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Post by freshnthehouse on Dec 30, 2005 5:35:48 GMT -5
I hate to give the compition a plug, but there's a good thread on celticsblog.com about the idea of the Celtics completely rebuilding. Sounds pretty darn intrueging to me.
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Post by DERRENMATTS on Dec 30, 2005 10:41:50 GMT -5
I can see a lot of areas improving, but it won't happen until the players start playing defense. If we played better defense, we would start winning a lot more because our offense can take care of itself (when we play as a team and share the ball).
But I don't know how much of an increase we can expect on defense from this squad. As a whole, we aren't filled with a lot of high caliber defenders. Tony's return (hopefully this year) will do 2 things, 1) give us a sticky perimeter defender, and 2) put Ricky back in the 6th man role. I see a big difference in Ricky's personality and the energy he puts forth when he starts and when he comes off the bench, and when he and Banks came off the bench, it was a big lift for us.
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Post by The Eye of the Q is upon you! on Dec 31, 2005 1:24:01 GMT -5
One area we need to be looking at is the coaching aspects. I don't think the coaches are doing a very good job at strategy, motivation, or adjustments. Fresh blood is needed here.
We have good players - but the chemistry is horrible.
We probably need to turn the roster over again while trying to compete. The Celtics are in a difficult situation. The fans take their anger out on Blount, Raef and Doc Rivers. Really, I think we should be asking Ainge what is going on?
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Post by freshnthehouse on Dec 31, 2005 3:34:41 GMT -5
We have good players - but the chemistry is horrible. But do we really have good players? What I see is two good wings, two pansy-!!!GREENIAC!!! bigmen, and a bunch of young guys. That doesnt sound like a play-off roster to me. Basically, we are where the national media expected us to be: a mid 30 win team. IMO, there is no coach on earth that can make this team good, at least not this year. And if there was, it would be only good enough to squeak into the first round and get tromped by the real teams.
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Post by DERRENMATTS on Dec 31, 2005 4:07:37 GMT -5
I've come to the opinion that now is the time to rebuild. Its either now or never.
Even if we play well as a team, we're still not going to go to the Finals. We'll just be a good team that makes the playoffs, but won't realistically beat out the Pistons, the Pacers, or the Heat.
The young players are our best hope for winning a title. Get rid of the players with value and get a good return for them and start rebuilding.
Pierce and Ricky are exceptionally talented players, but they command the ball too much and almost 90% of our plays are to hand them the ball and let them work the offense while the others stand around and react to what they do. Good team basketball doesn't occur much and we've basically stopped moving without the ball.
As long as Pierce and Ricky are here, we will continue to go to them for offense way too much, at the expense of stagnating Big Al's development in the post, and also stagnating Gerald Green's, Tony Allen's, and Ryan Gomes' development as wing players.
We're only going to go so far with Blount and Raef being key components of the team. At this rate, none of our young players, aside from Delonte, are getting any developmental time to become solid contributors. So in 3 years, Jefferson, Perkins, Banks (if he's still here), Gomes, and Orien will only be marginally better than they are now. And what good will that do? We'll still be the same team except a few years older and not much better because none of the young kids got the developmental time they needed.
If they weren't on the team, Doc could concentrate on developing the young players the right way, making them learn to play offense the right way, getting the ball into Jefferson and learning how to move without the ball, using picks ans screens, and running the ball. Start from a clean slate and engrain team basketball into their young heads.
Let Perkins, Jefferson, Gomes, Tony, and Delonte be the starting five and let them learn through trial by fire. Play Gerald Green, Marcus Banks, and Orien Greene a lot too so that they will develop too. Collect specific needs along the way (as in drafting or trading for more defensive big men, or PG depth, whatever). We will lose a lot of games, but better to lose a lot now and improve along the way so that when they are fully developed, we'll be better equiped to compete against the big boys.
Rebuild, get high lottery picks, develop players, trade for specific needs, and teach the proper way of playing offense and defense--this is the way we should go.
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Post by freshnthehouse on Dec 31, 2005 4:23:37 GMT -5
And if we're going to do it, we gotta do it soon. I think 06-07 would be a good time to suck. Good draft class and a good FA class. I know I'm gonna get ragged on for saying it, but Lebron will be a free agent, and stranger things have happened. I see us in a similar situatuin to that of PHX a couple of years ago. they were a team good enough to make the play-offs, but not good enough to compete, so they blew it up. THey were ragged on at the time, but they are in a better position now than they wouldve been if they had built around what they had. We'd have to suck a little longer and build through the draft, but I would mind going into the 07-08 season with our current youngns, plus our 06 and 07 lotto picks, and cap room to go after at least one max player.
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Post by DERRENMATTS on Dec 31, 2005 4:29:28 GMT -5
Yep, I'm right there with you. Rebuild now so that we'll be in position to draft high in '07. Oden comes out that year and that may be the opportunity for us to grab him. By then, Jefferson, Perkins, Delonte, and the rest of the young guys will have gotten a full year of playing time to develop, increasing their development exponentially.
I would love to grab Lebron, but I doubt he'd want to come to a team who'll be playing catch up to the Cavs.
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Post by freshnthehouse on Dec 31, 2005 4:46:09 GMT -5
Yep, I'm right there with you. Rebuild now so that we'll be in position to draft high in '07. Oden comes out that year and that may be the opportunity for us to grab him. By then, Jefferson, Perkins, Delonte, and the rest of the young guys will have gotten a full year of playing time to develop, increasing their development exponentially. I would love to grab Lebron, but I doubt he'd want to come to a team who'll be playing catch up to the Cavs. Yeah, its a slim chance that he'll want to leave. Things will have to go bad in the next couple years for that to happen. But remember, it is the Cleveland Cavaliers. I wouldnt mind having cap room just in case.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 31, 2005 18:28:15 GMT -5
If we're going to trade all the veterans, who are we looking for in return? Should we get a all-star for all-star with PP? or go in a different route where we're getting a lottery pick plus an expiring contract for him.
Yes, I would like to see this team go to rebuilding mode and start from scratch with Jefferson, Green and West being the cornerstone. If we're in the top 5 (top 3 hopefully), I'd like us to take either Rondo, Aldridge or Morrison with the pick. More than likely I'd either take Rondo or Aldridge since they'll fill a need on this roster (true PG or Center). Now if we're still in the lottery in 07 maybe we'll have a chance at Oden or Sergio Rodriquez.
(Pierce traded) C- Aldridge PF- Jefferson SF- Green SG- West PG- Rodriquez
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Post by DERRENMATTS on Dec 31, 2005 21:08:38 GMT -5
If we are trading Pierce, getting back another All-Star in return will be ideal (like Baron Davis). But that's not always the case. Shaq was traded for less than equal value (Odom, Caron Butler, etc.).
If we are getting a good player back in return for Pierce, a high draft pick will also have to be included. This means that this team needs to be in the bottom of the league who can give us a high lottery pick (possibly in the top 3 - 5 picks).
Trading Ricky, Blount, and Raef will not get us back a superstar in return, so we can all forget about that. Getting back young players who are growing into their potential may be what we are looking at (guys like Caron Butler, Gerald Wallace, etc.).
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Post by freshnthehouse on Jan 1, 2006 3:58:23 GMT -5
If we're going to trade all the veterans, who are we looking for in return? Should we get a all-star for all-star with PP? or go in a different route where we're getting a lottery pick plus an expiring contract for him. Yes, I would like to see this team go to rebuilding mode and start from scratch with Jefferson, Green and West being the cornerstone. If we're in the top 5 (top 3 hopefully), I'd like us to take either Rondo, Aldridge or Morrison with the pick. More than likely I'd either take Rondo or Aldridge since they'll fill a need on this roster (true PG or Center). Now if we're still in the lottery in 07 maybe we'll have a chance at Oden or Sergio Rodriquez. (Pierce traded) C- Aldridge PF- Jefferson SF- Green SG- West PG- Rodriquez IMO, Id like to see us get a good lotto pick, a solid young player, and a expiring contract. I wouldnt want an all-star in return, just because I doubt we'll find anyone that would be better than Pierce.
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