wow.... the c's are going to be worse than I expected

[MVPPierceNoJoke]

What about Rondo and Lee to the Bobcats for Ben Gordon MKG and their first?

[indeedproceed]

What about Rondo and Lee to the Bobcats for Ben Gordon MKG and their first?

Charlotte can't trade their 1st until 2015, and that's with protections pending 2 years after they fill their obligation to Chicago, which almost certainly won't happen this year.

[Celtics18]

I missed tonight's game, but it sure sounds like it was the worst of the bunch so far.

I'm one of the optimists when it comes to this team, but I never expected it to not look ugly at times.  I think that in time, we'll pull it together and make a late push for the playoffs. 

[Vox_Populi]

Who cares??  It will be one bad year and then a top five pick and some trades and right back in the playoffs.  Stevens knew full well what he signed on for.

Unfortunately, rebuilds are rarely, if ever, this simple. I'm not sure about anything, except that the team will be bad.

[Clench123]

Who cares??  It will be one bad year and then a top five pick and some trades and right back in the playoffs.  Stevens knew full well what he signed on for.

Unfortunately, rebuilds are rarely, if ever, this simple.

Unless Ainge is the president of your team.  The guy has all the assets he needs and the team where he wants it, all he's gotta do now is play his card right and when it comes to Ainge, I'm not worried about that at all

[Boris Badenov]

The sad part is outside of Rondo and maybe Sullinger there isn't much trade value in our guys.

Does Sullinger really have trade value?  At this point he's an obese bench warmer with chronic back trouble.  He's been pretty unimpressive this preseason.  I still think his best case scenario is an emotionally stable Glen Davis.

Because this team is completely devoid of talent, Sully should get a lot of minutes by default.  Hopefully he puts up some numbers and boosts his trade value.  I still see him as a long-term role player.  A Ryan Gomes type who can give you solid back-up minutes.

Haha, even though you and I are on the same page on many issues that's some serious negativity. I think Sully has played pretty well so far.

But back to this thread overall, I must say that the C's have underperformed even relative to my fairly low expectations:

1. We lack individual talent: at this point, one could argue that we have exactly zero players who are deserving to start on a playoff team.

2. We have major overall flaws as a team: our rebounding, interior defense and shooting are arguably all in the bottom 5.

3. We have an inexperienced coach: I am rooting for Stevens but he is a rookie...we don't know how good he is, and even if he does end up being very good eventually, we should expect him to struggle this year.

4. We lack chemistry and leadership: at this point, we've seen no evidence of any rotation that's coalescing to be greater than the sum of its parts. Nor are there any clear leaders in the locker room.

I think Rondo's return will do a lot for #1 and #4. But until that happens, I am at this point pretty sure we are a bottom 3-5 team.

The real bummer for me with this preseason is that all of our possible trade assets (Green, Bass, Lee, Humphries etc.) have done nothing but reduce their possible value, with the exception of Wallace, who is the least moveable contract on the roster. I don't care if we're bad this year, but I would like us to be gathering assets whenever possible.

[guava_wrench]

What about Rondo and Lee to the Bobcats for Ben Gordon MKG and their first?

Ben Gordon is truly horrible. Wow. An injured Rondo helps the team more than a playing Ben Gordon. I suppose this is a great tank move, but giving up Rondo for that might be a questionable move.

[freshinthehouse]

Pretty sure Gordon is included in that trade scenario because he is a large expiring contract. 

[More Banners]

Yeah, I thought there was a chance they could complement each other well enough.  Oops.

It's going to be some ugly ball.  Rondo will help quite a lot with that.

The parts just don't quite fit together.

And I agree with others on a stable of mediocre talent.  That's us.  It's not depth, either; it's a bunch of second stringers, and trying to pick one to start.

So far, I'm wondering why the trade machine people are eager to get rid of Wallace.  He seems like the only bright spot for the season, like the only one who cares.  I'm looking forward to a Rondo/Wallace thing, possibly a Rondo/Bradley/Wallace thing, and perhaps even a ROndo/Bradley/Wallace/Sully thing coming together.

But Wallace is really exposing Jeff Green's lack of testosterone out there.  He's just not looking like a competitor.

[Galeto]

The sad part is outside of Rondo and maybe Sullinger there isn't much trade value in our guys.

Does Sullinger really have trade value?  At this point he's an obese bench warmer with chronic back trouble.  He's been pretty unimpressive this preseason.  I still think his best case scenario is an emotionally stable Glen Davis.

Because this team is completely devoid of talent, Sully should get a lot of minutes by default.  Hopefully he puts up some numbers and boosts his trade value.  I still see him as a long-term role player.  A Ryan Gomes type who can give you solid back-up minutes.

Haha, even though you and I are on the same page on many issues that's some serious negativity. I think Sully has played pretty well so far.

But back to this thread overall, I must say that the C's have underperformed even relative to my fairly low expectations:

1. We lack individual talent: at this point, one could argue that we have exactly zero players who are deserving to start on a playoff team.

2. We have major overall flaws as a team: our rebounding, interior defense and shooting are arguably all in the bottom 5.

3. We have an inexperienced coach: I am rooting for Stevens but he is a rookie...we don't know how good he is, and even if he does end up being very good eventually, we should expect him to struggle this year.

4. We lack chemistry and leadership: at this point, we've seen no evidence of any rotation that's coalescing to be greater than the sum of its parts. Nor are there any clear leaders in the locker room.

I think Rondo's return will do a lot for #1 and #4. But until that happens, I am at this point pretty sure we are a bottom 3-5 team.

The real bummer for me with this preseason is that all of our possible trade assets (Green, Bass, Lee, Humphries etc.) have done nothing but reduce their possible value, with the exception of Wallace, who is the least moveable contract on the roster. I don't care if we're bad this year, but I would like us to be gathering assets whenever possible.

I don't think they've hurt their trade value.  Just like they wouldn't have raised their trade value if they had played fabulously in the preseason, the converse is also true.  At any rate, it certainly doesn't make me optimistic that they'll improve their trade value during the season.

I don't think Bass or Humphries have much trade value anyway.  Bass because he's just not that good and looks out of place compared to the bigs good teams employ and Humphries because his contract is too unwieldy for the kind of player he is to trade in a non-blockbuster deal.  On paper, Lee should have trade value.  He can shoot and defend and his contract is a standard role player deal.  But on paper, he looked like a good fit here too and the reality has been something else.  I'm not hopeful about him.

[BASS_THUMPER]

what we are about to go thru is not new to me
after Bird era i hung on to every hopeful from..



Dino

to





Dominique


not sure how long its gonna take to get another banner
but i got my hoopty in cruise control
and enjoying the ride

[guava_wrench]

Pretty sure Gordon is included in that trade scenario because he is a large expiring contract.

Yeah, I get that. But you really need a guaranteed high pick if that is the deal for Rondo unless you really believe in MKG. I mean, we would probably be lucky to get a single all-star season from MKG.

This also means no decent PG on the roster.

[guava_wrench]

Who cares??  It will be one bad year and then a top five pick and some trades and right back in the playoffs.  Stevens knew full well what he signed on for.

Unfortunately, rebuilds are rarely, if ever, this simple. I'm not sure about anything, except that the team will be bad.

Rebuilds hinge around getting talent, and a lot of luck is involved in getting talent from the draft. On the bright side, if we get some talent, we know that our owners won't go classic Sterling and dump them all to save a dime. That helps.

[LarBrd33]

trading away two hall of famers will tend to leave a team with some holes.

The team didn't necessarily have to get worse post-Paul and KG. That's on Ainge.

If KG retires after this season and Pierce re-signs with Boston, we'll look back on what we got for KG and Pierce and consider it a heist.  We will not know until 2017 after the draft picks are all utilized.

[green147]

Man this is a depressing thread. This season is going to suck, plain and simple. We also knew this the second PP and KG were sent out. But look at what DA is trying to do. Instead of getting rid of all his young talent like Philly and Pheonix, he made an imbalanced roster and set up a brand new coaching staff. He set us up to do poorly this season, while still maintaining more talent then any other of the "tanking" teams (except for maybe Orlando because they have some good young talent). He put us in a a bright position for the future. Is it certain we will be contending net year? No, but we have 9 first round picks in the next 4 years, the best draft in a decade coinciding with the first time in a while we are going to stink, over $17 million in expiring contracts, and still have Rondo, Green, Sully, AB and Olynyk to either develop or trade. Times are tough, but the night is darkest just before the dawn. -Harvey Dent.