Be Honest: Celtics make the playoffs - Good or Bad Thing?

[boscel33]

although i've been on the side of a higher pick is better, making the playoffs could be beneficial to the team as well.  i think about them trying to lure a big name free agent and pushing the fact that coach stevens took this team to the playoffs.  what about making a trade for a player like noel.  if you give up your two firsts this year for noel, and maybe sign a leonard or butler, you're on the way to a really good team.  the selling point of a playoff team may be a plus that i initially overlooked.

[chambers]

I can think of many teams that make the playoffs year after year and rarely grow as a team.   Look at the Hawks, it took them years of making the playoffs and just this year they took a huge leap forward.  Pacers have been in the playoffs lately and they are all over the place as a team.   I think this is myth folks.   I am not advocating tanking but I think the playoffs builds a team is not even close to being remotely true, especially for our team.   This is really true of our team.  All that alleged character building and only a few of them will be back next year.

It is a great cliche.   I don't think it will hurt us but I do not think it will help as much as some present either.  Teams make the playoffs all the time and they do not advance nor really that much every year.

I have read that we get a better draft pick if we make the playoffs, I think it is one of Roy's posts.

well said TP

[JHTruth]

I view everything that happens to this team through the prism of "does it help this team get closer to a star player(s)". Playoffs in my estimation take us farther away, UNLESS a FA looks at our sub-.500 team getting bullied in the the first round and thinks "now THAT is an exciting, up-and-coming team! I'll have my agent reach out ASAP!" We'll go from a team of marginal NBA players to a team of marginal NBA players who are great at playing tomato cans for the real contenders.

Of course it's fun as a fan, but in terms of reaching the objective of getting all-star talent on this team, it makes it harder for us to improve as far as I can see..

[chambers]

I can think of many teams that make the playoffs year after year and rarely grow as a team.   

...

It is a great cliche.   I don't think it will hurt us but I do not think it will help as much as some present either.  Teams make the playoffs all the time and they do not advance nor really that much every year.

I can also think of perennial losing teams, who never get any better via the draft:
Minnesota, Sacramento, Philadelphia...

You could easily argue that all three of those organizations have far greater assets than us.
Minny and Sacramento have what look to be franchise caliber players- Philadelphia has a far greater shot at heralding a franchise guy before us out of their crop of picks...Sacramento is a bad organization but they have the franchise piece in Cousins, Mclemore and will get another top 8 pick this season.

I sure would love Cousins and Mclemore with Ainge as our GM rather than our current situation of junk assets and mid first round picks. We just better say our prayers over the next few crops of free agents.

[bknova]

I'm gonna go with bad thing.  Reality is, Brad is young coach and I'd rather him have a young talented player to grow with and mold into a star than an established star who may undermine the coach.  Just my thought process, but I'd rather have a shot at a top 3 pick than get bounced by Atlanta or Cleveland in 4 or 5 games. 

[JHTruth]

I can think of many teams that make the playoffs year after year and rarely grow as a team.   

...

It is a great cliche.   I don't think it will hurt us but I do not think it will help as much as some present either.  Teams make the playoffs all the time and they do not advance nor really that much every year.

I can also think of perennial losing teams, who never get any better via the draft:
Minnesota, Sacramento, Philadelphia...

You could easily argue that all three of those organizations have far greater assets than us.
Minny and Sacramento have what look to be franchise caliber players- Philadelphia has a far greater shot at heralding a franchise guy before us out of their crop of picks...Sacramento is a bad organization but they have the franchise piece in Cousins, Mclemore and will get another top 8 pick this season.

I sure would love Cousins and Mclemore with Ainge as our GM rather than our current situation of junk assets and mid first round picks. We just better say our prayers over the next few crops of free agents.

Of course you'd rather be in Sac's position. Even if they decide they are done with Cousins, they can easily flip him to a team for a top-3 pick(s) or an established star(s) whenever they feel like it. I'll bet NY would give up the No 1 for Cousins in a heartbeat..

[j804]

So the "teams needs a playoff run for development of young players" doesn't ring with "trader Danny" at the switch.

You do realize that them playing well would help their "trade" value right...

[JohnBoy65]

At this point we've come WAY to far. How disappointed would everyone be if we finished as the 9th seed? We are too good of a team to really make it to the bottom of the playoffs, thus we're basically prohibited from getting a top 5 pick. At this point everyone should be on board with the playoffs. That's the last thing we've got to root for.

Let's go Celts!

[nickagneta]

Other than not being in the lottery I can't think of a reason why making the playoffs is a bad thing. But if you are going to place somewhere between 11-14 in the lottery, well the chances of getting a top 3 pick are almost nil and the talent difference between 11 and 15 isn't that big so why not make the playoffs.

At the very least it gives the youth and the new coach a learning experience that is tremendously valuable. Stevens has to learn how to coach in a seven game series because it's completely different than anything else he has done. The players have to learn what it takes to win in that environment, even if it means losing in that environment for a couple or three seasons.

And it will continue to enforce in the locker room that winning is what is important and what must be the ultimate goal of this organization.

Plus the couple of million dollars the team will make by playing a round will be good for the teams finances.

[Quetzalcoatl]

Other than not being in the lottery I can't think of a reason why making the playoffs is a bad thing. But if you are going to place somewhere between 11-14 in the lottery, well the chances of getting a top 3 pick are almost nil and the talent difference between 11 and 15 isn't that big so why not make the playoffs.

That is the thing though - the difference between 11 and 15 this year is big.  It's the difference between Myles Turner (current #11 on Draft Express) and Devin Booker (a 10 ppg SG that we don't need and current #15 on Draft Express).  That's a HUGE difference in talent.  There are 12 legit prospects in this draft and then some low probability lottery tickets.

[celticsclay]

Other than not being in the lottery I can't think of a reason why making the playoffs is a bad thing. But if you are going to place somewhere between 11-14 in the lottery, well the chances of getting a top 3 pick are almost nil and the talent difference between 11 and 15 isn't that big so why not make the playoffs.

That is the thing though - the difference between 11 and 15 this year is big.  It's the difference between Myles Turner (current #11 on Draft Express) and Devin Booker (a 10 ppg SG that we don't need and current #15 on Draft Express).  That's a HUGE difference in talent.  There are 12 legit prospects in this draft and then some low probability lottery tickets.

That is just silly. The draft boards are constantly changing their ratings and will change again over the course of the tournament and after measurements at the combine. Just about every year there is a guy projected to be a mid or late round pick that has a great workout or combine and skyrockets up the draft boards. Conversely people plummet down for poor showings and or injuries. Nobody has any idea what will be available at 11 or 15 right now so why bother getting all worked up about it.

[Quetzalcoatl]

Other than not being in the lottery I can't think of a reason why making the playoffs is a bad thing. But if you are going to place somewhere between 11-14 in the lottery, well the chances of getting a top 3 pick are almost nil and the talent difference between 11 and 15 isn't that big so why not make the playoffs.

That is the thing though - the difference between 11 and 15 this year is big.  It's the difference between Myles Turner (current #11 on Draft Express) and Devin Booker (a 10 ppg SG that we don't need and current #15 on Draft Express).  That's a HUGE difference in talent.  There are 12 legit prospects in this draft and then some low probability lottery tickets.

That is just silly. The draft boards are constantly changing their ratings and will change again over the course of the tournament and after measurements at the combine. Just about every year there is a guy projected to be a mid or late round pick that has a great workout or combine and skyrockets up the draft boards. Conversely people plummet down for poor showings and or injuries. Nobody has any idea what will be available at 11 or 15 right now so why bother getting all worked up about it.

Yeah that does happen, but the year is almost over.  The Bracket is already released and we basically know who is who.  Russell shot up the draft boards, but by mid March you pretty much know who is who.  They've played 30+ games each and I'm telling you, Myles Turner is objectively much better than Booker and the guys around him.  Sure, you could win the lottery, but that's not really realistic.

[celticsclay]

Other than not being in the lottery I can't think of a reason why making the playoffs is a bad thing. But if you are going to place somewhere between 11-14 in the lottery, well the chances of getting a top 3 pick are almost nil and the talent difference between 11 and 15 isn't that big so why not make the playoffs.

That is the thing though - the difference between 11 and 15 this year is big.  It's the difference between Myles Turner (current #11 on Draft Express) and Devin Booker (a 10 ppg SG that we don't need and current #15 on Draft Express).  That's a HUGE difference in talent.  There are 12 legit prospects in this draft and then some low probability lottery tickets.

That is just silly. The draft boards are constantly changing their ratings and will change again over the course of the tournament and after measurements at the combine. Just about every year there is a guy projected to be a mid or late round pick that has a great workout or combine and skyrockets up the draft boards. Conversely people plummet down for poor showings and or injuries. Nobody has any idea what will be available at 11 or 15 right now so why bother getting all worked up about it.

Yeah that does happen, but the year is almost over.  The Bracket is already released and we basically know who is who.  Russell shot up the draft boards, but by mid March you pretty much know who is who.  They've played 30+ games each and I'm telling you, Myles Turner is objectively much better than Booker and the guys around him.  Sure, you could win the lottery, but that's not really realistic.

I don't really know what to say back if that is your viewpoint. Nobody in the world has any idea who will go 11 versus who will go 15 in the draft right. These things are fluid and have always been. Some years there is a clear cut 1, possibly a clear cut top two (Durant, oden), but beyond that in mid march it is anybody's guess.

Since you are focused on Myles Turner, lets use him as an example.

In NBAdraft nets mock (updated yesterday)
He goes 15 to the bobcats
http://www.nbadraft.net/2015mock_draft

In draft express (no update dates given)
He goes 11 to the Celtics
http://www.draftexpress.com/nba-mock-draft/2015/

Chad Ford has him going number 9 (no updates date give)
http://insider.espn.go.com/nba/draft/results/top100/_/year/2015

CBS Sports updated 1 week ago has him going at 6, 9 and 21
http://www.cbssports.com/nba/draft/mock-draft

None of these are the onion and right now we have no idea where miles turner ends up. Furthermore, you couldn't find two draft sites that have a consensus top 12 that you think of.
You may have a personal favorite prospect. So do teams and scouts. The idea that there is this clear cut top 8, 10 or 12 that is absolute thought is ludicrous and not supported by any facts. 

[Quetzalcoatl]

I don't really know what to say back if that is your viewpoint. Nobody in the world has any idea who will go 11 versus who will go 15 in the draft right. These things are fluid and have always been. Some years there is a clear cut 1, possibly a clear cut top two (Durant, oden), but beyond that in mid march it is anybody's guess.

Since you are focused on Myles Turner, lets use him as an example.

In NBAdraft nets mock (updated yesterday)
He goes 15 to the bobcats
http://www.nbadraft.net/2015mock_draft

In draft express (no update dates given)
He goes 11 to the Celtics
http://www.draftexpress.com/nba-mock-draft/2015/

Chad Ford has him going number 9 (no updates date give)
http://insider.espn.go.com/nba/draft/results/top100/_/year/2015

CBS Sports updated 1 week ago has him going at 6, 9 and 21
http://www.cbssports.com/nba/draft/mock-draft

None of these are the onion and right now we have no idea where miles turner ends up. Furthermore, you couldn't find two draft sites that have a consensus top 12 that you think of.
You may have a personal favorite prospect. So do teams and scouts. The idea that there is this clear cut top 8, 10 or 12 that is absolute thought is ludicrous and not supported by any facts.

I was going to make the point that if you look at draft boards from March 2014, they look really similar to the final results of the draft at least in terms of about where they guys were drafted.  I found this blog's repost of Chad Ford's board from March 8th, 2014 and I was like "a-ha! This is very similar.  Maybe Embiid went 1st and Exum went 3rd, but that's about where they were drafted anyway.  This looks great." Then I noticed that James Young was slated to go 9th, so I guess that this whole thing is a point for you     TP

https://sites.lafayette.edu/fams240-sp14-amicof/2014/03/08/reaction-to-chad-fords-mock-draft-3-0/

[Waew]

Knowing our wonderful luck, we will end up with 9th seed.