Worst back-to-back HOME losses in half a decade!!!

[LarBrd33]

I have been a poster here for a long time. I have seen posters get disciplined for lesser offenses of rule breaking. How LB gets away with constantly derailing threads into his own, self promoting, self indulging love of Philly is disgusting. Mods....you really need to stop this. It is effecting the overall community atmosphere at this blog.

im graded on a curve.  I think I'm actually a pretty good sport about it.  Any other poster could have responded to smitty's panic thread with, "the pain is magnified by the fact our last three losses came to teams Philly just beat" and the response would have been "ugh that's true that really sucks".  But because it's me you have multiple people with an ax to grind knitting themselves matching caps, pulling out the poster board and crayons, and trying to get a march against LarBrd33 started.   

Am I not allowed to express my concerns in a thread that was literally set up to panic about our losses?  I was genuinely upset and frustrated to see us lose to teams that struggled to handle Embiid's size.  It was literally the first time all season I found myself thinking "We need to go all-in for Boogie".  This morning I thought better of it.  I still think our best move is to keep the picks and build for the next generation. 

It's hard for me to not have those observations.  Every year I pick a team to watch semi-religiously other than Boston.  Back in the day it was the Sonics.  Last year it was the Wolves. This year it's philly.  Had you seen my posts back in the early 00s you'd see me relate a lot of things to my experience watching Ray Allen.  And actually, several posts about how Jeff Green had potential to lead a bad team in scoring (I even suggested a Perk swap a couple years before it happened).  Last year I posted multiple times about how incredible Karl towns could be.  This year, it's philly.  For the record, no mod has every specifically told me to stop posting about the 76ers.  Some random person will create a thread about Philly every few days and I'll give my two cents there, but I never create those threads.  I've commented about them in the "NBA Season" thread because i genuinely see it as the biggest story of the season and I'm not alone.  The other day 9 of the top 10 posts on reddit's NBA sub were related to Philly.  As I make this post, Embiid is on the cover of espn's nba page.  It's a big deal.  I spent a month away from this forum and there were no less than 15 active threads about Philly here that I didn't make a single post in.  If you're sick of the Philly talk you might want to start a petition to ban all Philly related discussion.  I'm almost never the source of those threads.  And in fact without calling anyone out specifically it's important to note that most of my greatest naysayers post about Philly as frequently as I do and I have already shown that they most certainly create more threads about Philly than I do. 

Anyways, I want to apologize if my panicking last night about the fact a healthy Philly team was now better than us if that was not an appropriate thing to panic about in the thread created to panic.  My bad. Knowing that I'm being graded on a curve here, I'll try to avoid this happening again, but y'all have to do your part not to derail every thread I participate in claiming I've derailed the thread.

[Clench123]

It's rough. To me it's magnified by the fact our last 3 losses were against teams (Toronto, New York and Portland) that Embiid has been able to beat this month in limited minutes.  That worries me.

Judging by your taste in avatars, I bet you have a punchable face.

[LarBrd33]

Judging by your taste in avatars, I bet you have a punchable face.

It's a Jiri Welsch avatar.  He used to play for the Celtics.   

[Ilikesports17]

I have been a poster here for a long time. I have seen posters get disciplined for lesser offenses of rule breaking. How LB gets away with constantly derailing threads into his own, self promoting, self indulging love of Philly is disgusting. Mods....you really need to stop this. It is effecting the overall community atmosphere at this blog.

im graded on a curve.  I think I'm actually a pretty good sport about it.  Any other poster could have responded to smitty's panic thread with, "the pain is magnified by the fact our last three losses came to teams Philly just beat" and the response would have been "ugh that's true that really sucks".  But because it's me you have multiple people with an ax to grind knitting themselves matching caps, pulling out the poster board and crayons, and trying to get a march against LarBrd33 started.   

Am I not allowed to express my concerns in a thread that was literally set up to panic about our losses?  I was genuinely upset and frustrated to see us lose to teams that struggled to handle Embiid's size.  It was literally the first time all season I found myself thinking "We need to go all-in for Boogie".  This morning I thought better of it.  I still think our best move is to keep the picks and build for the next generation. 

It's hard for me to not have those observations.  Every year I pick a team to watch semi-religiously other than Boston.  Back in the day it was the Sonics.  Last year it was the Wolves. This year it's philly.  Had you seen my posts back in the early 00s you'd see me relate a lot of things to my experience watching Ray Allen.  And actually, several posts about how Jeff Green had potential to lead a bad team in scoring (I even suggested a Perk swap a couple years before it happened).  Last year I posted multiple times about how incredible Karl towns could be.  This year, it's philly.  For the record, no mod has every specifically told me to stop posting about the 76ers.  Some random person will create a thread about Philly every few days and I'll give my two cents there, but I never create those threads.  I've commented about them in the "NBA Season" thread because i genuinely see it as the biggest story of the season and I'm not alone.  The other day 9 of the top 10 posts on reddit's NBA sub were related to Philly.  As I make this post, Embiid is on the cover of espn's nba page.  It's a big deal.  I spent a month away from this forum and there were no less than 15 active threads about Philly here that I didn't make a single post in.  If you're sick of the Philly talk you might want to start a petition to ban all Philly related discussion.  I'm almost never the source of those threads.  And in fact without calling anyone out specifically it's important to note that most of my greatest naysayers post about Philly as frequently as I do and I have already shown that they most certainly create more threads about Philly than I do. 

Anyways, I want to apologize if my panicking last night about the fact a healthy Philly team was now better than us if that was not an appropriate thing to panic about in the thread created to panic.  My bad. Knowing that I'm being graded on a curve here, I'll try to avoid this happening again, but y'all have to do your part not to derail every thread I participate in claiming I've derailed the thread.

yeah you are definitely right.

Youve lost a lot of credibility and are generally seen as a troll. That reputation leads people to assume the worst when the read your posts.

[Ilikesports17]

Judging by your taste in avatars, I bet you have a punchable face.

It's a Jiri Welsch avatar.  He used to play for the Celtics.

Its Andy Kaufman, who happens to look a decent amount like jiri welsch but is most definitely not Jiri Welsch.

Kaufman famously noted that he just wanted to "play with [his audiences] heads" and was notorious for his pranks and elaborate rouses.

Essentially he was a troll before his time.

[ayer]

yeah you are definitely right.

Youve lost a lot of credibility and are generally seen as a troll. That reputation leads people to assume the worst when the read your posts.
[/quote]
TP!!!!

[LarBrd33]

I have been a poster here for a long time. I have seen posters get disciplined for lesser offenses of rule breaking. How LB gets away with constantly derailing threads into his own, self promoting, self indulging love of Philly is disgusting. Mods....you really need to stop this. It is effecting the overall community atmosphere at this blog.

im graded on a curve.  I think I'm actually a pretty good sport about it.  Any other poster could have responded to smitty's panic thread with, "the pain is magnified by the fact our last three losses came to teams Philly just beat" and the response would have been "ugh that's true that really sucks".  But because it's me you have multiple people with an ax to grind knitting themselves matching caps, pulling out the poster board and crayons, and trying to get a march against LarBrd33 started.   

Am I not allowed to express my concerns in a thread that was literally set up to panic about our losses?  I was genuinely upset and frustrated to see us lose to teams that struggled to handle Embiid's size.  It was literally the first time all season I found myself thinking "We need to go all-in for Boogie".  This morning I thought better of it.  I still think our best move is to keep the picks and build for the next generation. 

It's hard for me to not have those observations.  Every year I pick a team to watch semi-religiously other than Boston.  Back in the day it was the Sonics.  Last year it was the Wolves. This year it's philly.  Had you seen my posts back in the early 00s you'd see me relate a lot of things to my experience watching Ray Allen.  And actually, several posts about how Jeff Green had potential to lead a bad team in scoring (I even suggested a Perk swap a couple years before it happened).  Last year I posted multiple times about how incredible Karl towns could be.  This year, it's philly.  For the record, no mod has every specifically told me to stop posting about the 76ers.  Some random person will create a thread about Philly every few days and I'll give my two cents there, but I never create those threads.  I've commented about them in the "NBA Season" thread because i genuinely see it as the biggest story of the season and I'm not alone.  The other day 9 of the top 10 posts on reddit's NBA sub were related to Philly.  As I make this post, Embiid is on the cover of espn's nba page.  It's a big deal.  I spent a month away from this forum and there were no less than 15 active threads about Philly here that I didn't make a single post in.  If you're sick of the Philly talk you might want to start a petition to ban all Philly related discussion.  I'm almost never the source of those threads.  And in fact without calling anyone out specifically it's important to note that most of my greatest naysayers post about Philly as frequently as I do and I have already shown that they most certainly create more threads about Philly than I do. 

Anyways, I want to apologize if my panicking last night about the fact a healthy Philly team was now better than us if that was not an appropriate thing to panic about in the thread created to panic.  My bad. Knowing that I'm being graded on a curve here, I'll try to avoid this happening again, but y'all have to do your part not to derail every thread I participate in claiming I've derailed the thread.

yeah you are definitely right.

Youve lost a lot of credibility and are generally seen as a troll. That reputation leads people to assume the worst when the read your posts.

I never claimed to have credibility.  I'm just some dumb fan.  I don't mind people disagreeing with me.  It sparks discussion.  Most of the controversial things I've said in the past that get labelled "trolling" do not look controversial in retrospect.  If you go back and look at the things people flipped out at me for in the past, there's not much to disagree with me about.  My "anti-Rondo" comments are a classic example.  In a couple years I'm sure all of the "controversial" opinions I have right now will likewise seem less controversial in retrospect.  I've been dealing with this for 12 years on this forum.  It is what it is. 

I'm trying not to respond to every person who derails threads claiming I've derailed the thread.   I try to ignore them.  I'm responding to this one, because the "sky is falling" rhetoric in the original post kind of set a ridiculous tone right off the bat.   If someone wants to help me steer this back on topic, let's find something less sensitive to discuss here that stays on-topic with the intended Panic-Mode purpose of this thread.  I'll do my best...

Aside from the obvious lack of size, what do you see as the main reason we should panic about our last two losses?   

[Boris Badenov]

I have been a poster here for a long time. I have seen posters get disciplined for lesser offenses of rule breaking. How LB gets away with constantly derailing threads into his own, self promoting, self indulging love of Philly is disgusting. Mods....you really need to stop this. It is effecting the overall community atmosphere at this blog.

im graded on a curve.  I think I'm actually a pretty good sport about it.  Any other poster could have responded to smitty's panic thread with, "the pain is magnified by the fact our last three losses came to teams Philly just beat" and the response would have been "ugh that's true that really sucks".  But because it's me you have multiple people with an ax to grind knitting themselves matching caps, pulling out the poster board and crayons, and trying to get a march against LarBrd33 started.   

Am I not allowed to express my concerns in a thread that was literally set up to panic about our losses?  I was genuinely upset and frustrated to see us lose to teams that struggled to handle Embiid's size.  It was literally the first time all season I found myself thinking "We need to go all-in for Boogie".  This morning I thought better of it.  I still think our best move is to keep the picks and build for the next generation. 

It's hard for me to not have those observations.  Every year I pick a team to watch semi-religiously other than Boston.  Back in the day it was the Sonics.  Last year it was the Wolves. This year it's philly.  Had you seen my posts back in the early 00s you'd see me relate a lot of things to my experience watching Ray Allen.  And actually, several posts about how Jeff Green had potential to lead a bad team in scoring (I even suggested a Perk swap a couple years before it happened).  Last year I posted multiple times about how incredible Karl towns could be.  This year, it's philly.  For the record, no mod has every specifically told me to stop posting about the 76ers.  Some random person will create a thread about Philly every few days and I'll give my two cents there, but I never create those threads.  I've commented about them in the "NBA Season" thread because i genuinely see it as the biggest story of the season and I'm not alone.  The other day 9 of the top 10 posts on reddit's NBA sub were related to Philly.  As I make this post, Embiid is on the cover of espn's nba page.  It's a big deal.  I spent a month away from this forum and there were no less than 15 active threads about Philly here that I didn't make a single post in.  If you're sick of the Philly talk you might want to start a petition to ban all Philly related discussion.  I'm almost never the source of those threads.  And in fact without calling anyone out specifically it's important to note that most of my greatest naysayers post about Philly as frequently as I do and I have already shown that they most certainly create more threads about Philly than I do. 

Anyways, I want to apologize if my panicking last night about the fact a healthy Philly team was now better than us if that was not an appropriate thing to panic about in the thread created to panic.  My bad. Knowing that I'm being graded on a curve here, I'll try to avoid this happening again, but y'all have to do your part not to derail every thread I participate in claiming I've derailed the thread.

You could do better and you know it. You're not graded on a curve. You're being given a break.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lIpev8JXJHQ

[LarBrd33]

I have been a poster here for a long time. I have seen posters get disciplined for lesser offenses of rule breaking. How LB gets away with constantly derailing threads into his own, self promoting, self indulging love of Philly is disgusting. Mods....you really need to stop this. It is effecting the overall community atmosphere at this blog.

im graded on a curve.  I think I'm actually a pretty good sport about it.  Any other poster could have responded to smitty's panic thread with, "the pain is magnified by the fact our last three losses came to teams Philly just beat" and the response would have been "ugh that's true that really sucks".  But because it's me you have multiple people with an ax to grind knitting themselves matching caps, pulling out the poster board and crayons, and trying to get a march against LarBrd33 started.   

Am I not allowed to express my concerns in a thread that was literally set up to panic about our losses?  I was genuinely upset and frustrated to see us lose to teams that struggled to handle Embiid's size.  It was literally the first time all season I found myself thinking "We need to go all-in for Boogie".  This morning I thought better of it.  I still think our best move is to keep the picks and build for the next generation. 

It's hard for me to not have those observations.  Every year I pick a team to watch semi-religiously other than Boston.  Back in the day it was the Sonics.  Last year it was the Wolves. This year it's philly.  Had you seen my posts back in the early 00s you'd see me relate a lot of things to my experience watching Ray Allen.  And actually, several posts about how Jeff Green had potential to lead a bad team in scoring (I even suggested a Perk swap a couple years before it happened).  Last year I posted multiple times about how incredible Karl towns could be.  This year, it's philly.  For the record, no mod has every specifically told me to stop posting about the 76ers.  Some random person will create a thread about Philly every few days and I'll give my two cents there, but I never create those threads.  I've commented about them in the "NBA Season" thread because i genuinely see it as the biggest story of the season and I'm not alone.  The other day 9 of the top 10 posts on reddit's NBA sub were related to Philly.  As I make this post, Embiid is on the cover of espn's nba page.  It's a big deal.  I spent a month away from this forum and there were no less than 15 active threads about Philly here that I didn't make a single post in.  If you're sick of the Philly talk you might want to start a petition to ban all Philly related discussion.  I'm almost never the source of those threads.  And in fact without calling anyone out specifically it's important to note that most of my greatest naysayers post about Philly as frequently as I do and I have already shown that they most certainly create more threads about Philly than I do. 

Anyways, I want to apologize if my panicking last night about the fact a healthy Philly team was now better than us if that was not an appropriate thing to panic about in the thread created to panic.  My bad. Knowing that I'm being graded on a curve here, I'll try to avoid this happening again, but y'all have to do your part not to derail every thread I participate in claiming I've derailed the thread.

You could do better and you know it. You're not graded on a curve. You're being given a break.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lIpev8JXJHQ

Boris, I'm not mindful of every little thing people are going to flip out about.  It's kind of arbitrary.   Fact is, if I had created this thread calling this the "worst back-to-back home losses in a half decade!", people would have accused me of trolling.  I'm graded on a curve.  I make a comment about how it bugs me our last three losses came against three teams Philly beat with their size and people act like I just took a dump on a picture of Red Auerbach.   In another thread, someone just gave me sass for suggesting the Lakers are shamefully tanking.  Any other person could rip into the Lakers and their behavior last season (intentionally losing games to keep their Top 3 pick) and it would be fine.  But somehow I make that post and people act like my anti-Laker post is somehow intended to upset Celtic fans.   It makes no sense.   There's also a couple people on this forum who are going out of their way to label everything I say as some kind of "bait" and then they try to get other people worked up.   

You say I'm given a break, but it's not really true.  People get away with straight-up personally insulting me on this forum pretty frequently.  They are graded on a curve as well when it comes to LarBrd33.  Someone just suggested I should be punched in the face, for instance.  Don't think that normally would fly around here.   As far as I know, I'm pretty good at following the rules of this forum.  Some would have liked to think that me not agreeing Rondo was on Chris Paul's level was somehow me "breaking the rules and trolling".  It is what it is.  One thing that actually isn't allowed is calling out specific posters, but it seems to happen in quite a few threads I participate in.  I'll stop short of saying "every" thread, because I post a ton on this forum.  I participate in pretty much every thread.  There's thousands of threads that go along fine without someone turning it into a LarBrd33 discussion.   Threads like this happen, but it's actually a small minority of threads I post in.

I love the Celtics.  I have enjoyed chatting about them with my fellow fans for the past 12 years here.  I try to give my perspective on things if I think it's unique and worth giving.  Sometimes it upsets people.  When that happens all I can do is try my best to diffuse the situation and get things back on topic.  My hope is that posts like this will maybe prevent people from derailing future threads in a similar manner, but I understand the folks who do it have already written me off, don't care about my point of view, and will not be happy until I inevitably get forcefully put out of my misery or willingly retire from CelticsBlog.

So trying to get this back on topic I'll ask you the same thing...

Aside from our obvious lack of size, what do you see as the biggest reason we should panic after the last two losses?

[Ilikesports17]

I have been a poster here for a long time. I have seen posters get disciplined for lesser offenses of rule breaking. How LB gets away with constantly derailing threads into his own, self promoting, self indulging love of Philly is disgusting. Mods....you really need to stop this. It is effecting the overall community atmosphere at this blog.

im graded on a curve.  I think I'm actually a pretty good sport about it.  Any other poster could have responded to smitty's panic thread with, "the pain is magnified by the fact our last three losses came to teams Philly just beat" and the response would have been "ugh that's true that really sucks".  But because it's me you have multiple people with an ax to grind knitting themselves matching caps, pulling out the poster board and crayons, and trying to get a march against LarBrd33 started.   

Am I not allowed to express my concerns in a thread that was literally set up to panic about our losses?  I was genuinely upset and frustrated to see us lose to teams that struggled to handle Embiid's size.  It was literally the first time all season I found myself thinking "We need to go all-in for Boogie".  This morning I thought better of it.  I still think our best move is to keep the picks and build for the next generation. 

It's hard for me to not have those observations.  Every year I pick a team to watch semi-religiously other than Boston.  Back in the day it was the Sonics.  Last year it was the Wolves. This year it's philly.  Had you seen my posts back in the early 00s you'd see me relate a lot of things to my experience watching Ray Allen.  And actually, several posts about how Jeff Green had potential to lead a bad team in scoring (I even suggested a Perk swap a couple years before it happened).  Last year I posted multiple times about how incredible Karl towns could be.  This year, it's philly.  For the record, no mod has every specifically told me to stop posting about the 76ers.  Some random person will create a thread about Philly every few days and I'll give my two cents there, but I never create those threads.  I've commented about them in the "NBA Season" thread because i genuinely see it as the biggest story of the season and I'm not alone.  The other day 9 of the top 10 posts on reddit's NBA sub were related to Philly.  As I make this post, Embiid is on the cover of espn's nba page.  It's a big deal.  I spent a month away from this forum and there were no less than 15 active threads about Philly here that I didn't make a single post in.  If you're sick of the Philly talk you might want to start a petition to ban all Philly related discussion.  I'm almost never the source of those threads.  And in fact without calling anyone out specifically it's important to note that most of my greatest naysayers post about Philly as frequently as I do and I have already shown that they most certainly create more threads about Philly than I do. 

Anyways, I want to apologize if my panicking last night about the fact a healthy Philly team was now better than us if that was not an appropriate thing to panic about in the thread created to panic.  My bad. Knowing that I'm being graded on a curve here, I'll try to avoid this happening again, but y'all have to do your part not to derail every thread I participate in claiming I've derailed the thread.

yeah you are definitely right.

Youve lost a lot of credibility and are generally seen as a troll. That reputation leads people to assume the worst when the read your posts.

I never claimed to have credibility.  I'm just some dumb fan.  I don't mind people disagreeing with me.  It sparks discussion.  Most of the controversial things I've said in the past that get labelled "trolling" do not look controversial in retrospect.  If you go back and look at the things people flipped out at me for in the past, there's not much to disagree with me about.  My "anti-Rondo" comments are a classic example.  In a couple years I'm sure all of the "controversial" opinions I have right now will likewise seem less controversial in retrospect.  I've been dealing with this for 12 years on this forum.  It is what it is. 

I'm trying not to respond to every person who derails threads claiming I've derailed the thread.   I try to ignore them.  I'm responding to this one, because the "sky is falling" rhetoric in the original post kind of set a ridiculous tone right off the bat.   If someone wants to help me steer this back on topic, let's find something less sensitive to discuss here that stays on-topic with the intended Panic-Mode purpose of this thread.  I'll do my best...

Aside from the obvious lack of size, what do you see as the main reason we should panic about our last two losses?

I meant credibility as an honest Celtics fan/poster.

An obviously large portion of the blog believes you aim to troll more than to have a discussion about basketball. If most posters made the observation that Philly beat these squads those comments would be assumed to have come from a more genuine place. Out of actual concern of dismay. For you, they assume it comes from delight in riling up the masses.

However, you clearly dont believe yourself to be some dumb fan:

"If you go back and look at the things people flipped out at me for in the past, there's not much to disagree with me about"

As for the actual topic at hand. I dont see reason to panic. Boston is and has been all year who most thought theyd be. Save the injuries theyve played like a mid to high 50s win team. Factor in injuries and they still look to win low 50s and avoid Cleveland untill the ECF. Toronto has looked vulnerable lately and its worth mentioning that they have been quite dissapointing in each of their last 2 playoff runs. Last year a brilliant stretch by Biyombo overshadowed the fact that they had immense trouble with the Indiana Pacers and then the Miami Heat.

The fact that we lost two games (both bad losses) doesnt teach me much about this team. Its too bad. Our defense has been bad all year. That needs to change, but its not like these past two games have revealed that problem. The D has been bad from day 1 when we let up 117 to the Brooklyn Nets.

Im of the belief that Boogie, Jimmy Butler and Paul George are all worth the Brooklyn Nets '17 pick, but outside of them Im happy to hold off keep this current squad. Win in the mid 50s each of the next two years maybe make the Cavs sweat in an ECF and then let the Brooklyn picks and Brown(who has improved) and Marcus (who I perhaps irrationally believe will learn either how to shoot or how to not shoot) lead you into the next age of Celtics basketball where we will presumably compete with the Bucks and Sixers(depending on Embiids health)

[LarBrd33]

I have been a poster here for a long time. I have seen posters get disciplined for lesser offenses of rule breaking. How LB gets away with constantly derailing threads into his own, self promoting, self indulging love of Philly is disgusting. Mods....you really need to stop this. It is effecting the overall community atmosphere at this blog.

im graded on a curve.  I think I'm actually a pretty good sport about it.  Any other poster could have responded to smitty's panic thread with, "the pain is magnified by the fact our last three losses came to teams Philly just beat" and the response would have been "ugh that's true that really sucks".  But because it's me you have multiple people with an ax to grind knitting themselves matching caps, pulling out the poster board and crayons, and trying to get a march against LarBrd33 started.   

Am I not allowed to express my concerns in a thread that was literally set up to panic about our losses?  I was genuinely upset and frustrated to see us lose to teams that struggled to handle Embiid's size.  It was literally the first time all season I found myself thinking "We need to go all-in for Boogie".  This morning I thought better of it.  I still think our best move is to keep the picks and build for the next generation. 

It's hard for me to not have those observations.  Every year I pick a team to watch semi-religiously other than Boston.  Back in the day it was the Sonics.  Last year it was the Wolves. This year it's philly.  Had you seen my posts back in the early 00s you'd see me relate a lot of things to my experience watching Ray Allen.  And actually, several posts about how Jeff Green had potential to lead a bad team in scoring (I even suggested a Perk swap a couple years before it happened).  Last year I posted multiple times about how incredible Karl towns could be.  This year, it's philly.  For the record, no mod has every specifically told me to stop posting about the 76ers.  Some random person will create a thread about Philly every few days and I'll give my two cents there, but I never create those threads.  I've commented about them in the "NBA Season" thread because i genuinely see it as the biggest story of the season and I'm not alone.  The other day 9 of the top 10 posts on reddit's NBA sub were related to Philly.  As I make this post, Embiid is on the cover of espn's nba page.  It's a big deal.  I spent a month away from this forum and there were no less than 15 active threads about Philly here that I didn't make a single post in.  If you're sick of the Philly talk you might want to start a petition to ban all Philly related discussion.  I'm almost never the source of those threads.  And in fact without calling anyone out specifically it's important to note that most of my greatest naysayers post about Philly as frequently as I do and I have already shown that they most certainly create more threads about Philly than I do. 

Anyways, I want to apologize if my panicking last night about the fact a healthy Philly team was now better than us if that was not an appropriate thing to panic about in the thread created to panic.  My bad. Knowing that I'm being graded on a curve here, I'll try to avoid this happening again, but y'all have to do your part not to derail every thread I participate in claiming I've derailed the thread.

yeah you are definitely right.

Youve lost a lot of credibility and are generally seen as a troll. That reputation leads people to assume the worst when the read your posts.

I never claimed to have credibility.  I'm just some dumb fan.  I don't mind people disagreeing with me.  It sparks discussion.  Most of the controversial things I've said in the past that get labelled "trolling" do not look controversial in retrospect.  If you go back and look at the things people flipped out at me for in the past, there's not much to disagree with me about.  My "anti-Rondo" comments are a classic example.  In a couple years I'm sure all of the "controversial" opinions I have right now will likewise seem less controversial in retrospect.  I've been dealing with this for 12 years on this forum.  It is what it is. 

I'm trying not to respond to every person who derails threads claiming I've derailed the thread.   I try to ignore them.  I'm responding to this one, because the "sky is falling" rhetoric in the original post kind of set a ridiculous tone right off the bat.   If someone wants to help me steer this back on topic, let's find something less sensitive to discuss here that stays on-topic with the intended Panic-Mode purpose of this thread.  I'll do my best...

Aside from the obvious lack of size, what do you see as the main reason we should panic about our last two losses?

I meant credibility as an honest Celtics fan/poster.

An obviously large portion of the blog believes you aim to troll more than to have a discussion about basketball. If most posters made the observation that Philly beat these squads those comments would be assumed to have come from a more genuine place. Out of actual concern of dismay. For you, they assume it comes from delight in riling up the masses.

However, you clearly dont believe yourself to be some dumb fan:

"If you go back and look at the things people flipped out at me for in the past, there's not much to disagree with me about"

As for the actual topic at hand. I dont see reason to panic. Boston is and has been all year who most thought theyd be. Save the injuries theyve played like a mid to high 50s win team. Factor in injuries and they still look to win low 50s and avoid Cleveland untill the ECF. Toronto has looked vulnerable lately and its worth mentioning that they have been quite dissapointing in each of their last 2 playoff runs. Last year a brilliant stretch by Biyombo overshadowed the fact that they had immense trouble with the Indiana Pacers and then the Miami Heat.

The fact that we lost two games (both bad losses) doesnt teach me much about this team. Its too bad. Our defense has been bad all year. That needs to change, but its not like these past two games have revealed that problem. The D has been bad from day 1 when we let up 117 to the Brooklyn Nets.

I'm definitely just a stupid fan.  I think the things people have flipped out at me for in the past are even stupider, if that makes sense.  In 2012, my stupid suggestion we should trade Rondo for the oft-injured young guard who was averaging 14 points on 49%/46%/81% shooting seemed very controversial.  Why would I dare suggest trading the best pure point guard in the league for a one-dimensional shooter with injury trouble?    In retrospect, that reaction was stupider than my level of stupid - considering we know what became of Rondo and the oft-injured guard has been back-to-back MVP of the league (Steph Curry).    I have said some dumb things here, but a lot of the stuff I've gotten flack for on this forum aren't actually all that controversial.   Also, I think a lot of people here just misinterpret my admitted pessimism.  In 2014-15, I might have publicly admitted we might be better off missing the playoffs and getting a good pick rather than getting swept in the first round.  When the team inevitably got swept in the first round and then tried and failed to give up 6 picks to move up 6 spots, I imagine some had this impression of me grinning from ear to ear about the woes of the Celtics.   I was definitely bummed about it.  I kind of hoped that saying my fears out loud would prevent them from happening.  The ol reverse-jinx if you will.  I definitely wasn't happy that the worst-case scenario actually came true. 

Anyways... back to your on-topic comments about whether we should panic about the losses...

I agree with you that the team has been pretty much what we expected.  A decent 50ish win team that should finish towards the top of the East, but is a major long shot to actually contend.  I agree that our defense needs to improve, but it's hard not to talk about that without admitting the team's lack of size/interior defense is the main culprit.  You're right that this isn't some new revelation.  We've known size, rebounding and rim protection were a problem from day 1.   I just hadn't seen our team specifically struggle up-close the same week another widely believed inferior team was able to succeed against the exact same competition using the inverse of our weakness.   It really caught my attention.  I don't think the superstar problem can be solved easily, but the size/interior defense thing can absolutely be improved prior to the trade deadline.   The good news is there are tons of big men publicly available.   It's probably the best trade deadline ever to have a big man need given how many are on the market. 

[Ilikesports17]

I have been a poster here for a long time. I have seen posters get disciplined for lesser offenses of rule breaking. How LB gets away with constantly derailing threads into his own, self promoting, self indulging love of Philly is disgusting. Mods....you really need to stop this. It is effecting the overall community atmosphere at this blog.

im graded on a curve.  I think I'm actually a pretty good sport about it.  Any other poster could have responded to smitty's panic thread with, "the pain is magnified by the fact our last three losses came to teams Philly just beat" and the response would have been "ugh that's true that really sucks".  But because it's me you have multiple people with an ax to grind knitting themselves matching caps, pulling out the poster board and crayons, and trying to get a march against LarBrd33 started.   

Am I not allowed to express my concerns in a thread that was literally set up to panic about our losses?  I was genuinely upset and frustrated to see us lose to teams that struggled to handle Embiid's size.  It was literally the first time all season I found myself thinking "We need to go all-in for Boogie".  This morning I thought better of it.  I still think our best move is to keep the picks and build for the next generation. 

It's hard for me to not have those observations.  Every year I pick a team to watch semi-religiously other than Boston.  Back in the day it was the Sonics.  Last year it was the Wolves. This year it's philly.  Had you seen my posts back in the early 00s you'd see me relate a lot of things to my experience watching Ray Allen.  And actually, several posts about how Jeff Green had potential to lead a bad team in scoring (I even suggested a Perk swap a couple years before it happened).  Last year I posted multiple times about how incredible Karl towns could be.  This year, it's philly.  For the record, no mod has every specifically told me to stop posting about the 76ers.  Some random person will create a thread about Philly every few days and I'll give my two cents there, but I never create those threads.  I've commented about them in the "NBA Season" thread because i genuinely see it as the biggest story of the season and I'm not alone.  The other day 9 of the top 10 posts on reddit's NBA sub were related to Philly.  As I make this post, Embiid is on the cover of espn's nba page.  It's a big deal.  I spent a month away from this forum and there were no less than 15 active threads about Philly here that I didn't make a single post in.  If you're sick of the Philly talk you might want to start a petition to ban all Philly related discussion.  I'm almost never the source of those threads.  And in fact without calling anyone out specifically it's important to note that most of my greatest naysayers post about Philly as frequently as I do and I have already shown that they most certainly create more threads about Philly than I do. 

Anyways, I want to apologize if my panicking last night about the fact a healthy Philly team was now better than us if that was not an appropriate thing to panic about in the thread created to panic.  My bad. Knowing that I'm being graded on a curve here, I'll try to avoid this happening again, but y'all have to do your part not to derail every thread I participate in claiming I've derailed the thread.

yeah you are definitely right.

Youve lost a lot of credibility and are generally seen as a troll. That reputation leads people to assume the worst when the read your posts.

I never claimed to have credibility.  I'm just some dumb fan.  I don't mind people disagreeing with me.  It sparks discussion.  Most of the controversial things I've said in the past that get labelled "trolling" do not look controversial in retrospect.  If you go back and look at the things people flipped out at me for in the past, there's not much to disagree with me about.  My "anti-Rondo" comments are a classic example.  In a couple years I'm sure all of the "controversial" opinions I have right now will likewise seem less controversial in retrospect.  I've been dealing with this for 12 years on this forum.  It is what it is. 

I'm trying not to respond to every person who derails threads claiming I've derailed the thread.   I try to ignore them.  I'm responding to this one, because the "sky is falling" rhetoric in the original post kind of set a ridiculous tone right off the bat.   If someone wants to help me steer this back on topic, let's find something less sensitive to discuss here that stays on-topic with the intended Panic-Mode purpose of this thread.  I'll do my best...

Aside from the obvious lack of size, what do you see as the main reason we should panic about our last two losses?

I meant credibility as an honest Celtics fan/poster.

An obviously large portion of the blog believes you aim to troll more than to have a discussion about basketball. If most posters made the observation that Philly beat these squads those comments would be assumed to have come from a more genuine place. Out of actual concern of dismay. For you, they assume it comes from delight in riling up the masses.

However, you clearly dont believe yourself to be some dumb fan:

"If you go back and look at the things people flipped out at me for in the past, there's not much to disagree with me about"

As for the actual topic at hand. I dont see reason to panic. Boston is and has been all year who most thought theyd be. Save the injuries theyve played like a mid to high 50s win team. Factor in injuries and they still look to win low 50s and avoid Cleveland untill the ECF. Toronto has looked vulnerable lately and its worth mentioning that they have been quite dissapointing in each of their last 2 playoff runs. Last year a brilliant stretch by Biyombo overshadowed the fact that they had immense trouble with the Indiana Pacers and then the Miami Heat.

The fact that we lost two games (both bad losses) doesnt teach me much about this team. Its too bad. Our defense has been bad all year. That needs to change, but its not like these past two games have revealed that problem. The D has been bad from day 1 when we let up 117 to the Brooklyn Nets.

I'm definitely just a stupid fan.  I think the things people have flipped out at me for in the past are even stupider, if that makes sense.  In 2012, my stupid suggestion we should trade Rondo for the oft-injured young guard who was averaging 14 points on 49%/46%/81% shooting seemed very controversial.  Why would I dare suggest trading the best pure point guard in the league for a one-dimensional shooter with injury trouble?    In retrospect, that reaction was stupider than my level of stupid - considering we know what became of Rondo and the oft-injured guard has been back-to-back MVP of the league (Steph Curry).    I have said some dumb things here, but a lot of the stuff I've gotten flack for on this forum aren't actually all that controversial.   Also, I think a lot of people here just misinterpret my admitted pessimism.  In 2014-15, I might have publicly admitted we might be better off missing the playoffs and getting a good pick rather than getting swept in the first round.  When the team inevitably got swept in the first round and then tried and failed to give up 6 picks to move up 6 spots, I imagine some had this impression of me grinning from ear to ear about the woes of the Celtics.   I was definitely bummed about it.  I kind of hoped that saying my fears out loud would prevent them from happening.  The ol reverse-jinx if you will.  I definitely wasn't happy that the worst-case scenario actually came true. 

Anyways... back to your on-topic comments about whether we should panic about the losses...

I agree with you that the team has been pretty much what we expected.  A decent 50ish win team that should finish towards the top of the East, but is a major long shot to actually contend.  I agree that our defense needs to improve, but it's hard not to talk about that without admitting the team's lack of size/interior defense is the main culprit.  You're right that this isn't some new revelation.  We've known size, rebounding and rim protection were a problem from day 1.   I just hadn't seen our team specifically struggle up-close the same week another widely believed inferior team was able to succeed against the exact same competition using the inverse of our weakness.   It really caught my attention.  I don't think the superstar problem can be solved easily, but the size/interior defense thing can absolutely be improved prior to the trade deadline.   The good news is there are tons of big men publicly available.   It's probably the best trade deadline ever to have a big man need given how many are on the market.

yeah Ill agree with all that.

You definitely get some overreactionary hate, but thats the way it goes on here. You post something that is negative towards the Celtics people will jump down your throat to hate on you.

That said, I do hope we get a big man. I think Noel or Bogut could be had for cheap. Id still like to buy low on Okafor(although I dont think he adresses any needs) and Id obviously go after Cousins. Nurkic is another guy Id like to get.

Thing is, none of them(save Boogie) are worth giving up your big assets for.

[LarBrd33]

I have been a poster here for a long time. I have seen posters get disciplined for lesser offenses of rule breaking. How LB gets away with constantly derailing threads into his own, self promoting, self indulging love of Philly is disgusting. Mods....you really need to stop this. It is effecting the overall community atmosphere at this blog.

im graded on a curve.  I think I'm actually a pretty good sport about it.  Any other poster could have responded to smitty's panic thread with, "the pain is magnified by the fact our last three losses came to teams Philly just beat" and the response would have been "ugh that's true that really sucks".  But because it's me you have multiple people with an ax to grind knitting themselves matching caps, pulling out the poster board and crayons, and trying to get a march against LarBrd33 started.   

Am I not allowed to express my concerns in a thread that was literally set up to panic about our losses?  I was genuinely upset and frustrated to see us lose to teams that struggled to handle Embiid's size.  It was literally the first time all season I found myself thinking "We need to go all-in for Boogie".  This morning I thought better of it.  I still think our best move is to keep the picks and build for the next generation. 

It's hard for me to not have those observations.  Every year I pick a team to watch semi-religiously other than Boston.  Back in the day it was the Sonics.  Last year it was the Wolves. This year it's philly.  Had you seen my posts back in the early 00s you'd see me relate a lot of things to my experience watching Ray Allen.  And actually, several posts about how Jeff Green had potential to lead a bad team in scoring (I even suggested a Perk swap a couple years before it happened).  Last year I posted multiple times about how incredible Karl towns could be.  This year, it's philly.  For the record, no mod has every specifically told me to stop posting about the 76ers.  Some random person will create a thread about Philly every few days and I'll give my two cents there, but I never create those threads.  I've commented about them in the "NBA Season" thread because i genuinely see it as the biggest story of the season and I'm not alone.  The other day 9 of the top 10 posts on reddit's NBA sub were related to Philly.  As I make this post, Embiid is on the cover of espn's nba page.  It's a big deal.  I spent a month away from this forum and there were no less than 15 active threads about Philly here that I didn't make a single post in.  If you're sick of the Philly talk you might want to start a petition to ban all Philly related discussion.  I'm almost never the source of those threads.  And in fact without calling anyone out specifically it's important to note that most of my greatest naysayers post about Philly as frequently as I do and I have already shown that they most certainly create more threads about Philly than I do. 

Anyways, I want to apologize if my panicking last night about the fact a healthy Philly team was now better than us if that was not an appropriate thing to panic about in the thread created to panic.  My bad. Knowing that I'm being graded on a curve here, I'll try to avoid this happening again, but y'all have to do your part not to derail every thread I participate in claiming I've derailed the thread.

yeah you are definitely right.

Youve lost a lot of credibility and are generally seen as a troll. That reputation leads people to assume the worst when the read your posts.

I never claimed to have credibility.  I'm just some dumb fan.  I don't mind people disagreeing with me.  It sparks discussion.  Most of the controversial things I've said in the past that get labelled "trolling" do not look controversial in retrospect.  If you go back and look at the things people flipped out at me for in the past, there's not much to disagree with me about.  My "anti-Rondo" comments are a classic example.  In a couple years I'm sure all of the "controversial" opinions I have right now will likewise seem less controversial in retrospect.  I've been dealing with this for 12 years on this forum.  It is what it is. 

I'm trying not to respond to every person who derails threads claiming I've derailed the thread.   I try to ignore them.  I'm responding to this one, because the "sky is falling" rhetoric in the original post kind of set a ridiculous tone right off the bat.   If someone wants to help me steer this back on topic, let's find something less sensitive to discuss here that stays on-topic with the intended Panic-Mode purpose of this thread.  I'll do my best...

Aside from the obvious lack of size, what do you see as the main reason we should panic about our last two losses?

I meant credibility as an honest Celtics fan/poster.

An obviously large portion of the blog believes you aim to troll more than to have a discussion about basketball. If most posters made the observation that Philly beat these squads those comments would be assumed to have come from a more genuine place. Out of actual concern of dismay. For you, they assume it comes from delight in riling up the masses.

However, you clearly dont believe yourself to be some dumb fan:

"If you go back and look at the things people flipped out at me for in the past, there's not much to disagree with me about"

As for the actual topic at hand. I dont see reason to panic. Boston is and has been all year who most thought theyd be. Save the injuries theyve played like a mid to high 50s win team. Factor in injuries and they still look to win low 50s and avoid Cleveland untill the ECF. Toronto has looked vulnerable lately and its worth mentioning that they have been quite dissapointing in each of their last 2 playoff runs. Last year a brilliant stretch by Biyombo overshadowed the fact that they had immense trouble with the Indiana Pacers and then the Miami Heat.

The fact that we lost two games (both bad losses) doesnt teach me much about this team. Its too bad. Our defense has been bad all year. That needs to change, but its not like these past two games have revealed that problem. The D has been bad from day 1 when we let up 117 to the Brooklyn Nets.

I'm definitely just a stupid fan.  I think the things people have flipped out at me for in the past are even stupider, if that makes sense.  In 2012, my stupid suggestion we should trade Rondo for the oft-injured young guard who was averaging 14 points on 49%/46%/81% shooting seemed very controversial.  Why would I dare suggest trading the best pure point guard in the league for a one-dimensional shooter with injury trouble?    In retrospect, that reaction was stupider than my level of stupid - considering we know what became of Rondo and the oft-injured guard has been back-to-back MVP of the league (Steph Curry).    I have said some dumb things here, but a lot of the stuff I've gotten flack for on this forum aren't actually all that controversial.   Also, I think a lot of people here just misinterpret my admitted pessimism.  In 2014-15, I might have publicly admitted we might be better off missing the playoffs and getting a good pick rather than getting swept in the first round.  When the team inevitably got swept in the first round and then tried and failed to give up 6 picks to move up 6 spots, I imagine some had this impression of me grinning from ear to ear about the woes of the Celtics.   I was definitely bummed about it.  I kind of hoped that saying my fears out loud would prevent them from happening.  The ol reverse-jinx if you will.  I definitely wasn't happy that the worst-case scenario actually came true. 

Anyways... back to your on-topic comments about whether we should panic about the losses...

I agree with you that the team has been pretty much what we expected.  A decent 50ish win team that should finish towards the top of the East, but is a major long shot to actually contend.  I agree that our defense needs to improve, but it's hard not to talk about that without admitting the team's lack of size/interior defense is the main culprit.  You're right that this isn't some new revelation.  We've known size, rebounding and rim protection were a problem from day 1.   I just hadn't seen our team specifically struggle up-close the same week another widely believed inferior team was able to succeed against the exact same competition using the inverse of our weakness.   It really caught my attention.  I don't think the superstar problem can be solved easily, but the size/interior defense thing can absolutely be improved prior to the trade deadline.   The good news is there are tons of big men publicly available.   It's probably the best trade deadline ever to have a big man need given how many are on the market.

yeah Ill agree with all that.

You definitely get some overreactionary hate, but thats the way it goes on here. You post something that is negative towards the Celtics people will jump down your throat to hate on you.

That said, I do hope we get a big man. I think Noel or Bogut could be had for cheap. Id still like to buy low on Okafor(although I dont think he adresses any needs) and Id obviously go after Cousins. Nurkic is another guy Id like to get.

Thing is, none of them(save Boogie) are worth giving up your big assets for.

All the players you mention intrigue me in different ways.  Some would definitely help our defense more than others.

[Ilikesports17]

I have been a poster here for a long time. I have seen posters get disciplined for lesser offenses of rule breaking. How LB gets away with constantly derailing threads into his own, self promoting, self indulging love of Philly is disgusting. Mods....you really need to stop this. It is effecting the overall community atmosphere at this blog.

im graded on a curve.  I think I'm actually a pretty good sport about it.  Any other poster could have responded to smitty's panic thread with, "the pain is magnified by the fact our last three losses came to teams Philly just beat" and the response would have been "ugh that's true that really sucks".  But because it's me you have multiple people with an ax to grind knitting themselves matching caps, pulling out the poster board and crayons, and trying to get a march against LarBrd33 started.   

Am I not allowed to express my concerns in a thread that was literally set up to panic about our losses?  I was genuinely upset and frustrated to see us lose to teams that struggled to handle Embiid's size.  It was literally the first time all season I found myself thinking "We need to go all-in for Boogie".  This morning I thought better of it.  I still think our best move is to keep the picks and build for the next generation. 

It's hard for me to not have those observations.  Every year I pick a team to watch semi-religiously other than Boston.  Back in the day it was the Sonics.  Last year it was the Wolves. This year it's philly.  Had you seen my posts back in the early 00s you'd see me relate a lot of things to my experience watching Ray Allen.  And actually, several posts about how Jeff Green had potential to lead a bad team in scoring (I even suggested a Perk swap a couple years before it happened).  Last year I posted multiple times about how incredible Karl towns could be.  This year, it's philly.  For the record, no mod has every specifically told me to stop posting about the 76ers.  Some random person will create a thread about Philly every few days and I'll give my two cents there, but I never create those threads.  I've commented about them in the "NBA Season" thread because i genuinely see it as the biggest story of the season and I'm not alone.  The other day 9 of the top 10 posts on reddit's NBA sub were related to Philly.  As I make this post, Embiid is on the cover of espn's nba page.  It's a big deal.  I spent a month away from this forum and there were no less than 15 active threads about Philly here that I didn't make a single post in.  If you're sick of the Philly talk you might want to start a petition to ban all Philly related discussion.  I'm almost never the source of those threads.  And in fact without calling anyone out specifically it's important to note that most of my greatest naysayers post about Philly as frequently as I do and I have already shown that they most certainly create more threads about Philly than I do. 

Anyways, I want to apologize if my panicking last night about the fact a healthy Philly team was now better than us if that was not an appropriate thing to panic about in the thread created to panic.  My bad. Knowing that I'm being graded on a curve here, I'll try to avoid this happening again, but y'all have to do your part not to derail every thread I participate in claiming I've derailed the thread.

yeah you are definitely right.

Youve lost a lot of credibility and are generally seen as a troll. That reputation leads people to assume the worst when the read your posts.

I never claimed to have credibility.  I'm just some dumb fan.  I don't mind people disagreeing with me.  It sparks discussion.  Most of the controversial things I've said in the past that get labelled "trolling" do not look controversial in retrospect.  If you go back and look at the things people flipped out at me for in the past, there's not much to disagree with me about.  My "anti-Rondo" comments are a classic example.  In a couple years I'm sure all of the "controversial" opinions I have right now will likewise seem less controversial in retrospect.  I've been dealing with this for 12 years on this forum.  It is what it is. 

I'm trying not to respond to every person who derails threads claiming I've derailed the thread.   I try to ignore them.  I'm responding to this one, because the "sky is falling" rhetoric in the original post kind of set a ridiculous tone right off the bat.   If someone wants to help me steer this back on topic, let's find something less sensitive to discuss here that stays on-topic with the intended Panic-Mode purpose of this thread.  I'll do my best...

Aside from the obvious lack of size, what do you see as the main reason we should panic about our last two losses?

I meant credibility as an honest Celtics fan/poster.

An obviously large portion of the blog believes you aim to troll more than to have a discussion about basketball. If most posters made the observation that Philly beat these squads those comments would be assumed to have come from a more genuine place. Out of actual concern of dismay. For you, they assume it comes from delight in riling up the masses.

However, you clearly dont believe yourself to be some dumb fan:

"If you go back and look at the things people flipped out at me for in the past, there's not much to disagree with me about"

As for the actual topic at hand. I dont see reason to panic. Boston is and has been all year who most thought theyd be. Save the injuries theyve played like a mid to high 50s win team. Factor in injuries and they still look to win low 50s and avoid Cleveland untill the ECF. Toronto has looked vulnerable lately and its worth mentioning that they have been quite dissapointing in each of their last 2 playoff runs. Last year a brilliant stretch by Biyombo overshadowed the fact that they had immense trouble with the Indiana Pacers and then the Miami Heat.

The fact that we lost two games (both bad losses) doesnt teach me much about this team. Its too bad. Our defense has been bad all year. That needs to change, but its not like these past two games have revealed that problem. The D has been bad from day 1 when we let up 117 to the Brooklyn Nets.

I'm definitely just a stupid fan.  I think the things people have flipped out at me for in the past are even stupider, if that makes sense.  In 2012, my stupid suggestion we should trade Rondo for the oft-injured young guard who was averaging 14 points on 49%/46%/81% shooting seemed very controversial.  Why would I dare suggest trading the best pure point guard in the league for a one-dimensional shooter with injury trouble?    In retrospect, that reaction was stupider than my level of stupid - considering we know what became of Rondo and the oft-injured guard has been back-to-back MVP of the league (Steph Curry).    I have said some dumb things here, but a lot of the stuff I've gotten flack for on this forum aren't actually all that controversial.   Also, I think a lot of people here just misinterpret my admitted pessimism.  In 2014-15, I might have publicly admitted we might be better off missing the playoffs and getting a good pick rather than getting swept in the first round.  When the team inevitably got swept in the first round and then tried and failed to give up 6 picks to move up 6 spots, I imagine some had this impression of me grinning from ear to ear about the woes of the Celtics.   I was definitely bummed about it.  I kind of hoped that saying my fears out loud would prevent them from happening.  The ol reverse-jinx if you will.  I definitely wasn't happy that the worst-case scenario actually came true. 

Anyways... back to your on-topic comments about whether we should panic about the losses...

I agree with you that the team has been pretty much what we expected.  A decent 50ish win team that should finish towards the top of the East, but is a major long shot to actually contend.  I agree that our defense needs to improve, but it's hard not to talk about that without admitting the team's lack of size/interior defense is the main culprit.  You're right that this isn't some new revelation.  We've known size, rebounding and rim protection were a problem from day 1.   I just hadn't seen our team specifically struggle up-close the same week another widely believed inferior team was able to succeed against the exact same competition using the inverse of our weakness.   It really caught my attention.  I don't think the superstar problem can be solved easily, but the size/interior defense thing can absolutely be improved prior to the trade deadline.   The good news is there are tons of big men publicly available.   It's probably the best trade deadline ever to have a big man need given how many are on the market.

yeah Ill agree with all that.

You definitely get some overreactionary hate, but thats the way it goes on here. You post something that is negative towards the Celtics people will jump down your throat to hate on you.

That said, I do hope we get a big man. I think Noel or Bogut could be had for cheap. Id still like to buy low on Okafor(although I dont think he adresses any needs) and Id obviously go after Cousins. Nurkic is another guy Id like to get.

Thing is, none of them(save Boogie) are worth giving up your big assets for.

All the players you mention intrigue me in different ways.  Some would definitely help our defense more than others.

Boogie is a whole different discussion. Okafor really is too.

I wouldnt get either guy because they are bigs and we need a big. Id get Cousins because he is a superstar and potentially a top-5 NBA player (if he can get his head on straight) and I get Okafor because I believe he could be a great project buy-low guy.

All 3 others would have a terrific impact on defense and I dont think would be markedly worse than Amir offensively. My main concern with Bogut is injury, Noel is the fact that he is more of a finesse guy. I watched Lopez and Horford bully him in the post. He is really weak. With Nurkic my fear is price.