Big Trouble in Beantown
Last year, the Celtics could feel the window of opportunity closing on them. This year however, it appears father time has emphatically slammed the door in their face. Worse then their battles with opposing teams is the one they face each night with the creaky bones of their aging stars.
With only 4 wins in 12 games this season, Boston is off to their worst start in the five years since “The Big 3” was formed. The organization which has formulated the trifecta blueprint for success, has now lost their last five games and are indisputably on the decline. In recent years, when the Celtics faltered, showing signs of wear and exhaustion, the question was whether or not they had enough left in the tank for a championship push. This season however, there is legitimate concern for a mere playoff birth, let alone a shot at the title.
Age is the obvious factor here and there is nothing that Doc Rivers or the Front Office of the Celtics can do about that. But, using the benefit of hindsight, Boston GM, Danny Ainge, may have done himself and the team a disservice with a few curious moves in the past year. The most notable one being the trade of the firey, backbone Center, Kendrick Perkins. Now, obviously Ainge could not have seen the freak injury woes of Jeff Green coming, but he should have been able to recognize the glaring hole at the Center position that the departure of Kendrick Perkins was leaving. Ainge opted to fill a bench spot, albeit with a quality NBA player, in Green, in exchange for an instrumental starting role which he then trusted to the long past his prime, Shaquille O’Neal, and backup Jermaine O’Neal. On an already elderly team, they entrusted a vital spot to a couple of players who have missed more games in the past few seasons then some teams entire rosters.
Now, with Shaq retired and Jermaine O’Neal hanging on by a thread, the Celtics find themselves 29th in the league in team rebounding, just one board better then the league worst Pistons. Worse then that statistic is the more important one that is standings column, where Boston is currently 3rd in the Atlantic Division and 10th overall in the Western Conference. Although it’s still early, with the shortened season, every game is that much more important. And as the Celtics are currently on the outside, looking in, for the first time in the better part of a decade, decision time is fast approaching. They cannot turn back the clocks, but sooner or later they’ll need to buy some new ones.
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Not to mention the punishing condensed schedule piling on the geezers.
Danny Ainge should be fired. He tried to fix something that didn’t need to be fixed and ended up making it worse. Perkins should still be with the Celtics. After he left Boston lost alot of their toughness. Makes me angry just thinking about it.