POST GAME DALLAS

Some advice to Doc. Bench the starters, start the bench. There was some good energy there during the third period. It was a nice valiant comeback by the Celtics at the end but all in all that that was ugly. We were outscored 17-0 in second chance points, and 44-30 on points in the paint, ouch! The Celtics should not have left the practice gym.The rebounding was so bad and allowing Dallas so many second chances really hurt. Kg has no lift. I am patient and I will give the team 20 games, put my patience is growing thin.

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WEEI RECAP

FAST BREAK: CELTICS GET NOWITZKI’D 01.11.12 at 10:43 pm ET
By Paul Flannery | No Comments

The names were familiar, but the games were hardly recognizable. Both the Celtics and Mavericks came into Wednesday’s game at TD Garden with .500 records and they played like it. There were missed shots, botched dunks and careless turnovers.

Paul Pierce was 2-for-5. Vince Carter was 1-for-8 and Kevin Garnett missed seven of his 11 shots. There was a glimmer of old-time glory late in the game with Pierce drained a 3-pointer to tie the game and Dirk Nowitzki answered on the other end with an amazing take to the basket that went past Garnett and through Brandon Bass. That was the difference in a 90-85 Mavericks’ victory.

Before the game, Celtics coach Doc Rivers said this is on the starters, but with the exception of Rajon Rondo it was another lackluster effort. The Big 3 was 5-for-16 for just 19 points through the first three quarters and the Celtics scored just 15 points in the first quarter and 17 in the third.

The Celtics showed a lot of energy coming back, but they had no legs down the stretch as epitomized on one play when Jason Terry drove through the lane and no one even moved to stop him.

WHAT WENT WRONG

– The Celtics scored just 15 points in the first quarter, continuing a terrible trend of slow starts. They made just 5-of-18 shots and looked passive on offense and lifeless on defense. They did the same thing in the third quarter, scoring just 17 points and allowing the Mavs to open up a 13-point lead at one point.

– Pierce followed up his 3-for-17 performance against Indiana with a 2-for-5 effort that was even less inspiring than it sounds. After missing his only shot in six minutes of the third quarter, Pierce sat until the 6-minute mark of the fourth quarter. He made one huge shot with 25 seconds left that tied the game, but doesn’t excuse another bad performance.

– The Mavs had 17 second-chance points. The Celtics had none.

– The Celtics picked up two fourth quarter technical fouls — one on Rondo while he was on the bench and another on Rivers. They have a no fourth quarter tech policy and it cost them.

WHAT WENT RIGHT

– Rondo was phenomenal for most of the game, taking on the scoring responsibilities and playing the kind of reckless floor game that was demanded. Rondo took 16 shots and got to the free throw line 12 times, making eight and finishing with 24 points. All that and he still had seven assists. The only quibble with his game were fast-break turnovers.

– Keyon Dooling and Brandon Bass provided a huge lift with their energy and it certainly didn’t hurt when they started making shots in the second half. Dooling scored nine points on 4-for-5 shooting in just 13 minutes and Bass was all over the floor, both offensively and defensively.

– Avery Bradley had one awful turnover and a bricked 3-pointer that may have been the worst wide-open look in NBA history, but his defense was once again strong and he helped turn the momentum in the second quarter. The Celtics don’t need points from Bradley. They need that fullcourt pressure defense and that’s what he gave them.

– Mickael Pietrus had a solid debut, playing the kind of strong defense the Celtics expect and knocking down his first 3-pointer. Marquis Daniels was available, but he has already lost his minutes to Pietrus, who played deep into the fourth quarter.

Not winning ANY games when you get a combined 32 points from Allen, Pierce and KG.

Pierce was surprisingly cold, but did hit that 3 to tie near the end. He's obviously still playing his way back into shape and form.

Pietrus looks like he could also provide a little shooting spark off the bench.

Still too early to tell but the Celts big 3 really look too old to compete.

Like the bench but not sure if they can do enough.

Waiting for a win against a quality team.

Dboss

Was at the game. They were sleepwalking most of the night...and unlike when they used to be great, they cannot simply turn it on at the end and win games.

Pierce was terrible. Allen was not getting open. Garnett was passive. JON was MIA. The bench played pretty well, but still - too many turnovers, too many bad shots, and NO rebounding. Dallas has something like 20 more shots than the Celtics.

Down the stretch, they hit some big shots - and got a couple of terrible calls. But still, you cannot play like that and expect to beat anyone - let alone a team with Jason Terry and Dirk.

I still think they are rounding into shape and figuring out rotations etc, so not willing to start with the doom and gloom. But I agree with some comments above - they are looking really old and their energy and spark looks absent.

We will see.

Mrkleen,

How many games do you give them to correct things before you hit the panic button? I say 20 games.

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Good Question.

I look at it this way. The Celtics have really nothing they can do, except play harder - get into better shape - learn the plays better etc. There is no white knight waiting to ride in and save the day. This is your team, and that is the way it is. So I see nothing beneficial that can come from hitting the "panic" button so to speak.

I am eternally optimistic when it comes to the Celtics, so I will go down with the ship without question. But I do think that we are seeing a negative trend with KG and Paul Pierce (in particular) which does not bode well for this short, intense season.

KG has very little lift these days - and when he used to grab a board and slam it back...he now backs it out and takes a jumper. When Paul Pierce used to force the hand of the defense, by driving into their chest - he often pulls it back for a jumper. I hope these are small things that they are going to notice in the tape and fix on the court...but I cant help but think they are bigger trends....or future results.

I am very excited about Rondo. I think Pietrus and Bass are great young talents. Avery Bradly is still a work in progress, but has made major leaps in the last 2 weeks. I think there is a core of young players that can keep the team in the game while the old timers get their rest.

But when you get a game like last night, when the starters come back after a rest and add NOTHING - you are in trouble. As you cant beat good teams with Pierce shooting the way he did and Ray Allen being completely non aggressive, like he was.

Again, guess we will have to wait and see.

Hi,
Oh well... another ugly game, kind of.
Bad part:
- PP was either injured or having hangover or was under impression that they're playing high school team. I hope he returns to his normal self by Fri.
- RA was cold like he took a liquid nitrogen bath just before the game. I hope they bring him back to 36.6°C.
- AB still has only half (D) game, no O.
- Too many second chances allowed.

Good part:
- RR's aggressive and hits FT at a very respectable (for him rate).
- MP hit the ground running. If his knee holds he should get in better shape and it looks like he's going to gel with either 2nd unit or starters just fine.
- We've got glimpses of that lock down defense of old. I hope they will increase duration and frequency of those glimpses.

AK

Not a lot to add with whats been said

Father time seems to be an ever looming figure over this team. Even limiting minutes does not push back the years. We had how many days off before last night and came out like it was our third game in three nights.

Thought Mrkleens point that this IS our team and what you see is what it is. An above middle of the pack unit that with a lot of luck and jelling could make some noise late season. I'll join you on the ship Mrkleen but this is going to be one tough ride.

To get wins against good teams we just can't afford 2 or more players to pull stinkers or not show up at all. Might survive 1 having an off night.

Pietrus will help no doubt. Bass is a stud. Bradley wears the opositions jersey he's so tight on um. Guess we'll just have to wait and see how this all plays out.

beat

Beat:

At this point it does look like one tough ride on this ship. I hope it's not the Titanic and I hope we don't run into Clooney & Wahlberg in The Perfect Storm.

MD!

The Mavericks playing the second game of a back-to-back and WE faded in the stretch. Yuck.

1. The players who looked fresh after 4 days off was the youngest starting player, Rondo, and the guy who just finished rehab of a knee injury yesterday, Pietrus. I'm not really accepting the "Pierce isn't in game shape because he missed the pre-season" excuse anymore. We've seen him perform well. He had 4 days off. Doc focused on training during those days. How much training has Pietrus had, and yet he came out with a lot of energy?

2. Who leaves Jason Terry and Delonte West open in the corners for 3? We do, apparently. Don't we scout other teams? Don't we know West can shoot?

3. I'm not as down on KG as other posters. Was he a dynamo? No, but he did hold Dirk to 16 points in 38 minutes while scoring 16 himself. He rebounded. I'll take that trade-off all day everyday. I don't understand his defense on the last back-breaking play though. Overplaying Dirk to the left, forcing him to go right?

4. Vince Carter is a mere shadow of his already overhyped-no-clutch self.

5. It's not a good thing when your backup point guard, Dooling, has no assists and your young 3rd string guard with questionable point guard skills, Bradley, and No-Pass Bass have 2 each. Dooling was brought on as a non-shooting, defensive oriented point guard. Now, he's shooting and not distributing. He's only averaging 1.2apg this seaon. I don't see him running plays. In fact, I don't see him running, period, and we should run more.

6. Pietrus is as advertised. He brought energy and good, solid defense against Shawn Marion (who still made some tough shots), Dirk and West. That's 3 positions he defended. How about a 2nd backcourt unit of Dooling, Q and Pietrus in the backcourt? Not a lot of shooting there, but very solid defensively and two playmakers (ok, 1 1/4 when you really look at Dooling). Once again, I point out, he did this without years of experience learning the plays and without the training camp, like Pierce. I questioned his BB IQ when we signed him. One game isn't enough to make a decision, but I may have to reconsider. He fit in pretty well last night.

7. We got killed on second chance points. Once again, as in the Indiana game, they completely outrebounded us. It seems like a lot of those second chances were just them tapping the ball out top, though, as opposed to the Indiana game where they corralled them off the weakside. That was a combination of long caroms off the boards and our lack of height. Tall isn't everything but it helps. One would think, at this point, that the importance of rebounding would be clear. Aside from not giving them additional fga not securing the ball inhibits our running game and...

8. We are actually a good running team. We are much more effective when we are going up and down the court than in the halfcourt. Rondo was aggressive all over the court. Him and Pietrus were the bright spots because they both came to play. We need to run more. A lot more. That will increase our fgas, which are way too low, and increase our efficiency. We didn't fix that problem from the Pacer game too.

9. Chris Wilcox has become a non-factor. Is his shoulder still bothering him, or is this what we really signed?

10. JON's stats were a bit better than Stiemsma's (2 pts vs 1 pt, 3 rebs vs 2 rebs, 2 stls vs 0 stls, 2 blks vs 0 blks) but JON played 22 minutes vs 3 for Stiemsma. We need more production out of JON. If not then Doc should consider shifting minutes to Steamer. It wouldn't be about "playing the kids for the future", it'd be about "you're not getting the job done, so I'm putting him in". Let JON start, I don't care about that, but give minutes to the guy who's giving you something.

11. Rondo and Doc both broke Doc's rule about no 4th quarter T's. Not helpful.

12. Again, just like in the Indiana game, we took an anemically few number of fga. 64 this game. We not giving ourselves enough of a chance to win. We didn't fix that problem either. So, what the hell did we work on this past week?

Ok, well, this is who we are. As Doc himself points out, you are your record, and we now have a record of not being able to beat good teams (this one playing their 2nd road game in 2 days) even with plenty of rest and practice time. Welcome to mediocrity. I hope this is just a short pit stop on the trip.

bob

.

I watched all of the first quarter and some of the second. Something shocked me right off -- how casual they were. I think the opening tip went to KG in the backcourt, who passed it between his legs to Rondo, who gave a behind-the-back pass to someone else. Totally gratuitous and casual. And that was followed by a seemingly endless stretch of missed layups, wasted opportunities for wide open players under the basket, and settling for jumpers, all of which seemed to be a result of the casual attitude I saw from the opening tip.

Pierce will take a while to round into form after missing so much time with the heel injury, and he may have nights where it bothers him again and he looks lethargic. As with any shooter, Ray will have off nights or games where his impact is less. The big 3 are older, and that will affect them. But the attitude I saw at the start of the game was shocking. These guys are smart, and I would hope they look at the film, recognize it, and address it, at a personal level and a team level. The veterans need to hold themselves accountable.

A couple of other thoughts:

• They have a serviceable bench. Losing Green hurts because he can provide instant offense, and that's the one shortcoming I see in the subs, but the subs otherwise look to be a solid group.

• It really hurts to get virtually no offensive production from your starting center. The stupid lockout cost Boston Krstic, and Jermaine O'Neal works as a combo with Krstic because Krstic provides some scoring and, almost as important, a scoring threat that required some attention from the defense, meaning less attention on the other players. But JON is practically non-existent as a scoring threat. He's averaging 5.4 points per game, but even that is skewed by the game against Detroit when he had 19 of the 43 points he's scored this season. In four of Boston's eight games, he's scored two points or less. There are no saviors on the horizon, so it's just the way it is. They have to be like Miami and make up for a non-existent post game with increased production elsewhere.

I still take the long view on the season. The objective is to get to the playoffs healthy, with the veterans not spent, and their play on the upswing. It will require patience and focus. They'll likely be in the second tier of playoff teams. It will be a bumpy road during the regular season. That is their path, and you've got to have faith that their veteran core and veteran coach will get them there. But I've also got to believe that they can't approach games as casually as they did the start of the game against Dallas.

Outside

“You can fool some people sometimes, but you can't fool all the people all the time.” - Bob Marley quote.

It is becoming evident that this is what is happening with the Celtics. Ya we'll look good against some teams like NJ some nights but par or superior teams........well we saw what happened last night, and oh by the way Chicago is in Friday and the OKC next week. Lebron James said it best after Miami beat us last year....."The Celtics have lost their toughness". I hate to rehash old arguments but........................................

The Perkin's trade sealed out fate. While Perkins played for us his physical toughness filtered down to KG and the rest of the team. WE HAD ATTITUDE! No one dared to fly into our paint uncontested. There would be a hard check and a meet and greet with the parque floor for the effort.

I still do not buy Danny's reasons OR RATIONAL for the trade. Where are you going to find a quality center with Perkin's skill set for under $8 million. Just look at the centers who are available for $5-$6 million per year. I'll tell you, retreads and guys nearing the end of the road like JON. Still do not know why Green was denounced and set free. Everyone said it was a gift to Green but his agent recently said in an article posted here that he was a little surprised at the Celtics move. What really gives here?

Oh well I vented enough, Go Celtics!

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Outside wrote:I watched all of the first quarter and some of the second. Something shocked me right off -- how casual they were. I think the opening tip went to KG in the backcourt, who passed it between his legs to Rondo, who gave a behind-the-back pass to someone else. Totally gratuitous and casual. And that was followed by a seemingly endless stretch of missed layups, wasted opportunities for wide open players under the basket, and settling for jumpers, all of which seemed to be a result of the casual attitude I saw from the opening tip.

Pierce will take a while to round into form after missing so much time with the heel injury, and he may have nights where it bothers him again and he looks lethargic. As with any shooter, Ray will have off nights or games where his impact is less. The big 3 are older, and that will affect them. But the attitude I saw at the start of the game was shocking. These guys are smart, and I would hope they look at the film, recognize it, and address it, at a personal level and a team level. The veterans need to hold themselves accountable.

A couple of other thoughts:

• They have a serviceable bench. Losing Green hurts because he can provide instant offense, and that's the one shortcoming I see in the subs, but the subs otherwise look to be a solid group.

• It really hurts to get virtually no offensive production from your starting center. The stupid lockout cost Boston Krstic, and Jermaine O'Neal works as a combo with Krstic because Krstic provides some scoring and, almost as important, a scoring threat that required some attention from the defense, meaning less attention on the other players. But JON is practically non-existent as a scoring threat. He's averaging 5.4 points per game, but even that is skewed by the game against Detroit when he had 19 of the 43 points he's scored this season. In four of Boston's eight games, he's scored two points or less. There are no saviors on the horizon, so it's just the way it is. They have to be like Miami and make up for a non-existent post game with increased production elsewhere.

I still take the long view on the season. The objective is to get to the playoffs healthy, with the veterans not spent, and their play on the upswing. It will require patience and focus. They'll likely be in the second tier of playoff teams. It will be a bumpy road during the regular season. That is their path, and you've got to have faith that their veteran core and veteran coach will get them there. But I've also got to believe that they can't approach games as casually as they did the start of the game against Dallas.

Outside

outside,

I agree. They came out overconfident to the point of nonchalance. However, I thought they ran some very nice plays in the first quarter. We got some good open looks on shots we wanted to have taken by the players we wanted to take them, but they didn't drop. Obviously, the blown bunnies by Rondo and Ray didn't help, but I don't seem them as symptomatic, at least not by Ray. In all the years I have watched Ray Allen play, I have never seen him nonchalant when he takes a shot (defense, especially in his former lives with Milwaukee and Seattle, is something else. On those teams he needed to channel his energy into offense).

This team can win anywhere, but only if they are focused and come to play. They haven't the last two games.

With luck, this bloody nose will wake them up. If not, the good news is that this is a short season and we won't have to watch any more of this than we have to.

bob

.

bobheckler wrote:It's not a good thing when your backup point guard, Dooling, has no assists and your young 3rd string guard with questionable point guard skills, Bradley, and No-Pass Bass have 2 each.

bobheckler wrote:It's not a good thing when your backup point guard, Dooling, has no assists and your young 3rd string guard with questionable point guard skills, Bradley, and No-Pass Bass have 2 each.

Bob

Don’t mean to single you out, but I had a heated (albeit convivial) debate at the game last night with some guy that was sitting next to me, who kept harping on the fact that Brandon Bass has very low assist numbers.

My comment to him was - why in any way, shape or form should your back up power forward be concerned with assists ?
He is in the game to shoot, rebound and play defense. Assists are way down the list, somewhere between fetching water for KG and cleaning the shower on the way out of the locker room.

In the end, he was unable to really state a well considered case for his criticism – but I am sure you are more than capable of doing so. If you feel like defending your “No Pass Bass” comments – I would like to hear it.

mrkleen09 wrote:

bobheckler wrote:It's not a good thing when your backup point guard, Dooling, has no assists and your young 3rd string guard with questionable point guard skills, Bradley, and No-Pass Bass have 2 each.

bobheckler wrote:It's not a good thing when your backup point guard, Dooling, has no assists and your young 3rd string guard with questionable point guard skills, Bradley, and No-Pass Bass have 2 each.

Bob

Don’t mean to single you out, but I had a heated (albeit convivial) debate at the game last night with some guy that was sitting next to me, who kept harping on the fact that Brandon Bass has very low assist numbers.

My comment to him was - why in any way, shape or form should your back up power forward be concerned with assists ?
He is in the game to shoot, rebound and play defense. Assists are way down the list, somewhere between fetching water for KG and cleaning the shower on the way out of the locker room.

In the end, he was unable to really state a well considered case for his criticism – but I am sure you are more than capable of doing so. If you feel like defending your “No Pass Bass” comments – I would like to hear it.

MrKleen,

My point, perhaps not well spoken, wasn't that Bass should or should not have more assists. I agree, to a point, with your position which is that his job is to attack the basket and not to pass out. He should, IMO, receive the last pass since he's the one who is most capble of doing something good with it and not the next-to-last pass. My point was to highlight the lack of assists by Dooling by comparing his paltry assist output to a guard with questionable point guard skills and a player who, appropriately or not, isn't known for his assists.

bob

.

Thanks Bob. Well said - agree on all counts

bobheckler wrote:outside,

I agree. They came out overconfident to the point of nonchalance. However, I thought they ran some very nice plays in the first quarter. We got some good open looks on shots we wanted to have taken by the players we wanted to take them, but they didn't drop. Obviously, the blown bunnies by Rondo and Ray didn't help, but I don't seem them as symptomatic, at least not by Ray. In all the years I have watched Ray Allen play, I have never seen him nonchalant when he takes a shot (defense, especially in his former lives with Milwaukee and Seattle, is something else. On those teams he needed to channel his energy into offense).

This team can win anywhere, but only if they are focused and come to play. They haven't the last two games.

With luck, this bloody nose will wake them up. If not, the good news is that this is a short season and we won't have to watch any more of this than we have to.

You're correct that they got some good open looks early in the game that didn't drop, I do think that the casual attitude or lack of focus can be the difference between a shot being made or missed, and I did argue it as a general statement, but I agree that Ray is an exception. Ray is human and has ups and downs, but he is the epitome of professionalism, which means he shows up to play every game. I guess I should forevermore invoke the Ray Allen Permanent Exception, which states that whenever I say the Celtics didn't have focus or apply suitable effort, I always except Ray from that assessment. As a corollary, I'll say that Ray is a likely casualty of any lack of focus or effort by his teammates, because as a catch-and-shoot expert, he needs his teammates to be active and drawing defensive attention. Ray gets better looks and is most effective when the Celtics have good player and ball movement, simple as that. Thanks for pointing out that I implicitly included Ray in my blanket lack-of-focus appraisal.

I blame KG, because he has historically set the tone of intensity, and because the team follows his lead in that regard. I blame Pierce, because being a cipher is unacceptable even if he's still dealing with the heel issue, and having the confidence to pull it out in the end is great, but that will too often bite you in the butt, and putting in more effort early and making comeback heroics unnecessary is better. I blame JON, because accepting your limitations as a scorer doesn't mean you can't expend energy to set screens, establish post position and call for the ball to draw defensive attention (even if you don't get the ball), and just plain move and be active. I even blame Rondo at the start, because although he pushed the pace and was the Celtics best player, if he'd had better focus, he wouldn't have missed his opening wide-open layup or missed his pass to a wide-open KG under the basket, to name two specific plays. And I blame Doc for putting too much trust in his veterans and not calling an early time-out to call them on the carpet.

Ray, however, has lifetime immunity.

Outside

Outside wrote:

bobheckler wrote:outside,

I agree. They came out overconfident to the point of nonchalance. However, I thought they ran some very nice plays in the first quarter. We got some good open looks on shots we wanted to have taken by the players we wanted to take them, but they didn't drop. Obviously, the blown bunnies by Rondo and Ray didn't help, but I don't seem them as symptomatic, at least not by Ray. In all the years I have watched Ray Allen play, I have never seen him nonchalant when he takes a shot (defense, especially in his former lives with Milwaukee and Seattle, is something else. On those teams he needed to channel his energy into offense).

This team can win anywhere, but only if they are focused and come to play. They haven't the last two games.

With luck, this bloody nose will wake them up. If not, the good news is that this is a short season and we won't have to watch any more of this than we have to.

You're correct that they got some good open looks early in the game that didn't drop, I do think that the casual attitude or lack of focus can be the difference between a shot being made or missed, and I did argue it as a general statement, but I agree that Ray is an exception. Ray is human and has ups and downs, but he is the epitome of professionalism, which means he shows up to play every game. I guess I should forevermore invoke the Ray Allen Permanent Exception, which states that whenever I say the Celtics didn't have focus or apply suitable effort, I always except Ray from that assessment. As a corollary, I'll say that Ray is a likely casualty of any lack of focus or effort by his teammates, because as a catch-and-shoot expert, he needs his teammates to be active and drawing defensive attention. Ray gets better looks and is most effective when the Celtics have good player and ball movement, simple as that. Thanks for pointing out that I implicitly included Ray in my blanket lack-of-focus appraisal.

I blame KG, because he has historically set the tone of intensity, and because the team follows his lead in that regard. I blame Pierce, because being a cipher is unacceptable even if he's still dealing with the heel issue, and having the confidence to pull it out in the end is great, but that will too often bite you in the butt, and putting in more effort early and making comeback heroics unnecessary is better. I blame JON, because accepting your limitations as a scorer doesn't mean you can't expend energy to set screens, establish post position and call for the ball to draw defensive attention (even if you don't get the ball), and just plain move and be active. I even blame Rondo at the start, because although he pushed the pace and was the Celtics best player, if he'd had better focus, he wouldn't have missed his opening wide-open layup or missed his pass to a wide-open KG under the basket, to name two specific plays. And I blame Doc for putting too much trust in his veterans and not calling an early time-out to call them on the carpet.

Ray, however, has lifetime immunity.

Outside

outside,

Ray is not, repeat not, human.

bob

.

bobheckler wrote:outside,

Ray is not, repeat not, human.

LOL - literally.

I stand corrected.

AINGE: 'FAIR' TO SAY CELTICS LOOK TOO OLD SO FAR
By: Alex Speier


7 Comments
Celtics president of basketball operations Danny Ainge, in an interview on The Big Show, suggested that the notion that the Celtics have looked "too old" at this point in the season has basis. While he noted that it is early in the season, and the team still is working its way into shape (particularly with Paul Pierce still trying to get into shape after missing all of training camp due to injury), Ainge had a dim view of his 4-5 team following what he referred to as a "miserable" performance in Wednesday's loss to the Mavericks.

"I think that’s a fair assessment right now," Ainge said when asked whether the team looks too old. "Nine games into the season, yeah, that would be a fair assessment, but I’m hoping that guys are better than they’re playing and they have something left, but time will tell."

Ainge cited two key areas that required improvement, beyond the conditioning issue that he cited as one that faces Pierce and others on the team.

"I think there’s two things that sort of stand out. I’m not taking a nine-game sample. I’m looking at what has been our pattern, and what has been our weakness, over the last three years with this group of guys," said Ainge. "For three years now, we have been the worst offensive rebounding team in basketball. The second thing is, the execution of our offense, our offensive efficiency in the last five minutes of the game, I think those two things have got to be improved. I don’t necessarily know why that hasn’t happened. It’s not just personnel, because we’ve had a lot of good offensive rebounders on this team.

"I just don’t understand why we’re last. We don’t have to be first," he added. "It’s not based on shooting percentage. When we talk about offensive rebounding, we’re talking about offensive rebound percentage. If we shoot 40-for-80, there’s 40 rebounding opportunities when we miss and we get eight of those, that’s 20 percent. That’s what we’re playing at. It’s not enough. We’ve got to get up to 25 percent, to the middle of the pack."

Asked if he would consider major changes to the roster if the Celtics don't show significant improvement between now and the trading deadline, Ainge acknowledged that he would have to consider the possibility.

"I’m committed to the guys as long as they’re going to perform, but they’ve got to perform," he said. "They’ve got to show they have an opportunity to win. Otherwise, I’ve got to at least make an effort to go another direction."

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Danny will be doing a remake on the Celtics sometime this year. Whether its before or after the trade deadline will be determined by the Celtics level of play over the next few works. Its my belief that their chances of being a serious contender in the playoffs are rather slim. Because of this reasoning, it won't bother me for one second if the Celts were to continue with their loosing ways. I remember well, rooting for them to lose during the 2006-07 season, as with each lost their position in the draft improved. Sooner or later this teams future is going to depend on high draft picks and free agency. Im ready for the makeover to begin in the very near future.
Swish

Swish, I am in your camp. I rather start retooling with the potential of landing some really good young talent now and add to the retooling come free agency in the summer. There are a number of playoff contender that would let go some younger talent in favor of a vet like Allen or Garnett in order to win it all this year. OKC comes to mind. Remember we can always resign Garnett or Allen in the summer.

Trading can be the best way for Celtics to gain great talent now. I think we will be hard pressed to get a marque player to come to Boston and the cold of New England and the city with a stigma of being racial (which by now is a myth and not true) when they have options like LA, Miami or Orlando with sunshine and wine or New York and the bright lights. The only way to gain a marque player is if we get lucky and the cities I named were over the cap and could not sign unless they do a sign and trade which could deplete their existing talent and so the signing becomes a wash in terms of talent. Take the baseball player Cecil Fielder, the big market teams cannot sign him because either they are hard pressed against the cap or the first base position is already taken by a great player. Therefore a "second city" team may just land him instead.

Anyway we all know Danny and he will not stand idle!

Go Celtics!

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After 9 games, we have one guy talking about throwing in the towel….losing in favor of improving the team’s position in the draft. And another guy talking about ancient history, with the city of Boston being racially divisive and it being hard to attract talent to play here.

WOW.

Mrkleen,

Those were not my words but the sentiment of many players in the NBA including KG when he was considering being traded to Boston, and Boston area sports talk hosts about attracting talent to the Celtics. As I stated in parenthesis, this is not true from a factual standpoint and I wish the word can be spread about this misconception.

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