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While I didn't like losing Posey. DA did the right thing as he is setting us up for a 10 year run rather than a 3 year window.

WE WILL BE WAY BETTER THIS YEAR BECAUSE OF CONFIDENCE AND RESULTS!

Any athlete knows the difference between playing with confidence and playing with a question mark. When you have Confidence and Talent and a World Championship the game becomes much easier. You have a swagger. Suddenly guys become leaders. You play loose. You believe. We got a real taste of it in Game 6 vs. the Lakers.

Last year the C's knew in their hearts that they had a great opportunity to succeed. They fought through the rough periods with mental toughness. But of course their is always a little doubt in your mind since have never proved it and that can make you play tight and mechanical at times.

If the Celts can keep their 110% hustle and team cohesiveness. I see no reason why they can't be significantly better this year. The chemistry between players is something that developes over time and you could see last year it coming together steadily. Guys were increasingly confident in the strengths of their teamates and trying to maximize it. From an age standpoint, the young guys will be that much more mature and with it more confident.

THINK OF THE PLAYERS THIS CONFIDENCE CAN BENEFIT. WHAT DO YOU SAY?

That's true, they should have more confidence, but there have been many 1 and done champions in the past(Pistons and Heat most recently), and I think winning affects every team differently. For example, the Spurs seem to need to fail in the previous season in order to inspire them to play their best in the playoffs. For the Pistons, most of their fans seem to think that the team is now a victim of 'over-confidence' where the team mentality swings so far that they think they can turn in lack-luster games and win anyway.

I thought this post was going to be about Tom Thibodeau, to me, he is the most important acquisition. Our team defense is what allowed us to win. We had some pretty poor shooting performances in the playoffs, but our defense was always consistently tough.

I thought it was gonna be about DA.

I agree. Confidence is way more important than anything else. I don't think we'll be taken to 7 games by a team like Atlanta this season.

I don't even think the Hawks are going to make the playoffs once they lose Josh Smith.

I agree with the OP

This is one of the reasons why I think losing Posey isn't as big a deal. We still have PP, Ray and House to knock down the big shots and even Rondo hit his fair share of clutch baskets

Losing Posey isn't that big a deal unless Pierce goes down. We need someone else to backup in that situation.

Every team has internal changes when kept together. In the NBA this means the least of all the major sports.

The DET team kept their starting 5 after winning it with historical defense like us. They lost some key bench players and dispite having the lowest turnover margin over the next 5 years never won it again.

The problem is we're not really set up for a 10 year run (who is?, other than Portland); we just have a slightly better chance at a 10 year run. I think maybe maximizing the current chances would be a wiser move, I would've tried harder to keep Posey. It's not the end of the world though.

I agrre with Rocky, as long as we have Tom Thibodeau, I feel we could replace Posey, with nearly any player that wants to win, and win now.