2020-2021 Celtics Season

This just reminds me of the Irving versus Rozier debate. Wasn't that your take with Irving also? It wasn't him, it was everyone else? I'd say it's a PG running our offense versus ISO offense. 

We should get a good idea really soon, because Walker has five games before back to back games.

And where are the Heat now? They were a 5 seed that made the Championship because it was a weird playoffs with no home court.

We expect Championships too but understand how hard that is in the NBA and the fact Ainge has rebuilt the team without completely sucking is borderline amazing. We have 2 cornerstone guys who are 22 and 24. This is just the start my friend.

Yea, i can’t imagine them getting enough to make it worthwhile to trade.

I realize you’d say that but if a guy is standing around watching and not doing what he’s supposed to be doing as an individual that’s on him. If a guy is moving and cutting and not getting the ball then that’s on the person not giving up the ball. It takes both. Show me a guy not hitting open teammates and I’ll blame him - show me a guy standing still, I’ll blame him. It’s fairly simple. There’s multiple problems on this team.

If your take is guys will start moving with a different guy having the ball in his hands like they won’t if Kemba, JT and JB do then that’s fine. My take would be thats pretty shitty of them and those guys standing and our coaches are a problem.

I love this quote in a recent ESPN article about Kobe Bryant’s draft workouts:


Danny is not the problem, folks. This Celtics team is really talented, because Danny knows talent.

www.theringer.com/nba/2021/3/2/22308624/danny-ainge-boston-celtics

Something for everyone here on Danny's record. Analytical discussion of his draft hits and misses and comparisons to others, and a little talk about FA luck and record of consistent Conference Finalists who don't make the Finals.

The team today seems like in a worse position than in any of the past 5 years because the middle of the roster is so gutted from talent and high picks are all dried up. Missing on Mid-level and Bi-annual guys exacerbated the draft misses, and the bad injury luck for stars continues.

I still think if Kemba is really just building back up strength and Time Lord can stay healthy and keep growing, we should be back to "ECF participant." I'm glad for that, but don't know what it takes to get to the next level. Maybe Neismith or Romeo overachieving fast, which isn't the kind of luck I want to bank on. I think the Jays can get craftier and more efficient, but to expect them to carry a sorry team to some next level seems unreasonable.

Sounds to me like you have a coach problem.

The Ringer article has some merits, yet is also very flawed. Most young high draft picks go to crappy teams and are given the reigns, thus they get the majority of a teams win shares. The Celtics have been a very good team, thus our guys in the first four years haven't been given the reigns to the team, they have been sharing them with all-star level talent who take away a bunch of win shares.

That article makes it seem like Brown was a bad pick or one that wasn't as good in his first four years as he should have been. Yet put him on a crappy team and he'd have gotten many more win shares.

That's why Smart, KO and Sullinger seem much higher than they should be. Those were not as talented teams and they could play bigger roles and thus get better win share totals. For that chart to be legit you need to adjust it based on the talent of the team the player gets drafted too.

Go look at the 2018 playoffs versus the regular season, then compare that to the 2019 regular season. Did Tatum, Rozier and Brown become worse players? Or was it Irving and Hayward reduced their roles and thus took away a chance at win shares?

That formula is being negative because Danny had a bunch of talent when he added a bunch of those picks. Rozier stuck behind two all-star PGs versus Rondo given the reigns because they didn't have anyone else. Imagine Rondo's win shares if he played behind Thomas and Irving, instead of starting.

It's the difference of young players putting up huge numbers on crappy teams versus young players having to earn minutes on deep talented teams.

Imagine Robert Williams, Pritchard, Grant Williams, Langford, Nesmith this year if they played on the Pistons. Each one of them would get more minutes and a much better chance to put up bigger numbers. That team doesn't care about wins, just developing young players.

You want a recent example? Go look at Malik Beasley, .5 win share in 41 games on a deep Denver team, then .8 win share in 14 games on a crappy Minnesota team. Same player, same season, just different teams with a massive difference in talent levels.

And yet those young players are getting the chances to play via the bench. So either you can’t keep all the draft picks and go with veterans or your not making the right picks with those draft picks. Grant Williams. Semi oja. Romeo Langford ( a lottery pick) wasted trades of 2 first round draft picks. Are examples of poor choices with those pics. No matter what excuse you come up with the end result is those picks aren’t producing right now and the bench is a Danny ainge draft pick bench for most part. To fix that, if he’s going to keep drafting, he needs to either pick better or go elsewhere to have someone else make the picks. Without that the Celtics will never be more than an also ran

What would you do or have done differently? 

It’s really hard for me to fathom the shots that Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown have been taking in this half. Like really bad shots. With Pritchard open on the wing. I’m not sure they want to win nearly as bad as they want to put up 30. And that’s a real problem.