Thoughts

[djbilly33]

Not sure why everyone wants to make the playoffs?  We're not winning anything with this team so why not lose??? Keep Rondo out all year, and sit the following for extended minutes Sully, Green, Bass, and Bradley and trade the rest of the team. Get into the lottery and draft a stud and then with our second pick draft a promising center.  Come back next season with Rondo, our stud pick, Green, Sully and Center from the draft with a bench of Bradley, Bass, Olynyk and Fav, plus whoever else we pickup. Why would we want the playoffs just to be knocked out in the first round??  Green, Rondo, Bass and Bradley don't need playoff experience!!

Why isn't BS playing Brooks?  Is he injured or just in the dog house?

[esel1000]

While I understand the logic, you don't want to create a culture of losing (see tank teams like the Bobcats), and you don't want to rest young players like Sully who are developing.

If you can't win, what you want are losses like the ones to the Bucks where the Celtics play hard, our young players like Sully play hard, and we lose. You never raise the white flag but if we're bad enough to lose a lot of games and end up in the lottery (which we are) then you get your top pick. But you always try to win

[Section301]

Not sure why everyone wants to make the playoffs?  We're not winning anything with this team so why not lose??? Keep Rondo out all year, and sit the following for extended minutes Sully, Green, Bass, and Bradley and trade the rest of the team. Get into the lottery and draft a stud and then with our second pick draft a promising center.  Come back next season with Rondo, our stud pick, Green, Sully and Center from the draft with a bench of Bradley, Bass, Olynyk and Fav, plus whoever else we pickup. Why would we want the playoffs just to be knocked out in the first round??  Green, Rondo, Bass and Bradley don't need playoff experience!!

Why isn't BS playing Brooks?  Is he injured or just in the dog house?

Hmm...well, your basic premise - "Everyone wants to make the playoffs" - is flawed.  Not everyone does.  Based on reading the posts here on CB, I'd say most don't. 

Also not sure how you can "sit the following for extended minutes Sully, Green, Bass, and Bradley and trade the rest of the team" - and still have "a bench of Bradley, Bass, Olynyk and Fav"....also don't know how you trade everyone but four guys, sit them, and still field a team...

[djbilly33]

You guys are taking me too literally.  All I am saying is I been reading that the Celtics want to make the playoffs and it seems like everyone is on board with that.  In a dreadful East we may make the playoffs and what will the prize be? An exit in the first round.  With a draft class like this one, why not hold off Rondo from coming back, limit the minutes of Green, Sully, Bass and Bradley and start players like Pressey, Brooks, Fav, Humprhies and Wallace. Up their time and maybe they will produce so we can trade them.  Never did I say play 4 players for the entire game.  Still no one answered me about Brooks.

[PhoSita]

I don't think that you have to make the playoffs in order to establish a "winning" culture.

I think the winning culture is an organizational thing.  It comes from the top down.  The coach is probably the most important part of that.

Even if this team loses a lot of games, if Brad Stevens runs a tight ship and motivates his players to play the game the right way, I think it's possible to avoid a "losing" culture.

Separate from a "winning culture" is "knowing how to win."  Young teams don't typically accomplish the latter until they've made playoff runs a couple of times.  Making playoff runs in order to learn "how to win" only makes sense, though, if you have a core that you expect to build around long term and you want to build on floor chemistry.

Right now, at least half of the players on the Celtics' roster are likely to be moved or allowed to leave in the near future.



As for "wanting" to make the playoffs, I understand that some people want to see the team win as many games as possible every single season.  This season, though, I think making the playoffs would be a disappointment.  I feel that way because, as I said above, I know this group is not the group we're going to stick with moving forward.  This team isn't built to play a pretty style of basketball -- and they don't.  Furthermore, making the playoffs this season in the Eastern Conference is not going to be a significant achievement.

[Section301]

You guys are taking me too literally.  All I am saying is I been reading that the Celtics want to make the playoffs and it seems like everyone is on board with that.  In a dreadful East we may make the playoffs and what will the prize be? An exit in the first round.  With a draft class like this one, why not hold off Rondo from coming back, limit the minutes of Green, Sully, Bass and Bradley and start players like Pressey, Brooks, Fav, Humprhies and Wallace. Up their time and maybe they will produce so we can trade them.  Never did I say play 4 players for the entire game.  Still no one answered me about Brooks.

yes, the Celtics want to make the playoffs.  Everyone on the Celtics is indicating they are on board with that.  Most fans are not on board with that.  And in reality, even if the C's aren't really on board with it, they can't really say it (for any number of reasons). 

Brooks is the 6th guard in a four guard rotation, so he's not getting much PT.  Recent interview with Brooks indicated that BS told him he would eventually get an opportunity.  Check the front page of celticsblog

[wdleehi]

I want to see this team play to win.  I want to see the players and coaches care.





But I also believe that there is not enough talent on this team to make the playoffs. 






The worst thing that could happen to the Celtics it to play all out, end up with a win total in the mid 30s and end up the 4th seed because the Atlantic is playing like a joke. 

[BballTim]

You guys are taking me too literally.  All I am saying is I been reading that the Celtics want to make the playoffs and it seems like everyone is on board with that.  In a dreadful East we may make the playoffs and what will the prize be? An exit in the first round.  With a draft class like this one, why not hold off Rondo from coming back, limit the minutes of Green, Sully, Bass and Bradley and start players like Pressey, Brooks, Fav, Humprhies and Wallace. Up their time and maybe they will produce so we can trade them.  Never did I say play 4 players for the entire game.  Still no one answered me about Brooks.

  For starters I don't think many of the fans that buy tickets to the games (especially the expensive ones) would be thrilled if the Celts didn't make an effort to put a competitive team on the court. We had people complaining about paying to see the team struggle against mediocre teams when we were winning 50+ games a season. I also doubt that management would be thrilled with the eroding fan base that comes with a bad team.

[Chris]

You guys are taking me too literally.  All I am saying is I been reading that the Celtics want to make the playoffs and it seems like everyone is on board with that.  In a dreadful East we may make the playoffs and what will the prize be? An exit in the first round.  With a draft class like this one, why not hold off Rondo from coming back, limit the minutes of Green, Sully, Bass and Bradley and start players like Pressey, Brooks, Fav, Humprhies and Wallace. Up their time and maybe they will produce so we can trade them.  Never did I say play 4 players for the entire game.  Still no one answered me about Brooks.

  For starters I don't think many of the fans that buy tickets to the games (especially the expensive ones) would be thrilled if the Celts didn't make an effort to put a competitive team on the court. We had people complaining about paying to see the team struggle against mediocre teams when we were winning 50+ games a season. I also doubt that management would be thrilled with the eroding fan base that comes with a bad team.

While I agree with this, I think you can get away with it for one year.  The sales are already so low, its not going to make much of a difference at this point if they tank.  And if they bring in an exciting new rookie, and surround him with a good team next year, the fans will come back.  But if they continue to bottom feed beyond this year, they will risk doing real damage to the fan base, and to their bank accounts.

[bballee]

I want to see this team play to win.  I want to see the players and coaches care.





But I also believe that there is not enough talent on this team to make the playoffs. 






The worst thing that could happen to the Celtics it to play all out, end up with a win total in the mid 30s and end up the 4th seed because the Atlantic is playing like a joke.

Agree.
Again, agree.
Maybe not the 4th but quite likely the 7th or 8th.  Maybe even the 6th--with Atlanta and New Jersey the 7th and 8th--strike irony bell!

[PhoSita]

We had people complaining about paying to see the team struggle against mediocre teams when we were winning 50+ games a season.

I'd posit that perhaps people complained about that precisely because the team was winning 50+ games a season.  When you know your team is built to win now, and the window for competing is short because your best players are in their early to mid 30s, every loss to a mediocre team seems like a wasted opportunity. 

I don't think many people have any illusions about the team this season -- this is a bridge year.  This group is going to take one step forward, two steps back.  Even those who think this team can win 30-40 games and make the playoffs can probably agree with that.  So it's hard to complain when the team loses to mediocre opponents because our team is mediocre, and never meant to be anything better than mediocre.

I agree that if the team is mediocre season after season with no clear plan in place to get better, then people will tune out.  But I think fans in Boston are pretty smart, despite what Mike Felger will tell you.  What matters is that in the long run, the team takes two steps forward for every step back.

So far, the team appears to have a plan in place to get better over the next few years, and so I see no reason to complain about the fact that the team this year is going to lose far more often than they will win.  I believe that the majority of Celtics fans feel similarly.

[LooseCannon]

Because teams that win 34-49 games are twice as likelyto become a contender within five years as a team with less than 25 wins.

[PhoSita]

Because teams that win 34-49 games are twice as likelyto become a contender within five years as a team with less than 25 wins.

why, though?

[LooseCannon]

Because teams that win 34-49 games are twice as likelyto become a contender within five years as a team with less than 25 wins.

why, though?

My theory is that teams that are bad enough to win 25 or fewer games are in such a talent hole that even if they draft a future All-Star, it takes years to surround that player with a solid supporting cast.  The Celtics this season always struck me as a team that had too much talent to be that bad unless they got hit by injuries, Brad Stevens was a bad coach, or the locker room became a toxic cesspool.

[playdream]

We already got too many wins and that hurts our future
i expect Ainge do some trade to clean up Bass/Lee or even green
if we are going after parker
Rondo can come back at Juanuary and get back in shape
The players can go all out and compete, but we need to lose just like they did in the bucks game