We really couldn't be better off

Hemingway · Post #1 » by **Hemingway** » Tue Mar 17, 2009 9:53 pm

In light of some negativity I have heard as of late I thought I'd offer the board a reality check. We really couldn't be better off both in terms of current talent and future outlook. I'll do things Gant stile and offer a few points.

1. We have 3 superstars. All 3 have been the go to guy and all 3 fit together extremely well.

2. The contracts of the big 3 come off the books one after the other. This prevents us from having a sudden collapse. Unless it is buy our own doing, we will not lose more than one of these guys in a single season.

3. We have no bad contracts. Do you realize how good a payroll situation you have when the glaring weakness is... what.. .Scal making a few mil? Almost every other team out there has some dead weight taking up loads of money. That hurts payroll and you could argue (and indeed I am) that it hurts team moral to have someone not playing and taking up a ton of money.

3. We have a proportional amount of developing players. Walker, Giddions and Gabe all very raw and Allen, Rondo, Baby and Powe contributing and still improving.

4. Rajan Rondo. The guy gets mention in allstar consideration right now, his 3rd year. That is a lot out of a late draft choice. He is only getting better and will probably surprise a lot of people just how good he becomes.

5. We have the 1 and 5 spot locked up. Remember thinking for years, "if we could only get a good PG and Center" A lot of teams are thinking that. Those are the hardest positions to acquire and we have both set with young guys, and on small deals.

6. We have proven to be a favorable mid season free agent destination. I think you can make the case that we are THE midseason destination for top notch free agents.

Going forward, we are in great shape. I don't understand the negativity. I don't see how we could possibly be in a better situation going forward short of having LBJ.

Joekickass2008 · Post #2 » by **Joekickass2008** » Tue Mar 17, 2009 10:08 pm

Good xment. You forgot that we have an ex-all star point guard in Marbury....who will help us out later in the season and if things go well.....possibbly next year ( Ihope so anyways).

stretch · Post #3 » by **stretch** » Tue Mar 17, 2009 11:20 pm

this is one of the best posts on realgm i've seen in a very very long time. The underlying sentiment is don't take this for granted

we're not going to always have it this good .. and 2006-07 is still fresh in most of our minds.

Even in the 80s, Celtics fans didn't really recognize just how good the C's really had it. Of course we all realized Bird was a generational talent, and McHale was a franchise player himself, and Parish and DJ on other teams would be a major star.

Don't let the day to day winning and losing take away from how amazing Celtics basketball really is.

When 2020 comes around, we will miss the Celtic era of 2007-2010 or 2007-2011... or whatever...

Whether or not we put up another banner, in most other ways this really is one of the there or four greatest eras in Celtics history, albeit condensed.

stretch · Post #4 » by **stretch** » Tue Mar 17, 2009 11:23 pm

It's easy to look from the perspective of a generalist or fan of another team and say - don't get carried away. Sure, there are a lot of good players in this league. Rondo isn't outworldly special when you look at some of the other points in the L. Perkins especially.

But having gone through Celtic basketball since the early 90s, I think we all realize how amazing it is to have a point guard of Rondo's ability, and a big man of Perkins' caliber.

celtics792244 · Post #5 » by **celtics792244** » Wed Mar 18, 2009 12:33 am

stretch wrote:this is one of the best posts on realgm i've seen in a very very long time. The underlying sentiment is don't take this for granted

we're not going to always have it this good .. and 2006-07 is still fresh in most of our minds.

Even in the 80s, Celtics fans didn't really recognize just how good the C's really had it. Of course we all realized Bird was a generational talent, and McHale was a franchise player himself, and Parish and DJ on other teams would be a major star.

DON'T FORGET DANNY AINGE! WHEN HE WENT TO SACRAMENTO HE WAS THE FRANCHISE ALONG WITH TYSDALE...DANNY AVERAGED ALMOST 20 A GAME AND ALSO HAD 45 POINTS FOR 2 TEAMS IN THE SAME SEASON... BOSTON AND SACRAMENTO. THIS COMING ON THE BACK END OF HIS CAREER... HIS BEST YEARS IN BOSTON. SHOWS HOW MUCH OF HIS GAME HE SACRIFICED FOR THE GREAT CELTICS TEAMS OF THE 80's.
Don't let the day to day winning and losing take away from how amazing Celtics basketball really is.

When 2020 comes around, we will miss the Celtic era of 2007-2010 or 2007-2011... or whatever...

Whether or not we put up another banner, in most other ways this really is one of the there or four greatest eras in Celtics history, albeit condensed.

Kefa461 · Post #6 » by **Kefa461** » Wed Mar 18, 2009 1:57 am

Nice post...... 8-)

campybatman · Post #7 » by **campybatman** » Wed Mar 18, 2009 5:30 am

Hemingway wrote:5. We have the 1 and 5 spot locked up. Remember thinking for years, "if we could only get a good PG and Center" A lot of teams are thinking that. Those are the hardest positions to acquire and we have both set with young guys, and on small deals.

Yes, but Ainge will have to pay them more soon. Perkins has emerged as one of the better starting centers in the eastern conference and deserves to be paid accordingly. Ditto for Rondo. Rondo's on the cusp of being an elite young point guard. His salary certainly deserves a substantial raise.

DieselCeltic · Post #8 » by **DieselCeltic** » Wed Mar 18, 2009 11:18 am

Marbury can't hit a jump shot even if his life depended on it. The guy with the shortest arms in the league.

MyInsatiableOne · Post #9 » by **MyInsatiableOne** » Wed Mar 18, 2009 11:41 am

bonsaiflipflops wrote:
Yes, but Ainge will have to pay them more soon. Perkins has emerged as one of the better starting centers in the eastern conference and deserves to be paid accordingly. Ditto for Rondo. Rondo's on the cusp of being an elite young point guard. His salary certainly deserves a substantial raise.

Good point...but do you think they might take a little less to stay in Boston? It's interesting to think about...

klemen4 · Post #10 » by **klemen4** » Wed Mar 18, 2009 12:08 pm

Completely agree.

We have a great team and I still think we will be in finals. Also watching yesterdays game CLE:Orl neither team can compete with us on defense and that will win the games. Also we play the most complete offense with several options, they only play 2-3 sets because they just dont have enough firepower.

Not worried

DieselCeltic · Post #11 » by **DieselCeltic** » Wed Mar 18, 2009 12:14 pm

klemen4 wrote::clap:

Completely agree.

We have a great team and I still think we will be in finals. Also watching yesterdays game CLE:Orl neither team can compete with us on defense and that will win the games. Also we play the most complete offense with several options, they only play 2-3 sets because they just dont have enough firepower.

Not worried

Yeah you're so damn right. I guess that's why Cleveland is just destroying everyone on their path. :roll:

campybatman · Post #12 » by **campybatman** » Wed Mar 18, 2009 12:48 pm

Well, if you're Ainge and you've the foresight... You sign Rondo accordingly and don't expect he and agent to accept an offer less than the going rate. I doubt Rondo thinks he's yet on Paul or Williams' level. But, he has to believe that he and Harris will rule the eastern conference. As for Perkins, Ainge already signed him to what some now will say was a discount because Perkins sought security. Still, Perkins has improved enough from his current contract to receive a fair bump in salary.

Perkins I feel is getting better in part to having Garnett as a teammates. There's still a few years remaining on his contract. So, it isn't as if his motivation to get better is due to money. Whereas, you've to believe Rondo's thinking about his longterm future in Boston. Like Perkins, I think his motivation isn't driven my money but more to due with proving their critics wrong. I feel like they both felt slighted by the national media last season as having the perception that they're just "two starters" next two the Big Three. This season, they set out to prove that they're just as much a major part of the starting five as them.

MyInsatiableOne · Post #13 » by **MyInsatiableOne** » Wed Mar 18, 2009 1:17 pm

DieselCeltic wrote:
Yeah you're so damn right. I guess that's why Cleveland is just destroying everyone on their path.

Not that I have no worries, but don't underestimate the brutality quotient (just made that up!) of the schedule...ours has been absolutely brutal and will be until the end of the month....

Hemingway · Post #14 » by **Hemingway** » Wed Mar 18, 2009 4:31 pm

bonsaiflipflops wrote:
Hemingway wrote:5. We have the 1 and 5 spot locked up. Remember thinking for years, "if we could only get a good PG and Center" A lot of teams are thinking that. Those are the hardest positions to acquire and we have both set with young guys, and on small deals.

Yes, but Ainge will have to pay them more soon. Perkins has emerged as one of the better starting centers in the eastern conference and deserves to be paid accordingly. Ditto for Rondo. Rondo's on the cusp of being an elite young point guard. His salary certainly deserves a substantial raise.

Rondo we will have to pay more, buy not Perk any time soon. We have him locked up for another two years, in the NBA that is a long time. Rondo's rookie contract ending after next season is also favorable to us. We can probably negotiate now before he sets his price even higher.

Another point I thought of: Everyone on our team seemingly wants to be here. How many teams can say that?

campybatman · Post #15 » by **campybatman** » Wed Mar 18, 2009 4:52 pm

Looking on Rotoworld, here are the salaries of Harris and Rose. So, I'm thinking Rondo gets what Harris is making or close. He'll make $2.6M next season.

Harris

2008/09: $7 million, 2009/10: $7.735 million, 2010/11: $8.47 million, 2011/12: $9.205 million, 2012/13: $9.94 million

http://www.rotoworld.com/content/player ... BA&id=1045

Rose

2008/09: $4,822,800, 2009/10: $5,184,480, 2010/11: $5,546,160 (Team Option), 2011/12: $6,993,707 (Team Option), 2012/13: $9,091,819

http://www.rotoworld.com/content/player ... BA&id=1476

MyInsatiableOne · Post #16 » by **MyInsatiableOne** » Wed Mar 18, 2009 5:04 pm

Hemingway wrote:
Rondo we will have to pay more, buy not Perk any time soon. We have him locked up for another two years, in the NBA that is a long time. Rondo's rookie contract ending after next season is also favorable to us. We can probably negotiate now before he sets his price even higher.

Another point I thought of: Everyone on our team seemingly wants to be here. How many teams can say that?

Good point...no one has griped or quit on us or anything...which is very good. And other guys *WANT* to come here, which is also good...

I think Rondo's price won't go too high...in all honestly his poor shooting from the field may work to our advantage in this respect. Also, while we all know he is obviously supremely talented, he does benefit from playing with some great players...would he be as good on, say, Toronto or Milwaukee or Memphis? Something to ponder...