4. What needs to go right for the Celtics to succeed this coming season?
Roughly a million things need to go right for the Celtics, but we believe that the top four are:
1. The starting lineup needs to stay healthy because the bench is very thin.
To lose any of our starting five to injury would be devastating. The Celtics infamously traded away roughly half the population of Worcester to make the Garnett deal work. Without any one of our starting five, the Celtics immediately become mediocre. This might not be the case with Tony Allen at full health, but he isn't there yet.
2. Doc Rivers needs to set very low goals of not ruining games - he doesn't even need to be good, just good enough.
Doc has repeatedly told the media he is a "player's coach." Judging by the way he has handled the Celtics since signing on, we guess a player’s coach must be kind of like our JV basketball coach in high school, who insisted we play basketball once per week while using a football. We had to dribble, there was no out of bounds, and oh yeah, it was full-contact with no fouls. This is the only explanation for the spastic scrambling that the Celtics called defense last year. And contrary to Doc’s belief, having an offense that is offensive is not good. Like we mentioned before, the IQ of Allen, the leadership of KG, and the heart and experience of Pierce will hopefully overshadow Doc's X's and O's. By the way, no insult to our JV Coach, he was the man, and probably a better coach than Doc.
3. The three big guns have to learn to share the ball.
While, on the surface putting three superstars together would make perfect sense, they all require a ton of shots, a ton of dribbles, a ton of time off the shot clock, and a ton of praise in order to be happy. Is there enough to go around? Will Brian Scalabrine shoot less than three shots all season? We can only hope.
4. Tony Allen needs fix his boo-boo.
Having a healthy Tony Allen would make me feel a lot better about this team. He is a tenacious defender and can score in bunches, who regularly put up 20+ when Pierce went down last season. As long as he stops dunking during deadballs, he’ll be alright.
5. Who are the contenders for the NBA Championship and who do you see taking the title?
The NBA is both a frustrating crapshoot and incredibly predictable. There is no reason not to expect the San Antonio Spurs to win the title, but not without defeating some random team that didn't make the playoffs last year that will surprise everyone. It could be the New Orleans Hornets. Out of the East, you know we love the Celtics, but the Chicago Bulls and Detroit Pistons stand in the way. Here are our pre-season rankings, from worst to best:
- Atlanta Hawks: Too Hopeless
- Milwaukee Bucks: Too Bad
- Minnesota Timberwolves: Too McHale
- Sacramento Kings: Too Messy
- Los Angeles Clippers: Too Injured
- Memphis Grizzlies: Too Machisto
- Indiana Pacers: Too High
- Philadelphia 76ers: Too Bland
- Seattle SuperSonics: Too Young
- Orlando Magic: Too Orlando
- Portland Trail Blazers: Too Disappointed
- New York Knicks: Too Funny
- Golden State Warriors: Too Volatile
- Charlotte Bobcats: Too J-Rich
- Miami Heat: Too two-years-ago
- Denver Nuggets: Too Inefficient
- Washington Wizards: Too Selfish
- New Orleans Hornets: Too Noochy
- Los Angeles Lakers: Too Whiney
- Cleveland Cavaliers: Too One-Dimensional
- Toronto Raptors: Too Canadian
- Houston Rockets: Too Slow
- New Jersey Nets: Too Likely to Implode
- Boston Celtics: Too Adjusting
- Detroit Pistons: Too Having Flip Saunders as Coach
- Chicago Bulls: Too Scrappy
- Dallas Mavericks: Too Premature
- Utah Jazz: Too Rocky
- Phoenix Suns: Too Purple
- San Antonio Spurs: Too Good
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