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Players Much Better Than Last Year
Kendrick Perkins (Starter)

Players Better Than Last Year
Rajon Rondo (Starter)
Glen Davis (9th Man) Missed 28 Games

Players About the Same as Last Year
Kevin Garnett (Starter) Missed 11 Games
Paul Pierce (Starter) Missed 5 Games
Rasheed Wallace (6th Man) Missed 3 Games
Tony Allen (10th Man) Missed 21 Games

Players Worse Than Last Year
Ray Allen (Starter - solidly worse)
Marquis Daniels (7th Man - solidly worse) Missed 21 Games, so far
Eddie House (8th Man - solidly worse)
Brian Scalabrine (11th Man - solidly worse)
Sheldon Williams (12th Man)

Not enough data to comment: JR Giddens, Bill Walker

Well, one starter, and 3 bench players are noticeably off from their games from last season.
This is tough to offset, despite a huge improvement in Kendrick Perkins game and
continued development in Rajon Rondo's already complete game.

Davis' injury turned out to be a much greater setback, coupled with the injuries to
Marquis Daniels and Tony Allen and Kevin Garnett.

Some guys (Ray, Marquis, Eddie) need to pick up their games for the playoffs,
and in Glen Davis' case, demonstrate if he can repeat his 2009 playoff performances
against a wide variety of teams.

They need to play harder. Period. Everything else will fall in place. They are not hungry and think teams are going to hand them wins. That's the bottom line in my eyes. Teams don't fear them nor should they at this point.

It's funny how Pierce is shooting 46.8% and Ray Allen is shooting 46.3% but Pierce is playing great and Ray is terrible. Some people in this forum really make me laugh.

Scal and especially Shel don't belong in the worse column. But obviously they are just bench players so I'm just nitpicking.

perk's offense has improved but i cant say same thing for his D. he's been giving less effort at the defensive end this year compare last year . looks like more touch for meaning less defense for Perk.

from team standpoint , it looks like the celtics has lost their focus and intensity. They want to jump to postseason asap

Celts17Pride wrote:It's funny how Pierce is shooting 46.8% and Ray Allen is shooting 46.3% but Pierce is playing great and Ray is terrible. Some people in this forum really make me laugh.

Ray's playing slightly worse than last year, but that's because he had a very efficient year last year. I think this thread would be modeled better off of player expectations than just last year. Pierce is playing better than last year or as expected, while Ray's playing as expected but worse than last year.

Also, regression isn't our problem, health is. We're an average playoff team without KG, as evidenced these past two years. That and it's not necessarily our lack of drive, but we haven't been healthy enough to give players adequate rest for the second half.

Lastly, I'd blame Doc. I don't have the numbers to back it up, but we've come out of the gate strong in every game I can think of this year, but have had our worst play in the third quarter. Two years ago, in our championship year, the third was our best quarter. It's when half time adjustments are made and that really falls on Doc in my opinion. We're clearly the better team outright most of the time, with how well we start, but we aren't making the necessary adjustments as the game goes on.

SilverQuick wrote:perk's offense has improved but i cant say same thing for his D. he's been giving less effort at the defensive end this year compare last year . looks like more touch for meaning less defense for Perk.

Interesting, but I don't perceive the same thing. My sense from watching games has been that Perk is giving fairly consistent effort across the board. He's had a handful of games that he's throttled down, but I would estimate it's about 1 in 10 games, where many of his teammates seem to slack off 3 or 4 of every 10. My perception is that Perk has been forced to cover much more ground without KG in the lineup, frequently having to run out at open perimeter shooters and cover for Rondo when his assignment blows by him.

the only guys who are playing better are Rondo and Perk and lately they haven't been playing that well. Everyone else is down from last year. Pierce started out great but injuries have hurt him.

Celts17Pride wrote:It's funny how Pierce is shooting 46.8% and Ray Allen is shooting 46.3% but Pierce is playing great and Ray is terrible. Some people in this forum really make me laugh.

Last year Ray was supremely efficient, plus there were quite a few games
where the man he guarded shot like 3-14, 4-17 which also helped.
So, even though he took less shots than he had most of his career,
Ray was extremely efficient last season, and the year before.
No one expected Ray to be that efficient,
but thankfully, the NBA League Office took notice,
or at least the top honcho,
because David Stern named Ray to the Eastern Conference All-Star team,
deservedly so, the previous TWO years,
despite not being voted in by fans (starters) or coaches (players 6-10).

Actually, Stern had named Ray to the ALL-Star team maybe two times
before Ray became a Celtic, so he has been added by Commissioner Stern 4X now, I believe.

In any event, relatively speaking, Ray has fallen off from last season about the same
as Marquis Daniels and Eddie House have.

I would say Tony Allen is better this year than last simply because he's had some good games for us.

I don't understand having Davis under better. He's regressed in my opinion.

Tough to say Daniels and Shelden have regressed since they didn't play for us last year. Not only that, but Daniels has been out half the season.

Sounds like a "what have you done for me lately" bias rather than looking at the big picture.

Celts17Pride wrote:It's funny how Pierce is shooting 46.8% and Ray Allen is shooting 46.3% but Pierce is playing great and Ray is terrible. Some people in this forum really make me laugh.

Because shooting percentages is exactly how we should judge a player.

DarkAzcura wrote:

Celts17Pride wrote:It's funny how Pierce is shooting 46.8% and Ray Allen is shooting 46.3% but Pierce is playing great and Ray is terrible. Some people in this forum really make me laugh.

Because shooting percentages is exactly how we should judge a player.

Not entirely but statistically Pierce is slightly ahead of Ray in most categories but not by a lot. What happens in this forum is people have their own agendas like "trade Ray Allen" no matter how he plays. The problem with that is some people think the Celtics are going to trade him and get Bosh, Wade, Joe Johnson etc. back from the other team. Not going to happen.

Last year Davis was pretty horrible until February,
improving thru March & April,
and then offensively came to life in the playoffs,
although his defense was exactly the same.

This year, well, there are times I wonder
about his long term viabibility because of his
inability to finish around the rim.

There have been a number of times this year
where my reaction has been, Powe would not have done that.
But before I cede Davis' 2009 playoff performance as his norm,
and not just a "hot" shooting streak,
he has to show that he can shoot at that level consistently.

Davis was horrific tonight,
but as his minutes build, we'll know what to expect of him
on a regular basis. He's not giving any confidence right now,
but that just might be because he's got to play his shot back.
He was getting away with it until the last few games,

ray allen is bad, i was a huge ray allen fan, but hes terrible on defence, rarely gets rebounds or crashes the boards, cannot create at all, hes just bad, i mean its been really bad these last couple of games too.

shooting % means nothing in a players ability, captain jack shoots 40% but he is better then Ray , Billups shoots low % but is a better player

Ray Allen is very overated

^^^ It doesn't mean "nothing" but when all you do is shoot you better do it damn well. PP is an all around player. He plays good D (I think best on the team outside of bigs like Perkins and KG) and sets people up - plus he isn't adverse to a few rebounds. Guys like Eddie House though better bring a better shooting percentage because that's all they do well..

I just think Ray Allen is a spot up shooter finesse player,Pierce is a much better player

Pierce needs to take more shots i dont understand why they wont give him the green light to take more shots , its dumb, Pierce needs to average 15 shots per game not the same number of shots Ray Allen takes at 12 per game.

PP34RA10 wrote:I just think Ray Allen is a spot up shooter finesse player,Pierce is a much better player

Pierce needs to take more shots i dont understand why they wont give him the green light to take more shots , its dumb, Pierce needs to average 15 shots per game not the same number of shots Ray Allen takes at 12 per game.

Ray Allen would not lead the team in minutes if he was just a spot up shooter.
There's a reason he played 42 minutes yesterday.
Although Ray Allen has slipped,
that was to be expected.

I have been saying for a long time that Danny
could have "helped" the team by
giving a roster spot that one of his defensive wings has (Tony, Marquis, Giddens)
to a wing that can knock down shots. That should have been a priority back in July,
and should have happened by now.

Just like not getting someone who can dribble behind Rondo
has been complacency in the front office.

It seems that the Celtics have not acknowledged the shortcomings,
and overacheivements, of the players they have.

By not seeing the light, they failed to get the spare light bulbs
that the bench has needed. At least when you sign someone like a Posey,
you have a contract that you can exchange. Part of the problem swinging any
trades is their limited contracts, where the Celtics may have to do a 4 for 1
because Sheldon Williams, Giddens & Walker make peanuts
and Tony Allen and Scalabrine are, in NBA terms, low cost players.

PP34RA10 wrote:shooting % means nothing in a players ability, captain jack shoots 40% but he is better then Ray , Billups shoots low % but is a better player

Ray Allen is very overated

Plain old FG% can be misleading. Paul's wacky 47% 3pt shooting on 4 attempts a game and, to a lesser extent, his 84% FT shooting on 6 attempts a game, are what has set Paul apart from Ray (and the rest of the team) offensively.

Ray's 35% 3pt shooting has been a major disappointment this year, as he's hovered around 40% for most of his career.

And, no, Captain Jack is not a better offensive player than Ray Allen.

Jammer wrote:

PP34RA10 wrote:I just think Ray Allen is a spot up shooter finesse player,Pierce is a much better player

Pierce needs to take more shots i dont understand why they wont give him the green light to take more shots , its dumb, Pierce needs to average 15 shots per game not the same number of shots Ray Allen takes at 12 per game.

Ray Allen would not lead the team in minutes if he was just a spot up shooter.
There's a reason he played 42 minutes yesterday.
Although Ray Allen has slipped,
that was to be expected.

I have been saying for a long time that Danny
could have "helped" the team by
giving a roster spot that one of his defensive wings has (Tony, Marquis, Giddens)
to a wing that can knock down shots. That should have been a priority back in July,
and should have happened by now.

Just like not getting someone who can dribble behind Rondo
has been complacency in the front office.

It seems that the Celtics have not acknowledged the shortcomings,
and overacheivements, of the players they have.

By not seeing the light, they failed to get the spare light bulbs
that the bench has needed. At least when you sign someone like a Posey,
you have a contract that you can exchange. Part of the problem swinging any
trades is their limited contracts, where the Celtics may have to do a 4 for 1
because Sheldon Williams, Giddens & Walker make peanuts
and Tony Allen and Scalabrine are, in NBA terms, low cost players.

Complacency? They've tried for three straight years to get someone to dribble behind Rondo. Cassell, Marbury, Grant Hill, Daniels and apparently Robinson. When you're paying a guy 18 million, you have to depend on him to fill multiple roles and maybe play big minutes because the only back-ups you can afford are guys like Eddie House and Tony Allen.

You can't add rotation quality ball-handler/shooters to the team without shelling out some cash. We used pretty much all we had on Sheed and then we got the best guy left in Marquis Daniels.

The team's disappointing season thus far has not been the result of complacency, but rather injury and underachievement. Ray, House and Sheed's shooting has gone in the tank while KG, Pierce, Daniels, TA and Baby have all missed significant chunks of the season with injuries. Rondo and Perk are the only ones who have stayed healthy and effective for the whole season.