OFFICIAL Boston Celtics 2010-2011 Season Thread vol. See you in 2018!

I'll be surprised if Big Baby is back. He was saying after the game that he thinks he can be a starter in this league. Also, he was less than enthusiastic when a reporter told him that Doc is returning next season.
 
Originally Posted by doyung9

We don't have to blow up the damn team, why does everyone think that? We just need to get younger on the bench and Doc has to trust them.

If Rondo could come back in October with a consistent mid-range jumper... That's what we REALLY need to ask for.
Click to expand...
Dude we've been asking Rondo to develop something for years now.
laugh.gif
His free-throws haven't even gotten better
We need a Center bad. My goodness, right now Krstic is our best option.

And thank god Big Baby is out of here, he's brutal.
 
Originally Posted by doyung9

We don't have to blow up the damn team, why does everyone think that? We just need to get younger on the bench and Doc has to trust them.

If Rondo could come back in October with a consistent mid-range jumper... That's what we REALLY need to ask for.
Click to expand...
Dude we've been asking Rondo to develop something for years now.
laugh.gif
His free-throws haven't even gotten better
We need a Center bad. My goodness, right now Krstic is our best option.

And thank god Big Baby is out of here, he's brutal.
 
2011 free agent market is really weak. the only guy I would want is JR Smith, and he isn't very qualified for the C's defensively or basketball IQ wise.

We need young guys to be able to run with Rondo. So many times he would get an outlet and run up the court only to have to stop and wait for the rest of the squad to make it over half court. All I want is a center who can produce on offense and a young athletic 2/3.

I'm not opposed to resigning Green, I really don't think he ever got comfortable with the team. Hope we drop Big Baby, he won't be missed. I'm indifferent about Delonte, he is bad most of the time, but when he steps up its usually huge shots.

We need Ray, without him we would have been embarassed by MIA. He couldn't stop Wade all series though, hence why we need another SG.
 
2011 free agent market is really weak. the only guy I would want is JR Smith, and he isn't very qualified for the C's defensively or basketball IQ wise.

We need young guys to be able to run with Rondo. So many times he would get an outlet and run up the court only to have to stop and wait for the rest of the squad to make it over half court. All I want is a center who can produce on offense and a young athletic 2/3.

I'm not opposed to resigning Green, I really don't think he ever got comfortable with the team. Hope we drop Big Baby, he won't be missed. I'm indifferent about Delonte, he is bad most of the time, but when he steps up its usually huge shots.

We need Ray, without him we would have been embarassed by MIA. He couldn't stop Wade all series though, hence why we need another SG.
 
A few tweaks could keep Celtics in title mix

People love to talk about championship windows closing and opening, but the reality is always a bit more complicated. Few realized that the Thunder’s championship window was already open last month, and even fewer thought the Mavericks’ house had any windows at all. The Lakers, until two weeks ago, had a wide-open window (at least for this season), the Magic cracked one open unexpectedly two years ago and the Spurs pried open theirs again this season.
So, while these Celtics have rightfully lost their status as Eastern Conference favorites, do not underestimate the impact that a couple of roster tweaks and some good luck can do for a team of this stature next season. After all, the Celtics took Miami to the wire in two straight games this week even as Rajon Rondo, perhaps their most important player, fell victim to a gruesome elbow injury that reduced him to a bit role. Boston’s half-court defense remained as stout as ever, holding the Heat to middling points-per-possession totals in Games 3 and 4 and again for the first 45 minutes of Game 5.

Coach Doc Rivers is leaning strongly toward returning, and Ray Allen, the only member of Boston’s core with an up-in-the-air contract situation for next season, indicated after Game 5 on Wednesday that he will exercise his $10 million player option for next 2011-12. This nucleus can win. But it will need help, and this offseason in Boston promises to be as challenging as last year’s.

Some things to consider:

• The cap situation

A Celtics beat writer was asked via Twitter on Wednesday night whether Boston might be able to sign Jamal Crawford, Tyson Chandler and Shane Battier in the offseason. Sigh.

If Allen picks up his option, the Celtics will have $64.3 million committed to just six players next season, a total that doesn’t even factor in Shaquille O’Neal (who has a $1.4 million player option he may decline in favor of retirement), Jeff Green (a restricted free agent) and Glen Davis (an unrestricted free agent). That bill will drop by $6.2 million if Jermaine O’Neal retires (which he’s reportedly considering). But regardless,  once you include salary-cap holds, money for Boston’s first-round pick and charges for empty roster spots, the Celtics will come in above this season’s $58 million cap.

Obviously, we won’t know next season’s cap number until the collective bargaining agreement takes shape. But it’s unlikely that the cap will get much higher — or much softer — than it was this season.

If the Celtics are over that cap number, there will be no free-agent bonanza. They will be limited to whatever exceptions remain in the next CBA. That might include something like the mid-level exception, but that remains uncertain. It’s a safe bet that some form of Bird Rights will exist for at least one more season, meaning Boston could go over the cap to re-sign its own free agents, with Davis, Green and Delonte West being prime candidates.

If the mid-level exists, the Celtics, given their pedigree, might be able to lure someone like Chandler, Samuel Dalembert, Crawford or Caron Butler to sign for the full amount even if they could get more on the open market. Or they could split it among a couple of players (Carl Landry? Battier?). But that is all unknown for now. If the biannual exception (worth $2.1 million this season) still exists, Boston will have access to that, plus the veteran’s minimum exception, which will probably carry over to the next CBA.

The possibilities widen once you consider sign-and-trade scenarios (though none of Boston’s free agents figure to be worth enough money to bring back much in a trade) or bigger deals involving a member of the team’s core. The latter would seem unlikely — for now.

• How will they score? 

This is the overarching issue. Boston’s offense ranked fifth in points per possession in 2008-09, 15th in 2009-10 and 19th this season. The trend is clear: As the Big Three get older, they are less able to create consistently, and Rondo, for all his gifts, cannot lift this offense to an acceptable level on a night-to-night basis. That’s not a knock, really; Chris Paul is in the same situation in New Orleans, albeit with a far less accomplished roster.

Of the eight teams that advanced to the second round of the playoffs, only Atlanta has scored fewer points per possession in the postseason. In three of five playoff games against Miami, the Celtics put up a points-per-possession mark that would have ranked last in the NBA — by far — in the regular season, according to Hoopdata.

This is the question that must (and will) be central to every offseason roster debate. How much is Davis worth? What about Green? If the mid-level exception exists, how do the Celtics spend it? Is Player X an appealing sign-and-trade target? The team’s inability to score against top defenses must take precedence in all these debates.

This doesn’t necessarily mean you go all offense and spend whatever free-agent money you have on Crawford or J.R. Smith without considering the implications on the other end. These Celtics will always win with defense, and you have to assume some decline in two of their best defenders (Garnett and Pierce). And perhaps the Celtics need only a couple of Battier-like shooters to stretch the floor instead of a dribble-drive monster who might muck things up on the other end.

But it’s very, very hard to win an NBA title with an offense that ranks in or near the bottom third of the league. The margin for error is too small, and it gets smaller as your team gets older and your enemies get better. This was the underlying motive behind the Kendrick Perkins/Green swap. The deal didn’t pan out this season, but the thinking behind it makes sense.

• Green, Davis or West? 

With apologies to Nenad Krstic, these three players are Boston’s primary free agents. Two of them (Green and Davis) hurt their value with their play over the last two months. Both are young with room to grow, and both have shown flashes of what they could be in Boston. (Davis, really, has shown more than flashes.)

Green, in particular, stands to improve with more time to learn Boston’s defensive system and get comfortable with this team. But his struggles with the Celtics may have exposed him for what a lot of folks thought he was all along: a mediocre player who put up big per-game averages in Oklahoma City because he played a lot of minutes next to two stars. The Thunder consistently played much worse with Green on the court, and that trend continued in Boston. At some point, a trend ceases to be a trend and becomes a permanent thing.

The Celtics have to offer Green at minimum a one-year deal worth at least $5.9 million to retain the right to match competing offers for him. That’s about equivalent to the league’s average salary. Going much higher than that for Green is a risk, even if the Celtics have just three players on the books beyond next season. Green will turn 25 soon, so it’s not as if there is some enormous untapped potential here. Still, the Celtics need bodies on the wing. If they can re-sign Green without overpaying, he might be worth it. At worst, he’d then have a movable contract.

As for Davis, he clearly wants more playing time and more money than the $3 million he made this season. He infuriates a segment of Boston fans with his beloved mid-range jumper (few high-volume shooters were worse on long twos this season) and his shot selection. Even in Game 5, with Boston’s season on the line, Davis took and missed two second-half jumpers on possessions in which the Heat were playing small and James Jones was guarding either Davis or Krstic. That Davis hoisted these shots an hour or so after punishing the Heat by posting up Jones was even more frustrating.

But the Celtics need bodies and youth on the front line, and Davis has become a very good defender. He can hop himself out of position on pick-and-rolls sometimes, but he works hard, moves his feet well and is a stalwart in the post. The Boston fans who want him gone have to consider the empty state of the front line and the available replacements. There are intriguing names beyond Chandler and Dalembert, including Nazr Mohammed, Kenyon Martin, Andrei Kirilenko (a tweener forward, for sure), Chuck Hayes, Josh McRoberts and Joel Przybilla, along with a bunch of bargain-basement players who could be had for the veteran’s minimum (assuming that exception remains).

The Celtics would be wise to follow the same script with Davis as last season: Let the market determine his value and swoop in if the market is cool. Like Green, the worst-case scenario (aside from a grotesque overpayment, which won’t happen) might be that Davis becomes a tradable contract down the line.

West earned himself some money, and Boston could clearly use him as a backup capable of playing and defending both guard positions.

There are no easy answers here, and it might come to be that more dramatic change is necessary. But be wary of slamming Boston’s window shut from the outside — especially if the front office can nail a few small decisions.

Link
Click to expand...
 
A few tweaks could keep Celtics in title mix

People love to talk about championship windows closing and opening, but the reality is always a bit more complicated. Few realized that the Thunder’s championship window was already open last month, and even fewer thought the Mavericks’ house had any windows at all. The Lakers, until two weeks ago, had a wide-open window (at least for this season), the Magic cracked one open unexpectedly two years ago and the Spurs pried open theirs again this season.
So, while these Celtics have rightfully lost their status as Eastern Conference favorites, do not underestimate the impact that a couple of roster tweaks and some good luck can do for a team of this stature next season. After all, the Celtics took Miami to the wire in two straight games this week even as Rajon Rondo, perhaps their most important player, fell victim to a gruesome elbow injury that reduced him to a bit role. Boston’s half-court defense remained as stout as ever, holding the Heat to middling points-per-possession totals in Games 3 and 4 and again for the first 45 minutes of Game 5.

Coach Doc Rivers is leaning strongly toward returning, and Ray Allen, the only member of Boston’s core with an up-in-the-air contract situation for next season, indicated after Game 5 on Wednesday that he will exercise his $10 million player option for next 2011-12. This nucleus can win. But it will need help, and this offseason in Boston promises to be as challenging as last year’s.

Some things to consider:

• The cap situation

A Celtics beat writer was asked via Twitter on Wednesday night whether Boston might be able to sign Jamal Crawford, Tyson Chandler and Shane Battier in the offseason. Sigh.

If Allen picks up his option, the Celtics will have $64.3 million committed to just six players next season, a total that doesn’t even factor in Shaquille O’Neal (who has a $1.4 million player option he may decline in favor of retirement), Jeff Green (a restricted free agent) and Glen Davis (an unrestricted free agent). That bill will drop by $6.2 million if Jermaine O’Neal retires (which he’s reportedly considering). But regardless,  once you include salary-cap holds, money for Boston’s first-round pick and charges for empty roster spots, the Celtics will come in above this season’s $58 million cap.

Obviously, we won’t know next season’s cap number until the collective bargaining agreement takes shape. But it’s unlikely that the cap will get much higher — or much softer — than it was this season.

If the Celtics are over that cap number, there will be no free-agent bonanza. They will be limited to whatever exceptions remain in the next CBA. That might include something like the mid-level exception, but that remains uncertain. It’s a safe bet that some form of Bird Rights will exist for at least one more season, meaning Boston could go over the cap to re-sign its own free agents, with Davis, Green and Delonte West being prime candidates.

If the mid-level exists, the Celtics, given their pedigree, might be able to lure someone like Chandler, Samuel Dalembert, Crawford or Caron Butler to sign for the full amount even if they could get more on the open market. Or they could split it among a couple of players (Carl Landry? Battier?). But that is all unknown for now. If the biannual exception (worth $2.1 million this season) still exists, Boston will have access to that, plus the veteran’s minimum exception, which will probably carry over to the next CBA.

The possibilities widen once you consider sign-and-trade scenarios (though none of Boston’s free agents figure to be worth enough money to bring back much in a trade) or bigger deals involving a member of the team’s core. The latter would seem unlikely — for now.

• How will they score? 

This is the overarching issue. Boston’s offense ranked fifth in points per possession in 2008-09, 15th in 2009-10 and 19th this season. The trend is clear: As the Big Three get older, they are less able to create consistently, and Rondo, for all his gifts, cannot lift this offense to an acceptable level on a night-to-night basis. That’s not a knock, really; Chris Paul is in the same situation in New Orleans, albeit with a far less accomplished roster.

Of the eight teams that advanced to the second round of the playoffs, only Atlanta has scored fewer points per possession in the postseason. In three of five playoff games against Miami, the Celtics put up a points-per-possession mark that would have ranked last in the NBA — by far — in the regular season, according to Hoopdata.

This is the question that must (and will) be central to every offseason roster debate. How much is Davis worth? What about Green? If the mid-level exception exists, how do the Celtics spend it? Is Player X an appealing sign-and-trade target? The team’s inability to score against top defenses must take precedence in all these debates.

This doesn’t necessarily mean you go all offense and spend whatever free-agent money you have on Crawford or J.R. Smith without considering the implications on the other end. These Celtics will always win with defense, and you have to assume some decline in two of their best defenders (Garnett and Pierce). And perhaps the Celtics need only a couple of Battier-like shooters to stretch the floor instead of a dribble-drive monster who might muck things up on the other end.

But it’s very, very hard to win an NBA title with an offense that ranks in or near the bottom third of the league. The margin for error is too small, and it gets smaller as your team gets older and your enemies get better. This was the underlying motive behind the Kendrick Perkins/Green swap. The deal didn’t pan out this season, but the thinking behind it makes sense.

• Green, Davis or West? 

With apologies to Nenad Krstic, these three players are Boston’s primary free agents. Two of them (Green and Davis) hurt their value with their play over the last two months. Both are young with room to grow, and both have shown flashes of what they could be in Boston. (Davis, really, has shown more than flashes.)

Green, in particular, stands to improve with more time to learn Boston’s defensive system and get comfortable with this team. But his struggles with the Celtics may have exposed him for what a lot of folks thought he was all along: a mediocre player who put up big per-game averages in Oklahoma City because he played a lot of minutes next to two stars. The Thunder consistently played much worse with Green on the court, and that trend continued in Boston. At some point, a trend ceases to be a trend and becomes a permanent thing.

The Celtics have to offer Green at minimum a one-year deal worth at least $5.9 million to retain the right to match competing offers for him. That’s about equivalent to the league’s average salary. Going much higher than that for Green is a risk, even if the Celtics have just three players on the books beyond next season. Green will turn 25 soon, so it’s not as if there is some enormous untapped potential here. Still, the Celtics need bodies on the wing. If they can re-sign Green without overpaying, he might be worth it. At worst, he’d then have a movable contract.

As for Davis, he clearly wants more playing time and more money than the $3 million he made this season. He infuriates a segment of Boston fans with his beloved mid-range jumper (few high-volume shooters were worse on long twos this season) and his shot selection. Even in Game 5, with Boston’s season on the line, Davis took and missed two second-half jumpers on possessions in which the Heat were playing small and James Jones was guarding either Davis or Krstic. That Davis hoisted these shots an hour or so after punishing the Heat by posting up Jones was even more frustrating.

But the Celtics need bodies and youth on the front line, and Davis has become a very good defender. He can hop himself out of position on pick-and-rolls sometimes, but he works hard, moves his feet well and is a stalwart in the post. The Boston fans who want him gone have to consider the empty state of the front line and the available replacements. There are intriguing names beyond Chandler and Dalembert, including Nazr Mohammed, Kenyon Martin, Andrei Kirilenko (a tweener forward, for sure), Chuck Hayes, Josh McRoberts and Joel Przybilla, along with a bunch of bargain-basement players who could be had for the veteran’s minimum (assuming that exception remains).

The Celtics would be wise to follow the same script with Davis as last season: Let the market determine his value and swoop in if the market is cool. Like Green, the worst-case scenario (aside from a grotesque overpayment, which won’t happen) might be that Davis becomes a tradable contract down the line.

West earned himself some money, and Boston could clearly use him as a backup capable of playing and defending both guard positions.

There are no easy answers here, and it might come to be that more dramatic change is necessary. But be wary of slamming Boston’s window shut from the outside — especially if the front office can nail a few small decisions.

Link
Click to expand...
 
We need to keep Ray until he looks like KG did. There's no way the average watcher could estimate Ray is out there at THIRTY FIVE and can still keep up.

I agree, we need a legitimate center, as well as a young and athletic 2/3.
 
We need to keep Ray until he looks like KG did. There's no way the average watcher could estimate Ray is out there at THIRTY FIVE and can still keep up.

I agree, we need a legitimate center, as well as a young and athletic 2/3.
 
We need a center. I don't mind JO at the 5 but we need a back up center and some athletic back-ups for every other position.
 
We need a center. I don't mind JO at the 5 but we need a back up center and some athletic back-ups for every other position.
 
Originally Posted by doyung9

I agree, we need a legitimate center, as well as a young and athletic 2/3.
Click to expand...
I'm relatively certain that neither of those options will be available unless one or more of the main pieces get traded.

All signs point to this team being at or above the salary cap when the CBA is said and done, and no above-average free agent is going to sign in Boston for less than they perceive themselves to be worth.
 
Originally Posted by doyung9

I agree, we need a legitimate center, as well as a young and athletic 2/3.
Click to expand...
I'm relatively certain that neither of those options will be available unless one or more of the main pieces get traded.

All signs point to this team being at or above the salary cap when the CBA is said and done, and no above-average free agent is going to sign in Boston for less than they perceive themselves to be worth.
 
Originally Posted by koolbarbone

Originally Posted by doyung9

I agree, we need a legitimate center, as well as a young and athletic 2/3.
Click to expand...
I'm relatively certain that neither of those options will be available unless one or more of the main pieces get traded.

All signs point to this team being at or above the salary cap when the CBA is said and done, and no above-average free agent is going to sign in Boston for less than they perceive themselves to be worth.
Click to expand...
Yep. So history will repeat itself, the big 3 will be tired and worn down, and this team limps to a 5th/6th seed, if there is indeed a 2011-2012 season. So then that summer, team needs to rid itself of the big 3 and seriously make a run for a big-name. In this league, waiting on prospects to develop is what makes the Washingtons, the Golden States, the Minnesotas perennial losers.
 
Originally Posted by koolbarbone

Originally Posted by doyung9

I agree, we need a legitimate center, as well as a young and athletic 2/3.
Click to expand...
I'm relatively certain that neither of those options will be available unless one or more of the main pieces get traded.

All signs point to this team being at or above the salary cap when the CBA is said and done, and no above-average free agent is going to sign in Boston for less than they perceive themselves to be worth.
Click to expand...
Yep. So history will repeat itself, the big 3 will be tired and worn down, and this team limps to a 5th/6th seed, if there is indeed a 2011-2012 season. So then that summer, team needs to rid itself of the big 3 and seriously make a run for a big-name. In this league, waiting on prospects to develop is what makes the Washingtons, the Golden States, the Minnesotas perennial losers.
 
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