Are The Celtics Just Not Tough Enough?

yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes.

duh. Its been for years for heavens sake. We got out toughed by the Fakers and Gasol and Bynum and Kobe and Fisher in a 7th game in the finals. It was disgusting. And what did Danny do about it? Brought on a bunch of guys who were too old and he traded Perk. Thats what he did.

I think Rondo is tough enough But he is too inconsistent and he has disappeared in big games. I sure don’t think KG is tough enough really in any way at all. Ray has disappeared in big games. Paul is tough enough in every way we can measure it. Its not enough.

Posey, Perk, House, Powe and PJ Brown were all tough and there all gone

1. Lack of size matters (sorry for that line…)
2. Lack of athleticism matters too (but don’t tell larry Bird…)
3. Lack of emphasis on rebounding

There’s an old saying by coaches: Your job is not done when the shot goes up." Yet if you DVR a celtic game watch how many times a Celtic will just stand and watch as the ball goes up. Rondo – the other night – gambled for a steal, then his man shot. He stayed where he was the entire time after the shot, including during the struggle / tapping of the loose ball. Allen is terrible at this too. Even more, when a shot goes up on offense (lets say from the top of the key), NOBODY moves or improves their angle at a rebound. Likely a ball shot from there will bounce out toward the free throw line, so guys on the block that are boxed out should roll to the middle to increase their chance at a rebound. Rodman was the best at this. Its more about effort than toughness. Pietrus was the only guy vs the bulls that was really battling for rebounds. Other teams have guys (Noah, Gasol, etc) who dive to the rim when their guy penetrates the lane - kind of following their wake - and many times will get the tip or follow-up slam. Again, watch how our optimistic Celtics are when this happens— they stand and watch, hoping the shot will go in. It really is pathetic if you just watch on tape. Go ahead and focus on just that if you have an hour to kill… it truly may make you sick.

But they can’t rebound. As dead as JO is on the floor, he will bang in there with the tough dudes. So as KG and Bass. Problem is, they can’t finish, can’t rebound. Not enough lift anymore from JO and KG. Bass is a little undersized.

Rebounding is THE FIRST thing needed to be addressed. C’s are holding opponents to 41% shooting, that’s great. But no defensive play is complete until the glass has been cleaned. Sadly, our bigs is having a hard time doing that.

They are no longer mentally tough. I keep on seeing the lack of effort, lack of focus, lack of hustle….

Their facial expression and body language seem to indicate mediocrity is already acceptable.

not taking a shot at RA— who is one of the finest men in the game today. The article was on rebounding, however. Yes, toughness too, but i made it clear it was more about effort than toughness. No doubt RA is tough, and if we were talking about class, he would tops on the list. My comments meant no disrespect to RA but I’ll use this analogy. i play golf, and have played against some much finer and tougher men than myself… but it doesn;t mean their going to beat me.

Beat the Pistons and the story might start to change, but yeah you have to wonder if this team has it.

Celtics FG%:
2007-08: 47.5
2009-10: 48.3
2011-12: 45.6

45.6% FG% may sound ok compared to league average, but it’s significantly lower than this team put up in the years they seriously contended.

It’s on Doc somewhat. The Celtics are not coached to hit the boards. They are coached to get back on D. What crap to imply our guys aren’t tough enought. C’mon, Perk didn’t rebound big numbers. Ever! He didn’t block big numbers. Ever! He didn’t take charges. Ever!
Rondo is a poor shooter. He is moody. But tough? He’s tough as nails.

If Doc said “Crash the boards. If they get a few easy transitions, so what!” there would be no question about Celts being tough. Then it would be they aren’t getting back fast enough. It’s an old team. It can’t be both.

Everything that has gone wrong with this team is due to the age of it’s core player. We depend on PP and Ray to be our closers but they cannot close to the level the could a couple of years ago.

PP is supposed to be the other guy on the floor besides Rondo who can create shots for himself and others. He can still do that and even do it well but he cannot do it consistently.

KG and JO are supposed to be our rebounders and the last line of defense but neither has any lft and is a step slow on their rotations..

I know it is hard to let go so many looks for excuses other then what is right in front of their face. The Big Three got old and aren’t the players they were two years ago(does anybody really object to that?). JO was broken down before he got here. That is four of our five starters and that isn’t going to get it done. These guys should be nice roll players at this stage of their careers not the guys you are depending on as the foundation of your team.

Rebounds are nice. But points are nicer. Right now, our problems are clearly in scoring points on offense.

45% fg% isn’t going to cut it. We need to be generating higher percentage shots.