Maybe we're just too young

When Ainge brought in Horford and Haywood it became clear that he was going for a quick ring. Blessed with excellemt dept ( 8 players with 20 minutes per game and nice stats ) going into this year things were looking good. Now there's been a train wreck and the big question on every ones mind is - WHAT HAS GONE WRONG ?
For many,many years I've heard of many phases that allude to VETERAN play in the sports arena - non statistical labels like Cagey, Wily, Savvy, Crafty just to name a few. Then I see a Celtic roster that features 8 players that have averaged at least 20 minutes per game - 4 of which are age 24 or less and 2 of those 4 are 22 or less - and I just can not help wondering if this youthfulness might be shortchanging the Celtics of key intangibles that veterans so often provide.
Note: No nba team has ever won a championship with 4 young players with the above credentials.
Note: Good news - this season is not over.

swish

Swish, you and I are not too young for anything, except perhaps death.

Note:  Being a top 10 team in the NBA is not a "train wreck"

Disappointing compared to (likely unrealistic) expectations.  But far from a train wreck.

See 2013-14 or 2006-07 for a train wreck.

mrkleen09 wrote:Note:  Being a top 10 team in the NBA is not a "train wreck"

Disappointing compared to (likely unrealistic) expectations.  But far from a train wreck.

See 2013-14 or 2006-07 for a train wreck.  

Ok - so - disappointing compared to expectations is close enough for me.

swish

worcester wrote:Swish, you and I are not too young for anything, except perhaps death.

Oh how I wish that was true. Right now I'm down to spectator sports on tv, computor research and like you mentioned - death

swish

Age is less relevant of a factor than it used to be because players are exiting college earlier and are becoming pros younger.  I would think 'years of NBA experience' would be more enlightening.

Having said all that, youth is still wasted on the young.

bob


.

bobheckler wrote:Age is less relevant of a factor than it used to be because players are exiting college earlier and are becoming pros younger.  I would think 'years of NBA experience' would be more enlightening.

Having said all that, youth is still wasted on the young.

bob


.

 The problem with using experience -  is that it could include players with short time in the nba -  but with years of professional ball in International play.

   swish

swish wrote:

bobheckler wrote:Age is less relevant of a factor than it used to be because players are exiting college earlier and are becoming pros younger.  I would think 'years of NBA experience' would be more enlightening.

Having said all that, youth is still wasted on the young.

bob


.

 The problem with using experience -  is that it could include players with short time in the nba -  but with years of professional ball in International play.

   swish

Swish,

True. One would want to identify international players and take into account their overseas professional experience too. Not that many on Championship teams. Dirk, who was not young when he won, maybe a small handful more.


bob


.

Hi,
One more thread on the disappointing season.
I agree - disappointing because of high expectations.
As for the "youtz" reason, yes, it could be one the reasons but not a major one.

AK

sinus007 wrote:Hi,
One more thread on the disappointing season.
I agree - disappointing because of high expectations.
As for the "youtz" reason, yes, it could be one the reasons but not a major one.

AK

bob



.

I do not think Boston is too young.

Rozier 4th year, Brown 3rd year and Tatum 2nd year are the only young guys that get to play extended minutes. The rest of the group are veterans.

As we continue to search for what has gone wrong with this team it ultimately comes down to matchups. It comes down to lineups, minutes played together by different groupings.

And Smart - thats 4 of eight players with 23 plus minutes per game.

 swish

swish wrote:And Smart - thats 4 of eight players with 23 plus minutes per game.

 swish

I would definitely put Smart in the veteran category as this is year 5. He is still young but he is experienced.

"Maybe we're just too young."

I saw that and thought a girl from sophomore year in high school joined the board.

Never mind.

We talking age of the team?

No, we're not too young.

Come to think of it, same thing I said to that girl.

NYCelt wrote:"Maybe we're just too young."

I saw that and thought a girl from sophomore year in high school joined the board.

Never mind.

We talking age of the team?

No, we're not too young.

Come to think of it, same thing I said to that girl.

+1

The Cs are NOT "too young"!  The same roster went to the seventh game of finals of the Eastern Conf last year and only added all star level players in Hayward, Irving and third stringer in Wanamaker to this season's squad.  Hayward and Irving are not rookies and Wanamaker is a much older NBA rookie who has played just like he was expected to play.

None of us thought that our team was "too young" last year when they were a very exciting team to watch night in and night out.  That team only missed going to the finals when they faded in the last six minutes of the 7th game perhaps because they were too young for that small sample of time.  Now they ALL are a year older and that much more experienced.

This year's team has been very, very frustrating to watch and follow basically from the very beginning of the season.  Stevens has had trouble finding the right minutes and mixes of players, the players have not always performed as well as last year, there have been a couple of injuries, the roster still does not have a big man to help control other big guys on other teams, the players have not bought in to playing as the team they were last year, team focus and effort has suffered (terrible loss to the Bulls last week as an example) and (worse for me) is that too many  players are "calling out" teammates.

I have to say that I thought that the egos (and, all players have them) would fall into line this year, and give the team and us the fans a shot at title number 18.  But, now I have to say that 1) I liked watching and following the Stevens led teams of yesteryear better than this year, and 2) am thinking that it may be time to blow up this team and begin another phase of a re-build.  I am a firm believer that subtraction of some from a group can, at least, sometimes add to the group's successes.

The Cs players did not seem to be so selfish regarding playing time and success of their teammates in the past like now.  But, it seems like Boston has become like so many other teams (that never have a chance to win a title) in the NBA more so than the team we have watched for the last 4 years.

dboss wrote:

swish wrote:And Smart - thats 4 of eight players with 23 plus minutes per game.

 swish

I would definitely put Smart in the veteran category as this is year 5.  He is still young but he is experienced.

We don't play smart and way too much one on one basketball. No ball movement. Seems like our shots are never open shots. We have wasted a year of development of our young talent so Kyrie could "lead" the way. This has been the downfall. The team last year played together. This year Kyrie anoints himself the leader and they will win because he is "here". Got news for him we did just fine without him last year and when he hasn't played this year. I doubt the players that got to the conf. finals liked this comment. He needs to get a grip on reality. All his winning has come with Lebron on the court. He lost pre Lebron and when Lebron sit while on a championship team. Kyrie can be the second best player on a team, not the best. He should quit watching ESPN and Stephen A telling everyone how great he is.