The 2008-2009 season starts tonight. They just raised #17 to the rafters. I was too young to remember #16, so I've been waiting for that moment for pretty much my entire life.

Hopefully they can ship #18 this season.

I love Perkins soo much. He's basically the best fit for center we could hope for right now. He's one of the best three defensive C's in the league and his offense is improving with every game and he's a tough cover in the post when he gives himself enough time to set up and make a move. I still wish Rondo could shoot more, but I'll take 4 pts if he's getting 15 assists.

I just love your siggy

Well thankyou sir

Rajon is really coming around. His FT% over the last month has been 72% and his FG% is top-20 in the league (the only guard to do so). Man am I excited for this guy.

Rondo is a product of the team he is on, an example of being made better by elite players. I will be SHOCKED if in five years he's even of any relevance, unless he happens to be on another great team.

I'm a homer. That's okay

I'm a Celtic hater obviously, so he probably falls somewhere in between.

Good points. I'll be interested to see what happens to him after this Celtic run is done.

History, bitches.

If our entire second unit died in a plane crash right now, I have to admit that I wouldn't be too sad.

Oh my

I think on a non-championship contender Rondo wouldn't be as effective as when he has three perennial all-stars to pass to and draw attention from, but that's true of anyone. For the Celtics, there's only around 4 PGs I'd rather have leading my team.

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=3804977

How do the Celtics Fanbase feel about this?

Coming full circle with KG, hmmm... this is funny. On first blush, I think it's a bad idea, but upon further review

1) He would be a bench player, not a vital starting player. He could provide a good spark off the bench.

2) If any team is impervious to head case trouble makers, it would be this team. it would be different if this was last year, and they were still gelling. But this celtics team is so very professional, that I don't think even a potential cancer like starbury could hurt them.

3. If he becomes trouble, they can just cut him.

4. Contract year.

This...


I'd love to see KG shoot it down somehow as payback for the shit he caused in MN, I really don't see how he helps this team at all. Didn't want to build a team with me there but wanna ride my coattails to a ring... gtfo.

but I don't know if that will be as hilarious as Starbury having to eat KG's alpha dog shit day in day out. Either way, it would be funny.

I agree with this.

Also: if they get Marbury, does that mean Eddie House no longer gets to take the last second shots? <ducks>

How much talent does he really bring to the table at this point?

Isn't House already enough like Starbury anyway that they don't need a second one there?

How much talent does he really bring to the table at this point?

Isn't House already enough like Starbury anyway that they don't need a second one there?

How much talent does he really bring to the table at this point?

( and has a personal beef with D'antoni, god knows why, because I can't think of a system Steph's style is more suited towards.)

I would have thought the C's would be looking for guys who can replace PJ Brown and Posey.

jesus what happened to them?

Fueled by emotion, Celtics running on empty

By Adrian Wojnarowski, Yahoo! Sports

CLEVELAND – As the final indignities of one more stunningly embarrassing evening ended for the Boston Celtics, a predictable picture played out on the bench: The Celtics’ stars sitting for garbage time, blank stares, listening to the surround sound of a Kevin Garnett lecture. On one knee, his back to the Cavaliers, Garnett barked a private plan to Paul Pierce and Ray Allen about a return to glory.


As much as anyone, KG’s voice rules these Celtics. They play at his speed, his fever pitch and ultimately rise and fall with the tone of his talent. When the Celtics were the most destructive there was a grudging acceptance of Garnett’s relentless ramblings on the floor, his penchant for starting small skirmishes. His greatest gift can be his greatest burden. Sometimes, these Celtics can be exhausting to everyone else. Sometimes, they’re just exhausting to themselves.


As LeBron James passed Boston in the break-down lane on Friday night, dropping 38 points and the Celtics behind the Cavs in the Eastern Conference standings, the defending champions are basketball’s most perplexing problem.


From a 27-2 start and a candidate to chase 70 victories, the Celtics have transformed into free-fall losers of seven of nine games. This has spiraled from a bad run for these Celtics to something far more damning: a crisis of identity. Around the NBA, officials are wondering: With a bad bench and an aging lineup, did the Celtics suddenly reach an expiration date as a championship favorite?

With so many suggesting that the Celtics are physically worn, here’s something else to consider: How about emotionally exhausted? This is the blessing and curse of KG. He’s a dervish of barking and bickering, yelling at everyone and no one. Night after night, he works himself into a frenzy to play the game. He seldom relaxes on the court, on the charters. Sometimes, he’ll just sit up wired on long flights home. If he doesn’t sleep, Doc Rivers once said, no one sleeps.

This has trickled down on the team, too. Pierce is incorrigible on the court. No one talks like him. Opponents have grown angry over the way that even the marginal Celtics seem so emboldened to behave this way, too. All in all, emotion fueled a ferocity for these Celtics, but it’s hard to believe that passion could sustain itself in the long run.

“If you keep punching your gas pedal as hard as you can, all the time, eventually you’re going to run out of gas,” one rival NBA general manager said. “You can only do that hype and talking for so long. You have to maintain a pace and a certain emotional level to stay up there for a long time. You can’t scream non-stop forever.”

More and more, the Celtics are dependent on Garnett, Pierce and Allen to carry them. Rajon Rondo has struggled lately. The Celtics are susceptible to bigger frontlines. The bench is killing them. They need help, but there’s little on the way. As history’s shown, Stephon Marbury’s arrival destroys basketball franchises. This has been incredible. The mere suggestion of Starbury has blown up Boston. Truth be told, Marbury will probably never be freed in New York.


What GM Danny Ainge wants is a shooter off the bench, but he’s struggling to find one. League sources say he made a bid for the Orlando Magic’s J.J. Redick recently, a guard he’s long coveted, but an offer of J.R. Giddens and Gabe Pruitt couldn’t come close to prying Redick. What’s more, Orlando isn’t motivated to fortify the Celtics. Suddenly, the Magic believe they can beat Boston. League executives say Ainge has become more persistent this week in searching out deals, but as a Western Conference executive said, “He just doesn’t have any players that anyone wants.”

Rivers insists he saw slippage late in the 19-game winning streak to suggest this slide was inevitable. As long as his boss gets him a boost on the bench, he’s trying to sell this sputter as a blessing. The Celtics appear destined to lose home court in the conference finals to Cleveland – and maybe Orlando, too – but Rivers had seen some of his players growing complacent, comfortable, and now he sees the sobering realization that’s washed over his locker room.

“This team hasn’t gone through anything,” Rivers said. “It’s been very easy for us. Sometimes you have to go through something to get to something. This team hasn’t. Last year we didn’t have this at all. And I was extremely concerned going into the playoffs. That was my one concern. We hadn’t been tested. We breezed through the season.


“Well, we can’t say that this year. We have gone through something. You find out a lot about your guys when you go through stretches like this … who wants to fight … who folds. So, it’s good for everybody.”

Suddenly, Boston isn’t so brazen. They aren’t so bold. This has been a champion that’s inspired a good deal of dislike around the NBA. Teams found them ungracious and unkind. Truth be told, they found them to be downright nasty.


“How you shut us up is you beat us,” Sam Cassell said. “That’s how you shut us up. The Knicks shut us up…Cleveland shut us up–nine teams shut us up. Beat us and you can shut us up.”

Nine teams and counting for the Celtics. They’re no longer chasing 70 victories and the Jordan Bulls this season. Now, they’re chasing LeBron and the Cavaliers. Out of nowhere, an identity crisis for the champions. As the rival GM said, you can’t just scream forever.

I've only glanced through this thread but things don't look good, I promise to never go on holidays again if this is what happens. I'm gone for another week or so, would somebody cliffnote me of what has happened since the christmas day game, thanks.

I find it shocking a team could have two 10+ winning streaks but have that sick downswing in the middle. So are we seeing normal right now or are the Cs gonna burn themselves out by playoff time?

Espn said that for stephon marbury to be successful in Boston he'll have to accept a lesser role than he's used to

what's a lesser role than sitting on the bench all season watching the Knicks suck?

they'll obviously sell this as a bench version of R. Wallace going to the Pistons. Sheed had tonnes of bad press before going to Detroit as well. I think Marbury will be fine (public attitude anyways) for the remainder of the year. If for no other reason than the fact he needs a job.