Right fucking on.
Everyone in the Celtics organization needs to read this piece and act. Fire Coc, get a superstar no matter what it takes, and use Gomes and West as second unit players, not starters. To do this we have to spend MONEY and tacitly admit that mistakes have been made. This team could become watchable quickly if Wyc and Danny take the Doctors' advice.
I disagree with the "get a superstar" part, but agree with everything else. We have a superstar. He makes us lose. Getting another one ain't gonna do it. We need a real, true point guard and to keep the rest of the team together no matter what. Congruity is what makes the Pistons so good. Trade the white guys and Pierce for a point guard and let the kids grow up. If you keep an 8 man rotation together for three years you can get deep into the playoffs. Look at the Pistons. For that matter look at the Nets and Suns. The Nets have the geriatric squad out there and the Suns have a bunch of journeymen + Nash. Even the "Matrix" isn' that good. He is a Ryan Gomes. Nash makes them a contender (albeit not for long).
Our best shot is continuing to regress. Get a few more high draft picks and make Raef/Wally/Pierce defect and take their contracts with them. Our payroll shrinks, we can get a few solid veterans to add to the young core and make a real run at the playoffs.
Getting the 7th and 8th slots and playing sacrificial lamb to a superior team was getting old anyway.
Fuck Wyc.
As usual, RDF has some good points. But I think, when you compare the Celtics with the Pissed-ons, the most glaring difference is toughness, mental and physical. The Celtics are fucking pussies compared to the Pistons. Other than Perk the Celtics do not have one tough guy on the team. Raef and Scal are big fucking pussies. And Al, though young, is another. I remember in a late season game Al puffed out his chest and charged Scot Pollard. Pollard literally laughed in his face. I think the Pistons care more about toughness than they do about white guys with character, and that's why they're contending for another championship.
Additionally, I don't think the Celts can both get rid of Raef/Wally and keep the young guys together because no other team is going to take on those slow, wobbly-kneed, overpaid, church-going, character guys without getting some of the young (potential)talent too.
Unfortunately I agree with you about another team just taking them off our hands... Which is too bad. In a perfect world, we'd just shed them.
It doesn't look like that will be the case unless we really give up some talent.
One thing I did read this morning really resonated with me though. The Suns starters (plus 1) all scored in double figures in the last game against the Clippers. These starters are Boris Diaw, Leandro Barbosa, Raja Bell, Tim Thomas (matrix and Nash). But you get my point. Those first four are NOT that talented. We can put that team on the floor. There is more to it than superstars...
The question for the Celtics is what?
yeah, and that's why PO was flipping out earlier in the season about us missing a chance to trade for Chris Paul who can apparently do the same thing - take mediocre talent and make it sing. Pierce just can't do that, he's a great 2/3, but not transcendent a la LeBron, nor is he a significant two way player a la Artest. It's not a shit on Pierce thing, just a shit on the idea of building a winner around Pierce.
I'm a big fan of paul pierce but he's a rasheed wallace complimentary type player. the "build around Pierce" shit is just PR spin by Pryc, Coc and DAinge. It's pure bullshit.
fuck the celtics anyway. there's plenty of good basketball on.
I think its clear that pierce can't carry a team by himself, but look at the really good teams—very few of them are carried by a single superstar. Paul is a great player, and that means we can (and should) keep him, but we have to surround him with a lot of other talent.
the only other thing i disagree with is the idea that delonte can't play point. i think he did a great job this year, and really played within himself, which is nice after watching banks run around like a maniac for so long. in a few years west will be a solid point guard, not elite, but as good as an earl watson.
the other guys though, who knows.
WPDK, do you think Earl Watson can win you a championship? That's the real question.
WPDK - West vs. Banks, no contest, obviously Delonte is a huge upgrade. But I don't ever see Delonte being a true playmaking 7-8 apg type guy. I love Delonte, he and Perk are my favorite Celtics, but I think both of them are fundamentally just overhyped bench players. I guess I hope I'm wrong, but who knows.
Willie - Rasheed Wallace, exactly. Put Pierce on Dallas and they win it all (not that might not anyway) and he's a folk hero. It's sad that much of the Boston Pierce bashing arises as a reaction to the spin from our brave and heroic owner and our straw grasping Basketball Operations Czar.
PS: fuck basketball, I'm watching my Wong Kar Wai box set this week.
very cool. saw both in the mood for love and the sci fi sequel on the big screen a few months ago.
most likely revealing too much but recently watched "Short Ecstasy of the Sculptor Steiner" brilliant fucking movie.
there's another thing very cool that I've finally checked off my list, AK by Marker, a documentary about Kurosawa shot during the making of Ran that is included in the criterion release of Ran.
can't say enough good things about the whizznutzz piece. Some of the best sports writing in quite some time.
blows
Thanks Willie, much appreciated. My new one kind of sucks, but whatever, it's been a busy week.
Never seen Sculpter Steiner, I need to get that Herzog box. I was going to buy the new Ran but I have the old one and it was never my fave Kurosawa. Fucking Criterion always gets me with those documentaries though.
I'm not sure what Bobby is referring to, but if it is the leadership of Wyc Grousbeck I whole heartedly agree.
bobby, booby, what the fuck.
The Celtics have announced the addition of a dance team for next season.
http://www.boston.com/sports/bas...+--
+Sports+News
As we used to say when I was growing up in Framingham, "Der!"
I'm more impressed that they have a director of "Special Projects" in JoJo White. Isn't that the job Rumsfeld gave Chalabi along with a about 10 million in cold hard cash.
There is some interesting discussion about the Maloof's (which one got the sex change and is now transgendered) wanting Danny Ainge.
Interesting in that how could any of the posters actually give a fuck about the relationship between Ainge, Coc, and Pryc and the Trustafarians.
Danny Mormon going to work for the casino-owning Maloofs seems like a stretch to me. But PLEASE GO!!!!
Looks like Larry Brown may be bailing out on the Knicks ... think we could get lucky enough to have the same thing happen to Coc?
I was just thinking, maybe the Celts are starting a dance team to try to get Raef some more minutes on the floor.
Larry Brown leaving? No... Say it ain't so. He is a pathetic piece of shit. I have never liked him. He got lucky with the Pistons and they are proving it wasn't his coaching, just their ability.
Thanks for breaking the news on the dance team Anon, I think we should all try out for it. It would be a grotesquely apt symbol for the franchise. Our motto, "Stay in Your Seats!"
It's odd, you never see Coc mentioned in the national stories about "coaches on the hot seat" or whatever. I think the Gang That Couldn't Shoot Straight is reluctant to part with the cash, and they're probably hoping he quits and negotiates a lowball parachute.
Willie, hahhaha, bravo on finding a link between JoJo White and the new Iraq "government." I think Wyc is an old hand at sinecures, both providing them and having one of his own. By the way, Robyn turned 26 today, and if you get that reference I'm going to fall out of my seat.
I had to look it up. Despite the fact that I own a bunch of their records, but who doesn't?
that song was the first place I'd heard "Trustafarian," that's why I asked. Kind of a lost gem in the catalogue, IMO. Slay Tracks indeed.
I love LEBRON!!!!!
Wish we had him. Fuck Coc and Scalaburine.
hahaha, LeBron is nuts. I'd make the gratiutious Pierce comment here, but I think we all know what it is. Pierce didn't make the all third team either, which I think is probably fair, although I'm not too sure Carmelo really belongs in there.
Fascinating shit-fucking on the part of Doc to RickyD in the paper today. A prime lesson in why everything that comes out of everyone associated with Celtics' mouths at all times is A LIE.
I've been deep in the shit here at work, sorry for the delay in posting. Hopefully I'll have the new thing up tomorrow, if not, by Monday.
I hear ya about the work stuff... It's just brutal. I might be a CT resident soon though if things work out....
nice to see that celticsblog is swallowing a steaming pile of dogshit being shoveled by the front office about ricky.
why look at the failures of ainge when we can continue to horsewhip guys like Blount, Banks, and Ricky that don't play for the celtics anyomore.
fuck coc.
"the team played better team ball without him"
bullshit. they sucked before he left but they were actually a better team if you look at the scoring differential. they were a worse team after the trade, look at the record asswipe.
fuck the celtics.
Not only were they worse, they lost someone that could actually play point guard. Albeit not that well, but better than Orein Greene and whomever the fuck else we had in there...
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