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The Celtics

The mailman

Well-Known Member
I hate all teams. I only love the Jazz. I’m using the word love here. I hate, HATE, the Celtics. But… I hated MJ and I hated Kobe. And what happened? I grew to respect their greatness. And here we are, in these playoffs, where it’s wide open (the widest ever maybe?), and the Jazz are out - of course. Are you watching? Who can you “root” for? It’s tough. But let’s be honest, no one — NO ONE — thought the Celtics would get this far. Certainly not me. These guys play like a ****ing team. They play hard. They play GREAT defense, they share the ball. My God are they good! These guys are what I want the Jazz to be. Nothing but respect.
 
I think the switch from Brad Stevens to Ime Udoka made a big difference for the Celtics...Stevens is a great coach but sometimes a team just needs a new voice. I think that's where the Jazz are at with Quin.
The fans were begging to get Udoka fired till the trade deadline. Not that I think Udoka is a bad coach or that the Celtics fans weren't reactionary but I believe that was the turning point.
 
Celtics are "optimal" team building without a generational talent type player. Team built around tall athletes (Smart/Tatum/Brown) who all have some degree of versatility. Nearly everyone was a high draft pick. No weak links defensively. Good vet leadership, clear top 10 talent (Tatum), elite defensive center (Williams).
 
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Celtics are "optimal" team building without a generational talent type player. Team built around tall athletes (Smart/Tatum/Brown) who all have some degree of versatility. Nearly everyone was a high draft pick. No weak links defensively. Good vet leadership, clear top 10 talent (Tatum), elite defensive center (Williams).

I don't know how to define generational but to me Tatum is clearly taking that next step to be a big time superstar. Offensively he is turning into a monster but defensively he is just as good. What he did to Durant is something that no other player has done. He made his life a total nightmare while giving it to him on the other end of the court. Danny Ainge did one hell of a job building this basketball team even though he missed on quite a few picks over the years.
 
I don't know how to define generational but to me Tatum is clearly taking that next step to be a big time superstar. Offensively he is turning into a monster but defensively he is just as good. What he did to Durant is something that no other player has done. He made his life a total nightmare while giving it to him on the other end of the court. Danny Ainge did one hell of a job building this basketball team even though he missed on quite a few picks over the years.
Which is why you sell off pieces for draft capital at the right time. Not sure how many of the guys were their own picks but you need some room for error. The big sell off combined with a tank would set us up for success as long as you hit on an average number of those picks.
 
Celtics selected Robert Williams, Marcus Smart, and Grant Williams with their own picks. Tatum and Brown came from the NJ trade. They gave up a top 10 pick for Kyrie, gave up a pick to get Al Horford back (a guy they should have never let walk), they gave up this year's pick to get White. They had to give a pick to get off of Kemba's salary (in the Horford deal). Gave up a good player to get Kemba... who died immediately.

They whiffed on like 5 firsts and gave up a few in other deals that haunt them (Desmond Bane). They had a lot of cap space in part because they tore things down... even when the Hayward signing failed miserably they were fine. They created a big margin for error though and are now in their third conference finals?

I just think the path forward for us is so much easier if we stop trying to fool ourselves.
 
I don't know how to define generational but to me Tatum is clearly taking that next step to be a big time superstar. Offensively he is turning into a monster but defensively he is just as good. What he did to Durant is something that no other player has done. He made his life a total nightmare while giving it to him on the other end of the court. Danny Ainge did one hell of a job building this basketball team even though he missed on quite a few picks over the years.
I think Tatum could be a top 10 guy, but I don't see him.ever getting on Luka/Giannis/Curry/KD/Lebron level. Those types of dudes
 
I think Tatum could be a top 10 guy, but I don't see him.ever getting on Luka/Giannis/Curry/KD/Lebron level. Those types of dudes
I agree... but I do think he could get hot and play at that level for a series or two. At this point I think he's a top 10 playoff guy for sure in part because he's easy to build around. Two way player who can score with the best when he's rolling. More in the Jimmy Butler tier.
 
THere was also the whole facing a team without their 2nd best player thing.

Yep. I remember in the second round the jazz played a team without their best player and quin easily coached us to a series win.


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This.

Let's not get carried away here. Middleton was hurt, the Celtics had HCA, and it still went to 7 games.
A lot Hinges on health. Brooklyn probably beats Boston if Simmons plays. Denver becomes a player in the west if their two stars are healthy. Same could be said about the clippers. Golden state goes down if Klay and/or Steph aren’t healthy.

We were healthy this playoffs and still sucked.
 
Bump. Bump bump bump. I told y’all. Not sure they can beat the Warriors but how can you not appreciate the way this team plays. Nothing but respect.
 
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