HoopsHype.com Columns

The good, the bad and the ugly
by Dee Brown / March 23, 2007

Being a former captain of the most storied and decorated basketball franchise in NBA history, I have mixed emotions about where the team is right now and where it is headed. This downward spiral started long before this 2007 team was assembled.

The only joy I get from seeing Celtics with second worst record in the league and also having a franchise-worst 18-game losing streak is that I'm no longer in the record book as being a part of the two longest losing streaks in Celtics history. Boston fans hopefully forgot how awful that 1996-97 Celtics team was the year before Rick Pitino came in to try to safe the franchise. We were 15-67 and – like the 2007 Celtics team – in a position to get a player that would change the entire landscape of the club. That player was Tim Duncan. Obviously, we didn’t get Duncan, but the franchise stayed afloat with some great picks like Antoine Walker and Paul Pierce and then went deeper into a mediocrity the last few seasons with Danny Ainge drafting some good young players and bringing in a players' coach like Doc Rivers.

That puts us where the C's are now. Bad! I don't mean bad as in good. But bad as in BAD!

Now, let's take a look at the team, coach and management and review what I think about the good, bad and ugly about the Celtics direction.

THE GOOD PART

You have a few pieces that you have to keep to make sure the foundation you are building is strong. The two key pieces are Paul Pierce and "Big" Al Jefferson.

Paul is a perennial All-Star with playoff experience. He is fed up with rebuilding and unless he gets another veteran player with some toughness he will not be happy, which will set the C's back even further in their quest to become respectable.

Big Al has definitely stepped his game up this year and shown that he can be a legitimate low-post threat against anyone. I was at a game versus the Knicks and he absolutely destroyed Malik Rose and Eddy Curry with the array of moves that he has develop. (Thanks Clifford Ray!)

The other valuable pieces are Gerald Green (a personal favorite for obvious reasons), Delonte West, Ryan Gomes, Rajon Rondo, Kendrick Perkins and Tony Allen (who was playing great until the knee injury). These guys are getting invaluable experience at the expense of losing, but I don't think anyone thought this would be a championship team with several keys players all under the age of 25. These players all have talent and have the attention of experts around the league as having an huge upside. Look at the team I was on in the 1996-97 season:

Brett Szabo
Nate Driggers
Steve Hamer
Marty Conlon
David Wesley
Rick Fox
Frank Brickowski

I rest my case! We could have added Tim Duncan and Chauncey Billups (the 3rd pick that the C's took that 1997 draft) and still would have been scary to watch.

The other good part is the draft and the position the C's will get if they are Lucky (not that mascot that does flips the entire game). If we get a Top 2 pick, then we have a chance to immediately get a franchise player like Greg Oden or Kevin Durant – barring they declare for the draft. Then look at this starting lineup for the 2008 season:

Rajon Rondo
Tony Allen
Paul Pierce
Top 2 Pick
Al Jefferson

Now that team can compete with anyone at the East right away.

Bench would consist of:

Gerald Green
Wally Szczerbiak
Delonte West
Ryan Gomes
Kendrick Perkins
Brian Scalabrine
Leon Powe
Theo Ratliff
Sebastian Telfair

Now you got something to move forward with.

THE BAD PART

What if a Top 2 pick doesn’t land with the C's? Then Ainge has a dilemma (ala Pitino). What direction do you go now?

Do you take a very good player from college or an international guy? Brandan Wright, Julian Wright, Al Horford, Joakim Noah and Yi Jianlian. All but Julian Wright are bigs. Or do come to the conclusion that we cannot afford to get any younger and that we need to package some of the young talent and future draft picks and bring in a grizzled veteran All-Star to play alongside Pierce. The players who might be available this summer are Kevin Garnett, Jermaine O’Neal and Pau Gasol. Maybe veteran point guards like Jason Kidd or Mike Bibby. The thinking is, find a team looking go get younger and more athletic and grab their veteran All-Star by offering a combination of players like Gerald Green, Ryan Gomes and Rajon Rondo along with a couple of future No. 1 picks – including the 2007 pick if it lands in the 3-6 range.

The C's have a lot of young assets and could be in a position to get one of those players if they become available. So if you trade to get a veteran, you better get a great one and win 50-plus games and make a championship run next year.

My assessment is to get a young stud from the draft and reap the benefits of your young players learning under Doc's system and wanting to prove everyone wrong that this team is not as bad as it record shows.

Taking a player through the draft – if not Oden or Durant – puts the Celtics (with health not an issue) on a path to be a 40-50 win team in two years and increase that over the next two years especially in the East. But you need one of the young players like Big Al or Green or the 2007 pick to emerge as all-NBA type player to help Paul.

THE UGLY PART (IT'S NOT THAT UGLY)

What if everything falls in place?

The C's get the top pick. Everyone is healthy. They get rid of the dancers. (Just teasing folks. I am just trying to get use to Celtics Dancers on the fabled parquet).

What do you do with Doc and Danny? This is the most important decision since hiring Rick Pitino.

Do you let Ainge make the pick knowing either choice is a great choice? Or do you clean house in management because it is a no-brainer decision knowing you're going to get a great player and start fresh?

I say let Danny stay and reap the rewards that come along with being bad the year before. I have a soft spot for Danny because he is an ex-Celtic that played on championship teams with Hall of Fame players. You're going to need someone to wear the rings in the locker room daily since Red Auerbach, the best basketball mind in basketball histor, is not around to show these guys why they play the game.

And what about Doc? He is known as a players' coach – although I'm still trying to figure out what that means because coaches will always fight and argue with players and at the end of the day, players and coaches will side with their respective peers.

He has playing, coaching and broadcasting experience. Has been named NBA Coach of the Year. He has coached great players like Tracy McGrady, Grant Hill, Paul Pierce and Dee Brown (now that’s funny) and had to endure through injuries and young players trying to figure out how to win games – which many times will have you question, "why I am doing this?"

With all that, I think he is the right coach for the future of this team because he gets it. He gets that young players make mistakes and will learn if they are put in that position time and time again. He understands that his patience and persistence on teaching (he's a great teacher) how to play and respect the game will eventually become second nature to these young players. And the players trust and believe in him and that he wouldn’t put them in a position to fail or that they couldn’t handle if it didn’t benefit them and the future growth progress of the team.

As we all can see, there are a lot of scenarios that can get the C's back on top or ways they can be stuck on that overused word in the NBA called potential. They have potential to be a competitor in the near future, but without adding a legitimate superstar either through the draft or a major trade, the C's might as well bring back Drigger, Conlon, Szabo and Hamer.

Oh my, I rest my case.

Dee Brown is a regular contributor to HoopsHype.com

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