The Celtics are going Nowhere...

[bopna]

To be fair, we caught the supposed to be worst team in the league on a winning streak which also happened to be complete and has just made themselves better with that Kelly Oubre trade. Us on the other hand where missing Morris- our second best scorer and Horford who is our anchor in Defense...we  were due for a loss.

What im concerned is JB and Hayward with theyre inept offense. We definitely need both to even become the contender we thought we should be.

[tstorey_97]

One of the upsides of the medical issues has been Bob.

He is a total rookie out there, but throws in just crazy flashes of monsterness. His arms are longer than anyone else's on the court pretty much whenever he's out there and he loves to knock balls out of the park.


If you give him 30 minutes? 5.5 blocks 12 rebounds 7 points.

They're going to have to put nets up in Boston Garden to keep people from getting hurt.


Anyway the team has figured out a few things.

Hayward and Brown off the bench, which, when they get it together? Will be quite the small three with Rozier. Will they get it together? No one knows.

Last year the Celtics just under dogged and out hustled everybody. Not happening this year and, as a fan, it is a lot less fun.

The issue they face is they don't have Russell, Cowens, Parish or Garnett. They have Horford who isn't really a "center" and they have Baynes and the rest whom are "backup centers".

We can ask Santa for a great "defensive anchor" for the frontcourt so that all of this perimeter talent can rely on him to make it work. Hopefully, he'll be so big he won't fit under the tree.

In the meantime...we have Bob.   

[Erik]

This is the "The Cavs/Heat won't make the finals this year" BS that we heard for a decade.

When the games matter, we won't lose.

[Celtics4ever]

I will be curious to see if we can turn it on tomorrow against the Bucks, if we do there is less to worry about.

[hodgy03038]

This is the "The Cavs/Heat won't make the finals this year" BS that we heard for a decade.

When the games matter, we won't lose.

We don't have LeBron. Every game matters. If we can't win at home against the worst team in the league, how can we expect to win on the road in the playoffs which is where we will play more games then at home based on our underperformance.

[Rosco917]

Why do I have an "I've been banned from the form notation?

[Spicoli]

Brad Stevens is not a championship level coach IMO. I think the players we have are soft, but i think the biggest problem is coaching. His rotations are terrible and always have been. He never plays anyone big minutes no matter how the game is going or if the game dictates playing guys big minutes. He is a really nice regular season coach but with the way he manages players and rotations i would be shocked if they win a title with Stevens at the helm.

[Jiri Welsch]

Brad Stevens is not a championship level coach IMO. I think the players we have are soft, but i think the biggest problem is coaching. His rotations are terrible and always have been. He never plays anyone big minutes no matter how the game is going or if the game dictates playing guys big minutes. He is a really nice regular season coach but with the way he manages players and rotations i would be shocked if they win a title with Stevens at the helm.

Stevens doesn’t coach the same way in the playoffs, he shortens the lineup typically. I am going to wait and see how this year ends up before writing off his lineup choices.

As for toughness, I think we are pretty tough. Smart, Morris, Baynes and Horford all are pretty tough guys.

[BitterJim]

Brad Stevens is not a championship level coach IMO. I think the players we have are soft, but i think the biggest problem is coaching. His rotations are terrible and always have been. He never plays anyone big minutes no matter how the game is going or if the game dictates playing guys big minutes. He is a really nice regular season coach but with the way he manages players and rotations i would be shocked if they win a title with Stevens at the helm.

He doesn't play guys big minutes in the regular season, but he absolutely does in the playoffs. We had 3 guys at ~36mpg in the playoffs last year, and Brown was at ~32mpg (likely would have been ~36mpg if he hadn't hurt his hamstring, he averaged just under 38mpg before the injury). Among our normal starters in last year's playoffs, we had plenty of 40+ minute games when we needed them. In the playoffs, Brad keeps a pretty tight rotation, and has not hesitated to play his studs big minutes when needed

I mean, I guess you could complain that he doesn't play our guys really big minutes in the regular season, but that should help us, not hurt us, when it comes to the playoffs. Brad has shown over the past couple of years that he will play his guys shorter minutes in the regular season to keep them fresher, and then takes off the leash when needed in the playoffs.

And sure, Brad will always throw out some odd lineups in November /December (like an IT/AB/Crowder/Gerald Green/Horford lineup - who the hell would play that lineup? It's obviously not going to work) before settling on a more rigid rotation, but those have ended up helping a ton later in the season when injuries pile up, or in the playoffs when we needed a change. Trying those lineups out during the unimportant games at the start of the year has ended up being immensely valuable to past couple of years

[BitterJim]

Oops, double post

[Erik]

This is the "The Cavs/Heat won't make the finals this year" BS that we heard for a decade.

When the games matter, we won't lose.

We don't have LeBron. Every game matters. If we can't win at home against the worst team in the league, how can we expect to win on the road in the playoffs which is where we will play more games then at home based on our underperformance.

Your argument would have some legs if playoffs series were best of 1 in December or if we were competing in a game with little variance like chess. It will take a team beating us 4 out of 7 for us to lose. Any team can lose to any team one time, especially in a game in which a ball has to be launched up to 24 feet into a slightly larger circle. I don't see very many teams having the ability to beat us 4/7 times in 1 week, when strategic focus can be placed, adjustments can be made, and the games attract the full attention of the players. As of right now, I am only worried about the Raptors and the Warriors.

Overall, you're comparing apples to oranges and your sample size is way too small to make any kind of logical conclusion. You're just knee-jerk panicking and will most likely completely disappear when the Celtics make the finals.

[BringToughnessBack]

Is this an April Fools topic in December? Going nowhere but to the conference finals and then to the finals. Not worried. We looked pretty decent during that 8 game streak recently. We will have a few 10 game streaks before this year is up. Roll right into the playoffs with all guns firing. Cannot wait to not have to see sky is falling topics!

[Spicoli]

Brad Stevens is not a championship level coach IMO. I think the players we have are soft, but i think the biggest problem is coaching. His rotations are terrible and always have been. He never plays anyone big minutes no matter how the game is going or if the game dictates playing guys big minutes. He is a really nice regular season coach but with the way he manages players and rotations i would be shocked if they win a title with Stevens at the helm.

He doesn't play guys big minutes in the regular season, but he absolutely does in the playoffs. We had 3 guys at ~36mpg in the playoffs last year, and Brown was at ~32mpg (likely would have been ~36mpg if he hadn't hurt his hamstring, he averaged just under 38mpg before the injury). Among our normal starters in last year's playoffs, we had plenty of 40+ minute games when we needed them. In the playoffs, Brad keeps a pretty tight rotation, and has not hesitated to play his studs big minutes when needed

I mean, I guess you could complain that he doesn't play our guys really big minutes in the regular season, but that should help us, not hurt us, when it comes to the playoffs. Brad has shown over the past couple of years that he will play his guys shorter minutes in the regular season to keep them fresher, and then takes off the leash when needed in the playoffs.

And sure, Brad will always throw out some odd lineups in November /December (like an IT/AB/Crowder/Gerald Green/Horford lineup - who the hell would play that lineup? It's obviously not going to work) before settling on a more rigid rotation, but those have ended up helping a ton later in the season when injuries pile up, or in the playoffs when we needed a change. Trying those lineups out during the unimportant games at the start of the year has ended up being immensely valuable to past couple of years

I'll buy that he plays guys longer minutes in the playoffs but the regular season does matter! I've been watching this sport for a long time and it's pretty obvious to me that playing games in your home gym with rims that you're comfortable shooting on has a big effect on the outcome most nights. This is an advantage that Stevens should be gunning for instead of playing around with rotations that aren't going to see the light of day in the postseason. How many time does he put Ojeleye out there when we're on a scoring drought just to see the drought increase even more? He never calls timeouts to stop the other teams runs and he never lets a hot player stay hot. Riding the hot hand is very important sometimes and this is why we really don't or won't know how good Tatum and Brown are until they are no longer with this team.

[More Banners]

CBS plays weird lineups and some that aren't working in Nov/Dec to gather data for analytics. Makes it hard to watch until January.

[Kuberski33]

I'm wondering whether Ainge pulls the trigger on some sort of deal. A month or more without Baynes creates a hole.  Also I wonder what the confidence level in Jaylen turning things around is right now?

This team is in need of some more physicality which you'd think he could easily provide but he's been terrible - at both ends of the court.

What are the pieces for a trade, though?

Unless you want to trade Smart or Morris, there aren't a lot of significant contracts (to match salary) outside of the core of the roster.

They have picks and Brown has value.  Smart and Morris are probably 2 guys you don't deal because they along with Baynes are the physicality that the team does have.  The thing is, Baynes is a major loss.  And that's going to cause some losses.  I'd love to know what Brad and Danny really think of Jaylen right now.  He was essentially benched in the 4Q last night.

Trading Jaylen now would be selling low.  Ainge has never been a guy to sell low on a valued trade asset.

Generally speaking I don't think smart teams trade top 5 picks on rookie deals for short term help.

It's only selling low if you assume he's going to get back to being the player he was last season or possibly even a better version of that guy.  He may not be able to do that here.  Teams in need of a star will be willing to take a swing with him, because they saw the potential last season. So they would give up assets. 

Personally I think his poor hands will prevent him from ever becoming an all star - and they're going to have to make a call on him at some point.  For the right package I'd be willing to do it now - though it may hurt you in the Anthony Davis sweepstakes. 

On the other hand if he keeps playing like he's been playing he won't be a factor in the Davis sweepstakes because he won't have much value.