Will we make the playoffs this year? Standings, stats and numbers (merged)

[Boston Garden Leprechaun]

So how to you pronounce "Asik", anyway"?

A-sheek.

Are we sure he's not just a backup big man?  I feel like whoever trades for him runs the risk of taking on a massive bust.

I'm not sold on him either.

Asik is a proven commodity as far as being a defensive anchor and rebounder.  If that's all you need in a starting center, he's a perfectly fine one to have.

He's on a similar level to Perk as an offensive player, though, with a slight advantage in that he hasn't suffered a catastrophic knee injury yet, and he's two inches taller.

Then that is why I am not crazy about him. His offensive game. I would like everyone to contribute offensively and of course defensively as well. Maybe it is just me.

[PhoSita]

So how to you pronounce "Asik", anyway"?

A-sheek.

Are we sure he's not just a backup big man?  I feel like whoever trades for him runs the risk of taking on a massive bust.

I'm not sold on him either.

Asik is a proven commodity as far as being a defensive anchor and rebounder.  If that's all you need in a starting center, he's a perfectly fine one to have.

He's on a similar level to Perk as an offensive player, though, with a slight advantage in that he hasn't suffered a catastrophic knee injury yet, and he's two inches taller.

Then that is why I am not crazy about him. His offensive game. I would like everyone to contribute offensively and of course defensively as well. Maybe it is just me.

I think it depends on the rest of your team.  If you have 2-3 guys scoring 15+ points in your starting lineup, you don't need Asik to score, so that's fine.

But yeah, I don't want Asik on this team unless we're getting a nice young scorer in the draft this season.

Rondo - young scoring SG - Green - Sullinger - Asik

^ That lineup might work out.

[Boston Garden Leprechaun]

So how to you pronounce "Asik", anyway"?

A-sheek.

Are we sure he's not just a backup big man?  I feel like whoever trades for him runs the risk of taking on a massive bust.

I'm not sold on him either.

Asik is a proven commodity as far as being a defensive anchor and rebounder.  If that's all you need in a starting center, he's a perfectly fine one to have.

He's on a similar level to Perk as an offensive player, though, with a slight advantage in that he hasn't suffered a catastrophic knee injury yet, and he's two inches taller.

Then that is why I am not crazy about him. His offensive game. I would like everyone to contribute offensively and of course defensively as well. Maybe it is just me.

I think it depends on the rest of your team.  If you have 2-3 guys scoring 15+ points in your starting lineup, you don't need Asik to score, so that's fine.

But yeah, I don't want Asik on this team unless we're getting a nice young scorer in the draft this season.

Rondo - young scoring SG - Green - Sullinger - Asik

^ That lineup might work out.

I guess we are going to find out before long what direction we are going once we get close to the trade deadline. Depends what our record will be then as well. DA may trade picks for a guy right now.

[jc3celticsphan]

question for the tankers.. who was the last superstar to be drafted in the top 5 and win a championship for that same team and how long did it take them?

The answer is "Dwyane Wade, 3 years", but the question isn't very good.

Many superstars have won titles with the franchises that drafted them, but there's a lot more to a title than just drafting a superstar.

ok i forgot about wade but still he only won one championship till lebron saved him. and kobe had shaq so that doesnt count.

not a good question but u get what i mean

and we will have a better chance at a title then a team that drafts wiggins or parker

it just takes too long for players to develop

if the patriots threw all their money away on big names they wouldnt be where they are at right now contending every year thats a true dynasty

same with spurs good managment and they get the best out of all their players. i dont think manu or parker would play that well on any other team and they made it through the west into the finals last season. past durant and kobe and who ever else you wanna throw in there

[Interceptor]

I guess I don't understand your reasoning.

If the difference between winning the Atlantic Division and getting a top 10 pick is 35 wins versus 30 wins, is that really such a huge thing?

I don't understand the idea that "Make the playoffs = your team isn't bad" and "Don't make the playoffs = your team is unredeemably bad."

Look who we're competing with. It's all about context. Missing the playoffs in the West is an entirely different thing than missing it in the East. Don't get me wrong, you don't have to talk me off a ledge if the C's are in the lottery this year, but I'd be concerned unless there was some major injury or something that predicated it.

The "Milwaukee Professional Basketball Team," by the way, is missing some key players -- arguably their two best players in Ilyasova and Sanders.

Yeah, and we're missing our All-Star point guard. Injuries happen. If the Bucks fall apart because they are missing their animal-abusing-bar-fighting human exclamation point, that doesn't say much about the rest of the roster.

There are a ton of vulnerable teams out there, and if the C's can't take advantage of them... yeesh.

Are we sure he's not just a backup big man?  I feel like whoever trades for him runs the risk of taking on a massive bust.

He might be, but I was just thinking about how well he'd go with our other big guys (Bass, Sully, KO). Eventually Morey will give up on his silly "two firsts" demand". If you want to make a "let's get some wins now" move, he seems like the logical choice.

[PhoSita]

I guess I don't understand your reasoning.

If the difference between winning the Atlantic Division and getting a top 10 pick is 35 wins versus 30 wins, is that really such a huge thing?

I don't understand the idea that "Make the playoffs = your team isn't bad" and "Don't make the playoffs = your team is unredeemably bad."

Look who we're competing with. It's all about context.

Exactly!

The only reason the Celtics have a shot of making the playoffs is because the competition is so bad.

Making the playoffs is not an accomplishment!  You're still bad!

[kozlodoev]

question for the tankers.. who was the last superstar to be drafted in the top 5 and win a championship for that same team and how long did it take them?

The answer is "Dwyane Wade, 3 years", but the question isn't very good.

Many superstars have won titles with the franchises that drafted them, but there's a lot more to a title than just drafting a superstar.

ok i forgot about wade but still he only won one championship till lebron saved him. and kobe had shaq so that doesnt count.

not a good question but u get what i mean

and we will have a better chance at a title then a team that drafts wiggins or parker

it just takes too long for players to develop

if the patriots threw all their money away on big names they wouldnt be where they are at right now contending every year thats a true dynasty

same with spurs good managment and they get the best out of all their players. i dont think manu or parker would play that well on any other team and they made it through the west into the finals last season. past durant and kobe and who ever else you wanna throw in there

As I said, winning a title takes more than drafting a superstar. But that doesn't change the fact that many superstars won titles with the teams that drafted them, with Kobe, Wade, Dirk, Duncan, and Pierce being just the most recent examples. The only notable exception from recent years is Detroit -- mostly because Prince, while a good player, is not a superstar. And that's before we go into teams that were into contention without winning a title.

The issue here isn't whether it's a good idea to draft a star-type player (plus, we already have Rondo). The issue what's the best way to go about that (and whether it is tanking yourself into oplivion is a legitimate question).

[LarBrd33]

question for the tankers.. who was the last superstar to be drafted in the top 5 and win a championship for that same team and how long did it take them?

The answer is "Dwyane Wade, 3 years", but the question isn't very good.

Many superstars have won titles with the franchises that drafted them, but there's a lot more to a title than just drafting a superstar.

ok i forgot about wade but still he only won one championship till lebron saved him. and kobe had shaq so that doesnt count.

not a good question but u get what i mean

and we will have a better chance at a title then a team that drafts wiggins or parker

it just takes too long for players to develop

if the patriots threw all their money away on big names they wouldnt be where they are at right now contending every year thats a true dynasty

same with spurs good managment and they get the best out of all their players. i dont think manu or parker would play that well on any other team and they made it through the west into the finals last season. past durant and kobe and who ever else you wanna throw in there

How many times have the Celtics won championships without first bottoming out and getting an elite lotto prospect?

Seems to me we have a lot of championships built via high draft picks... Russell, Cowens, Bird, McHale...   Sure PIerce was taken 10th (still lotto), but we had to bottom out with 2nd worst record in the league in order to add the pick (#5) that netted Ray Allen... which opened the door for KG to accept a trade.

Seems to me we have 17 championships that prove lotto picks are the key ingredient to success in this league.  Aint a lot of championships being built around guys picked 15-20.

[LarBrd33]

Scary stuff.  This goes beyond "Least"ern conference.  This is a complete joke.  Yes, we'll make the playoffs.  Right now there are 2 great teams in the Eastern Conference (Miami and Indiana).  Beyond them, it's a conference made up of 13 garbage teams.    All of them are struggling to even make it to .500.  Right now the Wizards are 9-9... everyone else in the conference has a losing record.   

I think most of us predicted to have a below .500 record... I don't think anyone actually predicted the entire conference would also have a below .500 record.  SO yeah, we'll make the playoffs.  We might even win a round.  Right now the Atlantic division is so dreadful that we're actually winning it with a 8-12 record.   Unbelievable.  4 games under .500 and if the playoffs started today we'd have the 4th seed.

Meanwhile, every Western Conference playoff team is better than us.  There are 5 Western conference teams with better records than us who aren't currently projected to make the playoffs.  NOt to mention that Western Conference teams have skewed records, because they play other Western Conference teams more than they play Eastern Conference teams.  The timberwolves, for instance, would probably be a 3rd seed in the East, but are currently sitting in 13th place.  Crazy crazy stuff.

So we'll probably make the playoffs.  We'll lock up a pick in the 15-20 range.  Meanwhile 5 solid Western Conference teams will enter the lotto with a shot at a franchise player.  Imagine the Timberwolves adding someone like Wiggins next to Kevin Love.  Imagine the Pelicans adding Jabari Parker next to Anthony Davis.   The rich are going to get richer.  The mediocre will likely stay mediocre.  Wild.

Lol https://twitter.com/trailblazers/statuses/408327384241156096

‏@trailblazers

Is it too late to join the Eastern Conference? Asking for a friend.

[Interceptor]

Making the playoffs is not an accomplishment!  You're still bad!

No, it's still an accomplishment, just not a particularly laudable one. Like I said, there are different levels of bad.

If the Celtics really wind up worse than eight other teams in this conference, assuming that things keep going the way that they are, it really makes me wonder what we even have here. Absent some major injury or Rondo setback, it suggests that our young core isn't really all that good in the first place, and we're further away from contention than I thought.

That's bad. Lottery pick had better be JHC.

[blink]

So how to you pronounce "Asik", anyway"?

A-sheek.

Are we sure he's not just a backup big man?  I feel like whoever trades for him runs the risk of taking on a massive bust.

I feel the exact same way about Asik.  Not sure that he helps us out in our current situation.  Last season or the season before, absolutely.  Now, I just hope DA doesn't do that.  Keep the flexibility and only pay big bucks to proven guys.

[blink]

Making the playoffs is not an accomplishment!  You're still bad!

No, it's still an accomplishment, just not a particularly laudable one. Like I said, there are different levels of bad.

If the Celtics really wind up worse than eight other teams in this conference, assuming that things keep going the way that they are, it really makes me wonder what we even have here. Absent some major injury or Rondo setback, it suggests that our young core isn't really all that good in the first place, and we're further away from contention than I thought.

That's bad. Lottery pick had better be JHC.

I can actually see both sides of this and there are valid points both ways.  No fans ever want to see their team lose.  They want hope, they want to root for hard working players.  And we have good hard working players that are easy to root for.  There are a lot of games left, and we may be a lot worse (or better) than our record indicates now.  I think that we are overall a little bit better team than most we would be combined with the east just stinking it up.

I would say though, that there is a chance that DA will pull some smaller trades that will impact the chemistry and talent level just enough to pull us back out of the playoffs before it happens. 

I personally think we have 0% chance against the Pacers or the Heat in a 7 game series.  Injuries to Indiana/Miami, how well the fab freshman are playing in college, and where we are projecting in the draft may impact how DA proceeds though. 

[D.o.s.]

question for the tankers.. who was the last superstar to be drafted in the top 5 and win a championship for that same team and how long did it take them?

The answer is "Dwyane Wade, 3 years", but the question isn't very good.

Many superstars have won titles with the franchises that drafted them, but there's a lot more to a title than just drafting a superstar.

ok i forgot about wade but still he only won one championship till lebron saved him. and kobe had shaq so that doesnt count.

not a good question but u get what i mean

and we will have a better chance at a title then a team that drafts wiggins or parker

it just takes too long for players to develop

if the patriots threw all their money away on big names they wouldnt be where they are at right now contending every year thats a true dynasty

same with spurs good managment and they get the best out of all their players. i dont think manu or parker would play that well on any other team and they made it through the west into the finals last season. past durant and kobe and who ever else you wanna throw in there

This post is so vacuous it makes my head hurt.

You do realize that Tim Duncan was drafted #1 overall by the Spurs, right?

[jc3celticsphan]

yeah tank for the lottery which is not even a lottery because its rigged.

last time we tanked we ended up with the worst possible pick that we could get. KG and ray were band aids to that wound which gave us a small championship window due to their age.

if rondo gets hurt again we will be in the lotto for sure but if not. so be it. The team will only get better going forward wiggins or not

so why trade down? lessen the total depth of this roster for one player? for that we make a trade now!

[D.o.s.]

yeah tank for the lottery which is not even a lottery because its rigged.

last time we tanked we ended up with the worst possible pick that we could get. KG and ray were band aids to that wound which gave us a small championship window due to their age.

if rondo gets hurt again we will be in the lotto for sure but if not. so be it. The team will only get better going forward wiggins or not

so why trade down? lessen the total depth of this roster for one player? for that we make a trade now!

You realize that we never win a ring if we don't get that #5 draft pick, right?