The superstar model may be irrelevant for the Celtics

[D.o.s.]

You have to have top level stars to win a championship. Only the 2004 Pistons one could argue are the exception. Otherwise, you must have Hall of Fame talent on your roster. There is no other way. Thus we need to get lucky in the draft. We drafted Pierce, that led to a championship. (It took a while but it happened) I think Boston can be players in free agency, we will have real money in 2015 so lets see what happens. Plus, tradition and an amazing fan base counts. Players talk to each other and they know playing for a Boston team means something special.

I am for letting the young players play and develop this year, rolling the dice in the draft and then going for some top notch free agents.

I post this article every time the '04 Pistons get brought up, but there's a bit of an argument to be made that Ben Wallace was certainly a top level star that year:
http://wagesofwins.com/2013/01/02/the-myth-of-the-2004-pistons/

[Diggles]

We just need to be like the Pistons.....   above average at 4/5 positions and a good bench.   

[celticmania]

I personally think you need 2 all-stars and good role players. But the most important thing that most people don't think about is how the players on the team fit together. Look at the Pistons last year. They were at last an 8th seed on paper but they didn't fit well together. And who else remembers the ultimate super team Lakers that didn't make the playoffs. That team didn't have chemistry. The plan should be draft  for talent and try to make trades and Smart
Signings until we're ready to compete. At that time, when we have the talent, bring in role players that complement our roster.

[Jailan34]

Front offices should strive to build teams the way the Spurs do, but thats incredibly hard as the Spurs not only got lucky with the Tim Duncan draft but they also have one of the best scouting departments in the league.

Front offices of big market teams try to go the Miami route, which is much easier. Be desirable and have cap space at the right times.

[the_Bird]

That Pistons squad was good but in many ways a fluke.  If the Lakers hadn't completely imploded at the worst possible time, they'd have been forgotten and Joe Dumars would have lost his job years and years ago.  LA lost that series as much as Detroit won it. 

As to the Spurs model...  they've got Hall of Fame players, you just tend to forget how much talent there is because they don't act like a bunch of divas.  That model is wonderful, but you'd got to start with a selfless superstar, and then give him the best coach and front office in the league.  Not really a model you can replicate.  It's like telling the Cleveland Browns, "All you need to do is have your quarterback play like Tom Brady and have your head coach be a clone of Bill Belichick, and you'll be winning in no time!"

[bdm860]

That Pistons squad was good but in many ways a fluke.  If the Lakers hadn't completely imploded at the worst possible time, they'd have been forgotten and Joe Dumars would have lost his job years and years ago.  LA lost that series as much as Detroit won it. 

Is the Pistons' model really a fluke when they went back to the Finals the next year and took the Spurs to 7?  They might have won another title too if Sheed just guarded Horry on the inbounds play.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GjPgAQQst7U

[timpiker]

I was so confused about superstar model in title. I came here hoping to see post on hot ladies. I got hosed.

Me too!

[Moranis]

That Pistons squad was good but in many ways a fluke.  If the Lakers hadn't completely imploded at the worst possible time, they'd have been forgotten and Joe Dumars would have lost his job years and years ago.  LA lost that series as much as Detroit won it. 

Is the Pistons' model really a fluke when they went back to the Finals the next year and took the Spurs to 7?  They might have won another title too if Sheed just guarded Horry on the inbounds play.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GjPgAQQst7U

They also went to 6 straight Eastern Conference Finals.  That said, they really were only a threat to win two titles, the two years they made the Finals.  That team is clearly abnormal historically.

[More Banners]

That Pistons team was balanced, and they weren't a bunch of allstars before 2004 except I think Sheed, but that year and the next, 4 of their starters had allstar level games.

The 3 star model is based on having at least one, maybe more favorable matchups every single night with a star there that will deliver on that night.

Defensive rules, by packing in more, limits the isolation 90s style game to pretty much a last-second plays instead of the full 48.  Those were best-players-team wins days in the nba.

The more contemporary game recognizes the importance of the 4th and 5th options to the max, where the motion O is completely open-opportunity, and there is no weakest link to hide.

[Vermont Green]

Duncan is clearly a future hall of famer but he really is not playing at a hall of fame level at this point in his career.  A very high level but not HOF level.  I don't think Parker or Ginobili are HOF players, maybe Parker, but I don't know.

So you could argue that the Spurs won a championship without any single player playing at a hall of fame level.

I would always rather have stars than not of course but there is a model for building a team that is more balanced with really good players with greater depth.  Smart could be a player at that really good level even if the HOF for him is a stretch.  Rondo is/could be/was (I don't know) but may also be traded for a young player with the promise to be really good.  That is a start; not much of a start; but a start.

I don't know what else a team can do.  You draft where the ping pong balls say you draft, you sign who you can sign, you hope for the 1 in 1,000 home run trade, and you hope someone over achieves or like Duncan, just stays good forever and never gets hurt (and there was a lot of luck in getting Duncan in the first place).

[Monkhouse]

I wonder how a team of Rondo, Smart, Green, Smith, and M. Gasol would pan out. I think defensively it could be a top 3 team, it might suffer from perimeter, but with great finishers in the paint, and smart passers. I think it could make it work, motion offense wise..

All I know is that's gonna be my line up in NBA 2K15

[inverselock]

We have to make ourselves better.   Get the most from our youth, coaches, scouts.  Play team basketball, so results are greater than the sum of our parts.   That's the best advertisement this club can do to attract stars.   Otherwise we could be sitting here for the next 10 years wondering when the next big trade might happen.

[Beat LA]

That Pistons squad was good but in many ways a fluke.  If the Lakers hadn't completely imploded at the worst possible time, they'd have been forgotten and Joe Dumars would have lost his job years and years ago.  LA lost that series as much as Detroit won it. 

As to the Spurs model...  they've got Hall of Fame players, you just tend to forget how much talent there is because they don't act like a bunch of divas.  That model is wonderful, but you'd got to start with a selfless superstar, and then give him the best coach and front office in the league.  Not really a model you can replicate.  It's like telling the Cleveland Browns, "All you need to do is have your quarterback play like Tom Brady and have your head coach be a clone of Bill Belichick, and you'll be winning in no time!"

Wrong.  Even with a healthy Malone, the Lakers had no depth, were old, and were so arrogant that they felt that that series was over before it started.  Bahahahahahaha

Up until our Game 6, the beat down of the Lakers by the Pistons was something to truly behold.  Looking back, LA was lucky that they weren't swept.

[Beat LA]

You have to have top level stars to win a championship. Only the 2004 Pistons one could argue are the exception. Otherwise, you must have Hall of Fame talent on your roster. There is no other way. Thus we need to get lucky in the draft. We drafted Pierce, that led to a championship. (It took a while but it happened) I think Boston can be players in free agency, we will have real money in 2015 so lets see what happens. Plus, tradition and an amazing fan base counts. Players talk to each other and they know playing for a Boston team means something special.

I am for letting the young players play and develop this year, rolling the dice in the draft and then going for some top notch free agents.

I post this article every time the '04 Pistons get brought up, but there's a bit of an argument to be made that Ben Wallace was certainly a top level star that year:
http://wagesofwins.com/2013/01/02/the-myth-of-the-2004-pistons/

Ben Wallace was a superstar, imo.

[LB3533]

We don't need the superstar stereotype. We didn't need that back in '08 or '10.

We need more talented players who know how to play and perform at a high level together.