"We would be a lottery team without Isaiah"

[Darío SpanishFan]

These words. They are the most foolish argument, full of disrespect for our other players, that I've been reading several times the last months to defend IT "against" us, the people who believe he shouldn't be maxed to win championships. We have been able to help and double team LeBron tonight many times, just because we didn't have a huge liability in defense.

I hope I don't read the quote again. We have a very competitive team overall, who even gets much better defensively without the little guy. I know Smart isn't going to hit seven threes many times and such things, but our core doesn't deserve to be treated as average players only elevated by the superstar.

[cltc5]

As good as IT is his acquisition has hampered the development of the team as a whole specifically Marcus smart who was drafted to replace rondo.  I think the intention was to make It the 6th man which he should be, but a bunch of whining and lack of backbone on management probably haulted that.  As I've been saying, trade IT for some picks while we can.  And it's not to say IT isn't valuable, he's just The offense, and that's not good when you are developing a Team.

[LatterDayCelticsfan]

If my memory serves me right, by the time we got Thomas the team was already starting to click. Though having said that Thomas has been really dynamic on our offense, so he can be said to have accelerated our development as a team.

[Celtics4ever]

The weird thing it was not our starters that won this game.  The comeback had some bench play to get it going.     It was some of the bench guys and Bradley, whom I might add most here think will be traded.

KO had a real nice second half.  Jonas hit a big shot.   

[MasterEmile]

San antonio spurs won one game against houston without parker and kawhi leornard, and it was a blowout too.
Obviously trade parker for some picks and have kawhi come in as a 6th man supersub.

[Roy H.]

I mean, we were 2-4 without him in the regular season, and one of those wins was a close game over Brooklyn.

We were 14-7 with him playing in 2015; 26-35 without him.

We were down 21 last night before the Cavs let down.

Are we clearly better than Chicago and Miami without IT? I don't think so. I think a lottery projection is fair.

[max215]

We would be in the lottery without Isaiah Thomas. Ehh, maybe we'd make the 8-seed.

[footey]

Probably would struggle to get 8th seed. Smart is not going to go off like that most games.

[PAOBoston]

San antonio spurs won one game against houston without parker and kawhi leornard, and it was a blowout too.
Obviously trade parker for some picks and have kawhi come in as a 6th man supersub.

This. Kawhi would be a great 6th man.

[jbpats]

I kind of feel like the Celtics and Pats are very similar in a way.
Like Bill, Brad will put this team in a situation to win with what he has and will get the most out of players that other coaches can't.
For the case of IT, maybe we would be a lottery team without him, or contradictory to that maybe IT would be a bench player on another team if he didn't have Stevens. Would Brady be the best of all time without Belichick's system? Probably not.
Who knows how good the Celtics would have been this year if we didn't have IT, maybe we would have been better if Smart was the starter all year long, maybe not..
While I don't think we would have finished first in the East without him, I still think we could have been a 5-8 seeded team and a tough out in the Eastern conference.
I think the statement is "We would be a lottery team without Brad Stevens" not a lottery team without one single player. Other than Greg P., Stevens is the best coach in the NBA and I think he is starting to finally get the credit he deserves around the league, or at least the attention he deserves from the national media.

[Darío SpanishFan]

I mean, we were 2-4 without him in the regular season, and one of those wins was a close game over Brooklyn.

We were 14-7 with him playing in 2015; 26-35 without him.

We were down 21 last night before the Cavs let down.

Are we clearly better than Chicago and Miami without IT? I don't think so. I think a lottery projection is fair.

I think we'd have gone 4-0 against Chicago without him, honestly. But this is a nonsense game to be playing.

This year we have a solid team, I don't think the 2-4 is significant. I am convinced that Smart, Bradley and Horford would step up if Thomas wasn't with the Celtics for a long time. IT gives a lot of things to this team, but we have another weapons without him. For example, we can get many points off turnovers (with such a defensive liability on the floor that's impossible) or double team players like LeBron because every player on the floor is a good defender.

Again, my motto. Offense wins games, defense wins championships. Adelman's Kings or D'Antoni's Suns can tell you so.

[Future Celtics Owner]

TP for OP.

There is true hatred shown towards people who question:
- if the offense that he provides, which was at an NBA high in both production & efficiency, was offset by his tragically incapable defense.
-If his offensive stats may be padded by the players he is surrounded with. He does not have to share the ball with anyone else. We have 0 other go-to scorers and the guys that do score on the team do so w/o dribbling.

[Big333223]

I mean, we were 2-4 without him in the regular season, and one of those wins was a close game over Brooklyn.

We were 14-7 with him playing in 2015; 26-35 without him.

We were down 21 last night before the Cavs let down.

Are we clearly better than Chicago and Miami without IT? I don't think so. I think a lottery projection is fair.

All of this.

[tarheelsxxiii]

I mean, we were 2-4 without him in the regular season, and one of those wins was a close game over Brooklyn.

We were 14-7 with him playing in 2015; 26-35 without him.

We were down 21 last night before the Cavs let down.

Are we clearly better than Chicago and Miami without IT? I don't think so. I think a lottery projection is fair.

I think we'd have gone 4-0 against Chicago without him, honestly. But this is a nonsense game to be playing.

This year we have a solid team, I don't think the 2-4 is significant. I am convinced that Smart, Bradley and Horford would step up if Thomas wasn't with the Celtics for a long time. IT gives a lot of things to this team, but we have another weapons without him. For example, we can get many points off turnovers (with such a defensive liability on the floor that's impossible) or double team players like LeBron because every player on the floor is a good defender.

Again, my motto. Offense wins games, defense wins championships. Adelman's Kings or D'Antoni's Suns can tell you so.

Horford would not be a Celtic were it not for Isaiah.  Without Isaiah, it's likely a lottery team.  Without both, it's a given.

It'd be interesting to see if Smart would've developed into the greatest shooter of all time without IT though.  On to game 4.

[CFAN38]

As good as IT is his acquisition has hampered the development of the team as a whole specifically Marcus smart who was drafted to replace rondo.  I think the intention was to make It the 6th man which he should be, but a bunch of whining and lack of backbone on management probably haulted that.  As I've been saying, trade IT for some picks while we can.  And it's not to say IT isn't valuable, he's just The offense, and that's not good when you are developing a Team.

I agree that IT has likely slowed Smarts development and without IT he would likely be viewed as a solid starting PG and all NBA defender. However I take issues with saying IT'd role is a result of a lack of backbone from management. Smart got hurt and IT's production exploded. If Smart where an established vet he would have gotten his job back but as a young player it was obvious IT deserved to start.

On the trade IT front, I would be surprised but not shocked to see him moved. Either AB or IT has to go in order to land Hayward. Even without Hayward Fultz is going to deserve immediate minutes.