Bob Cousy on Boston Celtics: 'They're ending up in the middle...the worst place you can be'

http://www.foxsports.com/nba/story/bob-cousy-on-boston-celtics-they-re-ending-up-in-the-middle-the-worst-place-you-can-be-080915




Bob Cousy on Boston Celtics: 'They're ending up in the middle...the worst place you can be'
FOX Sports

AUG 9, 2015 at 12:54p ET  






The NBA has known very few individuals more iconic than Bob Cousy. The Boston Celtics legend made 13 All-Star games, won league MVP in 1957 and won one more ring than he can fit on his right hand.

Today is his 87th birthday, and with it Cousy decided to express a few opinions about the current state of his former team to the Boston Globe's Chris Gasper. Here are a few of those thoughts:

"Cousy professed 'great confidence' in Celtics president of basketball operations Danny Ainge and his blueprint for banner No. 18. But he also offered a pragmatic view of the Celtics’ road back to contention, after a surprising playoff berth last season. 'They’re ending up in the middle, which frankly is the worst place you can be, in my judgment,” Cousy said. 'You either get up near the top and enjoy the goodies or you finish last and get the first, second, third pick, and then you’ve got a shot at helping yourself through the draft. When you’re in the middle you’re just not going to get impact players.'"

In a vacuum, Cousy is 100 percent correct. It's very difficult to build a championship contender when you're stuck in the NBA's middle class. That said, there are a few reasons why Celtics fans shouldn't worry too much. For starters, they started at the bottom just a season ago and it afforded them Marcus Smart in the draft—technically, they were really bad.

More importantly, the rising salary cap and their boatload of draft picks combine to create an unprecedented situation. (The Atlanta Hawks and Houston Rockets are two promising blueprints.) The truth is nobody knows where this will take them, or how far they'll go next season and the few that follow.

But where they are isn't a disaster. It's the beginning of something hopefully special. And nobody knows special more than Cousy.



bob
MY NOTE:  With all due respect to the Cooz, this is a different time than when he played and coached.  The salary cap explosion lets Danny and Brad to sweet talk an impact player like we couldn't do back in the past.  Look at all the players on one-and-two year contracts now.  Some are on those contracts because they're bubble players or journeymen but a lot of the really high quality players are on one year contracts because of the salary cap increase.  That puts pressure on GMs to build the team around them quickly so they will want to stay and re-sign long term and it creates opportunities for GMs like Danny to pry one or more of them loose.


.

First, and most important, here's to The Cooz on his 87th birthday and on emerging from semi-seclusion after the death of Missie. Cooz was to NBA ball as Elvis was to rock music, and Cooz maintained the beat through his very last game. Thank you, Cooz, for being my NBA magnet.

As for finishing in the middle of the pack, it seems that Cooz' remarks are taking dead aim at the draft, although we all know that finishing anywhere lower than #1 in the championship race was anathema to The Cooz.

In analyzing his statement, it seems clear that he's not talking about experiences from his playing days. After all, in a league with 8 teams, every team (barring any trades) had a pick in the 1-8 range, and every team had roughly 4 picks in what would correspond to today's first round. Moreover, virtually every draft pick had completed 4 years of seasoning in the minor leagues known as college basketball. In short, the draft was a powerful means of effecting changes in a team—in some cases almost overnight.

I believe Cooz is talking—perhaps even a bit sarcastically—about what he sees happening with respect to today's NBA draft. All hail the crap shoot—a player acquisition process that clearly ranks third (behind trades and free agency) as a reliable method of acquiring a battle-tested player with known NBA credentials.

Sam