We're not that far off....

[Hemingway]

We have what, maybe a 5% chance to get LMA? Low yes, but we also have low chances on Love, Cousins, Jordan, Gasol, Middleton, Kanter, PP, Melo, Monroe, exc. The point being that all these outside chances put together give us a decent shot at getting someone.

Even if we strike out, Danny probably looks for deals where he helps other teams makes moves and gets a pick or upgrades somewhere or gets an asset. I think it is very unlikely we have less talent next season than we had at the end of this season.

[Waew]

Were screwed. Crap draft pick this year.

[Bosstown]

We have what, maybe a 5% chance to get LMA? Low yes, but we also have low chances on Love, Cousins, Jordan, Gasol, Middleton, Kanter, PP, Melo, Monroe, exc. The point being that all these outside chances put together give us a decent shot at getting someone.

Even if we strike out, Danny probably looks for deals where he helps other teams makes moves and gets a pick or upgrades somewhere or gets an asset. I think it is very unlikely we have less talent next season than we had at the end of this season.

We have no shot at any of those guys. Our team isn't appealing at all, we're stacking picks and developing youth until they turn into chips to flip. None of those guys are going anywhere near the Celtics.

[Celtics4ever]

For the record, I enjoyed watching how hard we played this year, I just do not see us being close to contending.

[greece66]

This thread is like
-Yes, we can.
-No, we can't.
-Yes.
-No.
-Yes!
-No!

[D.o.s.]

We aren't far from contending as long as you assume bringing in three all-stars is an easy thing to accomplish.

Nailed it.

[CelticsFanFromNYC]

They've got a core in place that, with this coach, has a fighting chance at making it to 40-45 wins each season.  But also plenty of room for faltering and finishing with 30.

Finding the necessary pieces to get beyond that to having a shot at 50-55 wins in any given season is the hardest part of rebuilding, though.  Most rebuilding teams get to where the Celts are now. It is, however, very impressive that it only took Danny and Coach Brad a year and change to reach this point.

Still, not many teams get to that next step without stumbling and reshuffling once or twice or five times.

BOOM! On the money!

[tarheelsxxiii]

I would be really happy with Butler, DeAndre, moving up into lottery to snag a scorer and/or athletic + defensive wing in the draft, and resigning Pierce for a last hurrah. I doubt any of those happen though. I'm excited for this off-season but don't expect to make a big splash. IT was a nice surprise though, so trying to remain optimistic. As long as we don't draft Dekker, Kaminsky, or someone 6'10 with a 205 lb frame, that'd be a relief too. 

I don't think of Love, LMA, or the guys I've listed as superstars. Top 5 in league are superstars, the next 10-15 are very, very good players. Highly doubt we win a championship with Love as the best player on our team. Think of all the teams in the league with a better 1, and even 1 + 2. I'm too brain-dead to list, but I'm sure there is more than 5... LeBron + Kyrie, Steph and Klay (Id argue Dray too), Duncan + Leonard, Paul + Griffin, Gasol + Zbo/Conley, Westbrook + Durant, maybe even Wall + Beal or Teague + Horford/Millsap. Dead serious. I get he is being trumped due to the culture, his limited/adjusted role, and nightly comparison to best player in the world. But he plays one end of the floor... that's crap, especially considering our need for frontcourt toughness and a two way guy. We don't compete without dominant, go-to scorer (2 way guy, too), but we need a rim protector even more than that. 

Edit: Don't mean to minimize your point, Monkhouse. I respect you as a poster and agree with a vast majority of your opinions. Just feeling like we need more than one of those guys - perhaps 2 is the magic number? And I do strongly agree with have great glue guys that are championship pieces.

PLEASE explain to me WHY you don't want Dekker?  Why???  Was ANYONE more clutch in the big NCAA tourney games??  If the Badgers needed a shot at a critical time, he simply delivered virtually EVERY time!!!!  Please educate me on this one. 

Thanks,

Smitty77

Really straightfoward: March Madness success or failure does not predict NBA success. Would you have been happy drafting Tyrus Thomas, Kidd-Gilchrist, Thabeet, Sean May, Ed O'Bannon, Mateen Cleaves (14) in the lottery?. Probably not. And Dekker not going be able to create his own shot like he could in college, he's not a great ball handler, he's a very inconsistent shooter (got worse at college went on), he isn't strong enough for post-play in NBA, and has little upside... he is who he is, which is an NBA role player at best. An NBA comp of Gordon Hayward floors me.

[CelticsFanFromNYC]

Also, its pointless to say we will be a bad team next year as it's assume we will sit on our hands all summer and bring in no help.

Right, but we can acknowledge that it's possible the best move on the table will be to make the most of the draft picks, maybe make one or two modest buy-low signings, and head into next year with a very similar roster.

God I hope this doesn't end up being the case.

IMO, I really dont think  any "Buy Low" players can help our team in the long run as far as contending is concern. We have a team which is just a giant supporting Cast.  Lowest Tier player I'd sign is like a Tobias or  a Wesley Matthews and im sure their expecting to get paid as well.

I REALLY FEEL STRONG if were not signing or trading for  an AllStar caliber player, we'll trade are role players, draft picks, and use TPE's do get more "Mid Tier" players.


No sense in having a team full of 4th and 5th options. Welll end up i na building loop like the Hawks were in prior

[Celtics18]

Also, its pointless to say we will be a bad team next year as it's assume we will sit on our hands all summer and bring in no help.

Right, but we can acknowledge that it's possible the best move on the table will be to make the most of the draft picks, maybe make one or two modest buy-low signings, and head into next year with a very similar roster.

God I hope this doesn't end up being the case.

IMO, I really dont think  any "Buy Low" players can help our team in the long run as far as contending is concern. We have a team which is just a giant supporting Cast.  Lowest Tier player I'd sign is like a Tobias or  a Wesley Matthews and im sure their expecting to get paid as well.

I REALLY FEEL STRONG if were not signing or trading for  an AllStar caliber player, we'll trade are role players, draft picks, and use TPE's do get more "Mid Tier" players.


No sense in having a team full of 4th and 5th options. Welll end up i na building loop like the Hawks were in prior

I like what the Hawks have done.  They may not get to the NBA finals (they still aren't a sure thing to get to the conference finals).

I just have so much respect for the way they have successfully bucked the "superstar or bust" rebuilding model that so many fans and talking heads seem to advocate as the gold standard for rebuilding an NBA contender.

They chose Al Horford and Jeff Teague (two very good players, but not elite superstars) as their core guys to build around, and have spent the last few years putting a team together around those guys with additional very good, non-superstar players.

The Grizzlies, another team that I respect and root for, have built their team in a similar manner.

Although the two teams have very different styles on the court, I'm a big fan of these teams that have found ways to be highly competitive without the uber-stars.

I'd love to see the Celtics be able to follow a similar path.  To me, Marcus Smart and Kelly Olynyk seem like a good start. 

[CelticGuardian]

Is there reason to be optimistic? Yeah sure.

Is anything for certain in the NBA? Hell no.

Above the pessimism the endless speculation is what irks me the most... as it leads to some very unrealistic goals like a 50-55 win season.

There are too many factors in this. Things that can remotely alter the outcome, like Paul George coming back healthy, stuff like that comes into play if we are talking about how our record is going to look like. As well as things we can do like signing a marquee FA.

I understand as fans we get ahead of ourselves, especially because of our exciting young team, but we should speculate on a first things first basis, starting with which players should be retained and which should walk.

[guava_wrench]

We're not far off... from where we were in 2007 before KG, RA, James Posey and Eddie House arrived.    The 2006-7 C's lost Pierce for about half the year, but with Pierce healthy, I don't see them much differently than I see the 2014-15 C's (sans the future picks).  Young Rondo, Perk, Tony Allen, Delonte, Wally, Powe, Big Al, and Scal.    Lots of heart and hustle, some good young talent.   With Pierce healthy and Brad Stevens, they could have won 35. 

So that means that it's possible that DA turns what he has now into a contender ("anything's possible"), but to suggest we really "aren't far off" is not really true.

Big Al had more value than anyone on our team right now, including Smart. We also do not have anyone right now in the same league as Pierce.

We have a more future draft picks, though we don't know that any will be as high as the one we traded for Ray Allen.

The lack of a Pierce is a major obstacle. We should also remember that we did not go after guys in their prime. We went after vets without rings and used vets to attract them. Who are the Ray Allen/KG-type 30 year-olds without rights who we could attract and who on our team would help attract them?

I enjoy watching the current team, but we don't even have anyone at the Horford level yet.

[Evantime34]

How far off we are should be at least tabled until after the draft or free agency. There is so much unknown going on that to get an accurate reading of where the team will be next year.

Essentially how you feel about the future is based on how optimistic you are about what Ainge can do with our picks, cap space and tradable players. The path to where we ant to be is extremely clouded but I think us making a blockbuster trade is similarly likely to us adding no one, with something in the middle being the most likely. With that much uncertainty how can we accurately judge how far off we are?

[konkmv]

We have a coach...

[CelticGuardian]

How far off we are should be at least tabled until after the draft or free agency. There is so much unknown going on that to get an accurate reading of where the team will be next year.

Essentially how you feel about the future is based on how optimistic you are about what Ainge can do with our picks, cap space and tradable players. The path to where we ant to be is extremely clouded but I think us making a blockbuster trade is similarly likely to us adding no one, with something in the middle being the most likely. With that much uncertainty how can we accurately judge how far off we are?

We have a potential Belichik, we just need to get him his Brady. We could explore different scenarios all we want, the fact of the matter is that we have the assets to entice a team to deal with us and a GM that has had success in the past. We can have confidence that the effort is being put forth.