They might be doing 12 minute cameos because they're already up 40-10 five minutes into the 2nd quarter of games.To be honest I think the Celtics are not really going to be one of the teams trying to manipulate the rules. They have two studs in their physical primes, they’re going to play. Maybe they’ll have some shorter minute games but they aren’t going to do 12 minute cameos or whatever.
I think what’s exciting about Tatum is he’s still pretty young.. it feels like he’s just entering his prime… so the window should be open for a bit. The core is solid.. and the bench is pretty solid too. This team also has assets where they could add a piece in season. It’s well set up for a run (and has been) for a few years.Marcus Smart is one of my favorite Celtics ever. I think he's significantly underrated offensively, even around here. I was enjoying their success with all the home-grown talent - JB, JT, Smart, Rob, Grant...
But here's the thing. The Celtics have one of the, like, 8 guys in the league who matter, in terms of giving you an opportunity to win a title. A franchise can easily go decades without finding one of those guys. And because they have Tatum, they have to maximize the roster around him, no matter what it takes. I'm more excited for this season, because the team has arrived. They're not biding their time until their assets mature, they're not a young team on the rise with a puncher's chance of making the Finals if things break their way. They're a juggernaut, and the expectations are to win a championship. That's it. The time is now, and there's no more excuses.
That's fun. The team hasn't been at this level in terms of the title window just being thrown wide open since 2008. LFG.
This. Part of my excitement for this year is that the team is motivated, talented, and professional/experienced enough to put boot on neck and stop the endless "wow, it's back to a one-score game" games in the 82.There will be a lot of regular season nights where they will essentially end games in the 3rd quarter, giving the starters plenty of rest for the post-season, and will allow the role-players actual NBA minutes throughout the season.
This. Part of my excitement for this year is that the team is motivated, talented, and professional/experienced enough to put boot on neck and stop the endless "wow, it's back to a one-score game" games in the 82.
Funny to see these two posts practically back to back. I lean much closer to @Ed Hillel ’s opinion on this. And it’s not just leads in big games. It’s for instance being up say 3-1 with a home game 5 and putting that series to bed with no drama.I'm excited, but I still have serious questions about the ability of this team to not clam up with leads in big games and for the Jays (particularly Brown) to not become turnover machines against top playoff defenses. However, the good news is that with the prior iteration of the team I didn't really feel like I had questions anymore, as I thought there was enough data to have answers. And I didn't like those answers.
So I've gone from "don't trust this core to win the championship" to "I'm intrigued/excited to see whether this team can win the championship."
Health is obviously a big concern, but I do believe the Celtics have enough assets to add a few guys for depth, and that guy without the eyebrows showed some real promise, particularly defensively, in rookie leagues. So maybe he can carve out a nice role, as well.
Yeah, I think people might have forgotten how much hype there was last year. I know that I was super excited...I only chose 'more' instead of significantly more because I'm only human and can get only so much more excited than I was last year
I really, really hope that this is just hand wringing and I look like a complete moron 6 weeks into the season....but I do think it's very fair to have some concerns about Mazzulla and how he manages a rotation still.This. Part of my excitement for this year is that the team is motivated, talented, and professional/experienced enough to put boot on neck and stop the endless "wow, it's back to a one-score game" games in the 82.
FWIW, your concerns are fair and relatable. That said, I'm optimistic about that a coach who last year a) had the job handed to him at kinda the last minute and b) didn't really have an experienced assistant staff from which to draw experience. He has a year of experience, senior guys on staff, and has the stability of a full offseason to plan.I really, really hope that this is just hand wringing and I look like a complete moron 6 weeks into the season....but I do think it's very fair to have some concerns about Mazzulla and how he manages a rotation still.
Last year, he showed very little interest in giving anyone other than the core guys any run at all. I think we can all agree that he needs to give the 7-12 a lot more burn than he did. I am very hopeful that he will but until I actually see it, I can't act like it's a foregone conclusion that it will happen.
Jrue has similar turnover issues to Smart (both around 15%). Smart was worse last year though at 18%. The big difference is in assists though. Even throwing out Smart’s earlier career assist rate and only looking at the last 2 years, he’s a 26% assist rate pg. In contrast, Jrue is over 30% for his career and was over 34% last year. That doesn’t make him a player that solves our turnover issues (he definitely doesn’t) but he at least generates assists at a rate that makes his turnovers less problematic (using the rule of thumb that anything over a 2:1 ratio is fine).I'm referring to his "careless" turnovers and not necessarily amount of them. He will bring some WTFWHT? moments to New England living rooms this winter.
I should have pointed this out more specifically in my thread, but Marcus Smart was a big reason I had lost faith in the team come playoff time. I love the guy and all the craziness he brought, but it seemed the definition of insanity to keep rolling Marcus Smart out as a go-to playmaker, ball handler, and shooter in so many big moments. I just don't think that's the guy you want in that role on a championship-caliber squad. I can't think of many (any?) championship teams who had someone with Marcus Smart's offensive skillset leading the team in big moments to the title.Funny to see these two posts practically back to back. I lean much closer to @Ed Hillel ’s opinion on this. And it’s not just leads in big games. It’s for instance being up say 3-1 with a home game 5 and putting that series to bed with no drama.
I was trying to say that earlier and it came out "culture change". This is better put. We'll never know for sure 100%, but I think that Marcus's presence clipped the wings of Tatum and Brown a bit. He was always kind of the older brother. Sometimes that was awesome, but we have guys to fill that alpha dog mind. Guys want the "put me on your back" speech to come from the guy who belongs with the team on his back. And if Marcus was sometimes the guy to take charge and land the plane, now it can be someone eminently more qualified.I also kind of wanted Marcus out so that Tatum could fill in some leadership vacuum Smart's loss would create. I want this to be Tatum's team, and I hope in turn that confidence in being the leader will bring dividends on the court, particularly in bigger moments.
I get where you are coming from in terms of homegrown on court talent. But part of the intrigue here for me is watching what I consider homegrown Front Office talent in POBOBS do his thing. I will miss a lot of what Marcus brought to the table and all of what Rob brought to the table (when fully healthy, which I don't think we saw at all last season) but I was feeling pretty resigned to this team having reached its apex as of the spring of 2022. A lot of that has to do with my not seeing Rob being the same player ever again knee-wise, with sides of not being confident in CJM and Marcus understanding he is not part of a Big Three alongside JT and JB. There is no doubt whose team this is now and going forward.I had been very interested in the Celtics in the last few years because so much of its talent was home grown. Now its not the same. Losing Smart and Rob took a lot away. I'm losing interest fast.