What If the 1st Round is A Quick Out?

[chilidawg]

Just win, baby.

Can't believe how many people are already okay with losing.

[CapnDunks]

We went from being a consistent contender with aging players to being an up and coming team with a ton of future picks. We only missed the playoffs for 1 year.

We are so lucky. Any playoff wins are Gravy.

That all being said, it will be a hard series, but we could win it.

[PhoSita]

Just curious if people have any new thoughts on this.

I was hoping that my gut instinct would be proven wrong on this, but once again I find myself wondering what the success this group has had in the regular season has really meant.

I rather doubt Al Horford and Kevin Durant are in any rush to join this team.

[Denis998]

Just curious if people have any new thoughts on this.

Im content will looking forward to the draft.

[tarheelsxxiii]

The injuries are really disappointing -- feel we are missing an opportunity to gauge how far off we really are from the top of the East.

[jambr380]

Just curious if people have any new thoughts on this.

I was hoping that my gut instinct would be proven wrong on this, but once again I find myself wondering what the success this group has had in the regular season has really meant.

I rather doubt Al Horford and Kevin Durant are in any rush to join this team.

True, but even in '07 our two major acquisitions came by trade. Hopefully we can add one big name for 'free', but we need to win a couple of games in this series to show prospective FAs that we are worth joining.

[alldaboston]

I think acquisitions are gonna be via trade. Doubt we get a big name FA

[jpotter33]

Just curious if people have any new thoughts on this.

I was hoping that my gut instinct would be proven wrong on this, but once again I find myself wondering what the success this group has had in the regular season has really meant.

I rather doubt Al Horford and Kevin Durant are in any rush to join this team.

We have legitimate reasons to be bad right now. We were winning the first game when Bradley went out, and this game we were down two of our top six or seven players, not to mention Crowder basically being nonexistent and playing on one leg. That doesn't totally explain our bad play, but it is a significant reason. There was absolutely no spacing tonight.The fully-healthy Thunder just lost to a depleted Mavs team, so they're not in a much better place.

I fully expect us to make this a series again in Boston. The Hawks haven't been beating us, because they haven't played all that well themselves. If we get some shots to fall, which should happen at home, then we make this a series again in Boston. Hopefully KO gets his panties out of a bunch and mans up enough to play.

[Celtics18]

I predict it will go seven.

[PhoSita]

We have legitimate reasons to be bad right now. We were winning the first game when Bradley went out, and this game we were down two of our top six or seven players, not to mention Crowder basically being nonexistent and playing on one leg.

Fair points.

At the same time, that the team is undone by losing Avery Bradley and Kelly Olynyk is sort of an issue, isn't it?  Those guys aren't exactly All-Stars.

I think it's homerism to say "the Hawks haven't been beating us."  Yes, they have.  They dominated the first quarter tonight and held serve the rest of the way, winning by a large margin. 

In the first game, they were ahead most of the way.  The Celts made it a game late, even taking the lead, but then the Hawks closed it out rather convincingly, despite the crazy shots by the Celts at the end to make the final score look closer.


Still plenty of reason for optimism for the future.  I just think the track record in the playoffs so far needs to temper some of the fierce optimism about the roster as currently constructed that flared up during the regular season.

We can't bring back this same basic group next season.  Isaiah, Crowder, Bradley are solid pieces, though not untouchable.  The rest of the roster is up for discussion, in my opinion.

[CoachBo]

We have legitimate reasons to be bad right now. We were winning the first game when Bradley went out, and this game we were down two of our top six or seven players, not to mention Crowder basically being nonexistent and playing on one leg.

Fair points.

At the same time, that the team is undone by losing Avery Bradley and Kelly Olynyk is sort of an issue, isn't it?  Those guys aren't exactly All-Stars.

I think it's homerism to say "the Hawks haven't been beating us."  Yes, they have.  They dominated the first quarter tonight and held serve the rest of the way, winning by a large margin. 

In the first game, they were ahead most of the way.  The Celts made it a game late, even taking the lead, but then the Hawks closed it out rather convincingly, despite the crazy shots by the Celts at the end to make the final score look closer.


Still plenty of reason for optimism for the future.  I just think the track record in the playoffs so far needs to temper some of the fierce optimism about the roster as currently constructed that flared up during the regular season.

We can't bring back this same basic group next season.  Isaiah, Crowder, Bradley are solid pieces, though not untouchable.  The rest of the roster is up for discussion, in my opinion.

Cosign.

There is no optimism here about the roster as currently constructed. The Celtics are about championships, and this roster obviously - obviously - cannot get close to there.

There needs to be significant changes. This summer.

[Kane3387]

If 1st round is a quick out, we're still set up for potentially the greatest summer in several years...   So it's fine.   This season was already a wild success.  Playoffs are just the appetizer to what's to come.

I'm going to go against the grain here and say how unhappy I will be if the Celtics have a quick exit from the playoffs. The distraction of what is going to happen in the summer isn't that overwhelming that I can see a quick exit as a blessing or fine.

It is (due to events in the upcoming summer) going to be the swan song for this group. Over the last two seasons they have earned more than treating their playoffs appearance as the distraction. Last season the performance against the Cavs was to be expected. After all, we were only in the playoffs because the East was weak. This season they have proved themselves against top opposition (lets try to forget the Nets games) and made the league take notice of the Celtics.

I know Celtic culture says it is all about winning and winning means Championships. This group may not bring a Championship (okay, will not) but I want to remember them as winners, not overachievers who were brought to reality in the playoffs by the Hawks. I really want to go on the ride that takes them into the second round, even a close (4-3) loss will be a pain.

Only issue about a quick exit from the playoffs is whether or not it will impact our recruiting efforts in free agency this Summer... but I doubt it will.   If LeBron can join a 19 win team and take them to the Finals, I'm sure Durant will be able to see the potential of joining a 48 win team with options for adding possibly two other stars.

His history there makes that argument void imo. I guess it could apply to rondo.

[oldtype]

Hard to see beyond a sweep at this point. Home court is supposed to be an advantage but this game has completely taken the wind out of our sails and unless we get off to a quick start it's hard to see anyone at the Garden (including myself) being positive on Friday. People will start getting on our players' backs real soon if we start missing everything again.

[jpotter33]

We have legitimate reasons to be bad right now. We were winning the first game when Bradley went out, and this game we were down two of our top six or seven players, not to mention Crowder basically being nonexistent and playing on one leg.

Fair points.

At the same time, that the team is undone by losing Avery Bradley and Kelly Olynyk is sort of an issue, isn't it?  Those guys aren't exactly All-Stars.

I think it's homerism to say "the Hawks haven't been beating us."  Yes, they have.  They dominated the first quarter tonight and held serve the rest of the way, winning by a large margin. 

In the first game, they were ahead most of the way.  The Celts made it a game late, even taking the lead, but then the Hawks closed it out rather convincingly, despite the crazy shots by the Celts at the end to make the final score look closer.


Still plenty of reason for optimism for the future.  I just think the track record in the playoffs so far needs to temper some of the fierce optimism about the roster as currently constructed that flared up during the regular season.

We can't bring back this same basic group next season.  Isaiah, Crowder, Bradley are solid pieces, though not untouchable.  The rest of the roster is up for discussion, in my opinion.

This is almost literally the worst-case scenario - bad matchup for us, two guys out with significant injuries, three more guys playing with significant injuries, and in the middle of a ten or so game rut where we've really struggled. It's hard to know how much you can really take from what has transpired in the last several games.

We legitimately swept the Heat this year, and other than that egg we laid against Charlotte, we dominated them pretty well, too. If we had a different matchup without our injury issues, then I think we'd all be singing a much different tune right now. I think Crowder's injury is the most significant for us, because he's basically useless out there right now. This team is by no means a contender, but we've really, really, really caught the short end of the stick in this series with everything that has gone on.

When your best shooter (KO) and your only two two-way players (Crowder and Bradley) are significantly injured, then I do think those are significant and highly affect us.

[flybono]

11  16  vs eastern conference playoff teams to include playoffs says it all..

Thanks Danny, you ain't made a bad trade yet!