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| Tank for Wiggins!!! |
The 2014 NBA draft class is rumored and projected to be the best draft class since the 2003 draft, which brags of 8 NBA All Stars and 4 All NBA Team players (who also played on the 2008 USA Olympic Team). With all of the hype surrounding the draft class, several NBA teams are expected to tank the 2014 season in hopes of a lottery pick (one GM even anonymously admitted to tanking) , so much so that ESPN has even created a "Tank Rank" that resembles power rankings but inverted. The Boston Celtics are a prime example of a team that could tank this season, as the Celtics have only one player on their current roster that was on their last championship team. However, even with their destitute roster, the Boston Celtics (yes, I'm saying it) can make the playoffs.
Last season the Celtics went 41-40 and lost in the first round of the playoffs. Paul Pierce (age 36) and Kevin Garnett (age 37) are past their primes, Ray Allen left the year before for a better team (which won the 2013 NBA championship), and Rajon Rondo is not expected to play a game until December. Thus, the Celtic team with two aged stars and an injured point guard did not have much appeal or potential, so Pierce and Garnett, along with other players, were traded to the Brooklyn Nets for a series of future first round draft picks, one being a 2014 first round pick. Doc Rivers was traded to the Clippers for a 2015 draft pick, leaving Boston with a mediocre roster.
Despite trading away three future hall-of-fame assets for vague value, Danny Ainge, the Celtics' President of Operations, denies that he is tanking and even stated that this draft class wouldn't be worth a tank anyway, and his statement can easily be supported. Andrew Wiggins, the projected prize of the 2014 draft class, never had the early high school relevance of a Lebron James, and he has not had the chance yet to conquer college basketball like a Kevin Durant. Wiggins has yet to prove himself as a dominate player, and his hype coming out of high school more closely resembles Harrison Barnes, a player pojected to be the next Kobe Bryant (see June 25 update of bottom of this link) coming out of high school. In fact, Wiggins is even claimed not to be "one of the best two or three players on the floor" during Kansas practices. The thing with players worth tanking for is that nobody doubts them, but doubt lingers around Wiggins.
Maybe Danny Ainge wasn't playing public relations and Celtic fans when he said that he isn't tanking. But looking at the Boston Celtics roster, no star in the making appears, and with a new coach in Brad Stevens, team chemistry will be off at least for the first portion of the season as players adjust to their new assignments and a new game plan. Plus, their best player, Rondo, is out indefinitely from injury, and the trouble with Rondo's game is that he must depend on other good players to be productive because he can't score on his own. Rondo could lead a good, but maybe not a bad one. Rondo also had a history of arguing with coach Doc Rivers, so maybe that drama could move to Stevens if Rondo doesn't like the game plan. So how can this team make the playoffs? Answer:
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| Brad Stevens! |
Brad Stevens and his assistant Drew Cannon were college basketball analytics geniuses, and their genius is expected to translate into the NBA. Brad Stevens coached Butler University from obscurity to two consecutive NCAA championship appearances with a .772 winning percentage, all without elite talent. To be fare, Stevens recruited the guys he believed would best fit his system, something he hasn't had the chance to do at Boston, but he has always found ways to manipulate his rosters to squeeze out a win. He is a very capable coach, but the players must be reliable... and they are.
The Celtic roster is filled with players that do not have histories of being irrational and making bad decisions on the court. All of the players are good system guys that know their roles (probably too well). Their best player right now is Jeff Green, and he averages just 1.8 turnovers in 32.5 minutes per game through his career and is big and athletic enough to defend the best two, three, or four position on the opposing team effectively. The roster has potential to be one of the most defensively effective teams this year, with Avery Bradley as on of the better guard defenders in the league, and a true seven footer in Kelly Olynyk who at least can be an obstacle in a properly executed help-defense (though you won't see him record any block-steals).
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| JaVale McGee |
The frustrating part of an underdog team with potential to defy all tanking rumors and make a run for the gold is that they have started the season 0-4 and show hints of purposeful tanking. Reviewing the game logs on ESPN, I found a couple peculiar patterns. In all but one of their games, the Celtics outscored their opponents in the third quarter. In the game they did not outscore their opponent, the Celtics were winning by sixteen at the half (and allowed 34 points in the fourth quarter to lose the game).
Speaking of the most important quarter in basketball, the Celtics average 16.5 points per fourth quarter while their opponents average 27.25 points to end the game. Sometimes basketball teams genuinely cannot close out games well (even the 2011 Miami Heat seemed to have trouble until playoffs came). Yet, this pattern seems purposeful. Perhaps not, but the fact that in each game this season the Celtics have had good positioning to win entering the fourth quarter shows that they can, in fact, compete.
Danny Ainge does not like losing, and several writers and coaches have talked about how winning increases confidence. This Boston squad has every chance to make the playoffs this year (resembling a 2004 Detroit Pistons squad in that no superstar is on the team and all players know their roles). Hopefully Danny Ainge isn't tanking for high school phenom and now Duke forward Jabari Parker ,who has been compared to Paul Pierce and has a relationship with Danny Ainge. If the Celtics can improve their fourth quarter play, however, they will make the playoffs.
To play us out, here is a video of some famous plays made by JaVale McGee.
Picture Credits:
Tank
Wiggins Head
Boston Celtics Flag
Brad Stevens Pic
McGee Gif
