Wednesday, December 20, 2017

State of the Celtics

The news that Isaiah Thomas is about to start a rehabilitation with the Cavs G-League team got me thinking about the NBA and in particular all things Boston Celtics.

I'm still amazed that Danny Ainge turned the assets from the Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce and Rajon Rondo trades into Kyrie Irving, Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum. And don't forget that he also turned Doc Rivers as coach into Brad Stevens as coach. There's not a single NBA team that would rather have Rivers over Stevens as coach at this point. Not one single NBA team.

Rivers didn't want to stick around in Boston because he didn't want to go through a rebuilding process. Since leaving the Celtics - Rivers has been 18-22 in the playoffs with the Clippers. Meanwhile in that same span the "rebuilding" Celtics have been 11-17 but poised to greatly improve on that playoff record this season and in the years to come.

Whatever the Celtics do in the playoffs this season is pure gravy. Fans are really interested in what can be accomplished next season with the addition of Gordon Haywood for a full season and another first round pick (or two) plus the probable absence of LeBron James from the Eastern Conference.

Speaking of draft picks - currently Brooklyn (11-18) has a better record than the Lakers (10-18). Hope that continues and somehow LA falls to between 2nd and 5th in the draft.

Good luck with the rehab IT4! Boston fans are pulling for you!

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