Grantland's Zach Lowe wonders if Celtics "have a playoff problem"

Zach Lowe, from Bill Simmon's Grantland, wrote a thoughtful article about the Celtics rebuild. It is kind of long, so I will only post the link:

http://grantland.com/the-triangle/a-playoff-problem-if-the-celtics-are-trying-to-rebuild-then-why-the-postseason-push/

It's basically the same old tank vs not tank argument. I don't necessarily agree with Zach's take. I have never been a gambler, so putting my fate in the lottery's hands seems like a bad decision making. Call me crazy, but I have always believed that the way to get better is to get better. But, Lowe is a thoughtful guy, and there is a nice summary of how Danny has managed to accelerate the rebuild well beyond anyone's expectations.

Losing on purpose is for losers and builds a losing culture and a fanbase that abandons the team (see Philadelphia)

The Celtics are not very good at this point - but because of playing hard, playing together and giving max effort most of the time, have an identified core. If they were not playing to win, you would have no idea what you even have in terms of assets.

Winning the lottery in no way translates to winning a title, so much rather have a team of hard working players than a team full of losers. No Tanks.

mrkleen09 wrote:Losing on purpose is for losers and builds a losing culture and a fanbase that abandons the team (see Philadelphia)

The Celtics are not very good at this point - but because of playing hard, playing together and giving max effort most of the time, have an identified core.  If they were not playing to win, you would have no idea what you even have in terms of assets.

Winning the lottery in no way translates to winning a title, so much rather have a team of hard working players than a team full of losers.  No Tanks.

mrkleen,

+1.


bob



.

Competing hard is the ideal.  But winning puts it to shame.

This is a interesting article.

The take that I got from this is that the Celtics are a middle of the road team and have hurt themselves by playing themselves out of the lottery (as if that would guarantee anything)

There are contradictions within the article.  It praises the Celtics for acquiring all those draft picks but bemoans them for trying to be a playoff team this year.

The Celtics can always trade up to get a player that they really want this year and let us not forget that the Nets picks down the road are very likely to be in the lottery unless someone thinks that D- Will has some upside or that the Android will be devoid of injury or that Joe Johnson will still be on the team.  The nets are on a slide that will take them down and as a result make us better.

So the way I see it is that the Celtics do not have a playoff problem.  Their drafts picks are spread out over a few years which will give them multiple opportunities to upgrade the roster where needed.

dboss