They should be better than this..

[D.o.s.]

All true above.

But conversely, the defensive effort HAS to be better than this - from all of them.

This group is careening, it would appear, toward the acceptance of less-than-top effort, and that's a cancer that has to be nipped now.

It is interesting that we seem to have shipped out everyone that the forum had pegged as no-defense, "content with losing" types and yet we're still struggling on that end of the court.

[nickagneta]

I think this team is a bit deflated emotionally right now. Their defensive efforts to start the season and some hot shooting by some players allowed for the team to win more games than they should have.

But since the start of the calendar year the schedule was rough, the team was remade with some trades, losses piled up, a bunch of hot shooting players cooled down, more injuries occurred and then the defensive effort slipped bad.

Once Rondo is back to near full speed((which he isn't close to yet), Bradley and Bayless get back, and this group gets to know each other better, I think the team will start to string together some quality wins again, but that might be weeks away.

[cons]

OK yeah I guess I have my tommy green glasses on a bit, thinking our talent is better than it is.
 But yeah, thinking back to the really bad teams in the past - Travis Knight starting, Brett Szabo, Marty Conlon. I mean we had some teams of guys who had very little business even being in the league. I remember vaguely that Marty Conlon was our best player for awhile.  Those teams I expected to lose big every time. This roster has little stars but no Marty Conlon types - so i guess i'm expecting a bit more.

[TheTruthFot18]

All true above.

But conversely, the defensive effort HAS to be better than this - from all of them.

This group is careening, it would appear, toward the acceptance of less-than-top effort, and that's a cancer that has to be nipped now.

It is interesting that we seem to have shipped out everyone that the forum had pegged as no-defense, "content with losing" types and yet we're still struggling on that end of the court.

Ya and we didn;t replace them with any defenders. We only lost offense as anyone saw in last nights game.

[Evantime34]

I think right now with Bayless and Bradley out, plus Rondo not quite back this is about how good we should be. We have no one besides Green who can create his own shot and Green rarely does. You can't win many games if you can't score.

[Donoghus]

I thought they'd go 5-12 this month and even I thought I might have been low-balling them at the time.

Obviously, some of this losing has been because of the personnel changes but, also, some guys' play just seems to be coming back down to earth a bit.   Also, the Sully hand injury hasn't helped matters.

[Boris Badenov]

I think this team is a bit deflated emotionally right now. Their defensive efforts to start the season and some hot shooting by some players allowed for the team to win more games than they should have.

But since the start of the calendar year the schedule was rough, the team was remade with some trades, losses piled up, a bunch of hot shooting players cooled down, more injuries occurred and then the defensive effort slipped bad.

Once Rondo is back to near full speed((which he isn't close to yet), Bradley and Bayless get back, and this group gets to know each other better, I think the team will start to string together some quality wins again, but that might be weeks away.

I'd add that our "veteran leadership" has consisted of one guy who got sent home because he was whining about minutes, and another guy who has done nothing of value on the court while criticizing anyone but himself.

I feel bad for Stevens. It's a tough spot for a rookie coach, trying to hold a team of mismatched pieces together under those circumstances. I can see why things like sustained effort and cohesiveness are  problems.

[slamtheking]

they're about where a team of role players should be.  looking at the season as a whole, they started better than anyone should have expected but lately have played worse than they should have.  part of that is the injuries to Sully, AB and Bayless and Rondo getting back into shape.

With the exception of Rondo, everyone else on the roster, from a talent perspective, should be coming off the bench of a good team. 

one thing to consider is that Chris Johnson, fresh from the D league,  is looking like one of the top players on this team.  That speaks volumes about how these guys are playing.  Right now, I'd take this kid over every guard we have except for Rondo and over both of our small forwards. 
The only consistent big man we have is Hump.  Sully's hand injury is notably impacting his game.  KO is up and down (mostly down).  Bass is up and down.  Vitor can't sniff the court.

I'm anticipating the significant roster changes to continue this offseason where we may have less than half the players that started with us this season still with us at the start of next season.  I don't see that as a bad thing right now.

[GreenWarrior]

better than what? at best this was a borderline 30 win team. that's still possible...I guess.

at worst they're a borderline mid to high lottery team. there's just so many contributing factors for us to be a bad team right now that expecting us to win 20 - 30 gms is being extremely optimistic imo.

[Q_FBE]

Nope - This is truly a lost season. Jeff Green appears to come up short of expectations and not surprisingly his name is coming up in trade talks. Ainge is still overhauling this roster and everyone knows it. The players who are playing the best right now don't figure in the long term plans of this team but are auditioning for future opportunities in this league. Ainge is looking for more assets and cap space to rebuild this roster.

[PhoSita]

If anything I think that our team has played above our talent level.

Yeah.  Danny has already traded off two significant pieces.  The team might have fewer than 10 wins if not for Crawford going on a hot streak in December as the starting PG.

Really, other than Jared Sullinger and Kris Humphries, there aren't two players left on the team who have produced at an above average level this season.


The core talent on this team is severely lacking outside of Rondo and Sullinger.  And right now it's not 100% clear how good Rondo is going to be moving forward.  Thankfully, the Celtics appear headed for a top pick.  Help is on the way.

[Fan from VT]

I have us on pace for 27 wins (0.326 x 82 games).

+/- 3 wins, say, from 27 gives us:

2012-2013:
-Cleveland (Irving, Thompson, verejao, Waiters)
-Phoenix (Dragic, Gortat, Dudley, Scola)
-NO (Ryan anderson, vasquez, Davis, Lopez, Eric Gordon)
-Sac (Cousins, Isaiah, Evans, Chuck Hayes, Jason THompson, Marcus THornton, THomas Robinson)
-Det (monroe, stuckey, bynum, knight, drummond, prince, calderon)
-Wash (wall, beal, hilario, ariza, webster)

2011-2012
-Det (monroe, knight, stuckey, prince, b gordon, Jerebko)
-Min (Love, Pekovic, barea, rubio)
-Por (Aldridge, hickson, batum, matthews, crawford, wallace, felton)

2010-2011
-Sac (DeMarcus Cousins,Beno Udrih,Tyreke Evans,Jason Thompson,Samuel Dalembert,Carl Landry,Omri Casspi,Marcus Thornton
-NJ (Brook Lopez, Devin Harris, Anthony Morrow, Travis Outlaw, Kris Humphries, Favors, D-Will)
-Det (Tayshaun Prince, Rodney Stuckey, Ben Gordon, Charlie Villanueva, Richard Hamilton, Greg Monroe)

2009-2010
-Sac (Tyreke Evans, Beno Udrih, Jason Thompson, Omri Casspi, Spencer Hawes, Donte Greene, Andres Nocioni, Carl Landry, Kevin Martin   
-Wash (Andray Blatche, Antawn Jamison, Caron Butler, Gilbert Arenas, Randy Foye, Nick Young, Mike Miller, Brendan Haywood, Earl Boykins, JaVale McGee
-Det (Rodney Stuckey, Charlie Villanueva, Ben Gordon, Richard Hamilton, Jonas Jerebko, Tayshaun Prince)   
-GS (Monta Ellis, Stephen Curry, Corey Maggette, Anthony Morrow, C.J. Watson, Anthony Tolliver, Anthony Randolph)
-Philly (Andre Iguodala, Elton Brand, Thaddeus Young, Louis Williams, Samuel Dalembert, Willie Green, Jrue Holiday)
-LAC (Chris Kaman, Baron Davis, Eric Gordon, Rasual Butler, Craig Smith, Al Thornton, Marcus Camby, Drew Gooden, eAndre Jordan)
-NYK (David Lee, Al Harrington, Danilo Gallinari, Wilson Chandler)   


A few thoughts:
- Det and Sac show up in this range A LOT.
- Rondo has not been playing, so he doesn't count toward our current record. Same for our stash of future picks) So, excluding Rondo, (i.e. if he stayed a celtic) AND KEEPING our future picks we currently have, which rosters would you or wouldn't you swap our current roster for? With the caveat that you are treating these players as assets as they were valued in that year since many young desirable players (including, sadly, some of KO, Sully, Bradley) will flame out unexpectedly but are desirable (and tradeable) early on in their careers.
- Most of those teams had a centerpiece better than our best non-rondo player.
- So our current non-rondo team should have much of a better record than which of those clubs?

[cons]

Bump.
Watching Knicks game right now.  I don't care. This is ridiculous ! No excuses to be this horrible. 49 points late third. They killed the Knicks in MSG  by 41 like 8 weeks ago. Whole team sucks right now. Rondo, Stevens, get it together! This is embarrassing.

[Boston Garden Leprechaun]

Anyone else frustrated w the team right now? I know they are not supposed to be that good and losses bring us closer to a good pick, but they are playing like junk right now and I think they should be better than this.
  There were times earlier in the season when they'd get into an offensive flow and score 40 pts in a quarter. Last night it seemed like they could barely get a basket. I went from thinking Stevens was pretty good to wondering about him.
  Getting killed at home by OKC without Durant and Westbrook is pathetic. Last night Brooklyn couldnt score at all and there was an opportunity to get a nice win and they played like they've never played together before. missed layups, no cohesion. I guess rondo's still rusty, but whoa, they look horrible right now. These guys are not all scrubs, they're all capable of scoring if put in the right positions. Even the D leaguer Johnson looks like he can play.
 It's not being put together properly right now. probably i guess rondo and stevens just need time to work it out but it's so frustrating. This team is not this bad talent wise.
I can accept that they will lose a lot but I don't think there should be excuses for being this bad.

ummmmmmmmmm, without stevens we would be lucky to even have 10 wins right now.

[guava_wrench]

We are a bad team. Very bad. Look at the boxscore. The roster is pathetic. It was bad before the trades, and now it is even worse.

We have people getting excited of Chris Johnson and Pressey. That is a pretty clear sign that this team is bad.

Effort won't often overcome a talent gap so large.