So I've been watching quite a bit of NBATV today, and a constant theme seems to be present - people are really sleeping on the C's.
I noticed this several different times between the program The Starters and Open Court, along with other observations from many other supposed basketball tv "analysts."
On The Starters today, a question was asked about who will be the best defensive team in the league this year. San Antonio, Charlotte, and Utah were all mentioned, but Boston was not mentioned, even though we did more to better our already top-4 defense than any other team in the league, i.e. replacing Sully with Horford and Turner with Brown, who is more versatile defensively than Turner. Hell, of our 11-man rotation, (IT, AB, JC, AH, AJ, TR, MS, GG, KO, JJ, and JB) only 3-4 of those guys wouldn't be considered above-average defenders at their position (IT, GG, KO, and maybe JB as a rookie?).
Further, when it came to several differing questions on who would be 2nd in the East and who could potentially challenge Cleveland in the Eastern Conference, Indiana and Toronto were both generally mentioned as the two most likely, and Boston was put in the less likely group with the likes of Charlotte, Detroit, and Atlanta.
I was pretty incredulous at this. Not only has Horford proven to be an outright perfect fit in Boston, but you have to count in the fact that several of our young guys will naturally progress with more experience, along with none of our guys really losing anything due to age. When these facts are added to the fact that we were already a top-3 record team to begin with, I think it's clear that we should be considered the top contender to Cleveland in the East and in prime position to come in second, if not first, in the Eastern Conference.
What do you think? Are people sleeping on the C's?