Change Coming Too Late

On January 25th when Rondo suffered a knee injury and was lost for the season, red flag should have went up in the front office that whatever chance the Celtics had to be competitive was lost. We entered the season with a plethora of guards but only one true point guard.

The decision to start the 2012-13 campaign with almost complete reliance on Rajon Rondo to run your offence was a mistake of significant magnitude and the person to blame is none other than Danny Ainge.

The result was painfully displayed in the Knicks series as the Celtics had to put the ball in the hands of Paul. This was a disaster waiting to happen. in 6 games Pierce managed to turn the ball over 32 times for an average of 5.3 turnovers. His ball handling may have also prevented him from scoring the ball with a higher degree of efficiency. He pretty much killed any chance the Celtics had to get out of the first round. Unfortunately the only memory that sticks in my mind happened after an amazing 20 - 0 run by the Celtics deep into the 4th qtr of game 6. There is Pierce way out top over to the left and Shumpert just takes the ball from him and goes in for another easy layup. This really was not Pierce's fault because he cannot handle the ball anymore. But it does bring into question the wisdom of not moving him when they had a chance to and the lack of adding a legitimate BU point guard.

On February 2nd the Celtics announced that Jared Sullinger had season ending back surgery. As I posted before, this injury was predictable. Danny Ainge drafted him with full knowledge that he had back problems. The Celtics were already weak at the PF position and this injury magnified a weakness that already existed. Ainge and company did not put together a team that could compete game in and game out on the glass.

As the trading deadline approached I'm thinking it is time to make a move. I'm thinking that without Rondo and Sullinger we are pretty much finished for this season. I'm thinking that if you cannot win with Paul Pierce and KG why hold onto them at this point? I'm thinking that their value to a playoff team will never be higher than is right now. I'm thinking that the salary cap issue was further exacerbated by the Lee, Terry and Bass signings and therefore next year will not be a good time to move forward. The time is now to move Paul Pierce and if KG does not want to stay then move him too. But no moves were made despite the high probability that the Celtics could not be competitive this year or next year if both PP and KG where on the roster.

Now here we are. The season has been a disaster on many levels and the Celtics are contemplating things that they already should have been done.
The future of this team rests with Rondo, Green, Bradley and maybe Sullinger. That future becomes more daunting because we are up against a salary cap that does not give us any wiggle room to acquire another franchise level player.

With what I have seen happen with this team over the past two seasons in particularly, I think DA should step down for being incompetent in his decision making. He has compromised the value of this team moving forward. We are now officially in a state of mediocrity.

As far as Doc Rivers is concerned he needs to go too. How do you justify playing Brandon Bass at center when you have a kid Randolph that can play in the post. There is a reason why this team finished 29th in rebounding. How do you justify being hot over your boy Courtney lee and then benching him for half of the series? Courtney Lee was signed because of Rivers. How do you justify playing Crawford over Williams when it was clear from day one that Williams was a much better fit at the point.

Change is long overdue for this team. DA tried to take a 5 year plan and stretch it into 6 years and the plan blew up in his face. It was like trying to stretch a single into a triple.

The Celtics won a championship in 2008. That was a long time ago. When a team gets beat in the first round it means that the team including some players, coaches and the top brass must be held accountable.

dBoss,

I gotta agree with a lot of what you said. For sure, I would have moved Bass this trading deadline. Why? Well he starts out as starting PF and loses his job to a rookie. Ok Sully got hurt, which with Rondo's injury, pretty much spelled the end of the run for the Celtics. You know Sully is going to start next year and at a salary which is pretty attractive. Why not move Bass an undersized /limited skill player and his salary, and get a player who will fit a missing piece for next season like a shooting guard who can actually hit 3's!

I agree perhaps Danny is a little stale in his job as President/GM, but in the eyes of management he is safe for a few years at least. He made a lot of money for ownership with what he pulled off with KG and Allen.

Now of Doc. Was Doc the great coach who made it happen, or was Tommy T. and Frank the key to the Celtics success with a great defensive plan.

Doc I think is stale in drawing up offensive strategies. I think he did not work on getting the team to rebound especially on the offensive glass, and at times I think he has lost the team to Rondo in dictating the play of the game.

I think the team should have retained Flip Saunders as an ass't coach this season.

Time to let go...................we had our pride restored and banner #17. PP and KG made a bundle $$$$$ that will last for generations to come for their families, so I do not feel bad letting go. Remember players come and go and retire, yet the same fans remain for decades loyal to the same team. For many fans, it puts a smile on their faces, and adds a little sunshine to their lives if they are down yet the Celtics are winning.

We worked so hard (22Years) to get the magic back....time to move on and restore that magic and not fade into mediocrity!

112288

The pride is still there as evidenced by that incredible 4 th QTR comeback...

Changes are coming

Dboss

The good news is that there is a great core to build around. The bad news is the salary cap. I agree that KG, PP need to go. Those two also should understand that this is the way of the league.

Ainge is not a great GM. Yes, he did build the championship team, but he made poor decisions after that. Not retaining Tony Allen and Glen Davis were huge mistakes. Not trading PP and KG was also a problem.

Rivers is rather average as a coach. He tried to get by the Knicks using a rotation of PP, KG, AB, JG, TW, BB, and JT. What coach in their right mind thinks they can survive the playoffs on the backs of 7 players, three of which are in their mid to later 30s? That's just bad coaching plain and simple. It was quite frustrating to watch the play time distribution. Also, it was agonizing to watch Doc allow large runs of 8-12 unanswered points before taking a timeout. It's like "wake up!" PP and KG aren't young enough to make comebacks like that anymore.

I was watching the Bulls game, and TT called timeouts after 5 and 6 point runs, not allowing the game to get out of reach. Rivers needs to be replaced ASAP.

Like father like son

Lol


Dboss

k_j_88 wrote:The good news is that there is a great core to build around. The bad news is the salary cap. I agree that KG, PP need to go. Those two also should understand that this is the way of the league.

Ainge is not a great GM. Yes, he did build the championship team, but he made poor decisions after that. Not retaining Tony Allen and Glen Davis were huge mistakes. Not trading PP and KG was also a problem.

Rivers is rather average as a coach. He tried to get by the Knicks using a rotation of PP, KG, AB, JG, TW, BB, and JT. What coach in their right mind thinks they can survive the playoffs on the backs of 7 players, three of which are in their mid to later 30s? That's just bad coaching plain and simple. It was quite frustrating to watch the play time distribution. Also, it was agonizing to watch Doc allow large runs of 8-12 unanswered points before taking a timeout. It's like "wake up!" PP and KG aren't young enough to make comebacks like that anymore.

I was watching the Bulls game, and TT called timeouts after 5 and 6 point runs, not allowing the game to get out of reach. Rivers needs to be replaced ASAP.

another alarming trend was how bad team played in 3rd quarter of every playoff game, we would have a decent first half, then collapse right after halftime with terrible offense, no strategy it seemed for every start of the 3rd, unless bad shot after bad contested shot and turnovers are your strategy.

Cow

We lost a ton of games in the second half during the regular season. We just did not have the ability to close teams out. Even the bad ones.

Dboss

dBoss,

Yup!

112288

dboss wrote:Cow

We lost a ton of games in the second half during the regular season. We just did not have the ability to close teams out. Even the bad ones.

Dboss

close teams out? we got our head handed to us in the 2nd half of every playoff game this year, except game 6 when it started at the beginning.

At least we had that one special title, as our defense ruled and was so sweet seeing Pierce dominate Kobe and Lakers in 08 Finals. That was the trade off to win right back then, if not for a key injury every playoff run after that year, we could have so gotten another.

Watching Joakim Noah doing a KG/Cowens imitation this time of year really has me backtracking, thinking what might have been? Imagine if we take him with that 5th pick? Now imagine him starting at the 5 with Big Al as the PF and Perk coming off the bench, hows that for some diversified inside force both ends? Noah and Big Al's strengths both compliment each other and make up for their deficiencies. Noahs frenetic speed and running game and Big Al's post up would work so well together, both can board. Then with the beastly Perk coming off the bench to pound bodies further. Danny would have sorted out Rondo, TA, Delonte and Pierce....and added another wing piece or two.