ESPN hating on the Celtics

[Cman]

Nobody knows how the finals would have gone if Bynum had been healthy. We can reasonably assume the Lakers would have been tougher just because of the number of centers would would have had to deal with, after such tought 20 playoffs games. We may have a chance to find out this year, maybe not. We already are weaker having lost Possey, a bench player. If we get to the finals again, and so do the Lakers, uncathed; we may have an answer who is the best of the two.

No one knows how the finals would have gone if Ray wasn't in a slump for the first few series -- Cs might have been even more rested up for the finals and swept the Lakers in 4 games....

If PP hadn't injured himself in Game 1, it is reasonable to project the Cs winning in 5 games....

[ACF]

ESPN has Smith and Jamele Hill as NBA "experts" on staff.

Why anybody would take anything ESPN says concerning the NBA seriously is beyond me.

You're absolutely right.
As I recall, only Tim Legler
had the Celts as champs.
People forget easily, it seems 

[jdub1660]

I am most shocked that they put the Spurs 5th in the West. 

Too Low or Too High?

Too low. 


They are still better them the Jazz and the Rockets.  Hornets still have to beat them in the playoffs. 

I'm sure their low ranking is from their age and overall decline in talent. They haven't added anything special this off season. Ginobli might miss some games to start the season(IMO) bigs(Duncan) always age faster. One thing i will put out there for the record, is that statistically this is the year that the Spurs should win the title. They've been off and on every other year for championships. I still would put them at 4th or 5th.



And as for ESPN dogging the Celts...forget it. They didn't think we could win last year until the playoffs were about to start...then all the analyst joined the bandwagon...then we had a few long series and they went back to hating our chances, then back again on the wagon they came. When the trade was put together with the new Big 3, b/c of KG, my fav player of all time, I knew we were going for gold.

[BigThreePeat]

so losing Posey costs us 11 wins, but New Orleans adding Posey costs them 2 wins? 

Huh?

[BballTim]

Posey had great defense in the regular season but offensively what can he do besides stand behind the arc in the corner?

We will miss posey in the playoffs BIG time, but I'd take a healthy Tony Allen, D Miles, JR, and Walker over him for a 82-game season 10 times out of 10

That makes 1 of us

Posey provided leadership, veteran headiness, and was not just a good 3 point shooter, he was cold blooded when it counted.  All to ignore that he was in the top two best defenders on our team.

I think an 11 game drop is totally reasonable estimate if the team stands pat, but I'd expect that midseason acquisitions will change the face of this teams backup options.  No matter what, we'll still be starting the the same 5 guys, with 1 additional year of experience with each other, so we'll still be filthy this coming year.  Even our "haters" have us 1st in the East...

  Posey may have been a top 2 defender on our bench, but he wasn't even close to top 2 on the team.

[BballTim]

Lakers are over-rated.

Bynum will not be a huge impact, Kobe is on the decline... Gasol is on the decline... Their bench is weak weak, in my opinion.

The 28 year old Gasol and the 30 year old best player on the planet are in decline?!?!

Wow, now I've heard everything!

The MVP of the league is in decline!!

As CelticBalla said, please explain that one to me.

  Clearly Kobe must be declining because apparently he used to be the best player on the planet and that's no longer the case. Is there another explanation?