Tanking is a tough job, someone has to do it.

[Ogaju]

Honestly, I look at this Boston roster and handled properly in the weak East this team is a playoff team. It is therefore a task of great proportion to tank this team.

So far from what I have seen Brad is doing a great job keeping us interested and the NBA satisfied while tanking.

Some of his fellow tankers have been assisted by injuries to key players such as Kobe Bryant, Steve Nash, and Pau Gasol on the Lakers, and some are just p--- poor. Brad on the other hand has not only had a reasonably healthy squad he has also seen the return of the best player on the team Rajon Rondo.

The skill with which Brad has handled the tank without raising the ire of the NBA or the anti-tankers has been nothing short of magnificent.

It is clear now that the course is set, there is no going bank. Do your thing Brad.

[BigAlTheFuture]

I agree. We're the only tanking team that doesn't look like they're outright tanking. We're actually showing effort out there. Hopefully the league can reward us for our efforts with the #1 overall pick.

[ManUp]

Please tell me, what team with a better record are we better than roster wise? I don't know if you noticed this, but Kris Humphries is the third best player on our team these days.

[obnoxiousmime]

I don't think the Celtics can out-tank the other teams in that 4-7 range. At this point the two Philly games have to be considered automatic wins, and there are also games against Detroit, Atlanta, and Cleveland, though fortunately they are all on the road. These close games may save the team some face but they can't afford to "accidentally" win too many against mediocre teams.

[freshinthehouse]

Please tell me, what team with a better record are we better than roster wise? I don't know if you noticed this, but Kris Humphries is the third best player on our team these days.

Agreed.  This team doesn't have much talent to begin with, and the talent we do have is mismatched.  Even if we had no reason to tank (say another team had our pick), this team would still be awful.

[LilRip]

This team is awful by design. Not the worst because we have decent players like Green and Rondo, but pretty bad overall. But then again, I think if DA was trying to make the playoffs, he wouldn't have constructed the team in this way

[gpap]

Yep. Getting paid millions of dollars to lose games. It's a tough life

[GreenWarrior]

I thought this team was a playoff team before the season but it depended on when and how well rondo played coming off the injury. there was too many vets on this team that have been part of winning and had too much pride for this team to tank, just a lot of good character types.

[Robert24]

I thought this team was a playoff team before the season but it depended on when and how well rondo played coming off the injury. there was too many vets on this team that have been part of winning and had too much pride for this team to tank, just a lot of good character types.

Same. I was looking at pre-season power rankings and predictions from around the league and most people had us in the bottom 5 worst teams, but I thought we'd end up with about 35-40 wins thinking Rondo would be back earlier too. I think it's just a bit of homerism though, but having guys like Rondo, Green, Sullinger, Bradley etc. looked more like a mediocre 7th or 8th seed team at the time.

Thank God we're as other teams predicted. I would've hated if we were getting in the Playoffs while being too bad to compete and too good to get a good pick. Maybe I would've handled it better if it wasn't a year with a Draft as stacked as this years.

[PickNRoll]

Agree with the OP.  We've had some nice hard-fought losses with good effort.  Sully's had a few headaches, Rondo can't play back to backs, Bradley isn't going to hurry the injury, etc. etc.  Well played.

[quidinqui33]

I think everyone on the team knows the situation this year, play hard, get minutes, let Brad get his NBA bearings, sit Rondo on back to back, bring players slowly back from injury, evaluate talent, remove the malcontents or those looking to play for winning teams this year, etc., but if you lose, it's not necessarily a bad thing. 

And every now and then, I think you see an obvious tank move.  Not getting a foul in the last 6 second of the Pelicans game last night looked awfully suspicious.  There was little to no effort to get to the ball.  I can only guess everyone was in on it.  Jeff Green was the only one who looked upset, and even he might have been acting.

Like I said, everyone knows what's at stake at this point in the season.  The greatest thing of it all, is that I think everyone understands that it is a tough situation, but it is needed for one season, and for the most part everyone is handling it quite smoothly and actually enjoys being on this team.  Tanking while not messing up your team culture is the biggest win of all...until the lotto, of course!

[dreamgreen]

IMO they are trying to hard to win games. I see Bass, Hump, Green and Rondo out there to much. I personally would like to see Sully and KO get more PT to develop and see what we have  and how they play with others.

The worse thing that can happen right now is winning games on the back of Green, Hump and Bass.

[Mr October]

Utah is trying to win too. But they are filled with sub all stars who are super young, and cant play consistent defense. You need vets to win. Paul Millsap would have been a good player for that team to keep.

I am dying to see Utah and LA finally get another win. And i thought Orlando had enough talent to join the log jam of teams in the 4-7 range by the end of this month. Maybe they can still rise.

[jambr380]

IMO they are trying to hard to win games. I see Bass, Hump, Green and Rondo out there to much. I personally would like to see Sully and KO get more PT to develop and see what we have  and how they play with others.

The worse thing that can happen right now is winning games on the back of Green, Hump and Bass.

Yeah, I mean I don't mind Rondo and Green out there, as I consider them fairly major pieces to the future of this team (or at least in trades - I'd like to keep both of them), but when guys like Bass and Hump are getting 35 minutes and Olynyk is playing 17 minutes, that's where I have a problem. If ever there was a season to play the young rookie into the ground, this was the one.

I am not in favor of blatant tanking, but the way this is going, we will probably finish ahead of Utah, Sac, and LaL - which would put us at 7th. Throw one lucky team into the top 3 and we could go from selecting Exum to Rodney Hood in a hurry. 15 games left -  no reason to screw this up now.

[mmmmm]

This team is awful by design. Not the worst because we have decent players like Green and Rondo, but pretty bad overall. But then again, I think if DA was trying to make the playoffs, he wouldn't have constructed the team in this way

It is hard to look at the hole at the 5 spot and disagree.   That's the primary thing that opposing teams keep attacking (lack of a true defensive big man) and that's the primary reason we keep on losing.

It's also hard not to ponder how the season might have gone if the Bass+stuff-forAsik deal had not fallen through last December.   If we had completed that transaction, I wonder if that would have meant Danny wanted to go ahead and do a playoff push?   The resulting lineup would have been way more balanced than what we have and I think THAT lineup would have had a hard time staying out of the playoffs in the East.

'Kinda seems that it was right around the time that deal got killed (by Houston ownership, apparently) that the wind pretty much changed for good on this season, blowing straight south.