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Rivers: Future Is Now For Celtics
March 31, 2008 - 4:16 pm
The Boston Herald -
Doc Rivers, the head coach of the Celtics, believes that the future is now for the team, according to the Boston Herald.

"We do have some nice young guys, as well," Rivers said on Sunday. "That

It means for the next 3 years do they just stay with the team they have or start trading players, while their value is at their peak. Ray allen comes to mind. He will be coming off an excellent year this summer and I'm sure there is a team w/ younger talent willing to trade for him. Not draft picks either. But young talent the team isn't crazy about that will get big money. ben Gordon comes to mind.

How about if the celtics in the late eighties traded one of the big 3. Imagine what they could have gotten. It would of saved us years of suffering if we got a good deal. No. The celtics were true to their stars and they all retired celtics. Except Parish who went on to play for another 20 years.

It definitely means Doc is liking his new life of coaching the NBA's winningest team, and he doesn't plan to return to the announcer's booth anytime soon.

Maybe it also means that he sees the core of the team staying together for next year as well, but after that he's up for Danny's thinking radically about whatever changes need to be made so he's not coaching a team of has-beens.

You guys don't think they will trade KG, do you? I wouldn't trade Pierce yet either.

I think he is talking about balance and how there is a fine line between staying competive/rebuilding/and going for the championship. How you balance that is a very tricky and can go either way many times. Look at the Celtics that Ainge inherited. He took a team that many on the surface said, "they went to the ECF" when in fact they were in rapid decline coming off a terrible game 7 loss in the playoffs at home by a blowout. Now, would that have happened if they Cs resigned their FAs such as Rodney? But, in retrospect, say they did sign him, and they are crippled for a few years with his fat salary and body? Obviously, Ainge saw he needed assets and went out on a mission and accomplished it, but it doesn't ever stop. Now, he must make other similar decisions in the few years to come.

It's basically a throwaway article in that nothing radical is said, but what I took away from it was, we've basically straddled the line between the Chicago Bulls (young talent that isn't quite good enough to be a contender) and Miami Heat (lots of vets with no replacements on the horizon). How we proceed during and after the competitive years is key, but I'm not too worried about it given Danny's draft history.

Not sure what will happen with KG down the line, but I'm pretty confident that Pierce will retire a Celtic. I think the Celtics are in a good place for the next few years in that they should now be able to attract big time free agents to fill the void when Pierce and KG start slowing down. However, I do think Ray will be either traded or not re-signed when his contract is up. There are some good free agents available around that time, I think that could take Ray's place and keep this thing going.

DA has managed to do quite a lot of "talent accumulation" with only mid or late first round picks. I'd look for the team to continue adding depth and only think about trading one of Pierce/KG/Ray in the last year of their deals...

Some of you guys are way off. Doc is referring to trading the young talents like Perk and Powe not the vets.

If I had to guess, KG will retire a Celtic, too. He was fiercely loyal to the Wolves, and I think he will be to the C's, who have rejuvenated his career by winning and putting a TEAM around him. Plus, he's one of the rare current players (like Paul and Antoine) who understand what it means to be a part of the Boston Celtics.

I hope KG and Truth stay for the rest of their careers. And Ray too if he will resign for much cheaper price obviously.

***Just a quick note, I went to Beantown to watch the Celtics play the Heat this past Sunday. I ate at the Fours and I overheard a Celtic fan talking about Yao Ming for Ray Allen...remember cfan79 on here saying that? I wonder how legitimate a rumor this is...

Matt34520 wrote:I hope KG and Truth stay for the rest of their careers. And Ray too if he will resign for much cheaper price obviously.

***Just a quick note, I went to Beantown to watch the Celtics play the Heat this past Sunday. I ate at the Fours and I overheard a Celtic fan talking about Yao Ming for Ray Allen...remember cfan79 on here saying that? I wonder how legitimate a rumor this is...

Maybe it was cfan79 who you overheard?

But seriously, that trade would suck...Yao is always hurt!

MyInsatiableOne wrote:
Maybe it was cfan79 who you overheard?

But seriously, that trade would suck...Yao is always hurt!

It wasn't me. I have an albi, I was chopping up bodies with my uncle Peggy Sue.

Geez that's a hell of an alibi! You'd be better off not having one

I thought it was simple...just because we are in win now mode doesn't mean we can't continue to develop guys like Rondo, Perk, TA, etc....that while we certainly want to win now, there are probably step we can take that both help us to win now (or at least don't hurt our chances) while helping our future prospects as well.

This wasn't about the direction of the team as much as the reality. Where they were last season and were they are now compared to a team like the Heat who scrapped a contender and decided to rebuild instead of trying to see if they could squeeze one more out of their veteran cast.

The only thing to read into is that he was kind of cracking Riley for being Jerry Krause.