"Anti-Tankers" want us to limp into the playoffs as a losing team (say 34 wins, for instance) only to get curb-stomped by Indiana, simply because they want to feel the rush of 4 or 5 playoff games. They are either clinging to this delusion that a 34 win Celtic team can shock the world (like the 44 win 76er team who upset 1st seed Chicago in 2012 after Rose got injured.. then subsequently missed the playoffs the next two years) or they just really really really want to watch 4 playoff games NOW. NOW NOW NOW.
Pretty sure those folks would have failed the Marshmallow Test as children:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QX_oy9614HQ
Boys and girls, you can either have one Marshmallow now (one playoff series) ... or you can wait (tank) and have two marshmallows (a proper foundation built around one of the elite prospects in this draft and the rest of our youth... resulting in perhaps a decade of contention)
That's cute, but it's a terrible analogy. If that lady had said to seven year old me; "here's a marshmallow, there's a chance that I'll give you another marshmallow whether you eat that one or not, but if you don't eat it, there's a slightly higher chance that I'll give you another one," seven year old me would have eaten the marshmallow.
What I've described is much closer to the Celtics current situation. We really don't know if that second marshmallow is coming or where it's coming from, whether we tank or not.
You are right. I want the marshmallow. Once I eat it, I'm counting on uncle Danny to get me another one.
I hear you. I think we still have some disagreement over whether this is a big difference between a Top 8 pick in this draft vs the #15 pick. I tend to think the pick itself has significant trade value if it falls within the Top 8 of this draft. #15 pick... not so much.
Yes, I do disagree. I think that a top three pick would give us a really good shot at getting a franchise player, a four or five pick would give us decent odds as well. But, I think that once you move out of the top five, the draft--and this goes for any draft, good ones as well as bad ones--becomes more or less a crap shoot.
You can land a good player at eight or you can land a good player at eighteen. I think history has shown that the draft is nowhere near as exact a science as those rooting for ping pong balls would like it to be.
We have a GM who has gotten us Rajon Rondo, Al Jefferson, Jared Sullinger, Tony Allen, Kendrick Perkins, and Avery Bradley all outside of the lottery.
My take on this draft is that not only does it have a couple of potential superstars at the top, but it also has a lot of depth. With two first round picks in it, I like our chances of coming away with a nice prize regardless of what record we finish up with.
