Lost Season

Time to regroup and think about where we go from here.

Forget making the playoffs; with our rash of injuries to key players the best thing for this team is to play the young guys and allow them to develop.

Jefferson, Gomes, Perkins, Green, Telfair, & Rondo need to just start playing more to get the experience in this league. There’s nothing more to do at this point

Even if people think Doc should go, now is not the time.

Danny thought process should be about what’s going to happen next year and with this year’s draft. We have the potential of being a top 3 pick in this years draft.

Decisions also include does he trade Wally and Ratliff for a proven Point Guard. That’s the direction I’d go with a trade while trying to build big through the draft.

But first we need to conclude this season and hopefully see Green & Company develop.

If all this happening means that we get to add a franchise type player to the mix next season on a rookie deal, then it will all be worth it. Until then I’m going to focus entirely on player development. Wins are now the enemy. It is OK to get one now and then, as it will make our kids feel good about themselves, but no injured player should be rushed back into action for the rest of the season. Let Paul, Wally and Delonte get 110% healthy. I want the kids to play the most anyways. Let’s see what we have in guys like Leon Powe. I think that he will succeed, but we won’t know for sure if he does not play.

there is always a silver lining in every cloud and for the celtics moreso than next years draft, which is crucial, it is the development of the kids we have now, win or lose. the dire need is good coaching and teaching. wouldn’t it be nice to see aman to man defense instead of all this sagging and chasing which does not encourage any sustainable skills. wouldn’t it be nice to see more pick and rolls or maybe more of the six plays that auerbach mandated.

For all you Scabby haters out there, the man does serve a purpose:

Although he couldn’t apply force with his right leg, Scalabrine drove Allen and Allen’s mother to the hospital. With Scalabrine using his right foot for the gas and his left foot for the brake, Allen’s mother became nervous.

“His mom was concerned about my driving,” said Scalabrine. “She was asking for the ambulance. Tony was like, ‘No, man, this is better than the ambulance.’ It’s Scal.”

(Boston Globe http://www.boston.com/sports/basketball/celtics/articles/2007/01/12/its_official_allen_is_finished_for_year/?page=2)

Can we please, please institute the use of the phrase, “No, man, this is better than the ambulance. It’s Scal.”? Or even just, “It’s better … It’s Scal.” Or “It’s Scal.”? This is too good not to use the rest of the year.

i had higher hopes coming into this season than any other teams we have had in a long long while. watching the pre-season made it even higher. then, slowly, one by one, we had a bad run of injuries and bad coaching decisions. eventually the injuries lead to more playing time for the players who deserve it. i know quite a bit about basketball, and will take ball-hawk type players, i.e. gomes, west, powe, RONDO!!!, over shooters with no D, i.e. bassy, wally. at this time in the season, i think its safe to say were not going to make the playoffs. fine. i would have taken the playoffs over lottery, but now all you oden happy folk get what you want. as for high points in this season, theres obviously Al and Green who finally started to emerge, but theres also a look at some serious players out there who need more of a looking at. Rondo is our point guard of the future. anyone who doesnt see that, is watching a different game than i am. every time he is on the floor, good things happen. jason kidd wasnt much of a shooter when he first came into the league, so i completely forgive him on that. powe is another player. the kid is a beast on the boards, and just has a sense for where the ball is going. thats what was lacking with the guys we had out there in the beginning of the year. as of now, with all the injuries, our team should be Jefferson, Powe, Gomes, GG, and Rondo. let bassy, perk, and whoever gets healthy frst come off the bench. i still have much celtic love. go celtics!!!

p.s. sorry to have said so much, but this is my first post, and i had alot to say.

also, kung fu is my favorite tv show ever, so i love whenever master po quotes it!

i bought expensive tickets to the 1/31 lake show game too. sort of regreting that too… oh well.

suppose for the moment we lose out on the first pick overall, but end up with the second or third pick in the draft. say durant falls into our laps. what then? with pierce, wally and green… we still have a backlog at the small forward. i guess green and pierce can play the shooting guard position.

we need to trade wally asap.

Saying that this is a “lost season” is an understatement. Such high hopes for this season dashed by poor coaching and now injuries. I have to agree with most of what Ancient Red said in his post. I still think that we ought to show Doc the door and let next years’ coach work with the team.

It is time to cashier Doc Rivers. Doc has never helped young guys to improve, either in Orlando or Boston. He’s not going to be able to change gears, from “our young guys are killing us”, to “let’s play the young guys to see what they can learn”.

An interim coach, with a focus on player development, could make a world of difference over the final 48 games this year. Think about that for a minute. 48 games is an awful lot of minutes.

One hoped for positive that hasnt panned….yet. Point guard. Hoping to see some more action for Rondo. It’s worrisome tho that Docs game plan is to go to half-court & slow down. With Gerald Ray Telfair and Rondo he may as well let em run.

Jeff — if you think a 20-game turnaround is realistic for next year, what are you predicting, 35 wins? ;D ;D ;D

My 7-game ticket package starts tonight. Wan’t wait. :’( I guess there really is nothing to look forward to except watching GG and Al Jefferson.

I agree with those who think this team stunk before the injuries, because it did. Without the injuries it was a 30-35 win team. With the injuries, it is a 20-25 win team. In both cases the team stinks.

there really is no “silver lining”….every step back requires twice as much work/improvement for the future….kids getting PT is one thing. but PT & stats in meaningless blowout losses is another. remember ant-wine declaring himself a “veteran allstar” after the 15-win season?

hey, at least the hope for 20game turnaround will be easier to attain…but is going from 20-62 to 40-42 something to be happy about?

I think Ainge really enjoys bottom feeding with late picks. He and Doc were able to build a team with some depth and character using players that other people passed over. This is one way to build loyalty. Will be interesting to see if he is able to find the player with the right chemistry to fit in with a top pick.

I liked Luther Head when they took GG at #18 LHead is playing well but then realized – the guy is 24 Gerald is 20.

Rondo/Bassy/West (no particular order)
PP/TA?
GG/(MWilliams?)
(JNoah?)/LPowe/RGomes
AJ/KP/

‘No, man, this is better than the ambulance.’ It’s Scal."

Sage words from Luke Middleton. That thing needs to be a bumper sticker. Any takers?

Also, in my minds eye that’s got to be a terrible/hilarious/scary drive to the hospital. I mean, the $350M Celtics organization just put a player writhing with a vicious ACL tear and his mom into the back of another players SUV, who happens to have a busted MCL, and just tells him to “DRIVE, MAN, DRIVE!”?

Do we not have a designated driver? Where’s Wyc’s limo and driver?

My thoughts go out to Tony’s mom as she dealt with the man we fondly call “The Confusion” driving her screaming writhing child to the hospital.

Go SCAL!

(how about a Scal & Tony sitcom while they’re both out with injuries? seriously, anything involving Celtics players but not Celtics basketball would be good this season, know what I’m saying? Where’s that darn Delonte reality show?)

This was a lost season before Allen’s injury. Every season with Rivers at the helm is a lost season, and all the injury did was to dash false hopes.

If Doc is gone before the start of next season then I’ll re-up my league pass.. otherwise I’ll just read a few articles and watch some highlights/stats.

There’s so much basketball left this season….we will end up in the lottery but the only issue is where we fall in the lottery….Honestly i could see Danny Ainge picking Tyler Hansborough as his lottery pick and giving him the #44….Honestly our organization is in some shambles right now, especially for a business.

The one encouraging thing I have taken out of this season so far is how the younger players became outspoken about wanting to stick together & grow as a team instead of having Ainge trade parts away for Iverson.
For all the talk about how much this team sucks, keep in mind their average age is what 23, 24? Airald Green & AJeff are going to be players. If we can add a top 3 pick, Ainge sticks by his guys, next year will be a much better year. I also think Tony Allen will come back & eventually become a valuable member of the team in the future.

One troubling thing that stands out to me is the recent play of Ryan Gomes. Go back and watch his triple double effort (against the knicks, I believe)… That guy has vanished. I can’t quite put my finger on it, but he has a disinterested look to him lately. Maybe the losses and injuries are starting to get to him, but he seems to have lost his fire.

 PickNRoll said: _
  One troubling thing that stands out to me is the recent play of Ryan Gomes. Go back and watch his triple double effort (against the knicks, I believe)… That guy has vanished. I can’t quite put my finger on it, but he has a disinterested look to him lately. Maybe the losses and injuries are starting to get to him, but he seems to have lost his fire.

You are right but I attribute it to Doc’s coaching, system and game planing. >:( >:(

Gentlemen,

This Celtics team is called “Tough Love”

It’s funny, all during the preseason, i read posts where people were proclaiming that this team would win the Atlantic this year, 40 wins, etc., and i couldn’t understand the optimism surrounding this team. All I wanted out of this season was for the youngsters to develop, and maybe for us to trade a few of our assets for a quality veteran. But 40 wins, i found that Kool Aid too sweet to choke down.

But now i read nothing but pessimism on this board, denigrating everyone associated with the team. But frankly, i feel a lot better about this team, going forward. Al Jefferson took a giant leap forward this year, after going backwards the year before. G Green has made some forward progress, at least. Rondo has shown glimpses that he can be the PG of the future, if he gets a jump shot. Leon Powe looks like he was worth taking a second round flyer on. Scal even started to play like the guy Danny thought he was signing

Obviously, there’s been some problems this year, as well. Delonte has been good, but shown no real improvement – still the 7th man on a good team. Tony Allen’s was a big blow, because he finally started to play like we thought he could, two years ago. Sebastian Telfair…let’s not talk about that one(i’d honestly rather have Steve Blake)

But take this group, add a lottery pick(let’s not forget, drafting is Danny’s specialty), and I’m looking forward to the future, in a way i haven’t been in the last few years.

C’mon guys, the Kool Aid is delicious.

Well, there ARE a few games left to play fellas. I don’t expect the C’s to go 40-10, but they’ll win some when Pierce gets back.

Gomes I think is struggling with the calf injury. I hope so anyway.

Looking at the positives, the kids are playing minutes they’d never have if PP & Wally & West were healthy.

For now, I’d start Telfair, Ray, GG, Al & Gomes. Perk & Al together means Al will get doubled every time.

I wouldnt call it literally a lost season since the negatives have at least given the chance to a few positives to develop. You really think that if PP and Wally had not gotten hurt, Al and Tony and to a lesser degree GG would not have improved as much as they have. We would have had no chance at winning anything with PP and Wally and we would be desperate on trading Tony (which looking in hindsight…..well, thats not fair. I love Tony.)

Al, GG, the game Ray had against Hotlanta, the way Tony improved his game. Of course there have been many positives this season. You can only improve your game if you play; and improvement as a whole would have been minimal if PP and Wally had played their regular minutes. The PG situation has not yet been defined and has to be. Position número 5 has not been filled, so that also has to be dealt with. The end result is that by chance or luck, most of our youts have had a chance to know what it is all about with extended playing time (not just with a glimpse of playing time). Not because Doc wnated to give thenm all this time, but because he had no choice. Im even watching live games for the first time since 20 years ago. Im enjoying watching the new blood; I never watched the regular blood unless they won. I dont mind losing as long as the youts are playing and trying to learn the game. No, all has not been lost. We are not going to win the division this year neither with the youts nor with the veterans. At least we are developing most youts, even if it is contrary to Doc’s original plan. Doc is vamose. I couldnt care about Doc’s ways. I like waht I see. We just need help in the draft at front line, plus another veteran PF if possible, and another PG. No, nothing has really been lost. We are not yet ready to take it to another level. After this year, if we keep playing the youts; we will be ready next year to take it up another notch. Watch them.