Celtics ranked 28th? Seriously?

[Iggzilla]

Apart from seeing the Celtics at #28, what I find equally baffling is OKC at #2. Over the Warriors? What the hell?

Let's see all the things that could work against OKC: new coach, new system, thinner bench, KD just returning from an injury that could be recurring...I just don't understand it. This Kevin Ding deserved to be dinged in the head.

[GratefulCs]

Bleacher report and kevin ding. .


All credibility is lost

[bballee]

Which is more outlandish -- too talented to win fewer than 50 or 28th out of 30?

Ehh, it's close. I'll put it this way: I think the C's could win 50 games, but I don't see any scenario in which they wind up with the third best lottery odds. The talent is just too evenly spread out to fully tank, which is what you'd have to do to be 28th.

 the third best lottery odds?  Why of course they could--the Brooklyn pick 

[kozlodoev]

? This is a team that only improved from last year, and since they didn't spend a ton of money overpaying for F/A's they've obviously regressed to the 3rd worst team in basketball. I'm sorry, but even from a pessimistic outlook that's some awfully poor reasoning.

This team also wildly overachieved last year, so there's a legitimate question about whether you can get lightning in a bottle twice.

Then again, his reasoning is probably not poorer than the one offered for the idea that we can win 50 games

[Csfan1984]

I having no problem saying I was pro tank year C's got Smart, year Durant was available, even year LeBron was available, this past year and this year. If we don't have a superstar, let alone a star player it's almost impossible to win. High Draft is best way for C's to get that guy.

[Chris22]

The Celtics will be the surprise team of the year and win 50 games.
We are going to throw waves of good players at teams.
The NBA season is a marathon, not a sprint.

[LarBrd33]

Which is more outlandish -- too talented to win fewer than 50 or 28th out of 30?

We were a bottom 10 team with a couple weeks left in the season. We overachieved. I don't know if it will happen again.  But bottom 3 seems a bit too low.  We should win at least 30 games.

In terms of pure talent, there's not a lot of teams worse.  But brad Stevens has proven he can win games regardless of the fact it's a bottom 5 roster on paper.

It's a bottom 5 roster if you're judging based on a comparison of the three or four best players on each team.

As Sean Grande put it, the Celts are a team with no entree but about 12 or 13 appetizers that are all roughly equivalent.  That'll be enough to win almost as many games as they lose, at the least.

It's a shame that tapas teams generally fail to make the playoffs.  On paper, this is a lotto team. On paper, our best player is a 32 year old who just averaged 8 minutes (with 8 DNPs) in the playoffs.  On paper this team should have landed a top 5 pick last year and looks like it should land a top 5 pick this year.  Brad Stevens had proven capable of taking a team to the playoffs in spite of what they look like on paper.  That said, 50 wins seems absurd.  We will be lucky to win 40 again.

[greece66]

On paper this team should have landed a top 5 pick last year and looks like it should land a top 5 pick this year.

Normally, I would spend 10 mins to write an argumentative reply.

But at this stage, I feel this is a far more appropriate reaction.

[max215]

Which is more outlandish -- too talented to win fewer than 50 or 28th out of 30?

We were a bottom 10 team with a couple weeks left in the season. We overachieved. I don't know if it will happen again.  But bottom 3 seems a bit too low.  We should win at least 30 games.

In terms of pure talent, there's not a lot of teams worse.  But brad Stevens has proven he can win games regardless of the fact it's a bottom 5 roster on paper.

It's a bottom 5 roster if you're judging based on a comparison of the three or four best players on each team.

As Sean Grande put it, the Celts are a team with no entree but about 12 or 13 appetizers that are all roughly equivalent.  That'll be enough to win almost as many games as they lose, at the least.

It's a shame that tapas teams generally fail to make the playoffs.  On paper, this is a lotto team. On paper, our best player is a 32 year old who just averaged 8 minutes (with 8 DNPs) in the playoffs.  On paper this team should have landed a top 5 pick last year and looks like it should land a top 5 pick this year.  Brad Stevens had proven capable of taking a team to the playoffs in spite of what they look like on paper.  That said, 50 wins seems absurd.  We will be lucky to win 40 again.

Please name the 25 teams that were better last year and will be better next year.

[PhoSita]

  On paper this team should have landed a top 5 pick last year and looks like it should land a top 5 pick this year.  Brad Stevens had proven capable of taking a team to the playoffs in spite of what they look like on paper. 

I'll put it this way.

While I think everyone around here can agree that watching the team make a run to 40 wins was more fun than seeing them finish with a bottom 5 record, considering where the team is at in its rebuild, in my opinion a top 5 pick would have helped tremendously, and was desperately needed.  A top 5 pick again this year would help tremendously, and is still desperately needed.

I say "desperately needed," not because the team needs to add top 5 talent in order to become respectable.  They've already managed that, and will probably manage it again this year. 

But in my view, a high pick, with the corresponding trade value or potential to turn into a star with proper development, is the best hope for this team to become something more than respectable any time soon.

But as you say, Brad Stevens will squeeze the most out of this 15 man bench.  We'll just have to pray for Brook Lopez's ankle to break.

[jpotter33]

On paper this team should have landed a top 5 pick last year and looks like it should land a top 5 pick this year.

Normally, I would spend 10 mins to write an argumentative reply.

But at this stage, I feel this is a far more appropriate reaction.

Haha TP

[konkmv]

The celtics will get the next 3 years 3 great players from the draft... with or without winning 50 games..

[Celtics18]

  On paper this team should have landed a top 5 pick last year and looks like it should land a top 5 pick this year.  Brad Stevens had proven capable of taking a team to the playoffs in spite of what they look like on paper. 

I'll put it this way.

While I think everyone around here can agree that watching the team make a run to 40 wins was more fun than seeing them finish with a bottom 5 record, considering where the team is at in its rebuild, in my opinion a top 5 pick would have helped tremendously, and was desperately needed.  A top 5 pick again this year would help tremendously, and is still desperately needed.

I say "desperately needed," not because the team needs to add top 5 talent in order to become respectable.  They've already managed that, and will probably manage it again this year. 

But in my view, a high pick, with the corresponding trade value or potential to turn into a star with proper development, is the best hope for this team to become something more than respectable any time soon.

But as you say, Brad Stevens will squeeze the most out of this 15 man bench.  We'll just have to pray for Brook Lopez's ankle to break.

Our best chance at getting top five talent through the draft in the coming years will most likely be to find that talent somewhere in the middle of the first round or, as you say, get lucky with Brooklyn falling out of the playoffs.

Looking at Brooklyn's current roster, it definitely doesn't look inconceivable that they could get us a lottery pick in the coming draft. 

I like our odds at doing well in acquiring and developing talent.  Tanking not necessary.

[LarBrd33]

On paper this team should have landed a top 5 pick last year and looks like it should land a top 5 pick this year.

Normally, I would spend 10 mins to write an argumentative reply.

But at this stage, I feel this is a far more appropriate reaction.

Haha TP

Eh...

I strongly believe Danny expected this team to be bottom 5 last year.   Think about it... you take a 26 win team and remove the two best players (Rondo and Jeff Green).   Yes, adding IT off our bench was helpful.  Yes, we landed a couple unwanted bench players like Zeller and Crowder.  But on paper, there's no way Danny Ainge expected this team to win 40 games last year.  He very clearly intended for this to be a lotto team.   And judging by the fact that he attempted to give up #16 + up to 5 more draft picks just to move up to #9, he wasn't too pleased about the result of the season.    BUt it's ok.. cuz our little playoff appearance will help us recruit free agents, right?   Oh wait...   

Sorry, I lost my train of thought for a second.   

SO yeah, on paper, this definitely looked like a bottom 5 team last year.   With a couple weeks left in the season (11 games), we were essentially tied with the Hornets for the 9th worst record in the league.   We went on a run during extended garbage time.  Charlotte fell apart.  They ended up picking 9th, we ended up picking 16th. 

I credit the success to Brad Stevens.  He's a basketball McGyver.   He could win 40 games with a paperclip and duct tape.   

The addition of David Lee and the swap of Amir for Bass should boost our talent level a bit, but on paper I think you'd be hard pressed to find many teams with less talent than the 2015-16 Celtics.   If this ranking is based on what we look like on paper, #28 is defensible.   But I can't imagine Brad winning less than 30 games with this team.  I could see us winning as much as 45 if we're lucky.  Brad's the type of guy who can make edible cheese from cat milk. 

But is anyone confident that we could have replaced Brad Stevens with some random coach like Steve Clifford and still won 40 games last season?     I sure don't think so.   I'm not even sold that the success of last season can be replicated this year.  When you have a team that lacks talent, you need to rely on execution.   Consistent execution requires confidence and focus.  That's a hard thing to maintain if you hit a string of losses and players get frustrated.