CELTICS GREEN BLOG by and for boston celtics fans: Fiddlin' and Diddlin' on 5/29

I can't believe it but there are still articles accusing the Celtics of tanking and saying that they got what they deserved for doing so. Jemele Hill has on on ESPN. Hoopsworld has one where they say that fans should expect teams to try. Every game I watched, I felt that the players were trying their best to win. They never gave up. I can only think of 2 games that could have been called tanking: the Bobcats and Milwaukee games, and that was the coach, not the players. And since Doc isn't the best coach, even that could be questions. He has done things like that even when we were playing for a playoff spot.

The NY Sun has an article that at a glance at the headline looks negative, but is actually a positive article. In the article they list the positives of the team and then lay the blame for failure directly at the feet of Doc and Danny.

The real virtue of a pick like Oden or Durant is that they would have made the team so good that not even Ainge or Rivers could mess it up with bad decision making. However, with good health, and improvement from their young players, the Celtics could easily improve by 20 wins or more. That's the good news. The bad news is that a 44-win-team in the Eastern Conference isn't a title threat, and there's little evidence to suggest that the present regime can take them the rest of the way.

I have said all along that the weakest link in this team is the coaching. This article picks up on this and voices the frustrations I have had with Doc's coaching all along.

The Celtics have had a nice collection of talent for several years now and have shown little savvy in utilizing it. Two seasons ago, they played rookie guard Orien Greene for more than 1,200 minutes before realizing that he was a turnover machine and released him. This past season they played former Nets power forward Brian Scalabrine more than 1,000 minutes while better rebounders such as Leon Powe stayed glued to the bench.

Jeff Clark over on Celtics Blog has another excellent reference for everything draft called the Rookiepedia. It is worth your time to go over there and root around a bit. Great resource. Jeff also has an article over on Celtics Blog that tells us the time to hesitate is through. He makes a case for Danny making a trade. I would like a trade only if we can get a player like Marion without giving up too much. I don't want to push for a championship now only to sacrifice our future. We have done that too many times and it always backfires.

Fox Sports has a ranking of the PGs in the upcoming draft. One thing stood out to me in this article:

6) Dominic James, 5-11, 175, Soph., Marquette — As quick and explosive as any point guard in the draft, the one drawback right now is his perimeter shot. Think Rajon Rondo from a year ago, but with far less character issues while in college.

Rondo had character issues? I think they have him mixed up with Marcus Williams. Rondo's character is now and always has been great.

Green Bandwagon asks the question: Can you really hate Tommy Heinsohn? I go through the opposing teams' boards for quotes for a post game report and almost every one has something to say about how much they dislike Tommy and his homerism. But if you are a Celtics fan, Tommy is the greatest! He is one of the few people who is even a bigger homer than I am.
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