While of course, I want the C’s to raise banner 18 (and 19, 20, 21, etc.) as soon as possible. I think from a fan’s perspective, I prefer the developing young talent from the ground up approach and slowly making strides.
I know a few fans here have said they enjoy the excitement around rebuilding (seeing young players grow and develop, projecting out about the possibilities, etc.) and are more excited about the team now than they were in the last few years and I agree with this.
Actually, I feel the C’s were a little cheated with the 2008 championship, because they didn’t really get to experience the journey. (Don’t get me wrong, I’m not complaining).
OKC is the basic dream scenario. Or Chicago drafting Jordan. Draft young stud #1 (Durant/Jordan), watch him grow and add more young studs over the following years (Westbrook/Ibaka/Harden or Pippen/Grant/Armstrong). Go from hoping to make the playoffs, to hoping to make it out of the first round to hoping to make it to the Finals to winning the Finals. I mean obviously those scenarios involve being able to draft historic talent, and that’s hard to do, but still. From drafting Pierce/Dirk in ’98, I would probably prefer the Mavs journey to 1 championship and 1 Finals over the Celtics journey to 1 championship and 1 Finals, either of which I would prefer to the Pistons journey to 1 championship and 1 Finals.
The journey is more fun than the destination, IMO, and in 2008 the Celtics missed out on a lot of the journey.