankly, I think it's more 'amazing' that you can simply disregard so much neigh-unanimous evidence from people who are more qualified to assess basketball potential.

If you went to  a hundred doctors and they all said "this looks like lymphoma," I don't think you'd say "that's ridiculous, I can clearly tell it's just a sore throat."

Could it be a sore throat?

Maybe.

Odds are, its lymphoma.

Perhaps he's Gilbert Mudge under a pseudonym 

[MBunge]

I think the amount of wins might be a bit low, but not by much. Thing is though, even if the C's win just 32 games, with the amount of bad teams in the east and the amount of bad teams that will start tanking after about 30-40% of the season is gone, I think the ESPN placement at 12th is low. I could see a 9th or 10th place finish for the C's with 32 wins.

Teams I expect to be worse than the C's in the East:

Charlotte
Orlando
Toronto
Philadelphia

and then maybe Milwaukee or Cleveland depending on how some things fall out(Milwaukee chemistry, Cleveland injuries).

It's hard to argue with win total predictions.  I mean, how do you really tell if a team will win 29 or 32 games.  But I find it kind of hard to believe that this Boston roster is going to be worse than both the Raptors and the Bucks.

This is setting up to be Rondo's test year in the league.  It's not at all unusual for all-star caliber point guards to drag teams to records far better than their overall talent, but no one seems to be giving Rondo that kind of respect.

Mike

[D.o.s.]

Also FWIW, LeBron was far from a complete player his first couple seasons with the Cavs. The scouting report on him coming to the league was that he couldn't shoot the J with any consistency, wasn't a great free throw shooter, and was apathetic on defense... and all that ignores the fact that even LeBron James, far and away the best player in the NBA right now, didn't hit the post-season until his third season in the league. In the East.

What is this supposed to mean?  That it even takes one player a long time to turn a franchise around?  Three years is actually a very short rebuilding time for a franchise that won 17 games to earn the number 1 pick.  Lebron was already a great player by his second season at the age of 20.  Cleveland went from 17 to 35 wins in his rookie season and then finished above .500 at 42-40 but still missed the playoffs. They went from 17 wins to 50 wins in three years because of a 21 year old player.  That's insane.

It means that nobody enters the NBA a surefire Hall of Famer, but that the guys who get really good are usually well-scouted and identified long before they enter college.

[nickagneta]

Also FWIW, LeBron was far from a complete player his first couple seasons with the Cavs. The scouting report on him coming to the league was that he couldn't shoot the J with any consistency, wasn't a great free throw shooter, and was apathetic on defense... and all that ignores the fact that even LeBron James, far and away the best player in the NBA right now, didn't hit the post-season until his third season in the league. In the East.

What is this supposed to mean?  That it even takes one player a long time to turn a franchise around?  Three years is actually a very short rebuilding time for a franchise that won 17 games to earn the number 1 pick.  Lebron was already a great player by his second season at the age of 20.  Cleveland went from 17 to 35 wins in his rookie season and then finished above .500 at 42-40 but still missed the playoffs. They went from 17 wins to 50 wins in three years because of a 21 year old player.  That's insane.

It means that nobody enters the NBA a surefire Hall of Famer, but that the guys who get really good are usually well-scouted and identified long before they enter college.

Absolutely. Heck, I was signing the praises of Nerlens Noel on this site since he was a sophomore in high school.

[Tr1boy]

Also FWIW, LeBron was far from a complete player his first couple seasons with the Cavs. The scouting report on him coming to the league was that he couldn't shoot the J with any consistency, wasn't a great free throw shooter, and was apathetic on defense... and all that ignores the fact that even LeBron James, far and away the best player in the NBA right now, didn't hit the post-season until his third season in the league. In the East.

What is this supposed to mean?  That it even takes one player a long time to turn a franchise around?  Three years is actually a very short rebuilding time for a franchise that won 17 games to earn the number 1 pick.  Lebron was already a great player by his second season at the age of 20.  Cleveland went from 17 to 35 wins in his rookie season and then finished above .500 at 42-40 but still missed the playoffs. They went from 17 wins to 50 wins in three years because of a 21 year old player.  That's insane.

It means that nobody enters the NBA a surefire Hall of Famer, but that the guys who get really good are usually well-scouted and identified long before they enter college.

Who cares if he was scouted since he was born, he has to prove himself more first.

And he hasnt yet. He played in unspectacular fashion vs the us from what we can observe of him so far

There are tons of young players hyped up as the next ones that fail to live up to expectations as well as tons that are unknowns that overachieve like anthony davis, olynyk

Just wait first until he proves himself  worthy before he is the next savior of a nba team

[Edgar]

yay!

[Q_FBE]

Five teams in the EC with predicted with winning records? Seems like there might be 10 teams racing to the bottom. Seriously, there is not that many losses to go around. Nice motivational tool for Sullenger, Green, Bradley, Rondo, Olynik, and Wallace though. 

I just don't think the Celtics will make the playoffs, though at this time.

[vjcsmoke]

And what is the use of said respect?  If Rondo pulls off a miracle and pushes the Celtics to overachieve to 40 wins, they are still out of the playoffs or maybe they get the last wildcard spot.  But at what cost?  We finish out of the lottery, we still have a pretty bad team, and with little prospects at improvement cos we'd still be over the cap.  For me that would be the nightmare scenario.

I think the Celtics play to their talent level which is a 25-30 win team.  And hopefully they get lucky with the lottery balls and land a top 3 pick.

It's hard to argue with win total predictions.  I mean, how do you really tell if a team will win 29 or 32 games.  But I find it kind of hard to believe that this Boston roster is going to be worse than both the Raptors and the Bucks.

This is setting up to be Rondo's test year in the league.  It's not at all unusual for all-star caliber point guards to drag teams to records far better than their overall talent, but no one seems to be giving Rondo that kind of respect.

Mike

[chambers]

I think the amount of wins might be a bit low, but not by much. Thing is though, even if the C's win just 32 games, with the amount of bad teams in the east and the amount of bad teams that will start tanking after about 30-40% of the season is gone, I think the ESPN placement at 12th is low. I could see a 9th or 10th place finish for the C's with 32 wins.

Teams I expect to be worse than the C's in the East:

Charlotte
Orlando
Toronto
Philadelphia

and then maybe Milwaukee or Cleveland depending on how some things fall out(Milwaukee chemistry, Cleveland injuries).

I think Toronto will finish higher than us. Didn't they lose only 4 less games last season? And that was with Rudy Gay for half a season. Valancunas will progress pretty well and having Gay for a full year should make them pretty good even if they have lost Calderon. I mean they still have Lowry right?

I also think the Bobcats will be on par with us because of Big Al. They remind me of the Jazz a bit and it's about time they put together 30 wins.
I think we'll be better on the perimeter if Rondo is 85% healthy, but we don't have anyone inside on Big Al's level.
I've said it before but I can't think of any player on our roster that is even as good as Big Al or Biyombo on this roster on defense inside. Let alone on offense compared to Big Al. Perhaps Sully in 2 years but wow we are going to stink in the paint.

[Tr1boy]

I think the amount of wins might be a bit low, but not by much. Thing is though, even if the C's win just 32 games, with the amount of bad teams in the east and the amount of bad teams that will start tanking after about 30-40% of the season is gone, I think the ESPN placement at 12th is low. I could see a 9th or 10th place finish for the C's with 32 wins.

Teams I expect to be worse than the C's in the East:

Charlotte
Orlando
Toronto
Philadelphia

and then maybe Milwaukee or Cleveland depending on how some things fall out(Milwaukee chemistry, Cleveland injuries).

I think Toronto will finish higher than us. Didn't they lose only 4 less games last season? And that was with Rudy Gay for half a season. Valancunas will progress pretty well and having Gay for a full year should make them pretty good even if they have lost Calderon. I mean they still have Lowry right?

I also think the Bobcats will be on par with us because of Big Al. They remind me of the Jazz a bit and it's about time they put together 30 wins.
I think we'll be better on the perimeter if Rondo is 85% healthy, but we don't have anyone inside on Big Al's level.
I've said it before but I can't think of any player on our roster that is even as good as Big Al or Biyombo on this roster on defense inside. Let alone on offense compared to Big Al. Perhaps Sully in 2 years but wow we are going to stink in the paint.

Al jefferson is a poor defensive player and Biyombo has avg iq. I bet zeller will start sooner than later.

Btw you will b disappointed if your expecting to see sully/oly get torched. Its like expecting david lee, nowitzki, zbo to get torched defensively. There is more to defense than blocking 5 shots and grabbing 15 rebounds a game. All the little things are more important actually

[rondoallaturca]

Al jefferson is a poor defensive player and Biyombo has avg iq. I bet zeller will start sooner than later.

Btw you will b disappointed if your expecting to see sully/oly get torched. Its like expecting david lee, nowitzki, zbo to get torched defensively. There is more to defense than blocking 5 shots and grabbing 15 rebounds a game. All the little things are more important actually

But you do see David Lee, Nowitzki, and Z-Bo get torched defensively... especially David Lee. He and Jefferson are two of the worst defenders in the league.

[Tr1boy]

Al jefferson is a poor defensive player and Biyombo has avg iq. I bet zeller will start sooner than later.

Btw you will b disappointed if your expecting to see sully/oly get torched. Its like expecting david lee, nowitzki, zbo to get torched defensively. There is more to defense than blocking 5 shots and grabbing 15 rebounds a game. All the little things are more important actually

But you do see David Lee, Nowitzki, and Z-Bo get torched defensively... especially David Lee. He and Jefferson are two of the worst defenders in the league.

Than how does a torched david lee warriors have the record they did last year? Lee pretty much was the man upfont and bogut cameback late

[LooseCannon]

And what is the use of said respect?  If Rondo pulls off a miracle and pushes the Celtics to overachieve to 40 wins, they are still out of the playoffs or maybe they get the last wildcard spot.  But at what cost?  We finish out of the lottery, we still have a pretty bad team, and with little prospects at improvement cos we'd still be over the cap.  For me that would be the nightmare scenario.

If the Celtics make the playoffs, we would have a decent team rather than a pretty bad team.  And the team would have the flexibility to add a max contract player next season, with the assets necessary to do so via trade.

[D.o.s.]

Al jefferson is a poor defensive player and Biyombo has avg iq. I bet zeller will start sooner than later.

Btw you will b disappointed if your expecting to see sully/oly get torched. Its like expecting david lee, nowitzki, zbo to get torched defensively. There is more to defense than blocking 5 shots and grabbing 15 rebounds a game. All the little things are more important actually

But you do see David Lee, Nowitzki, and Z-Bo get torched defensively... especially David Lee. He and Jefferson are two of the worst defenders in the league.

Than how does a torched david lee warriors have the record they did last year? Lee pretty much was the man upfont and bogut cameback late

I know you're not a big fan of expert thinking, but there's this:

The paper’s main point is that new kinds of analytics can reveal the abilities of the NBA’s interior defenders with newfound clarity. But as I did the analyses I couldn’t believe how bad David Lee’s numbers were. My analysis was saying that opponents hit 61 percent of their shots when David Lee was defending near the basket. This is a really high number.

So on a lazy Sunday afternoon after the Daytona 500 racers had sped around their speedway, I was flipping through the channels and noticed that the Warriors were playing in Minnesota. While a normal person may browse right on by this program, I immediately clicked the “OK” button on my remote — note if there were a “Hell Yes” button I would have pushed that instead. This would be a convenient chance to watch David Lee’s defense before the Sloan Conference.

When I flipped the game on there was just over five minutes left in the third quarter. I focused in on Lee. Three of the first four Timberwolves possessions I watched featured such awful David Lee defense that I immediately felt more confident about those “that can’t be right” numbers.

http://www.grantland.com/blog/the-triangle/post/_/id/52811/courtvision-david-lees-interior-defense-a-k-a-the-golden-gate

[rondoallaturca]

Al jefferson is a poor defensive player and Biyombo has avg iq. I bet zeller will start sooner than later.

Btw you will b disappointed if your expecting to see sully/oly get torched. Its like expecting david lee, nowitzki, zbo to get torched defensively. There is more to defense than blocking 5 shots and grabbing 15 rebounds a game. All the little things are more important actually

But you do see David Lee, Nowitzki, and Z-Bo get torched defensively... especially David Lee. He and Jefferson are two of the worst defenders in the league.

Than how does a torched david lee warriors have the record they did last year? Lee pretty much was the man upfont and bogut cameback late

Sorry, I didn't know basketball was only a one-man sport.