I'm not convinced they can make it through a round of the playoffs
That feels unreasonably pessimistic considering we're 6-1 against the teams currently sitting 4-8 in the Eastern Conference (i.e. most likely our first round opponent.)
this team needs things to fall just right to get past the 1st rnd. last I checked you can't win a championship after 1 round.
This is the kind of stuff which forced me into becoming a mini-Tommy Heinsohn. We're probably not even going to make it out of the first round?
Celtics got beat badly by the Raptors. Barely squeaked out wins against the Wizards and Hawks. Lol...we're still an all-star rim protector away.
Both times we lost to the Raptors we were missing a starter. At full strength I think we can beat them.
Yup, and "badly" is not the case. They were leading and had a meltdown. It would be "badly" if they got blown out.
I know it was from last year, but we had that big win against Golden State. I think a few years ago Houston had won twenty in a row or some ridiculous number and then we beat them. We were tremendously banged up in the playoffs last year but still managed to win a couple games. Even in the first playoff year, Isaiah had a bad back and we were banged up against Cleveland. Those become incomplete grades, as in conjecture of our place in the NBA world to be continued.
What have the Clippers ever accomplished in the playoffs and how many years have they had cracks at it? They are considered a contender, no? Houston is acknowledged as a contender. But it's never us. And not only is it never us, it will never be us unless we trade away all the assets for Butler or Cousins. Day in and day out, many people seem to think like that, while the rest of us are soaking in games and appreciative of what is developing.
We have been inefficient so far against the top teams. It'd be nice to beat one of the six teams currently ahead of us, but we did not get blown out by the Rockets. We had them beat. We almost beat Toronto. Getting healthy was needed, but we also need more time to tighten up the team style.
Basketball is all about flow. It is a feeling. I believe in things like momentum and hot hands. Some players go to the D-League first. It's like how in practice if you are missing long shots, you move closer to work the memory muscles and then one pushes farther out.
In video games, one always starts at the beginner level to acclimate. Then as skills are honed, one goes to medium then expert. That's what is going on. We are trying to make the jump from medium to expert. We are not the Washington Wizards or Hawks on a treadmill year after year with no perceptible route to advance to expert. We are now the beneficiary of Danny getting lucky stealing what looks like three straight years of top five picks. Two-thirds of those picks have yet to be selected and the first one is currently taking NBA baby steps.
This is why mature Celtics fan are so happy and articles keep popping up implying we are destined as a future powerhouse. The spoiled teenager styled fans are lacking wisdom, so they continue to be miserable day in and day out. It's pitiful, but they are still children, so it makes sense. Little babies can mature and we can hope for the best.
I love the enthusiasm of the OP!
The thing is, the C's are playing well but they are not near their ceiling. Coming into the season, we expected an elite defense. Right now we have the 20th best defense, by seasons end I expect top 10.
The only teams I'm scared of in the east are Cleveland and Toronto. I could see us getting by Toronto and then we will need injuries to Cleveland to advance.
Yes. It is what it is. Last year we were possibly posers for the third seed. It was more likely we were boxed into the mediocre third tier. Perhaps there are five tiers. The fourth are the bad teams and the fifth are rock bottom. But now we have Horford. Avery and Isaiah have taken leaps. We are hoping for the best development for guys like Smart, Olynyk and Crowder. Rozier has taken a leap. Gerald Green has snapped out of his early funk or healed from injuries and is a nice weapon off the bench.
We actually will never know how good we were last year because of all the injuries at the wrong time, similar to this year when we were merely treading water in the third tier.
We have solidified ourselves as #3 nipping at Toronto's heels.
cmon now, you cant make this post after complaining about knee-jerk negativity after the last loss.
youve gotta recognize the irony there
Says some person quoting George W. Bush in his signature! Who does that?
Yes, it's weird. But if you look at the quote it's got an old-fashioned wisdom in it.
GW Bush was a war criminal. I'm sure Hitler made a wise comment or two somewhere, but no one is going to put him in their profile.
Celtics got beat badly by the Raptors. Barely squeaked out wins against the Wizards and Hawks. Lol...we're still an all-star rim protector away.
We clearly could use a rim protecting center, but I don't think he has to be an all-star. And I think more important than shot blocking, the player needs to be a rock in the middle who can neutralize the all-star centers you may be referring to.
Perk and PJ Brown weren't all-stars, but they were exactly what we needed to maximize the all-star KG. Amir and Kelly could be part of the solution, but it seems like Zeller is part of the problem. My eye test says Olynyk is better at center defense than Zeller and that's why Tyler gets no minutes. He's basically Mikki Moore posing as a center because he's tall. How the stretch 4-5 Olynyk has surpassed Zeller as a center says it all. Jason Collins was pretty bad, but even his type of player would be an upgrade from TZ and provide a little of what we are missing.
I wouldn't count us out.
I think CLE has an edge over us but they need to be healthy.
TOR? I think we can take them in 7 game series....I really do.
I agree. This is all that I'm saying. I don't know if we'll catch Houston in the standings, and it doesn't look like we could catch up to Cleveland, but we seem to be right in the thick of things with Toronto and the Clippers.
With all due respect, Your Stoned!
With all due respect, you don't seem to have graduated high school. It's you're, not your, and your shouldn't have been capitalized.
I have written big chunks of text and not just on this thread with plenty of ideas for one to interact with, yet too often people drop simplistic comments based on some shallow view or with the intent to hurt someone.
Not yet, but we see the doorway marked "championship contenders" and are headed to it...
This is what I meant and thanks for articulating it.
Boston's a top-three team in the East, a top-10 team overall—which is nothing to sneeze at—but the Celtics are still a significant distance from being a legitimate title contender. They need a second high-level scorer, and a significant boost in rebounding, and they need to be much more consistent on defense.
Avery seems to be a top level scorer or close enough. Crowder seems very consistent with shooting. There are a lot of ifs that need to fall into place. I am not guaranteeing we will be a playoff menace, but why not us? Smart was miserable in the last game shooting, but otherwise, he has shown signs of having a higher ceiling for offense than many convey.
A few weeks ago I put Olynyk on the clock. He is a big if. That is what makes watching the games so much fun, to see what develops.
Gerald Green is streaky, but he could get hot in a playoff game or two.
We have no clue how Jaylen will look by the end of the season.
We wonder about advanced stats man Amir Johnson and whether he is 40 in NBA years or still has some prime left. Terry Rozier. He is another if, but he has some major skills for offense including shooting. Jerebko can shoot. Horford. No one knows how nice and comfy Al will be by the end of the year in regards to Celtics basketball. I see too many people boxing in Horford. Have we not seen player after player under Stevens get better? Have we not improved every year from start to finish within seasons?
Too many seem to wish we were a 15 win team but had one great player. Then they would be so optimistic? Hey, look at us winning fifteen games this year and then we can add a top three pick to our top ten player, that sort of thing. The people who wanted us to tank after year one were wrong. Those are the same people who are just as negative today and freak out after every loss. They love following Philadelphia, Utah, Milwaukee, New Orleans and Minnesota. One must have stars to win in this league. Isaiah should come off the bench. Let's trade Horford. Smart can't shoot. We will ignore what he is doing with free throws and his posting up or being effective having a guy on his hip. Well, there is no we. We are individuals. I see the value in this team, Brooklyn picks or not. And we are getting the Brooklyn picks, so that's that.
The Celtics looked like posers in the 2008 playoffs until they didn't. They couldn't win on the road. Winning in the NBA seems very difficult because the top two or three teams seem impossible to overcome. But sometimes stuff happens. One of the three Bird Era titles included beating an under .500 team in the Finals. That was a fluke, but flukes happen.
Toronto could beat the Cavs. We could beat Toronto. That is not marijuana induced pipe smoke dreaming. LeBron could be banged up. Olynyk could break Love's shoulder again by accident. We could beat Cleveland. We could be 100% healthy and peaking at the right time. One never knows. How did the US beat Russia in Olympic hockey? How did Flutie beat Miami? How did Villanova beat Georgetown? How did the Patriots beat the Rams? Upsets happen. A ceiling is exactly what it is, a projection of what could be. So why not let it play out before we condemn the current roster as not even in the hunt?
I understand the pushback against my membership in the Green Goggled Church of Tommy Heinsohn. I simply don't agree with it.
When push came to shove, we beat Memphis twice and smacked down Utah. Those specific wins along with the accumulation of many "a win is a win is a win" wins have catapulted us from the logjam of last year with teams 3-8. We are clearly better than any team in the East not named Cleveland or Toronto with plenty of time left to improve this year and right now.
Topic: The Celtics are officially championship contenders (Read 14117 times)