The perfect storm has ended. For the most part, Weinergate/SWATgate has been solved (see Rauhauser, Neal). Oh my, what a ride. We now return to regularly scheduled blogging. For those who don't care about the Boston Celtics, you can skip the following.
The basketball season is upon us. It has not been a nice start for the home team.
It's become more than obvious the Celtics are a mediocre team. As presently constituted, their ceiling is 50 wins with no chance of a title.
The elephant no longer even in the room is Darko Milicic, who Doc put on the bench behind obvious loser Jason Collins.
Darko: Seven Feet, 275 pounds, blocks shots and rebounds (also only 27 years old). Darko has been an obvious disappointment from where he was drafted. However, in my opinion he had great potential to be as good as Kendrick Perkins was during the 2008 championship season. His play might have been enough to turn us into a 60 win team with a decent chance to win it all.
He was the potential answer.
Now our only hope is if Danny Ainge can make a trade for a decent center. It will also have to be one Doc Rivers will play.
By the way, it looks like Paul Pierce is finally cooked. He has taken over Ray Allen's role of being overrated and overplayed. But don't hold your breath waiting for Doc to figure that out.
The C's might be able to turn on the switch. They've done that at least twice since the onset of the KG Era.
Some may be correct on the motivation behind Darko's decision to leave. His mom's health might have been the deciding factor. We'll probably never know the full truth.
I was just thinking how worse injuries to Erden and Stiemsma didn't prevent them from getting off the pine. It seemed like in Milicic's first game, he had five bad minutes and then Doc put him in the doghouse.
I see Jermaine O'Neal has been playing well. Sheed is contributing to the Knicks. One of them definitely playing well for us could have been the answer. I actually don't care who Danny Ainge gets, as long as it's this year and for someone at least at their level.
A Pierce-Gasol trade would probably help us if Jeff Green emerged. Yet Pierce would seem to overlap with Artest.
We basically have one of Bass/Sullinger, Courtney Lee, Avery Bradley, Fab Melo, and draft picks to offer. Before the season started, that was pretty good. I'm not sure what that will get you now.
It's embarrassing how so many of us got this season wrong. I think I said they'd win 62 games. I don't care how good the Knicks and some other Eastern Conference teams are. If KG had a competent center to help him out, we would certainly be fighting for the top seed.
My immediate recommendation is for Green to play more and Pierce less. That will help two-fold. Pierce will get his rest. Green will get so much action, he will not have time to worry and will improve.
I was also wrong about Barbosa. He should not be the backup point guard. That's for Jason Terry. Lee should also start with Rondo.
I'd place Barbosa as a shooting guard for five to ten minutes perhaps more depending on how effective he is.
It'll be interesting to see what Ainge does. Until then, it looks like this team will win one, lose one, be a 45 win team, a seventh seed type. If they excel, they are 50 wins. I don't see them capable of much more than that. Now if we could get KG a true backup, that would compel a re-evaluation of the Celtics' true prospects. In my honest opinion.
And to quickly add to that, I could have sworn Darko said something about not getting playing time being a factor in the divorce.
I don't know how sick his mom is or what it is. Perhaps she could have spent a little time in America and possibly even received treatment. Darko could have become something and not just a player wannabe. He might have finally become an NBA success with a ring and a PJ Brown A+ effort.
Danny and Doc messed up in a similar way with Greg Stiemsma and Semih Erden. If you want to keep those dudes, it gets done, period. Both players had a chance of greatness playing for the NBA's most storied franchise. Now they are mere tools on loser teams.
It's good to see other fans are starting to become more vocal against Doc's idiotic small ball. Wade and Lebron will eat that for lunch.
