I truly hope we don't stand pat this summer- how do you feel

[accelerator]

God I hope we don't stand pat this summer and do very little in regards to retooling our roster at least some ...

Lets say we sign bbd and get house back in the fold- Kg is fine and the rest of the guys good-
We then utlize walker more and get perhaps one babck up center of fair value.

IS THIS ENOUGH IN YOUR EYES -?

For me it is not enough this summer and will spell the end of any championship dreams
from here on out for quite awhile-

Cleveland, Orlando, La- all are going to be VERY STRONG in several years to come-

We need better than avg/ standing pat- if we're to challeneg the elite and be considered great- Doc said he feels we're in that talk- so it's time to make it hold up-

Do you guys agree?

So my idea is as follws: We need a great player to add to this team and we need that decent center tall backup- Then we can contend- a great player is a scorer- and a good center backup is a tall dirt dog that bangs- also we could use a defensive stopper even if this person is not an offensive player- someone to guard the special players on other teams we can rely on-

That's my recipe for success- I don't want to hear we have no money or can't do this- our window is closing with the big 3- love those 3 and we must act now- THROW IT ALL ON THE TABEL- now!

[ParticleMan]

#1. With a healthy team we are STILL the best team in basketball. I truly believe that.

#2. Of course we should always try to improve. Duh. But if we went in next year with exactly the same roster, I would consider us the favorites. We're still the best team.

#3. Yes, we should go all in now. No time like the present, and the window won't be open forever.

[SonicYouth34]

Danny and Doc both think we need to get better. That's good enough conformation for me.

[Tricky Ricky]

If we stand pat were not winning another championship so no I wouldnt feel good about it

[Frank Lucas]

1st let me say this with a healthy KG and Powe the Cs are the best team in the league. Before KG went down the Cs were on paste to match last year record. However I agree we need to upgrade our role players. I'm one person who really could careless if we keep or don't keep BBD. I feel there are guys we can get for cheap who can fill his role on the team i.e. McDyess, Zaza, Joe Smith to name a few. I hear some of you like Matt Barnes well I don't. I much rather hadd a Rodney Carney, Anthony Parker, Desmond Mason type player. The team still needs a back-up PG and I haven't heard this name mention before but what about J. Pargo? He was great backing up CP3 a season ago and I'm sure we can get him from overseas to play with us. Also a a Brevin Knight, Mike James and Kevin Ollie all of these guys are cut in the mode of a Anthony Johnson who is playing pretty good for the Magic right now. These guys can run a team and they play solid defense I feel they would be over-all upgrades over Eddie House. I also feel Marbury with a full training camp would be a better player but I have concerns about him dealing with being a back-up PG.

[GuyClinch]

I agree. I'd like to shake up the roster outside of the starters. While perhaps we might have won with a healthy KG and Powe. But I think this bad playoff season is useful for Danny because it shows a number of areas the C's slipped at..and they were never addressed.

We never got a backup 3 like Posey, we never got a backup center as good as PJBrown.. The guys we brought in and used for these spots didn't do the job - or didn't do the job well enough in Doc's eyes to merit PT.

The young athletic Walker instead of Posey might sound okay on paper but in practice it ends up being Scalabrine instead of Posey.. That's not so great. The younger POB instead of PJBRown to give us some length off the bench sounded okay..but same deal.

[LongTimeFan]

The chance that we stand pat is pretty close to zero.

At a minimum we have the draft, and the draft is an opputunity to add talent. Of the 3 things needed to have a ood draft we've got the two most important assets. We have a freakin draft maven in Danny Ainge. And we have cash. What we don't have is any picks.

If you recall last year we got Walker for cash. A couple years ago we got Rondo (one of the best players of the draft) for cash and a future late round first.

But we have a lot of issues that need addressing and a number of open roster / rotation spots. Big
Baby may not be back. Pruitt may be gone. Tony Allen looks like he's peaked. Powe is a huge question mark. Moore and Marbury are probably one too.

Really we have the five starters, House and Scal in the rotation. Giddens, Walker and Powe look to hold roster spots and possibly move into the rotation. That leaves more or less five open spots.

[BillessuR6]

I agree. I'd like to shake up the roster outside of the starters. While perhaps we might have won with a healthy KG and Powe. But I think this bad playoff season is useful for Danny because it shows a number of areas the C's slipped at..and they were never addressed.

We never got a backup 3 like Posey, we never got a backup center as good as PJBrown.. The guys we brought in and used for these spots didn't do the job - or didn't do the job well enough in Doc's eyes to merit PT.

The young athletic Walker instead of Posey might sound okay on paper but in practice it ends up being Scalabrine instead of Posey.. That's not so great. The younger POB instead of PJBRown to give us some length off the bench sounded okay..but same deal.

Agreed...

[ParticleMan]

Disagree.

Baby was supposed to fill PJ's role, not POB. It's just that Baby was forced to be a starter. Baby >>> PJ. So we would have been fine if KG was healthy.

I agree that we never did replace Posey. But Posey wasn't all that. If TA had been healthy the whole year he would have been fine. But I agree DA dropped the ball by not bringing in someone like Barnes or Pietrus, a low-cost vet who could play solid mins (ie exactly what Posey was before he got grossly overpaid). Walker and Giddens were too immature to fill that role. Let's hope a year in the fold will help. But we should also look for quality help here.

[Dave_From_NB]

Danny set the performance bar pretty low last off-season, I don't think it's possible for him to screw it up more. So actually I guess I'm somewhat optimistic about this off-season.

IMO we ended up with 3 blown draft picks, 2 weak resignings in House and TA, a completely unsuitable backup PG (Cassell), a completely unsuitable backup Big (O'Bryant), and no backup for PP. Hindsight may be easy, but I give Ainge a D- for last off-season.

Ainge, do something other than pray that there will be cast-offs available after the trade deadline to fill out the roster.

[LongTimeFan]

We lost our starting PF and our backup PF to injuries. DA couldn't have foreseen that and we were in excellent shape sans injuries.

If anyone is to blame it is Doc for overplaying the our PF's or not protecting them. Clearly, the refs let other teams beat us up all season long.

[sully00]

If we bring back Baby and House we need another big and a back up pg who can shoot the 3. You can always upgrade the scrubs but the reality is if you need to go deeper than 8-9 on this team it means somebody you can't win without is hurt. To be honest if the starting 5 is healthy we could probably win it all with House, Baby, and Scal coming off the bench but I would feel better with another pg who can shoot and a big so Scal didn't have to play.

As for playing his "PF's too much" KG played the fewest MPG since his rookie year, the same as he did last season and Leon Powe was 11th in mpg I don't think Doc's rotation had a thing to do with it.

[GuyClinch]

Baby was supposed to fill PJ's role, not POB. It's just that Baby was forced to be a starter. Baby >>> PJ. So we would have been fine if KG was healthy.

Nah. PJ Brown would block shots and rebound and BBD can do neither. That's why i said POB was the hopeful replacement. POB is actually good shot blocker and has some semblance of a shot so I can see how Danny was hopeful. But it didn't work out at all.

I don't see how BBD could "replace" PJB when he was on the roster last year and he is about a half foot shorter. That's like thinking Rondo can replace Paul Pierce.

[LongTimeFan]

Sully:

I wasn't inclined to blame either Doc or DA. I think both Doc and DA did a great job. I thouroughly enjoyed the season.

[DumbyTheWizard]

What we need is:

1. backup guard - i would like Marbury, but Flip Murray or Bobby Jackson would be great
2. backup swingman - someone like posey who can guard 2 and 3 and make threes, options are Anthony Parker, Matt Barnes, Trevor Ariza, Grant Hill, Shawn Marion (if he agrees for a lesser role with less money)
3. backup center - maybe Zaza Pachulia (dont know how to spell) or Rasho Nestarovich

Then we will have a championship rooster:

Rondo // Marbury (1)
Ray // House // Tony Allen
Pierce // Barnes (2) // Bill Walker
Garnett // Baby // Scal // (powe. if healthy)
Perk // Zaza (3)

And maybe gabe or giddens if they worth something...

[sweatdog]

i agree if we had a championship rooster we would be on paste for banner 18!

[ParticleMan]

Baby was supposed to fill PJ's role, not POB. It's just that Baby was forced to be a starter. Baby >>> PJ. So we would have been fine if KG was healthy.

Nah. PJ Brown would block shots and rebound and BBD can do neither. That's why i said POB was the hopeful replacement. POB is actually good shot blocker and has some semblance of a shot so I can see how Danny was hopeful. But it didn't work out at all.

I don't see how BBD could "replace" PJB when he was on the roster last year and he is about a half foot shorter. That's like thinking Rondo can replace Paul Pierce.

PJ was never a shotblocker. He averaged 0.4 blocks/gm with us. As for rebounding, PJ is a bit better than Baby but not by a huge margin. PJ was a good position defender, but Baby isn't bad either, and he could actually stay with faster PFs. And although Baby was on the roster last year, he wasn't in the rotation. By "replace" I just meant first (or maybe second) big off the bench. That was Baby's role this year, which was PJ's last year, and I think Baby filled it better than PJ did.

Anyway, I definitely think we have an opportunity to improve this offseason. I just hope we don't bring back Steph. I just think he's more name than substance at this point. Any of the swingmen mentioned would be good, so long as they are long and are solid defenders.

[Slartibartfast]

I wouldn't mind bringing Baby back if he's affordable. He's a poor rebounder, a mediocre defender and over-estimates his limited offensive abilities, but he showed a pretty consistent J by year's end, decisiveness with the ball and the ability to play smart and under control for the most part. Doubt he'll settle for our lowball offers though. I wonder if LaFrentz has any game left.

But we can't go into next season with the back-up wing position unaddressed. I really like Bill Walker's attitude and demeanor, but he didn't show any legitimate NBA-ready skill other than an ability to keep the ball moving and give a lot of energy on defense. He'll need to make a heck of a leap to become the primary back-up for Ray and Paul since TA has auditioned himself out of that role. We need a solid, dependable player there. I'd love Ariza, I'd like Grant Hill and I'd be mildly interested in any reject Raptors swing men (Parker, Moon, Delfino).

I'm fine with Pruitt, House or Marbury at the back up 1.

[celtxman]

Disagree.

Baby was supposed to fill PJ's role, not POB. It's just that Baby was forced to be a starter. Baby >>> PJ. So we would have been fine if KG was healthy.

I agree that we never did replace Posey. But Posey wasn't all that. If TA had been healthy the whole year he would have been fine. But I agree DA dropped the ball by not bringing in someone like Barnes or Pietrus, a low-cost vet who could play solid mins (ie exactly what Posey was before he got grossly overpaid). Walker and Giddens were too immature to fill that role. Let's hope a year in the fold will help. But we should also look for quality help here.

I have been and still am a fan of Danny Ainge as the GM. I argued ferociously on his behalf long before KG ever came about and long after the team became dismal. It had to be taken down from just below mediocrity to build it back up and despite the screaming to keep Antoine Walker, Ainge put this team in a position to get KG and Ray Allen. Then the moves to shore up the bench on the fly after the KG signing were absolutely brilliant.
But with all of that said, the biggest break Ainge has in his overall perception by others this year is that KG's injury meant it was highly unlikely that the Celtics could win a championship and IMO this was his worst year as a GM since coming to the Celtics.
Last summer started with, "why can't we sign both Corey Maggette and Posey, as long as Posey will take less?" It wound up that they barely signed House, using up 1/2 the MLE to do so. We wound up re-signing Tony Allen who even if he breaks out and scores 15 points a game next year , has already cost the Celtics by not being ready......again......to contribute for another series of playoffs. Being injury -prone and knuckleheaded has to be considered when you are counting on somebody. Again, this slides through the cracks, but whether or not the Celtics could have won it all, it is more than obvious that the Celtics could have beaten Orlando with a legitimate player to spell Pierce. Matt Barnes, Flip Murray, even Bonzi Wells......all could have been considered on the cheap if you had to get rid of Posey. Let me say the Celtics WOULD have beaten Orlando with Posey even with KG out and when you now look at Cleveland and LA struggle you really wonder if the Celtics even with Powe and KG out could have won it all with better roster preparation. Would Pierce have been better with some help?
There was a bit of arrogance on Ainge's part saying "we won't chase people." I argued at mid-season if there was no way to replace Posey then they needed to sign him. I agree there may be ways to get around that, but then you have to work hard to make that happen. The 11th hour trade deadline deal for Nocioni would have been big. Any why Patrick O'Bryant? I don't want to see upside next to a player's name on this team with an ever shrinking window. I'd rather have had Scott Pollard get a couple of boards and lean on Howard and Ilgauskus for 10 minutes, then what happened with the last minute desperate acquisition of Moore.
The time is now. The marked improvements in Rondo and Perkins and some savvy moves this off-season can put the Celtics as the favorites to win it all. Cleveland will pull out all of the stops to keep LeBron, likely using Ben Wallace's $14 million expiring contract as a major chip by next year's deadline. Let's hope they get it done.

[celtxman]

Let's hope the CELTICS get it done not the Cavs, lol