Simmons on the Eastern Conference / Celtics

[BballTim]

We're kinda right where we expected to be.  10th worst record in the league... Brooklyn and New York aren't supposed to be this bad.  Presumably when D-Will and Chandler come back, those teams will start rolling.  That pushes us to 8th worst record in the league.  A Top 8 pick is what I expected.

Unfortunately, 8th worst record in the league might mean the playoffs for us with how lopsided the conferences are right now.  Which would mean nothing better than the #15 pick.

Maybe we keep winning and get above .500.  Who knows.  I think Simmons wrote that 3 wins ago.

  We're currently on a pace to win 37 games, with the 13th worst record in the league. That's right where you thought we'd be?

[Boston Garden Leprechaun]

For Rondo, I've maintained that I think any trade package for him will have to include at least one pick, at least one nice (but not necessarily great) prospect, and an opportunity to unload significant future salary.

  I don't think Danny wants to trade star players for nice pieces that won't get you anywhere, he wants to trade nice pieces for star players. People saw Danny trade KG and PP and decided that he was tanking when it's just as likely that he was getting what he could for players who were no longer stars.

 

If the only adequate price for Rondo is an established star player, then he's never going to be traded.

You may be right, but I'm not so sure that Danny would necessarily reject a package that checks off a lot of boxes but doesn't include an established star.  I do think there would need to be a player coming back who has at least a chance of becoming All-Star caliber.

  All you'd be doing is spinning your wheels, trading a star player for some pieces that you'd hope to use in a package to bring in a star player. It puts you farther away from being a top team, not closer to it.

We've covered this ground before in other topics; it depends whether or not you think the team needs to take some steps back before it can take a few more steps forward. 

If you think this team with Rondo is one second tier player (i.e. the type of player likely to be available in trades or free agency) away from being an elite team, or close to it, then you're right.

  Even if you think you'd need to add two such player to Rondo to be elite, it's obviously easier to find two such players than three.

true indeed. You summed up how i feel. i think we are two players away from wining a championship. That is keeping jcraw, AB, sully, KO, fav and green. sully can start but we need a real good  center who can score and a great small forward. green can come off the bench with jcraw and ko and fav. 

[gar]

So with a deeply flawed roster the C's are still able to show a number of things:

1. Crawdford can indeed play PG and be an impact player andis not just a punk kid with an attitude.

2. Chris Humphries is still a banger

3. Sullinger is for real.

4. Bradley can be a important cog. etc.

So the way I see it. Mission accomplished. Who cares if they win a few more games. We have some real assets and plenty of picks to go with them. Danny fleeced the Nets and got KG and Jesus. Perhaps he has not lost his magic after all.

[ssspence]

So with a deeply flawed roster the C's are still able to show a number of things:

1. Crawdford can indeed play PG and be an impact player andis not just a punk kid with an attitude.

2. Chris Humphries is still a banger

3. Sullinger is for real.

4. Bradley can be a important cog. etc.

So the way I see it. Mission accomplished. Who cares if they win a few more games. We have some real assets and plenty of picks to go with them. Danny fleeced the Nets and got KG and Jesus. Perhaps he has not lost his magic after all.

I think this is well stated. Also nice to see Green put forth a little more consistent effort.

By the way, it's a great article by Simmons. He and Zach Lowe have both been very good this year for Grantland.

[D.o.s.]

So with a deeply flawed roster the C's are still able to show a number of things:

1. Crawdford can indeed play PG and be an impact player andis not just a punk kid with an attitude.

2. Chris Humphries is still a banger

3. Sullinger is for real.

4. Bradley can be a important cog. etc.

So the way I see it. Mission accomplished. Who cares if they win a few more games. We have some real assets and plenty of picks to go with them. Danny fleeced the Nets and got KG and Jesus. Perhaps he has not lost his magic after all.

I think this is well stated. Also nice to see Green put forth a little more consistent effort.

By the way, it's a great article by Simmons. He and Zach Lowe have both been very good this year for Grantland.

Politely disagree--I thought this article was the epitome of mailed-in Simmons.

[SHAQATTACK]

Tonight's game may help make clear where he Celtics are and if the Nets are for real with Lopez an DWill.......

A team with anAll star HOF lineup should beat a bunch of young twenty year olds right? some still should be in College.

If Nets can't get it done at home...then this disaster would squarely on the shoulders of Coach Kidd.......he has all the advantages .

On paper ....with Lopez and DWill ...the Celtics should be blown out...and run out of Brooklyn.

[Fafnir]

I don't think tonight's game will tell us all that much about the Nets or the C's, just another game. I will be watching Deron though, curious to see how he is physically.

[rbow]

I'm thinking we need to wait a while before conjuring up trades. Why? We haven't seen what this current team looks like with Rondo--and I mean a completely healthy Rondo. How does it look with Rondo, AB, JCraw, JG, Sully all meshing together? We don't know what KO can really do. BB might be worth keeping if he's able to continue playing at a consistent level. Yes we need a true 5 against certain teams. But I think we need to see how the 5 I mention fit together this will then tell us which, if any, can/should be moved in a package to land the whale. The whale being this team's KG--the guy who makes it possible for the other pieces to collectively become more than than the sum of the parts--a champion. Patience. We won't win it this year but we can become contenders next year and after that who knows?

[PhoSita]

So with a deeply flawed roster the C's are still able to show a number of things:

1. Crawdford can indeed play PG and be an impact player andis not just a punk kid with an attitude.

2. Chris Humphries is still a banger

3. Sullinger is for real.

4. Bradley can be a important cog. etc.

So the way I see it. Mission accomplished. Who cares if they win a few more games. We have some real assets and plenty of picks to go with them. Danny fleeced the Nets and got KG and Jesus. Perhaps he has not lost his magic after all.

I think this is well stated. Also nice to see Green put forth a little more consistent effort.

By the way, it's a great article by Simmons. He and Zach Lowe have both been very good this year for Grantland.

Politely disagree--I thought this article was the epitome of mailed-in Simmons.

It's hard to call anything "the epitome of mailed-in" with BS, because that's a fair description of everything he does (though "e-mailed in" might be more accurate) these days.

Bill still has small moments of really nice insight, however -- in this article I really thought he "artificially inflated win totals covering up real problems" bit was one of those.

[LooseCannon]

Bill still has small moments of really nice insight, however -- in this article I really thought he "artificially inflated win totals covering up real problems" bit was one of those.

On the other hand, awareness of artificially inflated win totals may cover up real talent.

How do you go about determining if a team from a mid-major conference in basketball or football deserves to be part of the conversation about legitimate title contenders?

[PhoSita]

Bill still has small moments of really nice insight, however -- in this article I really thought he "artificially inflated win totals covering up real problems" bit was one of those.

On the other hand, awareness of artificially inflated win totals may cover up real talent.

How do you go about determining if a team from a mid-major conference in basketball or football deserves to be part of the conversation about legitimate title contenders?

You have to look at who they've played and how they've won.

But really, it's a crap shoot unless the team has faced some quality opponents.

Would the Celtics have a similar record to the Kings right now, if the Celtics were in the Western Conference?  Would the Kings be hovering near .500 if they were in the East?

The answer to both, in my opinion, is yes.

[Celtics18]

Pho,

Is this an on-line article?  I didn't find it and would really appreciate it if you could give a link. 

Thanks

[More Banners]

We're kinda right where we expected to be.  10th worst record in the league... Brooklyn and New York aren't supposed to be this bad.  Presumably when D-Will and Chandler come back, those teams will start rolling.  That pushes us to 8th worst record in the league.  A Top 8 pick is what I expected.

Unfortunately, 8th worst record in the league might mean the playoffs for us with how lopsided the conferences are right now.  Which would mean nothing better than the #15 pick.

Maybe we keep winning and get above .500.  Who knows.  I think Simmons wrote that 3 wins ago.

  We're currently on a pace to win 37 games, with the 13th worst record in the league. That's right where you thought we'd be?

Middle of the pack/below .500, without Rondo, and still a playoff team.

The league is such a mess right now, so many teams not really competitive.

If Rondo comes back and we start look like a winning team missing a piece, does Danny try to go for it?

[D.o.s.]

Pho,

Is this an on-line article?  I didn't find it and would really appreciate it if you could give a link. 

Thanks

Yeah, it was on Grantland about a month ago:
http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id/10089272/the-nba-e-league

More fun:

Simmons wrote about the team on Friday in a column about the NBA’s Eastern Conference, and took a few cracks at Celtics guard Jordan Crawford. Crediting Brad Stevens for his coaching this year, Simmons wrote: “Anyone who can turn Jordan Crawford into a competent point guard has to be a Coach of the Year candidate.”


Crawford must have read Simmons’ column, because after the big win he took to Twitter to give Simmons a hard time.

 Jcraw55
@BillSimmons you mad?  Lol
3:08 PM - 8 Dec 2013

http://ftw.usatoday.com/2013/12/jordan-crawford-bill-simmons-twitter/

[BleedGreen1989]

Pho,

Is this an on-line article?  I didn't find it and would really appreciate it if you could give a link. 

Thanks

http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id/10089272/the-nba-e-league