The Celtics must tank again and again!

[Alleyoopster]

After watching the first 3 minutes of the game last night I said to myself, this is going to be a 40 point blowout.  And, if the Warrior starters played the final period that’s probably what would have happened.
 
As the game went on I wondered why they were such a good team.  They were suffocating the Celtics on defense and displayed great shooting and deft passing on offense.  They rebounded well and turned many of them into easy fast break baskets.  The Celtics on the other hand played hard, but were clearly outmatched. 

With so many deflections, steals and bad passes I felt that not only were they better players, they were also more athletic. Further analysis made me wonder; what have the Warriors done to put together such a team?  Could it be they looked for top-flight athletes?  Better shooters?  Or, was it a combination of computer generated metrics that are beyond what I am aware of?

Tonight, I decided to do a bit of Google searching on their key players.  This is what I found….(there’s nothing new here....just expounding on the obvious)
1.  Having numerous losing seasons gets multiple top draft picks. 
Harrison Barnes – 7th selection, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harrison_Barnes

Klay Thompson 11th pick (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Klay_Thompson)
 
Stephen Curry  7th pick  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Curry_(basketball) 

Harrison Barnes was, at one time, the top rated high school player in the country.  His coach says he can defend all 5 positions.  He can be counted on for 15 points per game

Klay Thompson – a good shooter in college and now in the pros.  Judging by his physique he’s as tough as nails.  Team him up with a super shooter in Stephan Curry makes them the toughest backcourt in the NBA to defend against. 
 Curry may not be the most athletic.  However, he is the best the shooter.   

2.  Sign free agent signings who can score, are physical and/or can rebound). 
David Lee - Even though this was a sign and trade deal this was basically a free agent signing as the Knicks thought he was asking for too much money.  He has been a consistent - 10 rebounds, over 50% - 15 ppg player.   

Andre Iguodala (9th pick).  His scoring may have been erratic.  Yet, he managed 15 points or more every night while in Philly.  He’s athletic and can score. 

3.Trade wisely and if you can land a ‘big guy’ go for it.
   
Andre Bogut (#1 pick), I could not believe they traded away Monte Ellis for him as he was so injury prone.  However, the Warriors are wise to only play him for half a game or so. But he’s more solid than I remembered.  He takes up a lot of space.  And, even though he doesn’t shoot all that much, it’s for a high percentage.  On defense he blocks shots and knocks balls away from defenders.  This was a gamble and is paying off. 
Steve Blake….he’s a wily competitor who can stick it in the hoop and moves the ball around.  Jordan Crawford, he’s also athletic and can score. 

So, what do most of these players have in common?  They can score.  I’ll repeat …they can score.  They did this at every level they played at.  Most are above average athletically.  They are either fast, strong or both.  Curry is the exception. 
So, how does this relate to the course the Celtics might consider if they want to build a Championship team? 
1.  They must tank for more one year… 3 years would be ideal.  (I knew tanking was important to get a good player.  I just never realized how important it is to tank for more than one year to get multiple good players. )
2.  Don’t be afraid to pay for healthy free agents who are athletic and can score at a 43% clip or more.  You can’t just sign a rebounder.  He must either be able to score and/or play defense as well. 
3.  Don’t be afraid to give away talent to get the player(s) you want. 

How do these 3 ideas bode for the Celtics under Danny’s management?  My guess is Danny may be able to accomplish points 2 + 3. However, I doubt he has the smarts and/or guts to tank for more than one season.  Thus, eliminating point 1 makes the climb to the top very tough.  Most likely he’ll find a way to get players who will bring them 33 wins or more next year.  This is too good.   

[LatterDayCelticsfan]

The ability go from Boston to Cleveland by train is not the same as the need to only use the train when going from Boston to Cleveland.  So Golden State have a strong young team from accumulated stretch of losing seasons. That`s great! It just doesn`t preclude the possibility that Boston`s rebuild can be concluded successfully with only the one lottery season. In fact with all the differing outcomes of rebuild plans of the Pacers, Spurs, Bobcats, Knicks, Nets, Mavericks, Lakers, Timberwolves, Bucks... I often wonder how the axis of the `which rebuilding plan is best debate` hinges so much on whether or not to deliberately construct a weak roster at some point for a lottery pick. There are too many other variables for that issue to be the benchmark of good basketball team management.

[kne]

We don't want to be the Warriors, i.e. fun to watch. Danny is building a contender. I would like it to be a defense-minded contender, too.

[Celtics4ever]

Danny is building a contender. I would like it to be a defense-minded contender, too.

Danny is gathering assets.   If this is what we are building on we are in real trouble.   There might be 1-2 pieces he keeps RR and JS but other than that who knows and they might be trade fodder.

[GreenWarrior]

i'd really like to be a defensive team that pushes the ball at every chance they get. there's nothing better than easy baskets.

[GreenWarrior]

also the Celtics lost to GS because they fell into the trap. they thought the warriors would be tired or at least not "up" for the game and they forgot(like tommy said) that if GS loses this game then the win against the pacers meant nothing. GS did the right thing put the petal down and never let up.

as for how we should build this team? we can get all the lottery picks we want but history has shown championship teams are built through trades and key free agent acquisitions.

so yes we probably have to tank for 3 seasons at least. right now we just need as many assets as possible.

[saltlover]

The Celtics blew out the Knicks by an even bigger margin on the road earlier this year.  They also beat the Heat at the buzzer.  The team isn't very good, but there's no need to make conclusions from watching a single game.  Yes, Golden State is better.  But after years of playing poorly, getting lucky that Klay Thompson fell to them in the draft, and then making a big splash in free agency, they're still only 6th in their conference, and closer to the 9th seed and missing the playoffs than they are the 5th seed.  Sure, in the East they'd probably be the third best team, or the fourth best team if Rose were healthy, but is that really what you're content with?  No thanks.

The Pacers have an elite team with only one top 10 pick, and otherwise just missing out on the playoffs a couple times.  So that works too.  Of course, they needed a lot of teams to pass on Roy Hibbert.  Hopefully Willy Cauley-Stein can be this year's Roy Hibbert.

[Moranis]

I don't get why Golden State would be the example when the much better example of Oklahoma City exists. 

The Pacers starters only have 1 lottery pick, though they did just trade for Evan Turner the 2nd pick in the draft who is their 6th man

Then you have a team like the Heat where they have seven top 6 drafted players on their team including 4 starters and 2 key bench players.  Of course they only drafted #4 pick Wade, #34 Chalmers, #28 Cole, and #2 Beasley though this is his second stint in town.  Haslem was undrafted, but has spent his entire career in Miami.


The thing that all of those teams have in common is that they have talent.  It doesn't matter how you get the talent as long as you have it.  The real question regarding tanking is whether or not tanking gives Boston the best shot at acquiring talent.  This year it makes sense and it probably does next year as well unless Danny can acquire some real talent this summer without cap space to do it.  I would be surprised if he did, so I would expect Boston to be bad again in 14-15, which is fine because that is two years of getting higher draft picks which will coincide with real and actual cap space and a real shot at putting together a team with enough talent to be a real contender.

[D.o.s.]

The ability go from Boston to Cleveland by train is not the same as the need to only use the train when going from Boston to Cleveland.

Well put.