A Few Thoughts Going Into the All Star Break

The All Star Weekend is upon us and the Celtics are getting a much needed rest. The Celtics finally ended the 18 game losing streak that was no longer a monkey on their backs, but had become a Gorilla. They are going into the West coast trip with a bit of renewed confidence. They are even talking win streaks now. What a difference a blow out win can make, even over a team that is as depleted as the Celtics were a couple weeks ago.

Unlike a lot of fans, I don’t want the Celtics to tank. I think the young players that we have will grow more by learning how to win than they will be losing games to get a draft pick. Yes, Oden or Durant would be a nice addition to the team, but we can’t guarantee that even with the worst record we would get the first or second pick. Only 3 teams with the worst records have gotten the first pick since 1990. So if luck is with us, we could get the first pick with the 11th worst pick as Orlando did or we could get the 3rd pick with the worst record as the Celtics did back in 1997.

The Celtics need a dominant big and we can get this in several ways. The obvious is through the draft, with a high lottery pick we could find a very good center in this year’s strong draft as there are several centers behind Oden that are impressive. We can also make a trade for a player or sign a free agent who isn’t an All Star but who would be a force in the center for us. Or, I am not ready to give up on Perk yet. He has shown flashes of what he is capable of but he has also been playing in pain almost the entire season. I don’t think we need to trade any of our core players to get an all star and I don’t think we need to tank the season for a shot at the first pick.

I think the biggest need for this team is not a player, but a new coach. Doc is not a good in game coach and he hasn’t shown that he can coach a contender. Maybe when Danny hired him he had this season in mind, knowing we had to bottom out, in spite of the young talent on the team, and the best way to do that is to hire an incompetent coach. We have seen coaches turn a team around before and it could happen in Boston if Doc is given his walking papers in the off season and a new coach is brought in who can get the most out of our young players.

The Celtics are not nearly as bad as their record indicates. We have young players who have potential and who are on the verge of getting to that next level. Al Jefferson has proved that he is a serious player, Green has improved immensely and will continue to do so. Rondo is going to be a top PG in this league before too long. If healthy, Perk gives us a strong presence in the middle and I still think that Powe would be a presence in the middle if Doc would just play him. But we have been hit with a lot of injuries this year and the team was never able to gather any momemtum because of players coming and going from the injured list. I think with very few changes (a good big and a new coach) we will surprise a lot of people next season.

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