And the reason I compare this season to last season is because we looked horrid ending that season, and no one had faith we'd go far in the playoffs.
Just saying we don't look good now doesn't prove this was a bad trade, for whatever reason you may claim. Not when the team started off well with the new guys after the trade. It's clear Krstic and Green can in fact "fit in". Maybe not the way we want them too (or basically, like Perk could), but they have nonetheless.
Just like you allege that last season was a different issue from this season, I think our problems this season is a different issue from the trade.
fair enough - and i agree that Kristic and Green have played well.
i'm not blaming the losses on them.
on the other hand, just because the team has won some games (vs weak opponents) since the trade doesn't prove their individual and collective psyches have not been damaged. look at the starting fives' performances and stats since the trade. those are the guys that would be most effected emotionally and those are the guys who, until feb. 24, were carrying this team thru all the injuries and keeping the Celts in that first spot in the east.
Rondo's been a zombie since the trade and Garnett has been less aggressive. Pierce and Allen's shooting has been scattered all over the place.
i'm not happy that the trade has been a kick in the gut to our team, but this team, more than any other group in the league and probably more than any Celtic team since Russell's 1969 champions, played for each other and thrived on emotion and a shared motivation to get the title back to Boston. that intangible togetherness has been affected.
last season, the Celts struggled the entire second half of the year due to a still healing Kevin Garnett, the alpha male push and pull created by the emergence of Rondo's desire to be a team leader and a weak bench. this season, the struggles started specifcally among the starters and immediately after the trade.