Callahan: Losing Is Winning

this will make or break Ainge . mark my words.

Callahan writes: “So the cynics are right: The Celts can lose their next 36 straight, and there still is no Greg Oden guarantee.” Well I guess it takes one to know one. Anyone that feels the only hope for the Celtics is to lose in order to get a marginal chance at a single player has to be wearing the cynic crown…all hail King Gerry, the cynics cynic. His dad must be so proud.

A voice of reason to balance those of the players (Pierce, Gomes) and the coach who would like some veteran help to get the team a few more meaningless wins this season. Since it appears Pierce will come back soon, chances are the Celtics will not have the worst record in the league, especially if the Grizzlies trade Gasol. Look what happened, though, when the Sixers sent Iverson to Denver. After a few losses, they started to get competitive and have been playing .500 ball lately.

The Celtics were at best a .500 team before the Pierce injury playing the softest schedule in the league next to the Lakers. So even if they squeeze out 15 wins over the remainder of the schedule, that shouldn’t be enough to get them past many of the other bottom-feeders. And it will appease those that are morally opposed to tanking, the ones that actually believe there is some sort of Hoop God that is administering punishment to teams that offend certain principles.

The only effort Danny Ainge should be making in the days leading up to the trading deadline is to off-load Wally for cap relief. Or maybe some team looking for big man depth wants to pick up Olowakandi or, bless his heart, the wily vet Scalabrine.

If Ainge can somehow find a suitor for Wally & get back a first round draft pick (middle to low) another project, it would help the C’s in the loss column team chemistry gets all out of whack again. It would also drive Doc crazy. Unfortunately, I think the Pierce scowl would come back as well.

seems in todays NBA the biggest asset for trading is the expiring contract.Well we’ll have one in each of the next 2 summers.Times are tough but that’s light you see at the end of the tunnel.Gotta hang in there for 2 more months

btw when is the lottery???

Did Callahan happen to somehow tie in how the Celtics record is the fault of the liberals??

I generally dislike Callahan but this article is 100% accurate. I am with him (as well as Rob Bradford & Tanguay who said the same thing last night on FSNE). I would rather shoot for the next Bill Russell and fail than be a perpetually a first round and out team just to make Pierce happy.

Look, What did you expect Pierce to say???…Let’s wait and see how he plays, then we’ll know more…Clank a few and we’re there…Hah!
the rest of the season at this point is a glass of muddy water…any Zen advocate worth his salt would say, Wait til the mud settles and you will then see clearly…21 years we’ve waited. Is this really the time to go beserk?

I would rather have Durant instead of Oden. But you can’t go wrong with either player. And I don’t think Oden will come out this year. I think he will play one more year with the Buckeyes.

Oden stay in school? LOL. Please.

Excellent, another fantanker on board. Rational thinking..

Say hello to Hansbrough?!?! Give me a break. This guy writes for a living about SPORTS and he thinks that Hansbrough is going to get picked over Noah and Wright? Hell, I’d be shocked to see the guy in the lottery.

  Did Callahan happen to somehow tie in how the Celtics record is the fault of the liberals??
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No, but only a liberal could see victory in defeat.

“No, but only a liberal could see victory in defeat.”

That’s so profound. ;)

I can’t believe I finally agree with that windbag Callahan. All these anti-liberals make me laugh. Especially the once educated through liberal-inspired college loan and grant programs. This country was a lot better before, when only the children of the right had access to higher education. I was one of those freeloaders who received government handouts for my higher education, due to the fact that my parents were working class. The fact that I have paid 8 times what i received in aid in income tax in one tax year alone should not get in the way of a good argument. Liberal programs are bad, right Gerry?

All those stupid things like the Civil Rights Act and Voting Rights Act were foolish liberal programs too, right? The Gerry Callahans of the world can zip over highway paid with by federal funds from programs created by liberals, (like the Big Dig) and have more time to watch Fox News in their basement rec rooms, or use the T to get around Boston and Amtrak to travel to NYC.

There are a lot of things wrong with the federal and state government. To blindly blame it on one entity, like liberals, is stupid and intellectually dishonest. I have absolutely no respect for Gerry Callahan as he pontificates on our public airways every weekday mornings. Is there any more of a welfare system in this country than the hijacking of the public airways by media conglomerates, Gerry? You don’t talk about that, do you. Can’t bite the hand that feeds you.

I personal think we should do this trade if memphis will do it. We can still keep are pick and get one of the big three and still have a most of are players… I think it comes to the point were maybe we give up a few good guys to get something that will help for years to come…I think Green is just mediocre and dont see what all the hype is about…al jefferson is the real deal but i think if we have to include both then do it…What would a lineup of Oden/durant/or Noah paired with Pau and Paul do….
feel free to comment on this

Trading Al Jeff for Pau would be retarded. Big Al >>> Pau in less than 2 years. He is already about equal to Pau and we are just starting to go to him consistantly. Maybe just Maybe, i’d trade Big Al for Pau and their 1st; but they would never do that, so the point is moot.

All those stupid things like the Civil Rights Act and Voting Rights Act were foolish liberal programs too, right? -—————————————————————————-

As was the Great Society..
..which has taken generations of able-bodied people and (by design), made them helpless wards of the state. The NBA draft is a great example of liberalism on parade….rewarding poor and/or nonexistent performance. But I digress.

The most storied franchise in professional sports should never tank….ever. The long-term effects on retaining sub-par coaching and accepting sub-par performance will far outweigh the short-term benefit of a higher draft pick. The culture of losing is tough to break….and a Oden and/or Durant can’t cure it.

Iowa, there has been a culture of losing on the Celtics for the past decade and a half, and if you do not think a franchise big man can not cure the problem, you are kidding yourself. I have a feeling that there would be a decade long culture of winning if the Cs got Duncan.

This shole tank argument is becoming moot anyways. As some of the other lessers like Philly, Atlanta, and Charlotte pull away from the Cs in the win colmun, the return of Paul Pierce coupled with a tough schedule will equal wins in 40% of the games in the best case. Assuming the Cs lose their next 3 games without Pierce, and win 40% of their remaining 34 games, they will have 26 wins, which should be good for the worst or second worst record, unless someone like Seattle goes into deep tank mode after trading Ray Allen.

BTW, Mr. Know-it-all Callagan made a stupid error in his column that most basketball fans his age would certainly know.

He wrote: “Ewing, Olajuwon and Duncan all joined the NBA after their senior seasons in college” Hakeem came out after his junior year as a Houston Cougar. It is refreshing to know that dozens of CelticsBloggers know more about the NBA than this supposed expert.

Iowa, there has been a culture of losing on the Celtics for the past decade and a half, and if you do not think a franchise big man can not cure the problem, you are kidding yourself. I have a feeling that there would be a decade long culture of winning if the Cs got Duncan.
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With a different coach….yes…someone who actually teaches basic defensive principles…like defending the pick and roll…etc. But I would contend that Oden is a project in an NBA body…and hardly ready to carry a franchise with a losing culture. Durant is an NBA talent in a college freshman’s body, and equally hardly ready to carry a franchise…with or without Paul. I’m much more concerned with the culture….and very worried about the NBA stepping in at some point if the losing streak continues much longer without a shakeup of some kind. I don’t see this panacea you see as a given.

Well, TripleOT, why do you listen to Jerry? Radios have dials. It’s too bad that the progressive talk station in Boston was abruptly taken off the air about a month after its parent company was acquired by Bain Capital, the Company founded by Mitt Romney and in which Celtics’ owner Steve Pagliuca is also a partner. (You didn’t think Grousbeck et. al. were liberals, did you?)

Iowa plowboy, you should stop listening to right wing millionairs on talk radio all day then go home and watch Fox news and think you know what’s going on in the world. Let’s get back to the Celtics.

I hope you folks who think it’s a good idea to trade Big Al have read the article entitled “Big Al – one of the NBA’s best kept secrets” at the top of this page. Big Al is a post up player, something we’re going to need when we get into the playoffs. I believe Big Al will be better than Gasol for us in the long run.