POLL: WHO'S CURRENTLY STEPPING UP

Today I spoke by phone with someone who has more than a passing acquaintance with the Celtics and with winning basketball.....Sam Jones. We're trying to figure out how to get together while Sally and i are in Florida, but he'll actually be in Boston when we’ll be near his home this weekend. He’ll be appearing with Bill Russell, John Havlicek, Bill Walton, Bobby Orr, Ferguson Jenkins, Olga Korbutt and others for a three-day signing event in Wilmington, MA. http://tinyurl.com/d5bqnmb

Sam sent his best to all board members. I asked him how he was feeling about the Celtics’ chances in the playoffs. Sam just laughed and said, “It doesn’t look good. They just got
old.” Pretty succinct. Also ironic, because he was with a team that got old, and they won a couple of championships against great odds. I think the main difference is that, even though the old team lost six future hall-of-famers (and one coach) to retirement during the 60s, the players who remained late in the decade were intimate with the system, the chemistry and their roles with the team.

By adding so many new players this season, and exacerbated by some pretty serious injuries, the chemistry they developed sporadically was too fragile to take hold permanently. They'd developed a mystifying inability to sustain what's working for them. I’m also afraid that at least some of the newcomers were better at giving lip service to team resolve than they were at really feeling and exemplifying that resolve deep down like other Celts teams in recent years.

The question is not how far the Celtics can go in the playoffs. The question is how much the Celtics can over-achieve during the playoffs. Perhaps mass inspiration, coupled with some great practices between now and Round 1, will spur them to unexpected levels. I hope it happens, and I’ll be rooting for them every inch of the way.

We hear a lot about the importance of "stepping up" as the playoffs near. I'm starting this poll to see which players the board feels are currently showing signs of "stepping up. This is NOT a poll on who the best players on the team are. It's a poll on who has stepped up recently compared with his play earlier in the season. Pick as many or few players as you wish; and, as always, comments are welcome.

Thanks for participating,

Sam

Sam,

I guess for me the problem is defining "lately". That's why I voted for only two players, Bass (a cinch) and to a lesser extent Crawford, because I feel he's getting an ever better feel for playing the point i.e. passing off for good assists.

I don't mean to belittle the contributions of Green, Randolph etc. If "lately" means the last two months I'd certainly have to add Green to the list. Randolph, I feel has consistently put out outstanding effort every time he's been on the court from the get-go so I didn't include him on the last. Maybe I'd give Doc a vote for stepping up his game in that he's finally given Randolph some playing time (although he was practically forced to by injuries). As an after thought maybe one could also add Wilcox, certainly on offense, but I feel he's too inconsistent and a liability on defense.

Berlin-T

Good point, Berlin.

I think "recently" would be defined differently for different players. For those who have been with the Celtics for at least half the season (including Bradley), would it be fair to think "recently" as meaning the past month? And, for newer guys like Randolph, White and Williams, how about the past two weeks?

It's all really arbitrary, and maybe the better question would have been to avoid the ill-defined term "recently" and substitute "Which players are stepping up their play as they head into the playoffs?"

Sam

Sam its a team game, the team is gonna have to build chemistry on the fly in the playoffs as were resting players right now. I would hope our perimeter defense is on as Knicks can light it up from perimeter, hopefully game will slow down and we can grind with them.

The question as to who is stepping up during the last 5-10 games of the regular season isn't all that important to me. I am more interested in who will step up once the playoffs begin.

For us to go very far in the playoffs, just about every player has to be more consistent with their decision making and their effort. Whatever happened right after Rondo's and Sully's injuries should have been caught in a bottle, allowed to age and then opened for the playoffs. I haven't seen anything like that effort recently. Maybe, as Danny said in another thread, we need a balanced effort. Perhaps that is all it was after the injuries, a more balanced effort.

Hi,
I'm with Gyso: the "stepping up" matters in playoffs.
Also, it's kind of unfair to some of the players, e.g. Green and Bass have been playing for 80 games while Randolph and Crawford were only for 20 or so.

AK

Sam I choose Bass,, Green, Pierce and Randolph.

Every year...same issue...every year major roster changes....

Dboss