When Boston finishes the season as good or better than they've been so far...

[willds09]

3-0!!!

[ProfessorMurder]

Read the post again. I was right.

No you weren't. You're a moron.

[Clifton]

No you weren't. You're a moron.

You're boring.

Try saying things with words that are substantial.

[Haks]

the direspect!!! End of last season we were talking about whether rondowas better than cp3 smh man

[RidonKs]

They're getting run out the building by the Knicks right now, but there is no reason to suppose they'd be any better with Rondo.

lol maybe not theoretically but past playoffs examples offer more than enough evidence to back up that assertion. Rondo has consistently played to the tune of 20/10 in the biggest series' of his life. hell, you want a comparison, check the celtics sweep of the knicks two years ago.

he put up consecutively

10/9/9
30/4/7
15/11/20
21/5/12

how can you suggest numbers like that wouldn't make a difference? i'm not arguing a Boston sweep or even a Boston victory, these are completely different teams. but you can bet your ass the Celts wouldn't be averaging 75 stinkin points lol

i don't buy Rondo not being a scorer. he's a reluctant scorer with a major flaw that defenders have been exploiting for years... but its a flaw he's overcome to the point he can keep his man honest with the occasional 20 footer. he's proven he can carry a team offensively with major spurts in its most desperate moments.

But their direction is not to be found in Rondo-ball. Rondo-ball's a crutch, and as long as they're leaning on it they're not winning a title regardless.

thats different. i think you're right in that for rondo to play effectively within a system that can actually contend, it'll have to be very specifically tailored around his abilities.... which is just an altogether unlikely scenario. it's almost impossible to use him with a swing scorer or a traditional bigman because he's so easy to help off. he can overcome that in the short term but the long run it'll be exploited by a good coach and lead to his team's downfall. and using him as THE GUY, well again you're right, he just isn't talented enough... only about five maybe six guys are right now

but against the knicks that's all irrelevant. the first two games wouldn't have been low scoring double digit blowouts had rondo been running the celtics. it would have at least been competitive.

i mean you're talking ORDER and then dismissing as irrelevant the gaping hole left by the starting point guard and best playmaker... really?

[ProfessorMurder]

You're boring.

Try saying things with words that are substantial.

Try saying one correct thing about basketball.

The Celtics have no playmaker. They have nobody that consistently creates their own shots. Their offense is terrible.

A player that is a 4 time all star, all-nba, all-defensive, league leader in assists WILL help the team... Especially when he ups his game in the playoffs.

The team was 18-20 with him in the lineup (no Bradley the majority of those games) and 23-23 without him this season. The Knicks will make them 23-24 with one more win. If Rondo was a terrible cancer on the team, they'd be noticeably better without him.

Just take your Rondo hate somewhere else.

[Real Men Wear Green]

Read the post again. I was right.

No you were not.

[Shepseskaf]

Amazing to me that Boston didn't see the need to pick up a real point guard when Rondo went down.

[Djahjaga]

Amazing to me that Boston didn't see the need to pick up a real point guard when Rondo went down.

Hey, we haven't had a backup PG for 5 years now, what's the risk in going without a starting one either? Or a Center for that matter?

I trust Danny Ainge, but he definitely made some mistakes this year. That's to be expected, though, and his ratio of good moves to bad moves is still very favorable.

It'll be interesting to see what happens next season. I'm of the belief that the Celtics will actually be better, but some changes have to be made.

[Shepseskaf]

It'll be interesting to see what happens next season. I'm of the belief that the Celtics will actually be better, but some changes have to be made.

They're going to have to get some younger bigs. I'm guessing that KG and Pierce may be done there.

The team will be better when Rondo gets back, obviously. But without a serious infusion of youth, its hard to see them improving by much.

[unknowns8]

we're all witnessing the bad side of rondo's injury atm - an unstuck offence in pressure situations leading to all players making poor decisions

rondo is the glue of our offence, in the same way KG is the glue of our defence ... if you dont have glue keeping all the pieces together, things get unstuck and fall apart pretty quickly

anyone who thinks otherwise and says boston are a better team with out rondo is just loud mouthing it for attention and making claims with no substance and should be ignored indefinitely.

[unknowns8]

They're going to have to get some younger bigs. I'm guessing that KG and Pierce may be done there.

The team will be better when Rondo gets back, obviously. But without a serious infusion of youth, its hard to see them improving by much.

In addition to Sullinger, you mean?

Sully/Green/Rondo seem a decent enough youth infusion to me

[Djahjaga]

They're going to have to get some younger bigs. I'm guessing that KG and Pierce may be done there.

The team will be better when Rondo gets back, obviously. But without a serious infusion of youth, its hard to see them improving by much.

I think the youth is there, we just have to find a way to shift the focus of the team more onto them. Right now it's really hard because without Pierce, we can't score on mismatches that well and without Garnett, we can't defend for shit.

But the youth is there. Rondo, Bradley, Green, Sullinger are all good players. We just need to find a way to make it work.

Obviously, the best solution would be to sign some young, capable bigs, but those, as we know, aren't everywhere. And we need them to be capable of organizing the team defense when Garnett comes off the court.

How many bigs like that are there? Bigs that can coordinate an entire team defensive scheme, cover pick and rolls, rotate to help, block and deter shots, etc.? Asik is one, but Morey smartly locked him up. Who else? Joakim Noah, obviously, but he's locked up for another 3 years. Chandler? Locked up. Hibbert? Locked up. MARC GASOL (he's in caps because I would LOVE him on the Cs) -- locked up.

This is why all the calls to "blow it up" are so infuriating. What can we get for KG that is actually worth it? Unless we're getting first round picks, no trade involving KG is going to benefit us. Better to let him retire.

Pierce is another story. It'd be great if half of our offensive sets didn't rely on him having to make something out of nothing. 25-26-27 year old Pierce would be great for that. 35 year old Pierce can only do so much.

There's just no clear way to get new players of the sort we need. We have to get lucky in the draft or in free agency. The lopsided trades of old aren't gonna happen anymore, as we saw at the trade deadline.