What a great season so far - seriously.

[D.o.s.]

double post.

[Celtics4ever]

Too turnover prone for my taste so far.   Very sloppy basketball this season but still fun to watch and glad to have NBA back.

[ScoobyDoo]

that argument lost credibility when the vets we've had the past few years where losing games in the 4th quarter (or coming out in any quarter with horrible effort).

good players who are hungry for winning will win games.  less-talented players, players that make the same mistakes over and over again (regardless of experience) or players without that desire to compete hard every night to win  will continue to lose.

According to that argument though, Michael Jordan, Dwayne Wade & Kevin Durant all had a strong desire to lose rather than win early on in their careers.

I think our guys are playing hard and I also think that (Olynyk, Sully, Bradley, Green and Vitor) are all tough, hard working and intelligent guys who want to win.

If we bring back a healthy Rondo, get a high draft pick and sign a max player at a position of need over the next two off seasons, I have little doubt the above mentioned young players will be a very big part of a team contending for the ECF.

Veterans who dial it in are a completely different scenario.

As far as making the same mistakes over an over again - how many times / years was it we had to watch that future hall of fame guy Paul Pierce make the same incredibly bone headed plays?I think he dribbled into about 700 double and triple teams over his first 8 seasons.
 

[slamtheking]

Didn't Derrick Rose get his team to the playoffs as a rookie and took the C's to 7 games? Then the next year the number 1 seed in the Eastern Conference?

The addition of Derrick Rose to a mediocre 33 win Chicago team(remember they got that pick not because they were bad but because they owned the Knicks pick) netted exactly 8 more wins the following year. The year following they ended up with the exact same .500 record again so Rose also does not work.

Carmelo Anthony took the Nuggets from 17-65 to 43-39.

In the interest of premature excitement, let me add that the nets are 1-2 and would be 0-3 if not for their victory v. Heat who are starting sloppy.  Let's not forget the boon to the c's if the the Nets turn out to be less than the sum of their parts.

It's a boon to Atlanta this year.

Forgot about that.  We get worst of Atlanta or nets, correct?   Both are 1-2.

Right. Atlanta has the rights to swap picks with Brooklyn this year.

wouldn't suck if they both ended up missing the playoffs (or barely sneak in)

[D.o.s.]

Yeah my guess for both of their picks is mid-teens to low 20's.

[nickagneta]

Didn't Derrick Rose get his team to the playoffs as a rookie and took the C's to 7 games? Then the next year the number 1 seed in the Eastern Conference?

The addition of Derrick Rose to a mediocre 33 win Chicago team(remember they got that pick not because they were bad but because they owned the Knicks pick) netted exactly 8 more wins the following year. The year following they ended up with the exact same .500 record again so Rose also does not work.

Carmelo Anthony took the Nuggets from 17-65 to 43-39.

I would argue special circumstance again as Camby missed that 17 win year due to injury and the Nuggets added Andre Miller that off season as well. So it wasn't just Anthony that made their win total turnaround so much. It was much like the San Antonio situation with adding Duncan but, oh by the way, David Robinson is returning as well.