'what we lack in talent is made up by our depth and youth'

[Ogaju]

TRUE or FALSE?

I think the above statement is true if the team is properly managed to exploit the tremendous depths, youth and its accompanying athleticism and energy.

I believe CBS is capable of extracting a winning (playoff) team from this roster.

[walker834]

I would say true.  This team is deep and young.  Plus I think we have talent which is going to do a lot of good things this year.  Our team is loaded.  I think we are a top 10 team as is.  The issue is what we have isn't it.  Or is it?

[BornReady]

I would say true.  This team is deep and young.  Plus I think we have talent which is going to do a lot of good things this year.  Our team is loaded.  I think we are a top 10 team as is.  The issue is what we have isn't it.  Or is it?

I wouldn't say top 10 just yet
With the season not starting yet and r team barely making the playoffs last seaso
I think we r young and have a lot of depth
As a lot of our guys should be rotational pieces on a championship calibre team

The backcourt and PF positions seem to be too loaded
It would be fun to see guys competing for mins in this training camp

Also interested to see what rotations Stevens uses

[littleteapot]

We have great talent, just not top end talent. Our challenge is to figure out how to get top end talent on our team, because that is how you win in the NBA.

[The Rondo Show]

I don't know if we're necessarily deep. We have a lot of quality guys, sure, but I'd say the majority of them are bench guys or complimenting starters at best on a contender. I think the only true upper echelon NBA players we have are IT, Smart and Lee–assuming he can still play at a high level–and none of them are stars at this point unless Smart really makes strides in his offensive game.

Don't get me wrong, I really like our guys, but we are in desperate need of a star-level scorer and a starter-level front court defender to become a contender even in the weak Eastern conference. Our current depth is a nice start, however.

[obnoxiousmime]

I would say false. The NBA is a star-driven league. Youth, depth, and effort can win you games in the regular season but it can't in the playoffs when opposing teams play their stars more minutes and know they can't take nights off.

Without the Nets/Dallas picks giving us hope we'd really be in a tough spot. We have no stars and little shot at a top draft pick next year. The only hope is that some star becomes available but as we saw this summer they don't want to play with the talent currently on the team. Next season every team will have cap space so we don't even have that advantage anymore.

It's not hard to build your bench once you actually have stars in place because they'll be willing to take discounts to play for you. Also most of the players on the team currently could have been had with mid-late round picks anyway, which means there would have been ways to acquire them even if our team was doing well.

The Celtics played it right last year, the ping pong balls just didn't fall the right way and they also lost a coin flip. You have to be wiling to be bad multiple years in a row if you want top talent unless you are some kind of flawless drafter (which doesn't exist).

Also, I think there are a lot of teams with a good or better young talent out there, it's not just the Celtics. Even if you argue the Celtics 7th, 8th, and 9th guys are better than most teams that's really not worth much. Try trading 5 OK bench players for a star and see what response you get.

[LilRip]

definitely false.

a basketball team plays only 5 guys at a time for both offensive and defensive purposes. Generally, having a guy who is elite both offensively and defensively trumps having two guys with one elite in offense and the other elite in D. For example, I would gladly trade IT (elite offense) and Bradley (elite defense) for John Wall (elite offense and defense). Can't say the Wizards would do the same.

[Future Celtics Owner]

what we lack is a franchise player. We used to have 3 and an all star, but now ppl think we can win a title with some depth and role players.

[droopdog7]

False.  People don't understand the true definition of depth.  Depth doesn't mean having a bunch of players that might start or be in a rotation on some team.  Depth means having (bench) players in their roles that are better than bench players of other teams.  For instance, my sixth man is better than your sixth man, my seventh man is better than your seventh man, etc.  That's depth and we don't have it.

So the OP's entire premise is false.

[Evantime34]

So I think the OP is close to what I believe. My opinion is depth and effort can make up for what you lack in talent.

No team is going to try harder than us and no team is as deep as us. We will probably have the best bench in the league. With how common injuries are in the NBA (just look at how they effected the playoffs this year) a deep team will be able to withstand injuries and keep going, this is true of very few other teams.

[GreenWarrior]

so instead of believing in the truth, we're choosing to believe that a more talented team doesn't or won't try harder than us?

...Ok...

[D.o.s.]

We certainly have more youth and depth than talent.

[Celtics4ever]

FALSE

We have a lot of depth and youth but do the really think this team could win it all or win consistently against top NBA teams?   I have my doubts.  I do not think we could beat the CAVS with our additions if they were healthy in a seven games series.

[LGC88]

Teams are playing 2 different games in NBA :
- The regular season
- The playoffs

For the regular season, I will answer TRUE to the OP.
We compensate the talent by having 15 players producing well regardless of who (almost) is injured. That is a huge edge over all the other teams. Plus our level of chemistry and determination is very high. The Hawks could finish with 60 wins (even more if they didn't screw up the last month) so I believe we can be on top during the season. It's all about Brad Stevens and how he will manage to maintain the intensity that we had last season, but this time for 82 games. Not easy, but there a reasonable chance we can do it.

For the playoffs, I will answer FALSE to the OP.
Playoff become very intense defensively and the starting 5 usually play big minutes. As a result, top talented teams suddenly produce at a much higher level and team like Atlanta or Boston will simply sink, because they lack talent to score or to stop elite players for 40 minutes each game.

[RAAAAAAAANDY]

I would say true.  This team is deep and young.  Plus I think we have talent which is going to do a lot of good things this year.  Our team is loaded.  I think we are a top 10 team as is.  The issue is what we have isn't it.  Or is it?

Top 10 team? Wow...

Which of these teams is Boston ahead of?

Cleveland
Clippers
Spurs
Rockets
Pelicans
Thunder
Warriors
Memphis
Hawks
Bucks

And there are certainly other teams with convincing arguments: Bulls, Heat, Pacers, Suns, Raptors, Wizards, etc.