The three almost guarantees are Orlando, Utah and Philly.
From there on out as it currently looks we are about the 5th worst team overall in my opinion- with Sacramento slightly worse than us.
Milwaulkee and Sacramento appear to be bad but Milwaulkee's roster is pretty closely matched with ours- I'd say we have the worse team if Rondo is not on the floor, they've had a particularly terrible start and their coach looks like he might be gone- unless they're tanking which could be a serious reality.
I think the Suns are better than us at the moment and I think Detroit and the Cavaliers are better teams than us- talent wise.
It just depends how hard these other teams tank, and how quickly they can adjust to their new coaches and team mates etc.
Other than Rondo returning I can't see us getting much better- I see Green scoring slightly more and Crawford crashing and burning at some stage.
What would be great if Sully can crack the 15 points and 8-10 rebounds mark as a sophore. I think he can.
Basically we are right on track for Ainge to trade a few of our players at All Star break that are bad, yet considered good on our crummy squad. ie Lee, Wallace, Crawford, Hump etc which will see us regress to the bottom 4 of the pack pretty much guaranteed. I just don't think Rondo can be effective on such a pathetic team- he just can't score enough night in and night out. If he does take things into his own hands and goes to full throttle playoff mode-I can see another Derrick Rose injury scenario because Rondo's game is so rough and tumble. He just takes so many hits and falls and he'll have even less space to work with now because we don't have anyone spreading the floor like he's had his whole career. Our 3 point % is just garbage.(bottom 3 in the NBA after 15 games when I last checked).
Only way we don't finish bottom 6 is if Rondo comes back earlier than expected and finds a way to score more by January, or Jeff Green finds some mojo or starts taking an anti depressant to wake his ass up.
I think by the time Rondo's healthy, every asset will have been dangled and some pieces will move.
I'd expect to see at least Humphries and Crawford gone. Only way Crawford stays is if Ainge's plan is to keep him over free agency, sign him to a cheap deal and then let him get more burn in the 14-15 season if we plan on 'stinking', before trading him while he value is high. More likely he trades him now because I can't see his value getting much higher.
So yeah. There are 4 teams I would say are worse than us, even without Rondo- but any of those teams can beat us on any given night. Orlando, Utah, Philly,Sacramento and maybe the Bobcats.
As the season develops and team defenses become more disciplined, and we take more 15 foot jumpshots as our weapon of choice, the losses should start piling up- it's just not winning basketball.
Either way we'll have a very good shot at a top 3 pick, if Rondo's at 75% maybe top 5 but I can't see him increasing our win % that much until he's fully recovered.
I'll be happy if we can:
*develop Sully into a 15/10 machine
*get Rondo back to 100% by seasons end and either
a) keep him and get a top 5 pick to help him rebuild this franchise via a trade (ie LaMarcus Aldridge) or draft a stud if we get really lucky and get a top 3 pick.
b) trade him for another top lottery pick, combine that with our own pick and try an OKC style ground up build.
* get some kind of return for Bradley, or sign him to a value contract as a long term 6th man or back up combo guard.
*get some picks for our half decent assets like Bass, and our junk like Hump's expiring deal.
Go Celtics!
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Topic: Who will finish behind the Celtics this season? (Read 7919 times)