The Celtics And Lakers Both Got Younger, But For Very Different Reasons

I didn't name this article.  It, in fact, addresses other teams as well but I guess the author felt compelled to hold it up to the looking glass of our rivalry in order to get more readers.  Look at this in the bigger picture, and consider all the other teams he cites and not just Bos/LA, that younger teams aren't as good as older teams.  If you do, and if you think Danny is aware of this, then you won't drool as much over our draft picks, because they won't be sticking around, not if Danny (and you) want to turn this around quickly.

Although this article doesn't specifically state this it seems that the calculations take into account the number of minutes played by individual players and not just the simple average of the ages of every player on the roster. So, if you have an older player, like Steve Nash, on the roster but he's injured and a young'un is getting his minutes, that drags down the team's age. That makes sense. Who cares how old Steve Nash is if he never plays?


http://www.sbnation.com/2014/4/3/5576850/lakers-celtics-nba-team-age-injuries-draft-lottery


Lakers and Celtics are both much younger for very different reasons
By Tom Ziller  @teamziller on Apr 3 2014, 10:22a


Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports

The two most decorated teams in the NBA have each gotten three years younger since last season. But only one of them chose that path.


On Wednesday, we looked at NBA teams' age and quality to assess how squads might look in the near future. But it's always worth looking into the very recent past, too.



So, I looked at final 2012-13 team age data and current season data as of this week to find out who got younger and who has gotten older. What you'd expect to see is the worst teams getting younger and rising teams growing older. Bad teams prioritize development while angling for a high draft pick. Rising teams sacrifice development and perhaps even young prospects for veterans.


That's borne out in our example with a couple of asterisks, as you can see at right. The Celtics, Jazz and Sixers came into the season expected to be high in the lottery.




As such, veterans walked or were traded. The C's gave up Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett and Jason Terry, who are rougly 172 years old combined. Rajon Rondo and Gerald Wallace have also missed a lot of time due to injury. A lot of that playing time went to Kelly Olynyk, Jared Sullinger, Avery Bradley and the like. The Jazz let Al Jefferson, Paul Millsap and Mo Williams walk. Derrick Favors, Enes Kanter and Trey Burke picked up those minutes. The Sixers replaced their 23-year-old All-Star point guard with a rookie. The Bucks followed suit once their season got totally out of hand.

The one asterisk: the Lakers, who probably didn't expect to lose Kobe Bryant for basically the whole season, trade Steve Blake in a lost season to save money, watch Pau Gasol deal with late-season vertigo, pluck multiple starters from the D-League and to see the end of Steve Nash. Those veterans all playing less than expected, plus lots of minutes for younger guys like Nick Young, Kendall Marshall, Xavier Henry and Wes Johnson, contributed to a sharp drop in weighted team age. The Lakers went from one of the league's oldest teams in 2012-13 to one near the league average in 2013-14.





On the other side of the coin, no teams got a ton older this season. Remember: if a team made no changes to its roster or rotation whatsoever -- everyone plays the same number of minutes as the year prior -- a team would get one year older from season to season. The biggest increase in age was only +1.6 years, achieved by the Nets, who absorbed the Celtics' old men and lost young Brook Lopez for most of the season. The Nets balanced that with plenty of minutes for rookie Mason Plumlee .

The Blazers, who made a big effort to strengthen their bench in the offseason, have also gotten older ... while still remaining younger than the average team. Mo Williams and Dorell Wright are the contributors there.

The Pacers were surprisingly young in 2012-13 and got older by The Natural Force Of Time and by replacing Tyler Hansbrough with Luis Scola. Indiana's still right around the average age; their future concerns tie more to affordability of the core -- looking at you, free agent Lance Stephenson -- than a team getting old. David West is the only core player past his prime.

The Grizzlies began a bit older than Indiana, but are in a similar situation: only one key player, Zach Randolph, is exiting his prime. Tayshaun Prince clearly needs to be replaced with a young, better wing, and you start to wonder a little about Tony Allen's longevity as well.


The Mavericks, as we discussed on Wednesday, have the biggest issue among the teams getting older, as their talisman, Dirk Nowitzki, is at the center of age concerns. In addition, some key members of the supporting cast that has allowed Dallas to compete for a playoff spot -- Vince Carter, Shawn Marion, Jose Calderon, Samuel Dalembert, even Devin Harris -- are in their twilights. But this was the case in 2011 when the Mavericks won a title with Jason Kidd and Peja Stojakovic. The front office has shown an ability to pivot and preserve quality. It'd be nice if they had some hot young prospects, but they'll survive.

They've got Monta, after all, and if you've got Monta, you have it all.



bob



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One of Brad's biggest coups this season has been dealing successful with what's essentially a tri-polar (in terms of age, not emotional makeup).  There's a group of comparatively older guys (Humphries, Wallace, Anthony, Bass), a group of "middle-aged" veterans (Rondo, Green, Bass) , and a group of young guys Kelly, Sully, Johnson.  (These assignments are mostly judgment calls, and I could easily make a case for Bass being in the "middle-aged" group.  The point is that they have a range of ages represented on the team.

I'm not claiming Brad has made them into even an acceptable team.  But he apparently does have them playing together and apparently liking one another, and that's big in this league.

Sam