Celtics Can Beat The Warriors This Year

As the Warriors chug along with the best record in the NBA the notion that they are the odds on favorite to win the championship may be true but I see an entirely different narrative.

The # 1 issue for the Warriors is the rotation and the age of that group.  Their #1 problem will be the bench.  That bench is too old.  West - 37, Young - 32, Peculiar - 33, Iguodaia - 34, Livingston - 32.

The Warriors have 4 players that average double digits in scoring.  After that there is a dramatic drop off in production.  http://www.espn.com/nba/team/stats/_/name/gs/golden-state-warriors.  Their bench is critical to their success where 6 guys are scoring 5.3 to 6.9 PPG.  All of those players can be shut down at this juncture.

The trend over the past 4 years is starring us in the face.  Consider the winning percentages over the past 4 years.

2015 - .817
2016 - .890
2017 - .817
2018 - .774

Consider their defensive ratings. (points allowed per game)

2015 - 99.9
2016 - 104.1
2017 - 104.3
2018 - 107.7

As their defense has gotten worse so has the opportunity increased to knock them out in the playoffs.  Their rotation is aged and as this season moves on I would bet that several of their rotation players will not be up to the task.

The Celtics defensive abilities is a freakin nightmare for GSW.  The Celtics are not looking for a deep playoff run.  They are looking for a championship run this year.  Most really young teams could only dream about this but most young teams do not have a coach like Brad Stevens.

I am convinced that Danny is very likely to make a move to get this team to the big dance.

dboss

Why not the Celts? Cs are amongst the best in the east and have shown the ability to compete with the Warriors. Adding Monroe and Hayward could make it a toss up.

I have a feeling that too many Cs fans are still pretty happy with the 'rebuild' idea that we have all been very happy with for the last four seasons. And, perhaps too many people are worried about making a run for the top this year (and end up being disappointed) to where they are worried about hindering our future by trading a draft pick or even a lower level rostered player.

Mentally, it may be a safer process to hang on with the current roster and hope for the best, but I say "make it a full sprint for #18 right now!".

Ainge has plenty of first round picks for the next three seasons. Not likely that all of those draft picks will become starters or even rotation players, and the more of them that do become starters the less likely will be the case for any of the current bottom of our roster guy to become prime rotation players in Boston. Haywood is going to have rotation spot for the next three seasons to go along with Brown, Irving, Horford and Tatum so there will not be too many other such spots available.

Now that Greg Monroe is aboard, we need another wing/guard scorer to help the second unit for a very serious playoff run RIGHT NOW--this season. No one can ever really look forward and say for certain that the Cs will have a better chance in future years than they have right now. In the recent years leading up to right now we did not have the chance to win #18 with the rosters that we had, so trading a good draft pick for one player did not make much sense. But, it is totally different right now even without Hayward (who may actually still play at the end of this season).

If this year fails to be the year for #18 there is no harm believing that it can happen even at the cost of a pick or a young player. Absolutely nothing to hold us back RIGHT NOW as this could turn out to be the best opportunity for a championship for the next bunch of seasons.