Gorman: Don’t Want To See Celtics Broken Up At Deadline

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Filed Under: 98.5 The Sports Hub, Boston Celtics, Mike Gorman, Toucher And Rich

BOSTON (CBS) — The Boston Celtics hit the All-Star break on a high note, pulling out a dramatic overtime win over the L.A. Clippers on Wednesday night.

Defense was optional at the TD Garden as the C’s beat the Clippers 139-134, with All-Star guard Isaiah Thomas scoring a game-high 36 points. The Celtics had a pretty balanced attack with six players in double figures, but it was Evan Turner leading the way in overtime with seven of his 14 points.

The team is starting to become a force, and at 32-23 they are third in the in the Eastern Conference. But with the trade deadline just a week away, there may be changes coming to a roster that is currently gelling so well.

C’s play-by-play man Mike Gorman hopes that isn’t the case.

“I hope Danny [Ainge] lets them go as far as they go,” Gorman told 98.5 The Sports Hub’s Toucher & Rich on Thursday. “I don’t want to change this.

“Danny is always trying to make the team better, but with that aside, it’s not as if they’re .500 or less. They’re nine games over .500. You can let things ride,” he said. “Your chips, the draft picks, will only gain in value as we go forward. You can let it ride right now; people like this team and don’t want to see it broken up.”

Gorman has never been a fan of Sacramento Kings center DeMarcus Cousins, and doesn’t think Nuggets forward Danilo Gallinari would be enough of an upgrade for the price Ainge would likely have to play. He’s intrigued by the possibility of adding Hawks center Al Horford, who he believes would make Boston a threat to win the Eastern Conference, but not if the price gets too high.

“The two signature wins of this team have come over the last five days, why mess with that?”

While Boston’s suffocating defense from early in the season has taken a bit of a backseat as of late, re-focusing on that end of the floor will only make the team more dangerous.

“That’s their identity and who they believe they are, right down to a guy like Isaiah Thomas, who you think of primarily an offensive player, but he’ll tell you they’re only as good as they are defensively,” he said. “I think they can get better. You play Cleveland or Toronto in the playoffs and you’re going to be an underdog, but anyone else in the East at worst the Celtics are a pick ’em.”

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I can completely understand why many Cs fans have fallen in love with this year's team. They are a bunch of good, hard working over achievers in so many ways, they also continue to improve (thumbs up to a great coaching staff), are still very young and are winning probably far more games than many fans anticipated.

But, as Ainge said the other day, they are not among the league's elite yet. When you are not in the group that is considered elite (this group usually sends a team to the league title every year) you need to get better. One way to improve the team is via trades, and to make a trade you need to give up some players to get other players. Even with all of our many draft picks, getting players for only draft picks, unfortunately, does not work in the NBA like it does in hockey and football.

As much as we love this team, it still has some very major weaknesses in both looking at some positions that need improving but also in the area that young talent on this team may never be able to address--consistency.

Consistency in itself is a great talent. The guy who averages nine rebounds a game does not get twelve in one game and then get three the next night very often. Same goes with scoring, the guy who gets 25 and then gets 4 is not a 18 ppg guy although the 25 would make him appear capable of being an 18 ppg guy.

The guys who are truly the nine rebound per game and 18 points per game find a way to get at least close to their stat averages in almost every game. So, the nine rpg might get 11, 10, 8, 9 and then 8 again in a five game stretch of games rather than get 15, 4, 9, 3 and then 14 to get his 9 per game.

I feel that this is very important to a team because teams fall into habits. Everyone plays well and 'within' himself when the other guys perform consistently. This may or may not happen on purpose, but if I expect my center to get us nine rebounds in his 29 minutes our team will very likely have a difficult time winning games when he only gets three or four in those same minutes. Of course, the same idea goes with points, assists, defense, etc.

Yes, I know that guys like Bradley, Smart, Olynyk, Sullinger are all pretty young players, but when they have the "down" type games that they have still too often our team can really struggle to the point of losing several games already this year to teams that elite teams just cannot lose to and still get considered as "elite" teams.

Certainly, no problem with even a guy like Thomas coming up with say a nine point game every 25 games even though it will make winning on that particular night very difficult, but a guy can be sick or injured or even 'whatever' for that one night.

However, many of our guys (and not only the younger guys-Johnson, Lee?) often have wild variances in their performances (25 points one night and then 7 points the next night or 4 for 6 on threes followed by a 1 for 9 shooting game from distance, and I wonder if they will be able to free themselves from this issue.

I would like to think that they will, but all of them still seem to have these problems as much as they did last year. To give these guys credit, I am sure that they have worked hard to improve their games and such work is exhibited this year when they do have their really good games because their really "good" games this year are much in advance of their "good" games last season.

Perhaps the Cs do not really need too many additions who are actually just more physically gifted guys like they clearly did need only a couple of seasons ago, but more mentally tougher guys who can do a better job of "willing" their way to the consistency that their team needs on a nightly basis. In other words, more like Thomas than Bradley (not to pick only on Bradley, but I needed an example and he does fit) on a much more regular basis.

Guys like Bradley and Smart have some up and down games offensively but their defense certainly provides compensation.

Danny appears resolved to keep the core in place and add more talent to it. I think that idea.

The Celtics have become good again in a surprisingly short period of time. Now let's see how Danny moves the team forward some more.

dboss

We understand that the team is playing really good and the chemistry is perfect,but we need a big center badly.When you see Robin Lopez with 11 offensive rebounds and Greg Monroe,Dandre Jordan,Brook Lopez killings us under the basket you realize there is a need for a big center.Maybe somebody like Kostas Koufos or Kris Kaman who wont be expensive could do the job.

How about Howard. He us a big center that can rebound. None if the centers mentioned fit the Celtics styke.

We want three point shooters.

Dboss