The Spurs show we should run it back

[winsomme]

I think the Spurs are showing in this postseason why Danny absolutely should be bringing back PP and Garnett. The "age factor" which has seemed like overriding factor going into this off season for the Cs in terms of how decisions should be made has never been the biggest factor for me and is even less so after seeing this run by the San Antonio Spurs.

Look at the main parts of the rosters:

Tony Parker        Rondo
Danny Green      Courney Lee
Manu Ginobili    Paul Pierce
Tiago Splitter     Barndon Bass
Tim Duncan       Kevin Garnett
Kawhi Leonard   Jeff Green
Gary Neal            Jason Terry
Boris Diaw          Jared Sullinger
Matt Bonner       ? Insert Player

Certainly many will argue many of these matchups, but I think when you step back from the rosters as a whole, the Cs are not that far off from having a very comparable roster.

The two biggest factors IMO why the Cs are not currently where the Spurs are are injury (Rondo and Sullinger most notably) and Danny still not having replaced Perk. We are undersized in the post and on the wing as well.

If this off season Danny is able to finally replace Perk with a decent legit big man (MLE?) and uses a pretty valuable draft pick well (along with the returns of Rondo and Sully), I don't see any reason why running it back (ie PP and KG stay) couldn't put us right back in the running for a Title. The Spurs are the proof that age in and of itself should not dominate the decision making.

I also really hope Danny moves on from bringing in undersized wing players. Watching the Miami-Indiana series should be showing that strong wing defenders are also very important in battling the Heat.

[Kane3387]

I definitely see the logic, but how will pierce and kg be after another year? How does rondo bounce back?

[winsomme]

I just realized that I left out Avery Bradley which just goes to show just how many undersized wings we have on this team.

Avery Bradley, Jason Terry, Courtney Lee, Jordan Crawford...add in Barbosa. Too many small wings. Give me two of these guys at most.

[winsomme]

I definitely see the logic, but how will pierce and kg be after another year? How does rondo bounce back?

True, but I have to think that Garnett is watching his old man friend Duncan and chomping at the bit to return.

I think as long as there are high profile guys out there in the same situation, KG and PP are gonna want to stay too.

[winsomme]

I think some kind of trade is going to be necessary as well. I just hope it's not PP because I  think he has the most value to us.

I really hope what happens that PP and the Cs agree to something where they buy him out and resigns for two years at solid money to keep him and KG here together through the end of 2015.

Then I hope we look at trades to free up some roster spots because we have a lot of money dedicated to redundant players.

We HAVE to get bigger in the post and on the wing. It is an absolute must.

[Boris Badenov]

I think the Spurs are showing in this postseason why Danny absolutely should be bringing back PP and Garnett. The "age factor" which has seemed like overriding factor going into this off season for the Cs in terms of how decisions should be made has never been the biggest factor for me and is even less so after seeing this run by the San Antonio Spurs.

Look at the main parts of the rosters:

Tony Parker        Rondo
Danny Green      Courney Lee
Manu Ginobili    Paul Pierce
Tiago Splitter     Barndon Bass
Tim Duncan       Kevin Garnett
Kawhi Leonard   Jeff Green
Gary Neal            Jason Terry
Boris Diaw          Jared Sullinger
Matt Bonner       ? Insert Player

Certainly many will argue many of these matchups, but I think when you step back from the rosters as a whole, the Cs are not that far off from having a very comparable roster.

There is a huge difference in talent at the top. Duncan was first-team All-NBA. Parker was 2nd team All-NBA. Parker and Duncan were 6th and 7th in MVP balloting, and also both top 10 (6th and 9th) in regular season PER.

So by any measure you want, the Spurs had two top-10 players. That's why they won 58 games and are cruising to the finals.

KG and Pierce, while still very good players, are just not comparable at this stage. As a point of comparison they were 38th and 40th in PER.

When healthy Rondo is terrific, but next year he is returning from an ACL injury, and you just have to recognize that he will probably not be playing at his pre-injury level for some or all of the year.

Put it all together and we just won't have the talent. I think the rest of the Spurs roster is also more talented than ours, but that is secondary to the talent at the top.

[winsomme]

I think the Spurs are showing in this postseason why Danny absolutely should be bringing back PP and Garnett. The "age factor" which has seemed like overriding factor going into this off season for the Cs in terms of how decisions should be made has never been the biggest factor for me and is even less so after seeing this run by the San Antonio Spurs.

Look at the main parts of the rosters:

Tony Parker        Rondo
Danny Green      Courney Lee
Manu Ginobili    Paul Pierce
Tiago Splitter     Barndon Bass
Tim Duncan       Kevin Garnett
Kawhi Leonard   Jeff Green
Gary Neal            Jason Terry
Boris Diaw          Jared Sullinger
Matt Bonner       ? Insert Player

Certainly many will argue many of these matchups, but I think when you step back from the rosters as a whole, the Cs are not that far off from having a very comparable roster.

There is a huge difference in talent at the top. Duncan was first-team All-NBA. Parker was 2nd team All-NBA. Parker and Duncan were 6th and 7th in MVP balloting, and also both top 10 (6th and 9th) in regular season PER.

So by any measure you want, the Spurs had two top-10 players. That's why they won 58 games and are cruising to the finals.

KG and Pierce, while still very good players, are just not comparable at this stage. As a point of comparison they were 38th and 40th in PER.

When healthy Rondo is terrific, but next year he is returning from an ACL injury, and you just have to recognize that he will probably not be playing at his pre-injury level for some or all of the year.

Put it all together and we just won't have the talent. I think the rest of the Spurs roster is also more talented than ours, but that is secondary to the talent at the top.

It's easy to say that the rest of the roster is just "better" than the Cs based on how they are currently playing, but each Cs player has demonstrated the ability to play at the same or even a higher level than a comparable player on the Spurs. Jeff Green for example has shown flashes of being a go-to player. And Garnett was playing his best basketball of the season at the end.

I don't think you can look at PER stats to find the answers because this Cs team was definitely dysfunctional, but the dysfunction is correctable. Plus, looking at how the playoffs played out for us, I think the impact of the absence of Rondo certainly is the biggest take-away. This would have been a very different playoff run with Rondo on the floor.

Like I said earlier, we can go round and round on the different elements of the Spurs and the Cs rosters. and frankly each one of these debates (ie Tony Parker vs. Rondo; Duncan vs. KG) has been beaten to death. If you step back and look at the rosters as a whole, however, I think that we certainly have the core elements (like the Spurs) to have a Title contending team.

We just need Danny to stick with it AND make some better decisions in filling out the rest of the roster.

[Celtics4ever]

We are not the Spurs, we don't have Popavich, so I don't agree.  They can consistently score, we can't!

[DeeMeds]

We are not the Spurs, we don't have Popavich, so I don't agree.  They can consistently score, we can't!

Tony Parker's ability to finish around the hoop makes them so dangerous. If Rondo can make the leap to a 17 or 18 PPG scorer I think this is a fair comparison. As long as Rondo is hovering around 13 or 14 points. For now, this poster is right, Spurs can score the Celtics can't.

[CelticConcourse]

I actually think our roster is better than the Spurs'. We just need to click, and that's on Doc.

[CelticConcourse]

Tony Parker    =    Rajon Rondo
Danny Green   =   Courtney Lee
Manu Ginobili  <  Paul Pierce
Tiago Splitter  >  Brandon Bass
Tim Duncan   =   Kevin Garnett
Kawhi Leonard = Jeff Green
Gary Neal    <     Jason Terry
Boris Diaw    <    Jared Sullinger
Matt Bonner   >   ? Insert Player

Thing is, Pop gets all his players to contribute. Can we?

[kgainez]

this is so ridiculous
the comparisons between splitter, leonard and diaw are awful, for one.
smh

and manu right now is better than an aging paul pierce
and it's tough to argue kg being better than or equal to tim duncan.

the grizzlies, pacers, warriors, bulls are an example of how we should move on.

[ianboyextreme]

I am for it.

[Kane3387]

I think the main difference is Parker vs rondo and tonys ability to be consistently aggressive and looking to score.

[BleedGreen1989]

this is so ridiculous
the comparisons between splitter, leonard and diaw are awful, for one.
smh

and manu right now is better than an aging paul pierce
and it's tough to argue kg being better than or equal to tim duncan.

the grizzlies, pacers, warriors, bulls are an example of how we should move on.

Manu is actually older than Pierce and has showed his age much much more over the last couple seasons.