Poll: To Tank, or not to Tank that is the question.

[KG Living Legend]

Last Tank thread of the year. We Gave Sully the boot, We traded the coach of the team Prince, We brought it a 5'7" gunner. We are not making the playoffs, as someone just pointed out. So really, what's the point of trying to battle for the 8th seed, only to loose it and get the number 12th pick.

 Or would you rather back off the gas and have a real chance at a top five pick this year, and have a great shot at Muiday, Towns, Russell, Okafor, Stanley Johnson, Myles Turner

[Csfan1984]

I'd let them play the way they have been with everyone getting minutes and sharing the ball. Sure to get a 7-12 range pick. Too many tank teams to compete for a top pick 5 any ways.

[jonaslopes]

Too late, son. We are not bad enough. But you'll always have Philly.

[Quetzalcoatl]

We can't throw games on purpose, but Sully can be out indefinitely

[JBcat]

Just play hard to the best their abilities and whatever happens I'm fine with.

[SHAQATTACK]

Sully being out will really kill the momentum , games against over .500 teams will be extra hard to win without his rebounding.

On the other hand we can still win several games against the tankers

That said .....Bass and KO are still here and with IT and Smart .....I expect the Celtics to pay hard ....

Maybe Zeller will play well

Still too many decent players left to loose the next 30

The real tankers are so bad ...they ll be lucky to win another five games apiece.

[Alleyoopster]

Sully being out will really kill the momentum , games against over .500 teams will be extra hard to win without his rebounding.

On the other hand we can still win several games against the tankers

That said .....Bass and KO are still here and with IT and Smart .....I expect the Celtics to pay hard ....

Maybe Zeller will play well

Still too many decent players left to loose the next 30

The real tankers are so bad ...they ll be lucky to win another five games apiece.

Even with the decent players we'll lose most of them.  We now have virtually no strength in the middle without Sully.  Although, you never know.  Seems the more players we get rid of or lose to injury the better we get.   

[chambers]

With the Heat getting Dragic and the Pistons getting Jackson+Prince, I can't see us coming close to the playoffs now. Combining that we've got a rough stretch coming up with 7 games against playoff teams without Sullinger and possibly Olynyk and we could be looking at losing all 7 games.
We play the
-Raptors twice
-The Cavs twice
-The Bucks twice
-Pistons once
Some of these games would be winnable with Sullinger, but I have strong doubts on our chances without him.

I think the trade deadline definitely hurt our playoff chances considering the Heat and Pistons got so much better. (And arguably the Nets too).

If Sully misses 6 or 7 games it sure will help our draft position. I'm not sure when Olynyk is back but having Sully and Olynyk out for another 5 games will certainly help the draft cause.

I'd like to see James Young get more minutes and I'd like to see Smart get 30 minutes + consistently.

To get the best chance at a top 8 pick, we need:
*Paul George to come back in March like he is hoping he will.
*Kemba Walker to return to the Hornets in March like he's hoping he will.
*The Kings to start winning a few games with Coach Karl
*Thad Young to provide some spark for the Nets. I think this is very possible because he'll be the 4th option on this squad and find himself getting a lot of easy buckets. His energy in transition will be great for them.

[SHAQATTACK]

Sully being out will really kill the momentum , games against over .500 teams will be extra hard to win without his rebounding.

On the other hand we can still win several games against the tankers

That said .....Bass and KO are still here and with IT and Smart .....I expect the Celtics to pay hard ....

Maybe Zeller will play well

Still too many decent players left to loose the next 30

The real tankers are so bad ...they ll be lucky to win another five games apiece.

Even with the decent players we'll lose most of them.  We now have virtually no strength in the middle without Sully.  Although, you never know.  Seems the more players we get rid of or lose to injury the better we get.

Oh ......I think this team is worse than ever .....we keep getting smaller ...everytime Danny trades it's for a smaller and smaller players.....while everybody else has three or four centers ...and some two starter quality centers ......the celtics have zip ...for starting center .

It started with trading Perk.....it's like he hates big men or doesn't understand bigs .....maybe he never got over Tree Rollins 

DA banished Boston to NBA hades with Wallace's contract.


Who ever the scouts are for the Celtics it is the worst in the NBA


I only see this mess with IT and making Pistons A great team ......Danny quietly tanked the team once again.

[furball]

I picked yes but Sully being out had nothing to do with it. 

[mmmmm]

With the Heat getting Dragic and the Pistons getting Jackson+Prince, I can't see us coming close to the playoffs now. Combining that we've got a rough stretch coming up with 7 games against playoff teams without Sullinger and possibly Olynyk and we could be looking at losing all 7 games.
We play the
-Raptors twice
-The Cavs twice
-The Bucks twice
-Pistons once
Some of these games would be winnable with Sullinger, but I have strong doubts on our chances without him.

I think the trade deadline definitely hurt our playoff chances considering the Heat and Pistons got so much better. (And arguably the Nets too).

If Sully misses 6 or 7 games it sure will help our draft position. I'm not sure when Olynyk is back but having Sully and Olynyk out for another 5 games will certainly help the draft cause.

I'd like to see James Young get more minutes and I'd like to see Smart get 30 minutes + consistently.

To get the best chance at a top 8 pick, we need:
*Paul George to come back in March like he is hoping he will.
*Kemba Walker to return to the Hornets in March like he's hoping he will.
*The Kings to start winning a few games with Coach Karl
*Thad Young to provide some spark for the Nets. I think this is very possible because he'll be the 4th option on this squad and find himself getting a lot of easy buckets. His energy in transition will be great for them.

Yes.   The schedule and the health of Sully & KO are the key factors now.

Our schedule since mid December has been much lighter than the start of the season and we've predictably, gotten more wins out of it -- but our SRS ranking has stayed pretty much the same -- 19th overall, 8th in the East.   That's because it's looking at our wins against weaker teams now with about the same love as our close losses to stronger teams earlier in the season.   So, given that most of the rest of the schedule is overall neutral, we would seemingly be on course for contending for the 8th seed.   We have a somewhat lighter stretch in these first 5 games after the break and then it gets hard for long stretch, as you point out.  Then the remainder of the schedule is slightly on the easier side.

BUT ... SRS doesn't factor in the latest, sudden changes to the teams.   Miami, Brooklyn and Detroit all made significant improvements today.   

And while on one hand, we made a significant positive improvement to our pick&roll offense by acquiring Thomas for basically nothing, on the other it looks like we will be without Sully for several weeks and possible the rest of this season, if they decide to shut him down.  Don't laugh - there is a serious risk of stress fracture and stress fractures in the feet of big men are not something the team wants to be casual about.

And Olynyk's return is also up in the air.  He won't be back until at least Sunday and he looked doubtful about that when asked about it today.   Ankles can be real slow to heal.

If we have to go the rest of the way, missing both Sully and Olynyk for significant stretches, I think that would make it really, really hard to steal that 8th playoff spot, especially given that there are literally 4 or 5 other teams fighting for that spot - and several of them should be notably improved after the break.

[SHAQATTACK]

I don't think anybody SHOULD tank......



But given the Celtics status  with today's results ,  everybody else getting much better ....".probably

Automatically tanks the team back to a lottery pick anyway now.....oh well..... ::)more years and no center

I d say Danny finished off the a Celtics for this year.

[vjcsmoke]

Dunno, I feel that IT is a good pickup as a scorer.  We basically got Jerebko for Prince who wasn't going to resign with the team anyways.

Losing Prince and Thornton probably hurts.  But I feel IT can mostly replace Thornton's scoring.  I have no idea what Jerebko brings to the table.

[LilRip]

I don't think tanking would do much for us. Our record is just too good right now. I think regardless if we tank or not, the results would generally hold steady vs other teams. Thus, I'd just want to see Smart get a lot of burn to build towards the future.

[guava_wrench]

This question makes no sense to me. The trade deadline has passed. Danny can't trade anyone away at this point. We have our roster. What is the team supposed to do to tank? Not play Bass?

Our primary goal is developing guys. That means we will see Smart and Young get a lot of minutes. We will give IT a lot of minutes to help him fit in. KO will get a lot of minutes. They will all get every change to succeed and develop.

I don't see any other in season goal after that. The players and the coach will try to win.

The 'tank' conversation is talking about nothing post trade deadline.