The Celtics aren't 'overachieving'.
Overachieving would be them sitting in the top 3 teams in the East with all those great wins vs great teams, without a few annoying losses to some bad teams.
You can't say that 'without Brad and some injuries, this team would blah blah blah', because they have Brad, and they don't have too many injuries. Any team with injuries can suck lol.
This twisted logic is hilarious.
Brad Stevens is a part of this team. Because of the style of play they have, even one or two injuries to starters will have LESS of an impact than most other teams because of our depth.
Sure there aren't any sure fire All Stars on our team, but we've got 3 guys who are all front runners for 1st and 2nd All NBA defense selections and an incredible player in IT who can score like a superstar on any given night.
But the main reason we aren't overachieving is because we literally have the best defensive back court in the NBA with Bradley, Smart and Crowder.
Even without Smart, they utterly dismantled the Wizards with Beal and Wall- we've seen them do it so many times this season. They put fear into the eyes of the opponents guard rotation and it makes life for Amir, Sully, KO and Lee so much easier behind them.
They've done this now to some very good teams because that's their modus operandi. That's their talent. Talent doesn't just have to be on the offensive end. We have three defensive All Stars. You don't need guys to hit tough shots when you score 20 points a game off fast breaks/turnovers and have great ball movement.
Now what we could use is better three point shooting from those same three defensive monsters on the perimeter- that would make us a legitimate scare to a team like Cleveland in the playoffs.
We aren't the most talented offensive team, but we are an incredibly talented defensive team on the perimeter.
This is what annoys me when our strengths aren't acknowledged but our weaknesses are spouted as the keys as to why we are doing better than expected or 'overachieving'.
We are right where we thought we'd be. Slightly better than .500 with the ability to beat any team on any given night if our defense and ball movement are at a normal standard.
No one is expecting this team to take the Cavs to 7 games come playoff time, but we'll give them a better fight than last year and we may even get past the 3rd seed if we finish as the 6th seed in the first round of the playoffs.
This is a team that:
1) wants to get to at least the 6th seed in the East, in order to avoid Cleveland and ATL in the first round.
2) believes if it can finish in the top 6, has a genuine chance to make the 2nd round of the playoffs ala the 76ers in 2012- and we are better than that 76ers team.
3) Has a coach that puts defense, fast break scoring and taking more shots than their opponents above all other factors. Brad understands that if we can take more shots per game than our opponents, and force more turnovers on our opponents (leading to fast break baskets and less shots for our opponents), that we don't need to rely on a top 10 player to be a solid playoff team.
The beauty of this strategy is that with our depth- however 'mediocre' it may be offensively, we still have a shot at winning most games. He's playing to our strengths. Just because other teams win with offensive firepower doesn't mean we can't get 45-48 wins predicated around an awesome defense.
The defense is like a beautiful landmark for free agents and their agents, and it's the first critical step in developing this teams identity for the next 10 years while Stevens is here.
Build it and they will come.
We may not be a true contender just yet, but we are building one of the best defenses in the NBA and we are definitely not overachieving being 9W-7L in the East.
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