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Post by DERRENMATTS on Jul 19, 2014 16:35:59 GMT -5
There's a lot of summer left, and trades and moves can still be made. But if the season were to start tomorrow, we'd be one of the worst teams in the league.
Think about who the teams are that drafted before us -- Cleveland (already had a better record than us last year) just got Lebron and are already atop the East. Milwaukee drafted Jabari Parker and he's going to make an instant impact. Philly drafted Embiid, who won't see any playing time this year due to injury, but they are getting Nerlens Noel on the floor. They'll still be relatively bad, so they'll be hovering around us in the standings. Orlando drafted Aaron Gordon, who should help them defensively. And this is Year 2 for Victor Oladipo, who had a good rookie year. Utah drafted an exciting rookie in Exum, but they may also be hovering near us.
The Lakers are in a world of hurt, and even worse, they have no 1st round draft pick in 2015. The Kings aren't going to be much better either.
So as it currently stands, unless Ainge makes some big moves to improve our roster, we are looking at being bottom dwellers with LAL, SAC, PHI, and UTA.
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Post by Roadrunner on Jul 19, 2014 19:08:16 GMT -5
I am OK if BOS is one of the worst teams, if players develop, and there is an effort to win every game. Last year, I witnessed both.
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Post by DERRENMATTS on Jul 19, 2014 20:27:20 GMT -5
We have a bunch of young players, but their value is low. No one is highly interested in Sully or Oly.
The young players on the team have some talent, but not projected to be All-Stars.
We have an All-Star caliber PG who teams are not willing to give up full value to get.
Free agents do not seem to be excited about coming to Boston.
We have a lot of first round picks coming up in the next 4 drafts.
All in all, you are right RoadRunner. Our best bet might be to draft and develop.
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cfoo
Welcome To Celtics Green!
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Post by cfoo on Jul 19, 2014 20:33:02 GMT -5
I'm still positive about our roster. Rondo is going to be fully healthy this year. We also have a trio of big men due for breakout seasons according to this article hoopshabit.com/2014/07/19/boston-celtics-trio-big-men-ready-breakout-seasons/4/Bradley and Green might be what they are but Bradley is still 23 years old and Green proved he is healthy at least from his heart stuff last year. He was the only guy we had who played in all games last season. This year he wont necessarily be asked to be the guy. Thing is not everything is going to go perfectly and injuries are going to happen and inexperience and a lack of talent in some ways but we can do alright. I'm ok with another rebuilding year if that's the case. We are kind of stuck in neutral right now, but DA may still have something up his sleave before the summer is out. It depends what we do with Rondo. We just drafted Smart and Young. Ainge could maybe move Bradley or Green for an upgrade there or one of our bigs. It depends what he does if he upgrades or Rondo gets dealt. I still feel ike Rondo is going to be here though and Ainge may make something happen elsewhere. But that's half the issue is how. I agree something may have to give with Rondo in that regard but time will tell.
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cfoo
Welcome To Celtics Green!
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Post by cfoo on Jul 19, 2014 20:50:20 GMT -5
Thing is I don't think we are a bad team on paper. It depends on how it all gels. We have a lot pieces and how it all fits is still somewhat of a question but I still like it and think it can. I don't think Ainge has made fireworks happen but he's been very smart this offseason. He got Zeller and Thornton two pieces that can potentially fit for us and drafted Smart and Young. Reupped Bradley. Gained an additional draft pick and used our trade exception wisely and parlayed it into something else and got another one with the Humphries deal. We are set up to make things happen imo. We are missing those answers as far as which way in ways but as it stands our roster is pretty good imo and could surprise some people.
We are probably a sub 500 team on paper. 35-40 wins which could go either way and I think we have more things going for us than we did last year. Especially with a healthy rondo but it depends what we do with him and what he does whether he gels with these guys or not.
Last season Rondo wasn't healthy and when he was he didn't gel. We were too young. Had too many pieces that didn't fit. We ended up being a sub 500 team and one of the worst teams. vs being a 500 team like we played like early in the year. This season is the same but different.
Rondo gels becomes a leader of this group. Sullinger, KO and Zeller surprise. Jeff Green. Bradley is healthy all year. Smart contributes. Young or Thornton do the same. Suddenly things look very different. Wishful thinking maybe but true regardless. Again why I think people are focused on the wrong things instead of what can go right.
We have CJ and guys like Babb where maybe we could use an upgrade there why guys like Turner and Stephenson are decent options. I still think the goal should be to make the playoffs then we can look at getting free agents in ways. But it still depends. Rondo is really the kicker. I still think most people around the internet are very much focused on the w rong things in the wrong ways though.
I think KG and Pierce are rondo's friends and brothers and gave him good advice that he should go through the losing and become a leader. The internet not so much. Whether that actually happens is something else but still good advice from people who care about Rondo and this team.
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cfoo
Welcome To Celtics Green!
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Post by cfoo on Jul 19, 2014 21:21:51 GMT -5
The same goes for Jeff Green really. He attacked with more consistency at times this last year but can still improve. He was healthy and out there and had his moments but it was a down year overall. He was being asked to be the guy. Sully, KO were too young. Rondo was out. Bradley was hurt. Green had his moments. He shot the ball. Sometimes they went in. Other times not so much. He battled though and had some good moments. He may regress. He may stay the same but I don't see why he can't build on that. Some people are too negative. You have to build and that's what building is. Different directions maybe. But too much of the media is focused on the rondo and green stuff and what we don't know and the negatives of these guys vs the positives of what we have in ways.
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Post by Roadrunner on Jul 20, 2014 9:20:14 GMT -5
We have a bunch of young players, but their value is low. No one is highly interested in Sully or Oly. The young players on the team have some talent, but not projected to be All-Stars. We have an All-Star caliber PG who teams are not willing to give up full value to get. Free agents do not seem to be excited about coming to Boston. We have a lot of first round picks coming up in the next 4 drafts. All in all, you are right RoadRunner. Our best bet might be to draft and develop. D', a reminder of Danny's 3-Ds: drafting, developing, and dealing.
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Post by kval1441 on Jul 20, 2014 21:14:34 GMT -5
When we do projections again this year. I believe I hit the number exact last year. And even called how the season would unfold. Right now I would prob mark them for less wins than last year.
If u have blinders on then fine, but remember Bradley was our big scorer last year and look how he turned out. Lacked on his defense and didn't have very good offense. We were the 5 worst team in the league and more than a few teams under us at that time will be better than us this year. Actually we lost hump and Bayless who were awesome locker room guys and 2 of the most productive players on the team. The Bradley that I saw last year is a bench/role player on a good nba roster. That's about it.
Let's not be OK with mediocrity people. Let's have some standards.
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cfoo
Welcome To Celtics Green!
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Post by cfoo on Jul 21, 2014 6:23:56 GMT -5
This is an interesting article regarding ab espn.go.com/boston/nba/story/_/id/10138947/boston-celtics-defensive-ace-avery-bradley-becoming-good-two-way-playernumbers aren't everything but bradley ranked 38th in the nba in points per play. He also had a spurt where he ranked 2nd. And then was injured. The average nba salary i just looked up is 5.15 million. bradley is 23 years old and above average so what he got paid as far as scale is about right. Ainge's comments when he was resigned was that bradley was a key piece to their championship aspirations and is only 23 years old and continuing to improve. I think mediocrity is labelling what players are before we really know anyways. It's more about just retaining a player that was worth that. We were a better team with him in our lineup last year. He is still only 23 and has inconsistencies but has improved from year to year. I think being progressive is one thing but being stupid about it is another. It's like salty to the red sox to me. Peopple would tell me he was nothing but this and that and a below average catcher so the red sox let him go and spend on AJ pierzinski. How did that work out? AJ pierzinski is mediocre and was a poor decision and showed a lack of ability. You need players like bradley anyways on a championship team and he fits in in a lot of ways whether its via trade or whatever and paying him 8 mil a year doesn't break the cap either. We were a better team with bradley in the lineup last year. In order to attract free agents you have to have something to offer them. The same goes for trades. A losing team is not going to entice a free agent to come here. Bradley being ranked 38th as a 23 year old basically put him as the best player or the 2nd best player on the worst team in the league. We weren't the worst team. We were about the 6th worst team and bradley was probably our 3rd or 4th best player. He also didn't play a majority of the season and neither did rondo. KO also was a rookie and didn't play or contribute really the first half. Sullinger also had his ups and downs. All these guys are still very young. Bradley is still a guy who can play a role on this team in a lot of ways and labelling him as this or that at this point in his career is absurd to me. I think you are confused because you are the ones settling for mediocrity. I'm not. Resigning bradley is keeping our options open. Labelling him as something is settling. It's the same with trading rondo for a bag of chips. That's settling. your logic is backwards ebcause you say we were one of the 5 worst teams in the league and hump and bayless were 2 of our most productive players. That's the issue. Bradley and Rondo didn't even play much. Green has some upside and talent. Humphries and Bayless do not have his upside and were not as productive as Green or Bass. We actually kept the two most productive guys. We also kept the players with the most upside. Humphries and Bayless were mediocre and our most mediocre players. They weren't our most productive players and they werent young either and lack in upside. We were a bottom feeding team. Ainge got rid of our most mediocre players which were bayless and humphries. He kept our best players and improved our team and put us in better position to make trades and attract a free agent. You are right though speak for yourself. I'm not settling for mediocrity though. I agree with what you said though. You really shouldn't. Funny thing is I also predicted the same wins as you last year and was the other guy who was right. My preduction was higher though because it was all in fun. I didn't settle for mediocrity because it was all in fun and I didn't know how we'd do. But I did say realistically we are that. But I didn't settle. I don't remember the exact number because predictions aren't everything but I think I did do that.
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cfoo
Welcome To Celtics Green!
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Post by cfoo on Jul 21, 2014 6:45:07 GMT -5
As the roster continues to evolve and get paired down depending on what Ainge does it's the same thing. Still a lot of directions we can go though. It's not as simple as saying Ainge got rid of bayless and Humphries so now he's going to get rid of Bradley. He might but it depends. Resigning Bradley in theory is just retaining a player who was worth that though. Humprhies and bayless weren't. They were mediocre.
Hisory teaches us something but very little too because it's a different circumstance. Last time once ainge had the roster prepared he traded off Al J for Garnett. He kept Rondo and Perk who were more roleplayers at that time with Rondo having more upside. This roster isn't done by any means. But saying a player is this or that at this point in the larger scheme of things is shortsighted.
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cfoo
Welcome To Celtics Green!
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Post by cfoo on Jul 21, 2014 7:00:53 GMT -5
Rondo, Bradley, Green, Bass, KO, Sully, even Zeller and Thornton are better chips than Humphries and Bayless. So are the draft picks. Zeller and Thornton are younger and on cheaper contracts.
Green and Bass were more productive than Humphries and Bayless. Rondo and Bradley are younger and have more talent. So do KO and Sully.
We added Smart and young through the draft. We subtracted Humphries and bayless because they were mediocre.
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Post by Roadrunner on Jul 21, 2014 20:44:44 GMT -5
BOS got better, but so did everyone else. Biggest issue w/ BOS is FG%. When your top-3 players shoot 41%, your doomed.
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