Enjoy the quick fix. Danny set this franchise back.

[CelticGuardian]

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

This guy doesn't know a darn thing... geez, when he compared the C's to the 76ers is where I stopped reading..

[celticsclay]

You would pass on Embiids potential? Smart over Noel? Good god. I doubt highly that even Danny Ainge is dumb enough to do that.

Regarding Embiid, he's all potential.  He could be the next Oden, for all that we know.  If people prefer the bird in hand, I respect that.

I think folks are missing the boat on Noel, though. Since the All-Star game, he's been averaging 13.1 points, 10.0 rebounds, 1.9 assists, 2.3 blocks, 2.1 steals

Since the 1980s, only two players have averaged 13 points, 10 rebounds, 2 blocks, and 2 steals for a full season:  Hakeem and David Robinson.  Don't sell Noel short for what he's doing as a rookie.

Roy,

I am not disagreeing that Noel is having a really good rookie season and even better second half of the season but this is the classic bad comparison that really is a pet peeve of mine. If you are focusing on his second half  of the season, than compare it to other guy's second half stats.  Don't restrict the secondary comparison to a larger sample size there by making it more difficult to enter as a point of comparison. Perhaps in reality those are also the only guys to ever do it for a half a season too, but the current comparison as written drives me batty.

[CelticGuardian]

There's no organization, besides the Knicks, that is as incompetently ran than the 76ers, who blatantly steal money from their fans by selling them an incomplete product with the promise of completion looming in the future... when?! They have thrown away like 4 seasons already.

[D.o.s.]

the 2008 Atlanta Hawks featured a rookie Al Horford... and essentially no one else from the modern day squad. To say they "turned out pretty good" and that they gained "valuable playoff experience" is like saying the 2002 Celtics "turned out pretty good" and gained "valuable playoff experience" for 2008.

'Tain't the same group of fellas.

Poorly worded my point with them. They improved each year. 37 wins in 07, 47 wins in 08, and 53 wins in 09 with much of the same team.

Of course this current team is much different, but one could argue that playoff experience pushed the team to the next level from what they were at.

Ah ok understood. That seems much more reasonable to me.

I think there are certain things that familiarity helps with -- no one wants to see someone getting their Donovan McNabb on and dry heaving all over the place -- but ultimately talent across the board (front office, on the floor, in the coaching seat) wins out. And then you have to be lucky on top of that.

[danglertx]

.  There will always be frustrated franchise type players who want a change of scenery, be it Love, Lebron, Harden or Cousins.  The trick is to have the chips to cash in when they become available and making your destination as attractive as possible for them. 

We will never be able to check off the nice weather part compared to some cities.   We have the fans, good size market and history though in spades.

Not every player is interested in warm weather.  I mean the best player in the world left Miami to go to Ohio... freaking Ohio, the armpit of the U.S.  All you can do is make the team as attractive as possible and I don't think draft picks are attractive to veterans.   What big time scorer wouldn't want to play with Marcus Smart?  People certainly don't want to play against him.

[Moranis]

the 2008 Atlanta Hawks featured a rookie Al Horford... and essentially no one else from the modern day squad. To say they "turned out pretty good" and that they gained "valuable playoff experience" is like saying the 2002 Celtics "turned out pretty good" and gained "valuable playoff experience" for 2008.

'Tain't the same group of fellas.

Poorly worded my point with them. They improved each year. 37 wins in 07, 47 wins in 08, and 53 wins in 09 with much of the same team.

Of course this current team is much different, but one could argue that playoff experience pushed the team to the next level from what they were at.

Not if the players are the same.

Playoff experience is vastly overrated.  Lebron James and his Cavs won the first playoff series they were ever in and pushed defending champion Detroit to 7 games in the 2nd round.  The next season they were playing in the NBA Finals.  Cleveland never got back there even as the team was winning more and more regular season games and was generally considered a better team. 

[Moranis]

.  There will always be frustrated franchise type players who want a change of scenery, be it Love, Lebron, Harden or Cousins.  The trick is to have the chips to cash in when they become available and making your destination as attractive as possible for them. 

We will never be able to check off the nice weather part compared to some cities.   We have the fans, good size market and history though in spades.

Not every player is interested in warm weather.  I mean the best player in the world left Miami to go to Ohio... freaking Ohio, the armpit of the U.S.  All you can do is make the team as attractive as possible and I don't think draft picks are attractive to veterans.   What big time scorer wouldn't want to play with Marcus Smart?  People certainly don't want to play against him.

People in Ohio think much worse of Boston.  Just keep that in mind.

[D.o.s.]

.  There will always be frustrated franchise type players who want a change of scenery, be it Love, Lebron, Harden or Cousins.  The trick is to have the chips to cash in when they become available and making your destination as attractive as possible for them. 

We will never be able to check off the nice weather part compared to some cities.   We have the fans, good size market and history though in spades.

Not every player is interested in warm weather.  I mean the best player in the world left Miami to go to Ohio... freaking Ohio, the armpit of the U.S.  All you can do is make the team as attractive as possible and I don't think draft picks are attractive to veterans.   What big time scorer wouldn't want to play with Marcus Smart?  People certainly don't want to play against him.

People in Ohio think much worse of Boston.  Just keep that in mind.

Many of them also believe that Skyline Chili is edible.

[Donoghus]

.  There will always be frustrated franchise type players who want a change of scenery, be it Love, Lebron, Harden or Cousins.  The trick is to have the chips to cash in when they become available and making your destination as attractive as possible for them. 

We will never be able to check off the nice weather part compared to some cities.   We have the fans, good size market and history though in spades.

Not every player is interested in warm weather.  I mean the best player in the world left Miami to go to Ohio... freaking Ohio, the armpit of the U.S.  All you can do is make the team as attractive as possible and I don't think draft picks are attractive to veterans.   What big time scorer wouldn't want to play with Marcus Smart?  People certainly don't want to play against him.

People in Ohio think much worse of Boston.  Just keep that in mind.

Many of them also believe that Skyline Chili is edible.

I'm sure the people of Boston are really losing sleep over what the people of the O-H-I-O think of them

[Donoghus]

Also, this isn't a quick fix and never was intended to be a quick fix.  A quick fix would've been throwing a bunch of money at veteran free agents and keep the KG/Pierce era going.   The Terry signing was an attempt but when it became clear to Danny that things weren't going to work out there, he blew it up.  That's where the long fix came from.   

This rebuild is nowhere near to being over.  Not when you factor in cap considerations, future draft picks, and young parts to move around.   This isn't an organization that is about to plateau.  It's still on the upswing.  Now, I have no idea what the peak will be but I know that this isn't it.  What is occurring RIGHT NOW, isn't setting the franchise back.

If people were expecting another Summer '07 quick fix, they were sorely misguided.  Those are easily the exception & not the norm.  It wasn't going to happen a second time around in less than a decade and Rondo wasn't the same as Pierce as the starting piece.

[Roy H.]

I'm getting sick of the labeling going on around here these days (tanker, hinkier, etc).

Thinking that it might not be the greatest thing for the franchise to make the playoffs with a roster that is still probably every bit as far away from true contention as the calculated tank job in Philly doesn't make some one a bad Celtics fan.

If you wouldn't take Embiid, right now, for anyone currently on our roster, injury and weight concerns and all, just know that you wouldn't make a very good NBA GM.

And so the labeling continues!!!

Yeah, to be clear, labeling isn't allowed around here:

Do not label or challenge fellow posters -- either individually or collectively -- in a way that is likely to provoke a negative response.  Dependent upon context, examples include, but are not limited to, "fake fan", "bandwagon fan", "not a real fan", "hater", "homer", "koolaid drinker"...

I'm not sure that the "if you don't agree with me, you're [pick appropriate insult] is much better, though.  It shouldn't be that hard to comply with the "respect others at all times" mandate.

[erisred]

A "winning culture" doesn't attract stars.  Stars win games, and attract other stars that help them win more games, creating a "winning culture."

Um, yes, I guess, but there is a paradox here. It's true that Stars win games, but it's also true that winning games creates Stars. Out of a winning culture stars will emerge...or there won't *be* a winning culture for long.

While we might consider the current Celtics roster to be composed of over-achieving role players, they *have* won an extraordinary number of games the second half of this season. Some of them are emerging out of "just a role player" category to a "sometimes a star, nearly a star" category...and they are all young and mostly unknown. Could one or two low-level stars be lurking among the weeds on the C's roster? Could one or two of Sully in shape, Kelly with consistent confidence, Smart with a reliable drive, Zeller with a bit more muscle, Crowder with a consistent 3 pt shot *become* a star? 

Or perhaps more importantly could Danny sell another GM or two on a few of these guys? Jefferson was very good, but Green, West, Gomes never turned out to be as good as Seattle or Minny hoped they would be. However, two years of playoffs and three/four years of development raised their stock to Allen/KG trade bait.

That's, more or less, Danny's MO.

[Moranis]

.  There will always be frustrated franchise type players who want a change of scenery, be it Love, Lebron, Harden or Cousins.  The trick is to have the chips to cash in when they become available and making your destination as attractive as possible for them. 

We will never be able to check off the nice weather part compared to some cities.   We have the fans, good size market and history though in spades.

Not every player is interested in warm weather.  I mean the best player in the world left Miami to go to Ohio... freaking Ohio, the armpit of the U.S.  All you can do is make the team as attractive as possible and I don't think draft picks are attractive to veterans.   What big time scorer wouldn't want to play with Marcus Smart?  People certainly don't want to play against him.

People in Ohio think much worse of Boston.  Just keep that in mind.

Many of them also believe that Skyline Chili is edible.

I'm sure the people of Boston are really losing sleep over what the people of the O-H-I-O think of them

Sure, but Boston isn't exactly a good place to live if you are NBA player either.  It is cold, gloomy, expensive, etc.  Plus you have to be around Bostonians and that would drive anyone crazy.  They are called Ma$$ Holes in a large part of the country for a reason.

[D.o.s.]

I always thought it was the driving. 

Anyway, NBA players are on the road often enough during the season that their home base isn't really a concern -- and they're not under any obligation to live in the city where they play. KG spent his offseasons in Malibu, remember?

[Evantime34]

I really can't believe this thread has devolved into people arguing that Cleveland is nicer than Boston. Tourists come to Boston from all over the world. Tourists from all over the world avoid Cleveland.

I'm not sure there are any metrics by which Cleveland is a better city.