The love for young players, explain it to me?

[clevelandceltic]

Im not sure why its difficult to understand why people like youth. Yes it has alot to do with a shinny new toy and yes it has to do with potential but lets look at those things from a little different lens.

Lets take this years team minus Brown since he is youth. Now they would have won a similar number of games as they did this year but lets look at the playoffs. If this was a normal situation where the Cs only had their pick and could create enough cap space for a max player Im not sure you find as much excitement around here because how much better would the current guys get? You could bring in Hayward but you would still be in line to lose to the Cavs unless guys on the roster took their level of play up 2 levels. Based on what I have seen Im not sure where the growth would come from if you didnt have Brown.

The reality is people like youth because the potential isnt tapped out. You dont have to worry about banging your head against the wall trying to beat the Cavs with players that arent likely to get much better. That situation provides little hope. Having young players that are projected to be much better than they are now gives you some hope that they will become good enough to put us over the top.

[nickagneta]

The problem I have with youth is they don't usually contribute to total winning basketball until they are off their rookie contracts.

Also, the constant bellowing that teenagers will be stars is getting so old on this board. These teenagers take years and years of development because it takes that long to reach two way star levto. Heck, I have seen posters advocating for tanking so that we can get some 16 year old 3 years from now because he is the next______(fill in the superstar).

Expectations for youth are off the charts on this board. Prime examples are RJ Hunter and Jordan Mickey.

[Future Celtics Owner]

Agree with what a lot of other players have said but another aspect is that if and when you do get that championship team, it feels different when it's with a home-grown superstar. Larry Bird, Brady, Papi - those guys are OURS. It's just better that way.

I mean, I loved that 08 team, and all else equal KG would be my favorite player on it, by far. But Pierce is the only key guy who was really a Celtic. He is on another level in terms of it meaning something.

(I know Papi technically played elsewhere. But you know what I mean.)

I agree, without Pierce the 08 title would have felt a little hollow. It helped that Garnett really embraced the team and city and Ray Allen pretended to, kinda.

I also felt the first Sox title in 04 was kind of a mercenary one. Though there were some good homegrown players, a lot of the offense consisted of guys Epstein picked up that year or the year before. It was also sad that, despite his behavior that season, we couldn't have won with Nomar still on the team. It's his own fault but it still would have been nice considering the history we had with him.

Oh yeah, and the biggest mercenary of them all: Curt Schilling. It was hard to root for that blowhard.

PP is a HOF and IMO played the best on that team. We may be saying the same thing. I always felt PP was extremely underrated and due to a negligent front office never had any pieces next to him...besides Walker who was an all-star but very flawed( kinda reminds me of IT in that way now that I think about it). Had we kept Johnson PP would have been given much more attention from the media and players, his legacy would have been polished at an earlier stage....let's not even mention Billups.

When we traded for Ray I was traumatized. When we got KG...I bought season tickets 20mins after his medical went through. I was only 19 but me and my best bud KNEW we would be in the finals for the next 3 years and be the favorites. We had zero $$$ but bc the C's were so bad for so long we got rock bottom prices and payment plan. We were in school so we knew we couldn't make even 1/4 of the games so we sold certain games to friends, fraternity brothers, and on stub-hub.....We literally bet that people would be fighting to attend games even though the C's had been bad for so long.

KG did not sell us..Paul Pierce playing alongside 2 pieces like KG and Ray did.

[clevelandceltic]

The problem I have with youth is they don't usually contribute to total winning basketball until they are off their rookie contracts.

Also, the constant bellowing that teenagers will be stars is getting so old on this board. These teenagers take years and years of development because it takes that long to reach two way star levto. Heck, I have seen posters advocating for tanking so that we can get some 16 year old 3 years from now because he is the next______(fill in the superstar).

Expectations for youth are off the charts on this board. Prime examples are RJ Hunter and Jordan Mickey.

Well there are realistic expectations of players based on skill or the outright hype of others. Mickey and Hunter never hit that radar for me.

You say players take awhile to contribute to winning. Yes but whats wrong with that? I would rather look at what could be than be the Hawks who have above average teams that have no chance at a title. In essence, I would rather lose big with a chance to win big than win with no chance of winning big at all. 

[Irish Stew]

Nothing gets the juices of many CelticsBlog posters flowing more than a 6'7" college slasher who can't shoot, except perhaps a college power forward who is 6'9" and weighs 190 Ibs.. It would be rude of me to leave out all the college guards whose shots are "fixable, not broken". Thank God we're going to take Fultz who at least already has NBA quality offensive skills.

[Diggles]

Potential is number #1 for me.   
Long term 4 year cheap pay
And they can jump higher. 

[CoachBo]

So admittedly i'm the type of guy who isn't into watching young players, i don't watch college basketball. So when these guys come into the NBA, especially on my Celtics, i just hope they don't drag the team down when they hit the floor. We have a 53 win playoff team, it's nice to be in the mix, a few pieces short or not.


I just like watching the best players in the world, the NBA's top 20-25 players and all of the great role players. Basketball is a joy to watch, i just don't like watching unpolished kids. When they mature it's great, but i don't like '' The Process''. 27 years old and up is where it's at for me, not that there aren't very good players below that.


It just seems like on internet forums like this, they love them some youth. I see Philly and their rebuild cheered on with tons of hyperbole comments about their future, people like what the Bucks have going on, add the Wolves and it's hysteria. It's just funny, we don't have a Wiggins or Towns and we're a better team. We roll out IT4 who never saw a combine he impressed in, Al Horford, and a few vets mixed with some young kids and we make it to the ECF.

For all of the hype for the internet darling kids out of college, nothing is guaranteed to any of those teams. Hell nothing is guaranteed to us! We can hope Jaylen Brown and Fultz are as good as Paul George and Gordon Hayward, but they could easily not be.


Give me the sure thing, especially when it's already great. Some flame me if you must, but i don't get the fascination with these kids out of college and the philosophy that waiting for them is better than adding to what we have. What excites some of you about the long road and the unknown?

As someone who wants to win, and who has had every single board rule violated against him espousing your viewpoint, welcome to the dark side.

TP to you for your courage. I look forward to your further posts.

[CoachBo]

The problem I have with youth is they don't usually contribute to total winning basketball until they are off their rookie contracts.

Also, the constant bellowing that teenagers will be stars is getting so old on this board. These teenagers take years and years of development because it takes that long to reach two way star levto. Heck, I have seen posters advocating for tanking so that we can get some 16 year old 3 years from now because he is the next______(fill in the superstar).

Expectations for youth are off the charts on this board. Prime examples are RJ Hunter and Jordan Mickey.

Ah, yes. The Legend of Jordan Mickey.

Who will soon go the route of Brandon Hunter, Etwan Moore, Gabe Pruitt, Delonte West, and so on and so on.

I'm still waiting on the Ainge draft pick who plays a central role in an NBA title. Perhaps that's about to change.

[Big333223]

Potential is number #1 for me.   
Long term 4 year cheap pay
And they can jump higher.

I think potential is the thing. Young players are unsullied by reality, or at least sullied by less of it. There's nothing but hope and wingspan.

But when it comes to the NBA, there's also the reality that the best way of getting a superstar is by drafting and developing one. So their is a practical aspect to wanting to bring in lots of young guys until you find the one that hits big and then building around him.

[Celtics4ever]

To some folks the grass is always greener, draft picks give them hope, I imagine.

[Boston Garden Leprechaun]

Shiny new toy syndrome.  That's it really.

More than that, it's the limitless possibility of "potential."  Hope for the future, and the occasional flash of excellence that fuels that hope, despite all the missed assignments and turnovers.

yup and building for a big window not a short one

[Beat LA]

Shiny new toy syndrome.  That's it really.

TP, that's at least part of it, but also this:

Agree with what a lot of other players have said but another aspect is that if and when you do get that championship team, it feels different when it's with a home-grown superstar. Larry Bird, Brady, Papi - those guys are OURS. It's just better that way.

TP for Boris, as well.  Idk why, and I am, admittedly, horrible at it, lol , but "evaluating" young players is something that I really enjoy, even if that doesn't completely answer your question.  I guess that it's the best version of solving a puzzle, to me, but I'm weird, haha .

[Beat LA]

The problem I have with youth is they don't usually contribute to total winning basketball until they are off their rookie contracts.

Also, the constant bellowing that teenagers will be stars is getting so old on this board. These teenagers take years and years of development because it takes that long to reach two way star levto. Heck, I have seen posters advocating for tanking so that we can get some 16 year old 3 years from now because he is the next______(fill in the superstar).

Expectations for youth are off the charts on this board. Prime examples are RJ Hunter and Jordan Mickey.

Ahh, but is that the fault of the rookie(s) in question or the craptastic environment, team-wise, into which they're often thrown?  And I'm not just talking about lottery picks, btw.

[ETNCeltics]

To some folks the grass is always greener, draft picks give them hope, I imagine.

So GSW would be better off without their drafted players?

Anything resembling a dynasty in the NBA has been built on the draft.

Ignorance is bliss, I imagine.

[Ilikesports17]

The problem I have with youth is they don't usually contribute to total winning basketball until they are off their rookie contracts.

Also, the constant bellowing that teenagers will be stars is getting so old on this board. These teenagers take years and years of development because it takes that long to reach two way star levto. Heck, I have seen posters advocating for tanking so that we can get some 16 year old 3 years from now because he is the next______(fill in the superstar).

Expectations for youth are off the charts on this board. Prime examples are RJ Hunter and Jordan Mickey.

Ahh, but is that the fault of the rookie(s) in question or the craptastic environment, team-wise, into which they're often thrown?  And I'm not just talking about lottery picks, btw.

I would say it's typically on the rookie.