2017-18 Celtics Season Thread

One of these days Horford is going to step up in a game like this one. One of these days.



That was a dombrowskian throw-in. Scouting reports were too good for him to be packaged as a 4th piece in a trade.

I'm wondering if there was more truth to Irving talking about getting knee surgery. He's now getting a second opinion.

I disagree, if there's a reasonable chance Kyrie is able to play then the team can win a title. And if so you have to do it, you absolutely never punt a season when you can win a title.

With Smart back and Kyrie being productive and between 80-100% healthy, yes, I think they can. They're not favorites, but they're among the 5 or so teams that realistically have a shot. Marcus is a crazy dude so I would not rule out him returning at all, so you don't shut down Kyrie unless you absolutely have to.

Under no circumstance should any team ever do what the Nationals did.

Isn't this a lot more different than the Strasburg situation though?

Kyrie is hurt and dealing with pain right now. Strasburg was coming off of Tommy John surgery the year prior, but was perfectly fine when they shut him down.

Kyrie has a legitimate chance of missing time next year if the Celtics screw this up for a run they might not have a chance at either way.

I do love the fight though. That is a Brad Stevens built team for ya'.

Rozier has disappointed me. He had that great stretch right when Smart went down the first tile but it was short lived and he hasn’t been what I hoped he would be. On one hand, he’s showing the league he’s not a starter so that should help the Celtics keep him long term, but we do need more consistency from him. I’m really curious who they keep long term and how much money this ownership spends.

I don't think it's fair to judge Rozier on his recent games when the whole team has been hit by injuries, over what he did when they were healthy. He hasn't been great, but he's being forced to be a huge scorer because of injuries to Horford, Brown, Smart and Theiss.

He does need to improve finishing at the rim, but he gets great looks because he's so athletic. If he improves that what out. He just keeps getting better each year. The jump from last year to this year is huge. I take him over Smart all day.

Decided to separate this point out because it’s a separate discussion.

Smart missing all this time has likely dropped his price tag and reinforced his importance to the team. Numbers and advanced stats cannot measure his affect on the team. He’s an outlier. I like Roziers upside more than Smarts but if forced to choose long term, I’d take Marcus because he brings those intangibles. I’m also assuming he’s not signing for much more than mid level type money because I can’t see anyone giving a player like him anything but that type of money when they don’t own bird rights. Marcus is the perfect example of a bird rights player who’s worth a certain contract when you’re not using cap space to sign him. I’ve always said the order in which you sign guys in the NBA is just as important as the players you sign. We have all our Max slot guys and won’t have cap space for the foreseeable future so signing a guy like Smart (or Rozier) makes a ton of sense. They fill key roles to the team, only cost tax money and give you additional tradable salary. The teams biggest weakness right now in the trade market is the lack of salary to trade.

I'm not saying when he goes back to a limited role, just when the team gets somewhat  healthy. You know when they aren't playing Semi and Nader huge minutes. That forces him to look to score rather than scoring within the offense. He looked great when just Irving was out a few weeks back. Now he's just trying to do too much.

I think your expectations are too high frankly.  Rozier is a young player, that has started what 10 games in his career? Now he's being asked to not only replace Irving, but doing it without Brown, Smart and Theiss. At the same time we are winning games, that's more important than him having some bad shooting numbers.

A year ago we were debating if we should trade him for a rental, now we are debating if he's a starting level player. His FG% has gone from 36.7 to 40.1, 3 point% from 31.8 to 38.0, and TS% from 46.6 to 52.3. With his WS/48 from .054 to .131. All while greatly improving his ability to run the offense and his passing. If he improves his ability to finish at the rim watch out. He'll be an above average starter. A complete two way player. He just keeps getting better each year. I can't wait to see what he does next year.

On the ESPN message board a fan said it was to remove a screw from when he injured his kneecap years back. He seems to think he can have a quick recovery. He said he'll be ready for playoffs. I'm not writing anything off till we get more information.