Have the Celts done enough?

[Red2]

Short answer: No. Sure Wallace and Daniels are nice picks up and getting Baby back was a plus but losing Leon and replacing him with SHeldon Williams? Sorry I don't buy that one. Also, we still don't have a back up point guard and we're still stuck with Tony Allen and a concussion prone Scalabrine plus a bunch of potential non contributors in Giddens, Walker and Hudson. Cleveland meanwhile landed Shaq, plus Jamario Moon, plus Anthony Parker plus Leon Powe and a decent 2nd rounder in Danny Green. The only peeple they lost was Wally ( who's done) and JOe Smith is also done. The Lakers landed Artest and kept Odom so they're way ahead of where they were last year when they won the title. Wallace will help but he's old and getting older by the moment. Daniels has talent when he wants to use it but he doesn't bring it everynight and Shelden Williams has been a bust. So when I look at our team and am brutally honest I don't think we've done enough. Maybe that was all Danny could do but I'd still like to see a long athletic wing man, a real back up PG and another shooter to bring off the bench. Finally, do we really have enough depth at center?

[Dave_From_NB]

Well, last off-season was such a disaster that I'm pretty happy with what has happened this year. Front page of Realgm Basketball has an off-season team review which puts Boston 5'th, Lakers middle, and Magic and Cav's in the bottom 5. That roughly is my view as well.

Leon is out till the ASG likely, and it's pretty doubful he'll be much of a factor this year, so practically speaking it's little loss for the Celtics and little gain for the Cavs. A healthy Powe is quite a bit different, but he's not healthy.

I agree there is still some work that could be done, Walker and Giddens might make contributions, and off-season isn't over, so there is room for further improvement. Overall I think it's pretty good.

[Lewis35]

In my mind the Celtics did the best they could with what they had. They landed Sheed and Daniels. Remember up until recently the Celtics could never land a decent FA.

They did not have the assets to get a player like Shaq or Jefferson for basically nothing. Artest was going to the Lakers and that was that. As for the backup PG, well we did win a title when House was the backup. Can they improve in the area, yes but I do not believe it is a glaring weakness either. Plus Daniels can play backup PG as well if needed. Sheldon Williams is an insurance policy and probably be a 13th man off the bench.

I am not going to lie; the Lakers have the best team in the NBA. However I think we have a very good team and will no doubt be in contention this year along with the Spurs, Magic and Cavs.

[return2glory]

I say yes. With the signing of Sheed and resigning of BBD, there was no more minutes for Powe. Williams isn't replacing Powe. Williams won't be playing more than 5 minutes a game, and that will be during garbage time. I love Powe but there was no more playing time left for him.

There is 96 minutes available for the C and PF shots. You figure KG, Perkins, and Sheed will play about 30 minutes each. That only leaves 6 minutes for BBD. So where are the minutes for Powe if we resigned him? Where are the minutes for Williams?

Look for a slimmed down BBD to battle for SF minutes with Walker. BBD is a player and he needs to be on the floor more than 6-12 minutes a game.

The Daniels signing is big. He can play PG, SG, and SF. Like Sheed, Daniels gives us a lot of versatility. We have become a very deep team. Rondo, Ray, KG, Pierce, Perkins, Sheed, House, BBD, and Daniels are a great 9 man rotation. After that, you have Scal and TA that can play. Walker, Williams, Giddens, and Hudson are all young, talented prospects.

So yes, the Celtics have done for than enough.

[JSABleedsGreen]

The answer right now is.....almost. Once the Daniels signing is made....the answer will be Yes. The frontcourt is now stacked. The wings can now have a spell with Daniels and possibly Walker or Giddens, maybe even TA if he's not gone. The only position left would be the back up PG. If Rondo were 30 years old i'd be concerned. He's not though so i'm not overly concerned. The Celtics do not need a back PG right now. They didn't need one when they won (Sam Cassell) nor last year (Stephon Marbury). They could have won in 2008 and been eliminated last year without either player. Neither provided any help in the playoffs (aside for MArbury's 4th Quarter games in the Orlando series). The Celtics have the man power and the agile 2 and 3 players that can help bring the ball up. Ray Allen and Paul Pierce can help with the second unit if they are in there. Daniels has some handle and can handle the rock too. When the bulls won all those titles, who brought the ball up a majority of the time? Jordan and Pippen. BJ Armstrong was garbage, Ron harper was good but by having Jordan and Pippen bring the ball up it avoided the pressure from a fast PG. Ray and Pierce and Daniels, hell even TA can bring the ball up.......if the Celts wish to trade a player or sign a PG to the vet minimum later in the season then by all means go for it.....but all in all....it has been a successfull off season and i'm hyped up just like i was in the summer of the 07/08 season.

[chas0x01]

Assuming the Daniels trade happens as has been reported (TA+Walker) I think we should get a deep backup SF.

Rondo, House, ?
RA, Daniels, Giddens
PP, ?
KG, Baby, Scal
Perks, Sheed, Williams

The frontcourt is seriously stacked. But if the reports are correct that Ainges made an offer to Bowen it's obvious management would like to add a little more depth at the 3, and I'd agree. I'd also like to see Hudson go overseas and for Danny to pickup one more PG or combo guard who can definitely contribute. Maybe someone like Luther Head? Maybe Pavs for the LLE and Head for the vet min? That would roundout a pretty nice 14 man roster.

[nasbahceltic]

I look at it like this. Right now I believe we're head and shoulders above where we were last year (assuming KG comes back at full strength of course). What alot of people fail to realize is that Rondo and Perk will both be siginificantly better then they were last year. Couple that with the signing of Sheed and Daniels we're looking at a very, very good top 8 (possibly the best in the league).

Our starting 5 also remains unchanged therefore we won't have any chemistry and integration issues like all of the other top contenders are sure to deal with when you consider their unfamiliarity with each other.

Finally, we have an ace in the hole in the form of 7-10 mill in expiring contracts of players who will be dressed in street clothes come playoff time. Scal, Tony and JR add up to about 7 mill in expirings and if you add Eddie's contract (if he somehow loses his spot in the rotation albeit unlikely) we've got about 10 mill available to acquire an impact player to come off the bench and add some punch. If the Rockets are out of it by the trade deadline I hope Ainge makes a big time push for Shane Battier.

[Kefa461]

Yes.....we have improved........

[chakdaddy]

There wouldn't be enough minutes to go around if a healthy Powe were back - now that we have Rasheed, we don't need two undersized PF's. The injury made our decision for us.

All that we could have done better was add someone better than Marquis as the SF/SG, but we didn't have money for that. By that I mean adding someone like Artest or even Ariza.

[greenmachine_2849]

There is 96 minutes available for the C and PF shots. You figure KG, Perkins, and Sheed will play about 30 minutes each. That only leaves 6 minutes for BBD. So where are the minutes for Powe if we resigned him? Where are the minutes for Williams?

Look for a slimmed down BBD to battle for SF minutes with Walker. BBD is a player and he needs to be on the floor more than 6-12 minutes a game.

Nah, I'd say there is at least 15 mpg at PF/C for Davis. Possibly as many as 20. Yes, in a perfect world our three best big men (Garnett, Perkins, and Wallace) would see all but the garbage minutes at those positions. However, we have seen repeatedly that these guys aren't capable of playing a full season at 30+ mpg. None of them have been able to play 80+ regular season games in any of the past three years. And they are all a year older and were not 100% healthy at the end of last season, so the odds of any of them being capable of playing 30 mpg for 82 games (let alone for all three of them) are pretty small, imo. Why, if you have quality depth behind them, would you risk playing them more minutes than they have shown they can handle? I'll go with 26 mpg for Perkins, 27 mpg for Garnett, and 25 mpg for Wallace. Which would leave 18 mpg for Davis.

[Cyclical]

Hard to say if it's enough. I think we fell just a bit short with back court depth. WIth all due respect to House and Daniels they're not PGs. TA certainly isn't one either. I hope Hudson works out - If he does, I'm happy.

[joneb]

I think many of you are underestimating Sheed. Adding a 7 foot tall all star caliber player is something that no other contender has done this offseason. Height wins championships. As far as the Lakers signing Artest, where's he going to play? He's not going to bump Kobe out of the 2 spot, and Lamar Odom has been getting a lot of minutes at the 3. If Bynum plays the 5, and Gasol the 4, and Odom the 3, where does that leave Artest?

I'm pretty sure we'll add a veteran PG to back up Rondo before the trade deadline. Once that happens, all the pieces will be in place.

[buckner1976]

There is 96 minutes available for the C and PF shots. You figure KG, Perkins, and Sheed will play about 30 minutes each. That only leaves 6 minutes for BBD. So where are the minutes for Powe if we resigned him? Where are the minutes for Williams?

Look for a slimmed down BBD to battle for SF minutes with Walker. BBD is a player and he needs to be on the floor more than 6-12 minutes a game.

Nah, I'd say there is at least 15 mpg at PF/C for Davis. Possibly as many as 20. Yes, in a perfect world our three best big men (Garnett, Perkins, and Wallace) would see all but the garbage minutes at those positions. However, we have seen repeatedly that these guys aren't capable of playing a full season at 30+ mpg. None of them have been able to play 80+ regular season games in any of the past three years. And they are all a year older and were not 100% healthy at the end of last season, so the odds of any of them being capable of playing 30 mpg for 82 games (let alone for all three of them) are pretty small, imo. Why, if you have quality depth behind them, would you risk playing them more minutes than they have shown they can handle? I'll go with 26 mpg for Perkins, 27 mpg for Garnett, and 25 mpg for Wallace. Which would leave 18 mpg for Davis.

I actually don't think 30mpg is asking too much for them but on the other hand, since we have the depth and because BBD has proven he can play a solid 20min, we might as well use him. I say whenever possible, limit the minutes of KG and Sheed during the regular season and let Perk and BBD pick up more minutes. We didn't get Sheed to win the regular season and with KG coming off injury, there should be no rush to force-feed him minutes early. Start slow and build him up during the season.

[Ben-N1ce]

They improved over last year if Garnett isn't hindered. Good enough for me

[sully00]

If KG is back then hell just about anything would have been enough, I think people forget how damn good this team is with a healthy KG. Are we good enough to overcome his loss or failure to return to superstar status maybe maybe not.

I think it is a mistake to look at what other teams have done and then try and compare it to the whether the C's did enough. On the positive Boston returns its starting 5 as well as 2 of its primary backups and adds to guys that are legit rotation players so the depth is significantly better.

The Spurs, Lakers, Magic, and Cavs added starters that will require a transition. The best move was probably the Lakers but it may well have been a lateral move especially when you factor in that Artest isn't going to be able to have the ball.

The Magic and Cavs improved last season built on their defense, and then turned around and sacrificed it for offense. Carter is certainly an upgrade offensively but he is a suck defender giving up Lee is also going to hurt them defensively.

I hate what the Cav's did they gave an, old granted, defensive PF?C who couldn't score and replaced him with an old offensive C who cannot defend at all. While he can handle more of the scoring load you can't play him with Z so they added a different player but I just don't see how it isn't LeBron with a decent big man and a bunch spare parts just like it has been for the last 3 years, now they are just going to go back to not being able to stop anyone. They can use LeBron at the PF spot more but not against the Lakers and Celtics.

The Spurs move has the chance to be the best. Jefferson fit in well to what they do and he could defend once upon a time and as we saw with Pierce it can come back. I just think that the reality of the move isn't that he is replacing Finley as much as Manu is becoming Finley and they need Jefferson to replace his production.

[TA42]

Short answer: No. Sure Wallace and Daniels are nice picks up and getting Baby back was a plus but losing Leon and replacing him with SHeldon Williams? Sorry I don't buy that one. Also, we still don't have a back up point guard and we're still stuck with Tony Allen and a concussion prone Scalabrine plus a bunch of potential non contributors in Giddens, Walker and Hudson. Cleveland meanwhile landed Shaq, plus Jamario Moon, plus Anthony Parker plus Leon Powe and a decent 2nd rounder in Danny Green. The only peeple they lost was Wally ( who's done) and JOe Smith is also done. The Lakers landed Artest and kept Odom so they're way ahead of where they were last year when they won the title. Wallace will help but he's old and getting older by the moment. Daniels has talent when he wants to use it but he doesn't bring it everynight and Shelden Williams has been a bust. So when I look at our team and am brutally honest I don't think we've done enough. Maybe that was all Danny could do but I'd still like to see a long athletic wing man, a real back up PG and another shooter to bring off the bench. Finally, do we really have enough depth at center?

How is Sheldon replacing Leon? Why can't Sheed be replacing Leon?

The team that started 27-2 and had a 19 game winning streak. NINETEEN GAMES before KG got hurt hasn't done enough?

A healthy KG would have been about all this team needed but they went and got Sheed and Daniels to go with a much improved Big Baby in the second unit. That same second unit that had serious issues scoring.

The team as it stands now has a steady 9-11 man rotation: KG, Ray, Paul, Perk, Rondo, Sheed, Daniels, House, Tony, Scal and Williams. Danny can look to add late in the season like he's done the past two years. Yeah we have players like Giddens, Walker and Hudson but they're no worse than Cassell, Pollard or Pruitt were the championship year.

The big issue will of course be health...but guess what? All teams are one major injury away from having their season derailed.

I feel good about the team.

[Captain_Caveman]

I would have traded Ray Allen for two starting-caliber guys.

[canman1971]

Are people smoking freaking crack? What the hell else were the Cs supposed to do? I'm sure they would have loved to sign LeBron, but unfortunately he wasn't available. I mean, come on, and wake up!!! As sully00 said, if KG is healthy, this team has already improved more than any other team. Some people just love to complain or try to out think themselves.

[sully00]

I would have traded Ray Allen for two starting-caliber guys.

But you can only use one starting caliber guy and there is no one that you could have traded Ray Allen for that could have held his jock, so you end making your team worse. You can only play 5 guys at a time.

Our bench is now made up of bench players, guys who can and have started but more importantly have had success and experience coming off the bench, even Sheed has done that. It isn't always that easy for a someone who is used to starting and playing 30-35 mpg to transition to coming in cold and only playing 20 mpg.

The pg issue is not about getting someone else, it is about Daniels and House working out as a tandem because of their skill sets they actually need each other, we would need a pg who can shoot the 3 to pair with Daniels or a SG who can handle the ball to pair with House, it either works or they are both useless.

[Captain_Caveman]

But you can only use one starting caliber guy and there is no one that you could have traded Ray Allen for that could have held his jock, so you end making your team worse. You can only play 5 guys at a time.

Our bench is now made up of bench players, guys who can and have started but more importantly have had success and experience coming off the bench, even Sheed has done that. It isn't always that easy for a someone who is used to starting and playing 30-35 mpg to transition to coming in cold and only playing 20 mpg.

The pg issue is not about getting someone else, it is about Daniels and House working out as a tandem because of their skill sets they actually need each other, we would need a pg who can shoot the 3 to pair with Daniels or a SG who can handle the ball to pair with House, it either works or they are both useless.

Meh. Ray can no longer play defense or take anyone off the dribble. He's a $20m outside shooting specialist.

Could have gotten a tandem like Stephen Jackson and Maggette easily enough.

Or Richard Jefferson and whoever.

And still gotten Sheed.

Rondo/House
Jackson/Daniels
Pierce/Maggette
KG/Baby
Perkins/Sheed