The Hawks Series and the draft

[jfs1000d]

When we look back at the entire season and playoffs for the Celtics the one glaring weakness we showed, which manifested itself in the hawks series, was the lack of explosiveness from the wing spots. Ray Allena and Pierce are great scorers, but they don't ave the explosiveness they had as young pups.

Tony Allen was buried on the bench, and the trio of Ray Allen, Paul Pierce and James Posey had an awful time trying to stay with Joe Johnson, J. Smith, Marvin Williams and the player I came to hate (because I loved how he played) -- Josh Childress.

Those 4 KILLED Boston.

I know it was long ago and since the Celtics won the title, everything is moot, but Ainge saw that too. If we ran into a big time athletic team such as the Hornets or even a healthy Wizards team we would ave been in some more trouble.

That's why the draft of Giddons and Walker is absolute genius. Conventional wisdom said we needed a backup PG or a PF/C with length.True. In reality, we weren't going to pick up what we needed in draft. We need a vet backup, not a rookie, and we need minutes at center and PF, not a project.

But, what else was lacking? Length and explosion on the wings to develop. Ray Allen and Pierce are 31 and 32. They ain't getting younger. TA is gone.

This team desperately needed wing players with tremendous athleticism and size. we got an athletic long shooting guard and an explosive small forward. Add in Gabe Pruitt, a sweet shooting combo guard and Danny Ainge is re-constructing the youth of this team.

It may not pay off next year (though i bet Giddons sees a lot of minutes backing up Allen), but it is going to pay off soon enough. This is especially true considering no first round pick next year.

If the Celts don't draft it, where do they get explosiveness? They can get vets to fill backup roles. But, there is virtually no one to get this kind of athleticism on the free agent market.

Brilliant use of resources to be honest. I expect Giddons to play a ton. Chalmers would have been buried and DeAndre Jordan would never get off the bench.

[ParticleMan]

I think too much is made of that Atlanta series. Yes, we had some trouble with athletes- most teams do. But in retrospect it was really just us playing poorly. We were flustered by high expectations and didn't know how to respond to the playoff intensity. It was this team's first experience in the playoffs.

I have no doubt that had we played Atlanta after we played LA, we would have swept or at least won 4-1. We handled them easily in the regular season, we just forgot how to play celtics basketball there for a bit.

Not that i don't like the picks...

[jfs1000d]

You right about playing bad against Atlanta. Too much was made of us struggling, but not enough was made at the struggle we had with athleticism.

Looking at those games, I was struck at the difference in athletic ability . Clearly Boston has, more talent and is more experienced, but athleticism used correctly can wreck havoc. Boston needed to get younger and more athletic in this draft, and the prime place was on the wings.

They did that.

[Fencer reregistered]

I don't accept that Tony is gone.

But I do think they'd like to be able to play smallball in a track meet for extended minutes. And while Ray and Paul have proven they can play 44+ minutes per game if they have to, they can't do that if you expect them to sprint and jump high all night. I doubt either of them is good for much more than 36-39 minutes IF THE GAME IS A TRACK MEET.