Celtics Get Graded With C's

At this point in the season, you are what your record shows.

That isn’t necessarily who you will be in the end of course. But it is who you are right now.

Nba.com gave us a b-

I refuse to accept that there is something structural preventing this team from winning enough games to get a decent seed in the post-season or to make a deep playoff run. There is enough talent on this team to play with anyone in the league and come up with enough ugly wins to combine with the rare “pretty win” — ugly wins are the only kind of wins that will get us anywhere this year.

The path, as Robson says, is a grueling one, but he is wrong that it is an impossible one. It is open to this team and these coaches every night they go out to play, no matter what injuries we are dealing with or whether we have shooters with a hot hand. The Celtic tradition has always been one of taking the grueling, painful road to victory. We will never be a Showtime or South Beach player destination. But I just haven’t seen that kind of determination this year except in short and inadequate spurts.

People talk about “blowing it up,” and if Danny thinks that is the best thing to do, fine. But with what this team is showing now, who is going to be wanting to come be a part of the organization? Which players that could help us would agitate for a trade to come to Boston? What kind of free agents will want to use their precious windows of free agency to leave someplace warm and move someplace cold — or to leave local fans desperate to keep them where they are, just to come and be put under the Celtic Nation microscope? Unless some elite players are aching to come to Boston, what we get in a “blow it up” scenario isn’t going to be pretty, or even anything to build on. That’s why I don’t think Danny will do anything before the end of the season.

This team and this coaching staff has it in their power to go out and win games and show the league that this is an organization is tough and has championships in the DNA — to show upcoming free agents that if they come here, they might be the missing piece to make it all come together.

We would never have won Banner 17 unless Ray Allen had believed that he could win a championship in Boston, and convinced Kevin Garnett that Boston was the place to come if he wanted a ring. Any player on this team who wants a ring badly should approach every game with the mental toughness and determination to win one, and to make the Celtics an organization that top players around the league - Celtic-type players -- wish (secretly or openly) that they could be a part of.

That’s what I want to see from this team — the will to make Boston a desirable destination, and that is what is missing right now. Even last year, you could feel the envy at what we had. It is why LeBron and Wade were jumping around like school kids and acting like they had won the NBA Finals and Olympic Gold wrapped up in one when they beat us in the playoffs. We need to get that back.

Looking at the remaining schedule, I think there’s a pretty good chance the Celtics will not hit 30 wins this season, and they may not even win 10 more games. Yes, they could turn it around, but I have a hard time imagining where all the necessary energy, hustle and teamwork is going to come from.

So depending on what the Cavs and Bucks do going forward, there’s a fair chance the Cs miss the playoffs altogether this time. And our misery ends quickly.