CAN the Celtics be Fixed this year?

playa-hater · Post #1 » by **playa-hater** » Mon Dec 28, 2020 3:40 am

Never made a thread on here. but here goes..

Even the most loyal blind OPTIMIST can see that there are problems.

Ainge for not being able to draft since Tatum is by far #1.

Stevens being too soft and allowing his "star" players like Tatum now and Smart for years to do "hero ball" shots.

I think we can all agree, that despite playing only 3 games this far, there are some major, major obstacles Boston needs to over come to take this thing up another level.

And since Ainge and Stevens are NOT GOING anywhere this year, that suggestion should be ruled out for improving this team.

So my questions are,

Do we patiently wait for Kemba and Romeo to return?

Until Kemba returns, who would you start??

Do we use the TPE BEFORE the Allstar break? And If Yes for who??

Do we start or bring in PP much earlier since he may/can help at least with the offense?

Ay what point do we/Boston need to eliminate known/proven BAD players (Semi) and try Unknown but highly invested players (Nesmith), cause this is clearly not going to sustain success?

Does Stevens/Ainge need to get/add a tougher assistant?

I am NOT BRINGING UP HARDEN since we have like 150 pages dedicated on that one.

Any other reasonable trade options I am not remembering?

ANY OTHER OPINIONS, please share.

playa-hater · Post #2 » by **playa-hater** » Mon Dec 28, 2020 3:46 am

OH and by the way, we are one Tatum bank shot from being 0-3..

celticfan42487 · Post #3 » by **celticfan42487** » Mon Dec 28, 2020 3:54 am

The only option that matters is trading for a top 10 player like Harden.

Otherwise you just ride this out and hope that Nesmith is a secret superstar or Romeo is a secret superstar. That's about it.

Pritchard is looking like he'll reach the level of decent backup PG.

Infinite Llamas · Post #4 » by **Infinite Llamas** » Mon Dec 28, 2020 3:55 am

Does a team of:
Kyrie
Rozier
Hayward
Morris
Horford

...have a better record than this current Celtics team? Because those are five players we’ve dumped in two years and outside of the Kemba S/T what the hell did we get for this talent?

playa-hater · Post #5 » by **playa-hater** » Mon Dec 28, 2020 4:06 am

Infinite Llamas wrote:Does a team of:
Kyrie
Rozier
Hayward
Morris
Horford

...have a better record than this current Celtics team? Because those are five players we’ve dumped in two years and outside of the Kemba S/T what the hell did we get for this talent?

That would be both interesting and Funny if it wasn't so sad..

KL78192020 · Post #6 » by **KL78192020** » Mon Dec 28, 2020 4:19 am

Its tough when your highest paid started is injured, and you lost another key guy in Hayward. Lots of teams are struggling, how did the Bucks lose to the Knicks? I mean the Pacers are at least a good team.

playa-hater · Post #7 » by **playa-hater** » Mon Dec 28, 2020 4:23 am

KL78192020 wrote:Its tough when your highest paid started is injured, and you lost another key guy in Hayward. Lots of teams are struggling, how did the Bucks lose to the Knicks? I mean the Pacers are at least a good team.

all of this may be true, but the symptoms remain the same. We have problems have had these same problems for a while.

Are you saying just stay the course and wait for Kemba??

Celts17Pride · Post #8 » by **Celts17Pride** » Mon Dec 28, 2020 4:26 am

Time. Celtics just need time. Let’s see what they are at the trade deadline

Post #9 » by **Bleeding Green** » Mon Dec 28, 2020 4:32 am

idk nothing?

They're one bankshot from being 2-1. Who cares. You've never seen a team lose two out of three games?

Love all the takes to fire Ainge and Stevens lmao.

Maybe stop letting the other team shoot 51% from the field would be a start. If that continues for ten games, call me.

Post #10 » by **SuperDeluxe** » Mon Dec 28, 2020 4:35 am

playa-hater wrote:OH and by the way, we are one Tatum bank shot from being 0-3..

We are also a Sabonis basket not going in from being 2-1. Kinda funny, no?

playa-hater · Post #11 » by **playa-hater** » Mon Dec 28, 2020 5:50 am

I don't think you guys understanding my points ..whether we are 3 and 0 , 2 and 1, 1 and 2 or 0 and 3 there will massive symptoms of the same poor play that will for ever get us in trouble when it truly matters if you guys don't see this I don't know what else to say..

Post #12 » by **Bleeding Green** » Mon Dec 28, 2020 5:52 am

I'm definitely not understanding that one.

Well, until you edited it.

playa-hater · Post #13 » by **playa-hater** » Mon Dec 28, 2020 5:55 am

SuperDeluxe wrote:
playa-hater wrote:OH and by the way, we are one Tatum bank shot from being 0-3..

We are also a Sabonis basket not going in from being 2-1. Kinda funny, no?

Well one was a good shot and the other was lucky but that's not my point again

Post #14 » by **Bleeding Green** » Mon Dec 28, 2020 6:12 am

This team just was in the ECF and brought back the same team that played in the playoffs minus Wanamaker. If Kemba is cooked, that's really bad, but otherwise what is the issue? They lost Wanamaker, added Teague, Thompson, Pritchard. Maybe they have a rotational player in Nesmith, who knows. Presumably Williams/Williams/Langford give you more than they did last year. Certainly both Williamses look better, Rob looked awesome today and had the game-winning assist that Tatum bricked. Give me normal progressions from Tatum, Brown, Smart that you'd expect of players aged 22/24/26. Looks like a really good team to me. Or maybe everyone just sucks ass and that happens sometimes too.

Everyone healthy: Tatum/Smart/Brown/Walker/Thompson/Theis/Williams/Williams/Langford/Pritchard/Nesmith/Teague. Looks really good to me; if a top-8/9 doesn't emerge out of that by season's end, then a lot has gone wrong. You have your top 4 guys, some good bigs that can be patched together to make an awesome trio, a young PG with Lillard-range, Grant who maybe develops a jumper, Langford who can hopefully get healthy. Some people are high on Nesmith for some reason so that's good too. Edwards/Semi/Green/Waters/Fall are your typical back-end fodder that make zero dollars. Maybe you even get some good regular season minutes out of one or two of them. I think Ojeleye sucks out loud, but it's not a big deal if he plays a few minutes more than Green or Nesmith right now. I can't imagine Nesmith v Ojeleye is going to make one bit of difference when the games matter.

They have the TPE which can be used to acquire someone that inevitably becomes available. No reason to force it. Kind of just normal regular season stuff when you know you are a top-4 seed given normal injury luck. See how the season plays out, do your best to keep everyone healthy, see which young player(s) improve, there will be buyout guys available.

playa-hater · Post #15 » by **playa-hater** » Mon Dec 28, 2020 7:50 am

Bleeding Green wrote:This team just was in the ECF and brought back the same team that played in the playoffs minus Wanamaker. If Kemba is cooked, that's really bad, but otherwise what is the issue? They lost Wanamaker, added Teague, Thompson, Pritchard. Maybe they have a rotational player in Nesmith, who knows. Presumably Williams/Williams/Langford give you more than they did last year. Certainly both Williamses look better, Rob looked awesome today and had the game-winning assist that Tatum bricked. Give me normal progressions from Tatum, Brown, Smart that you'd expect of players aged 22/24/26. Looks like a really good team to me. Or maybe everyone just sucks ass and that happens sometimes too.

Everyone healthy: Tatum/Smart/Brown/Walker/Thompson/Theis/Williams/Williams/Langford/Pritchard/Nesmith/Teague. Looks really good to me; if a top-8/9 doesn't emerge out of that by season's end, then a lot has gone wrong. You have your top 4 guys, some good bigs that can be patched together to make an awesome trio, a young PG with Lillard-range, Grant who maybe develops a jumper, Langford who can hopefully get healthy. Some people are high on Nesmith for some reason so that's good too. Edwards/Semi/Green/Waters/Fall are your typical back-end fodder that make zero dollars. Maybe you even get some good regular season minutes out of one or two of them. I think Ojeleye sucks out loud, but it's not a big deal if he plays a few minutes more than Green or Nesmith right now. I can't imagine Nesmith v Ojeleye is going to make one bit of difference when the games matter.

They have the TPE which can be used to acquire someone that inevitably becomes available. No reason to force it. Kind of just normal regular season stuff when you know you are a top-4 seed given normal injury luck. See how the season plays out, do your best to keep everyone healthy, see which young player(s) improve, there will be buyout guys available.

I will answer this better tomorrow afternoon, but I disagree with quite a bit.

dlamb8888888 · Post #16 » by **dlamb8888888** » Mon Dec 28, 2020 7:58 am

How about Stevens stops playing Grant Williams 20 mpg? The guy is absolutely awful!!!! That would solve a lot of their problems right there. He is terrible.

Jacobkowal · Post #17 » by **Jacobkowal** » Mon Dec 28, 2020 8:14 am

Bleeding Green wrote:This team just was in the ECF and brought back the same team that played in the playoffs minus Wanamaker. If Kemba is cooked, that's really bad, but otherwise what is the issue? They lost Wanamaker, added Teague, Thompson, Pritchard. Maybe they have a rotational player in Nesmith, who knows. Presumably Williams/Williams/Langford give you more than they did last year. Certainly both Williamses look better, Rob looked awesome today and had the game-winning assist that Tatum bricked. Give me normal progressions from Tatum, Brown, Smart that you'd expect of players aged 22/24/26. Looks like a really good team to me. Or maybe everyone just sucks ass and that happens sometimes too.

Everyone healthy: Tatum/Smart/Brown/Walker/Thompson/Theis/Williams/Williams/Langford/Pritchard/Nesmith/Teague. Looks really good to me; if a top-8/9 doesn't emerge out of that by season's end, then a lot has gone wrong. You have your top 4 guys, some good bigs that can be patched together to make an awesome trio, a young PG with Lillard-range, Grant who maybe develops a jumper, Langford who can hopefully get healthy. Some people are high on Nesmith for some reason so that's good too. Edwards/Semi/Green/Waters/Fall are your typical back-end fodder that make zero dollars. Maybe you even get some good regular season minutes out of one or two of them. I think Ojeleye sucks out loud, but it's not a big deal if he plays a few minutes more than Green or Nesmith right now. I can't imagine Nesmith v Ojeleye is going to make one bit of difference when the games matter.

They have the TPE which can be used to acquire someone that inevitably becomes available. No reason to force it. Kind of just normal regular season stuff when you know you are a top-4 seed given normal injury luck. See how the season plays out, do your best to keep everyone healthy, see which young player(s) improve, there will be buyout guys available.

This sums it up perfectly. Let's all relax. We're still a good team. We are just young and this is Tatum's first time being the star at the beginning of the season. We will be ready come playoff time.

LuckyLeprechaun · Post #18 » by **LuckyLeprechaun** » Mon Dec 28, 2020 9:02 am

We just don't have enough veterans on the team. Plain and simple. Other than Teague our entire bench today was guys on their rookie contracts and our 4 DNPs were Edwards, Waters, Green and Nesmith. That's 9 of the 14 players active on rookie contracts. You don't win basketball games with 2/3 of your team being that inexperienced.

Post #19 » by **ParticleMan** » Mon Dec 28, 2020 10:41 am

playa-hater wrote:
SuperDeluxe wrote:
playa-hater wrote:OH and by the way, we are one Tatum bank shot from being 0-3..

We are also a Sabonis basket not going in from being 2-1. Kinda funny, no?
Well one was a good shot and the other was lucky but that's not my point again

it wasn't a good shot, it was a brutal defensive lapse by us. that's lucky for them.

your point is that we're not a great team right now. and you're right. but we're also in game 3 of 72, having played 3 of the better teams in the conference, and other than 1.5 quarters we've been right there in every one.

brad is playing young guys like Gwill, Rwill, and Pritchard, eventually Nesmith, to see what they got. everyone kills brad for not playing kids, but that will cost us some wins... like last night. i'll reserve judgement on ainge's picks until we can see Rwill healthy for a long stretch, and see where pritchard and nesmith end up. all these other guys are late 1sts and 2nd rounders, if they contribute anything at all it's a win. meanwhile the jay's seem like pretty damn good picks to me, no?

how to improve? kemba is the key. he has to come back healthy. kind of sucks when you are missing an allstar 20ppg scorer and best iso creator. it'd be a whole different story with a healthy kemba. i am worried but i'll take ainge at face value and say kemba just needs rest and rehab. other than that, or getting harden (w/o giving up the jays), i'd rather just let the process unfold. we've got a 4-year window with the jays. we're just getting started.

the important thing is that we're healthy and rolling into the playoffs. historically brad's teams have always started slow. this is usually because he's trying to adjust a young, changing roster. we'll start to see who we really are after about 25 or 30 games.

jmr07019 · Post #20 » by **jmr07019** » Mon Dec 28, 2020 11:10 am

Tatum not being a true top 5 and maybe not a true top 10 guy is the biggest problem. Last night he was cooking in the second quarter to the tune of 14 points and 4 assists. The rest of the game? 11 points and 1 assist. He needs to be more consistent throughout the game. Yes I realize this is a ridiculously high bar to set for a 22 year old. I do think he will continue to improve with time.