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the 3 Star System is what wins. We have T-Mac, we have Yao. Its not enough, we need one more. To get that star, we have to give up Battier, and I am willing to do that.

If Yao = KG
and
T-Mac > Pierce
then
? = Ray Allen
and we will win a title

What Boston proved is that one offseason can improve your team and win a title.

I have been saying this for the longest. We need a 3rd scorer badly. Mostly all the playoff teams have 3rd scorers and that why they are successful.

Now I don't necessarily agree that you need at least 3 all-stars to win a championship. Having a solid starting five and a deep bench can lead this team to a championship. In my opinion Morey's blueprint is not far off from having the ideal roster. All the team needs to do is develop a good chemistry between players and add some depth in its bench.

However, if we were to implement this concept of "Big Three", we don't want to add any all-star to this roster. To replicate the kind of success the Boston Celtics had this year, we need a star who is selfless, possess the ability to contribute in other aspects of the game, and knows how to play off the ball (on offense).

What's so special about the Boston Trio is that all of them can play effectively without the ball in their hands. One interesting statistical evidence that verified the Celtics Big Three's ability to play selfless and off-the-ball basketball is the following: in the regular season Garnett, Pierce, and Allen all had a usage rate of that is significantly below 30.

I am not worried about McGrady and Yao as they are proven to be selfless players. It's a matter of finding that third star who fits the ideology of the "Big Three."

We need 3 scorers. You can't just have 2. The Celts run a very basic offense and got good shots down the stretch of a Finals game b/c they have 3 guys that can score and then 2 shooters around them. We need 3 scorers. I have been saying that forever. You can't win with just two unless those two are Shaq and Kobe two of the best players of this era.

Regular teams..with regular stars like Yao and McGrady need 1 more good player who can score by creating his own shot.

The Celtics are winning games with their defense. Their offense is mediocre at best. They have the best defense I have seen in years. If T-Mac would dedicate himself to defense again and defend like Paul Pierce has been that would be a huge step in the right direction. Garnett, Pierce and even Allen to a lesser extent have been busting their asses on the defensive end and setting the tone.

Vator wrote:The Celtics are winning games with their defense. Their offense is mediocre at best. They have the best defense I have seen in years. If T-Mac would dedicate himself to defense again and defend like Paul Pierce has been that would be a huge step in the right direction. Garnett, Pierce and even Allen to a lesser extent have been busting their asses on the defensive end and setting the tone.

Don't you miss Tom Thibodeau?
I can't believe the fact that he's molded Pierce into one of the better defenders in the league. Pierce has never dedicated himself to defense prior to this season.

Vator wrote:The Celtics are winning games with their defense. Their offense is mediocre at best. They have the best defense I have seen in years. If T-Mac would dedicate himself to defense again and defend like Paul Pierce has been that would be a huge step in the right direction. Garnett, Pierce and even Allen to a lesser extent have been busting their asses on the defensive end and setting the tone.

Great offense to me isn't scoring 100 points. Great offense is the ability to score baskets when the game gets tight. We don't have that ability. We have a defense like Bostons when healthy. We just don't have the ability to score when needed b/c McGrady doesn't attack and Yao can easily be bother by double teams and smaller, longer players.

We need another scorer so we can ensure ourselves of getting and making good shots when defenses clamp down like they would in a game 4 NBA Finals game. We don't have that right now.

I agree with vator that the celtics do have great defense. but our defense is pretty good too, and our O could be better than the celtics O if we got that 3rd scorer. Yao is a better scorer than KG, and T-Mac is a better scorer than Pierce. Also, back to the D, dont 4get T-Macs coasts threw the regular season and turns it up a notch on D in the playoffs. remember the dallas series, he played GREAT d. Losing Battier wont hurt us in the playoffs. who exactly did he shutdown the last 2 years in the playoffs anyway? nobody. Rafer, T-Mac during playoff time, Scola, Mutombo, Yao, Hayes are all great defenders already. We are a great TEAM defense, not necessarily a one on one Defensive team. Losing Battier wont effect us that much, but if a 3rd scorer comes in return it will boost the Offense tremendously. on top of all this, most of the 3rd scorers available are good defenders also, so it wouldnt be a drop off really. t-mac and yao are not kobe and shaq, they MUST have a 3rd scorer or we wont get out of round 1

Iggyemu wrote:-= original quote snipped =-



Great offense to me isn't scoring 100 points. Great offense is the ability to score baskets when the game gets tight. We don't have that ability. We have a defense like Bostons when healthy. We just don't have the ability to score when needed b/c McGrady doesn't attack and Yao can easily be bother by double teams and smaller, longer players.

We need another scorer so we can ensure ourselves of getting and making good shots when defenses clamp down like they would in a game 4 NBA Finals game. We don't have that right now.

Boston doesn't have a great offense. They are better at executing at the end of games than we are because they have guys willing to go strong to the basket and those guys can convert or draw falls without getting stripped or throwing up some bullcrap shot and screaming for a foul to bail themselves out. Our offense is too jumpshot reliant. They shoot a lot of jumpers too, but they mix it up better. At the end of games, Yao shoots fallaway jumpers and T-Mac pulls up from 20 feet on a regular basis. That is the problem with our offense and hopefully Adelman can continue to rectify that, but our defense isn't as good as the Celtics. If T-Mac played lockdown defense it would be, but right now they are on a different level defensively. I realized that when we played them. They are awesome on defense. We are very good, but they are better and that defense is what is winning them games. They had a bunch of missed scoring opportunities tonight, but they kept stopping the Lakers on defense and getting the ball back for more and more chances and eventually converted some of those chances.

Look at the final 8 teams this year in the playoffs...

3 Star/Scoring Tandems...
East:
Boston: Allen, KG, Pierce
Cavs: LeBron, Zydrunas, ?
Detroit: Billups, Rasheed, Hamilton
Orlando: Dwight, Rashard Lewis, Hedo

West:
LA: Kobe, Gasol, Odom (Coming Soon: Bynum)
Utah: Boozer, Deron, Okur/AK47
San Antonio: Duncan, Ginobili, Parker
New Orleans: Paul, West, Peja

7 out of the 8 teams here have the 3 star system. The only team that doesnt was the Cavs, but they made it here because LeBron is so amazing. But notice without 3 stars, they didnt make it to the east finals. the 3 star system is the way to go.

1 or 2 star System:

Houston: T-Mac/Yao - Round 1 Exit
Denver: Melo/AI - Round 1 Exit
Toronto: Bosh - Round 1 Exit
Atlanta: Johnson/Bibby - Round 1 Exit
Sixers: Iguodola/Miller - Round 1 Exit
Wizards: Jamison/Butler Round 1 Exit (arenas was injured pretty much)

We didn't even have Yao. We looked pretty damn stout the last game he played when we dismantled the Hornets. I think that was his last game, if not it was the next to last. I still have that DVRed. Win 12 in the 22 win streak.

McGrady2Head wrote:Look at the final 8 teams this year in the playoffs...

3 Star/Scoring Tandems...
East:
Boston: Allen, KG, Pierce
Cavs: LeBron, Zydrunas, ?
Detroit: Billups, Rasheed, Hamilton
Orlando: Dwight, Rashard Lewis, Hedo

West:
LA: Kobe, Gasol, Odom (Coming Soon: Bynum)
Utah: Boozer, Deron, Okur/AK47
San Antonio: Duncan, Ginobili, Parker
New Orleans: Paul, West, Peja

7 out of the 8 teams here have the 3 star system. The only team that doesnt was the Cavs, but they made it here because LeBron is so amazing. But notice without 3 stars, they didnt make it to the east finals. the 3 star system is the way to go.

1 or 2 star System:

Houston: T-Mac/Yao - Round 1 Exit
Denver: Melo/AI - Round 1 Exit
Toronto: Bosh - Round 1 Exit
Atlanta: Johnson/Bibby - Round 1 Exit
Sixers: Iguodola/Miller - Round 1 Exit
Wizards: Jamison/Butler Round 1 Exit (arenas was injured pretty much)

1. Okur and Kirilenko are definitely not all-stars. Well they were (considering that they played in an all-star game), but to me they aren't all-stars.

2. Peja is a product of the Hornets offense. Nothing more.

3. Ben Wallace is more of an all-star than Peja, Okur, and Kirilenko.

4. Houston didn't even have Yao Ming during the playoffs. A first round exit wasn't a surprise.

To me the only legitimate teams with 3 defined all-stars are: Celtics, Pistons, Spurs, and Lakers.

Odom has never made an Allstar team in his career. Borderline in Miami that one year, but not quite. Bynum had an impressive 35 game run this year, but let's wait and see how his knee responds and if he can continue to improve or even maintain his 13 and 10 pace for a full season.

let's go after Vince Carter

Trade Battier & Jackson for Michael Redd...

McGrady = Pierce
Yao = Garnett
Redd = Allen

MaxRider wrote:let's go after Vince Carter

i believe morey is much more interested on acquiring richard jefferson than VC

McGrady2Head wrote:the 3 Star System is what wins. We have T-Mac, we have Yao. Its not enough, we need one more. To get that star, we have to give up Battier, and I am willing to do that.

If Yao = KG
and
T-Mac > Pierce
then
? = Ray Allen
and we will win a title

According to Allen's performance in the playoffs, Alston = Allen.

our 3rd star is actually Francis

MaxRider wrote:our 3rd star is actually Francis

Earth's three stars are the Sun, Alpha Centauri and Pluto.

T-Mac United wrote:Now I don't necessarily agree that you need at least 3 all-stars to win a championship. Having a solid starting five and a deep bench can lead this team to a championship. In my opinion Morey's blueprint is not far off from having the ideal roster. All the team needs to do is develop a good chemistry between players and add some depth in its bench.

However, if we were to implement this concept of "Big Three", we don't want to add any all-star to this roster. To replicate the kind of success the Boston Celtics had this year, we need a star who is selfless, possess the ability to contribute in other aspects of the game, and knows how to play off the ball (on offense).

What's so special about the Boston Trio is that all of them can play effectively without the ball in their hands. One interesting statistical evidence that verified the Celtics Big Three's ability to play selfless and off-the-ball basketball is the following: in the regular season Garnett, Pierce, and Allen all had a usage rate of that is significantly below 30.

I am not worried about McGrady and Yao as they are proven to be selfless players. It's a matter of finding that third star who fits the ideology of the "Big Three."

I agree that 3 all-stars dont mean you will win a title. As I said, 3 scorers gives you a better chance than what we had.