Scoreboard Watching

Back to “tanking” I guess….since you know we can’t be THAT bad.

Can we?

Didn’t see the game but Gomes, AJ & West out with injuries?

Order is restored. The Celtics looked like the team that has the second worst record in the league again. Bucks also won. Only Charlotte couldn’t pull it off in OT against the Suns, much to my dismay. I would have liked to see the Bobcats get win #23 and especially against the Suns.

I see where Danny says he takes responsiblity for the poor season and he again reiterates that he has all this stockpiled young talent.

Here is the real cause of the Celtic problems. Next year there is $62 million committed to the roster and $40 million of that is invested in 3 players (Pierce, Wally, Theo).

We needed a guy like Alston of the Rockets. An experienced point guard who will make an average of about $4.6M over 4 years. A point who can handle the ball, run the offense, play D. Not a great point by any stretch of imagination, but consistent and decent. Had Wyc and Danny broke piggy bank and got that type of player, more could have been done with our #7 pick and Rondo (if not M. Williams) would still be a stellar pick at #21.

Cuban and the Mavs have a $92M salary. It is hard to keep up with the “Joneses” if they are spending a 1/3rd more. We are in the weak east so it shouldn’t take that type of money to be competitive, but it takes more than what Wyc, Doc, and Danny have done as evidenced by our overall record.

On Doc, I respect him for going out and getting this mini win streak even if it meant less ping pong balls.

Are youth are not as “prized” as Danny still thinks. Other than Big AL and possibly Green to a lesser extent; most all other clubs will see our youngsters as back up type role players.

Oddly, I think with Durrant and not Oden, we may be able to book 40 wins. With Oden, there will still be a learning curve, especially since he has played all year through injuries. If you are thinking Oden equals 45 W, I’ll tell you now I think it is way too optomistic. I’d love to land Oden and be proving wrong. Oden may be the better career pick, frankly I don’t think you can go wrong picking either guy.
I don’t think Noah, either Wright player, Harford, etc gets you 40 let alone 45 wins next year.

Keep in mind several things too. Pierce is no spring chicken. The injury bug is more likely to bit him again next year. I’m suprised with his style of play he hasn’t been hurt more often. So if and when Pierce misses games next year, the rest of the league ignores us when we say we would have won 40 games if Pierce was healthy. We can’t year after year aftere year make excuses up why we don’t win (youth, injury, etc). If anyone wants to start banking on 45 W, please factor in the injuries because that’s part of the game that every team needs to deal with.

 Another point, we can’t get rid of Wally and Doc is going to play a healthier and sometimes a gympy Wally over Green, so look for futher delay in Green’s development.

Thirdly, Danny isn’t going to go out and get another point guard because we used 2 1st rounders last year on the point and this is a big boys draft. The 3 headed point monster of West/Telfair/Rondo isn’t working this year and I don’t see big strides next year for that position.

Gomes play 12 minutes coming off a game with 17 boards, while Veal, who hardly represents our future, plays 21 and powers his way to 2 rebounds. Brian wasn’t awarded the Walter McCarty Little Big Man Award in perpetuity for nothing.

^ Gomes twisted his ankle and was taken to the locker room for most of the game.

back to very poor defense. houston gave them the lesson on how to play d. gomes was doing rather well before getting hurt. big al was excellent. delonte was back to holding the ball too long, making useless passes and giving up his shot. gerald looked lost. doc looked like he was enjoying the rockets more than watching his own team.

What you saw in Houston last night was a well coached team. Talent-wise, I’d say they have an edge but coaching-wise it’s not even close. I mean they almost beat us with their scrubs last week.
Who out of the seventeen celtics assistant coaches is “responsible” for the defense specifically? Anybody know?
On the bright side, Big Al keeps getting better.

Beetlejuice is responsible for the defense.
And maybe Pierce ought to stop talking about defense in the papers and start playing some. I put in more defensive effort watching the game on TV than he did on the court.

1/3 more? That’s almost 50% more!