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Celtics Blog: Three reasons to temper expectations for the Celtics
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CrushAlot
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8/5/2016  9:39 AM
As the hype train heads towards Boston, let’s take it with a grain of salt.

The Boston Celtics are coming off an impressive season, have a solid future, great coach and were able to land a big name free agent. As everything seems to fall in place for the Celtics the hype surrounding them for this upcoming season is growing, here are three reasons to remain grounded with your hopes for the Celtics this season.

Eastern Conference –

As NBA fans, it seems we always hear about the ‘massive disparity’ between the Western and Eastern Conferences. Although there may be some truth to the west being slightly better, I rarely hear anybody note how competitive the Eastern Conference is. With the recent addition of center Al Horford, there is now a lot of talk that the Celtics are the most likely suitor to square off with the defending champion Cleveland Cavaliers in the ECF. I think it’s important to note that the Celtics weren’t the only team that improved this offseason. Also, even the teams who lost key guys such as the: Bulls, Hawks and Heat will not fall too far and remain somewhat competitive.

Out of the eastern conference teams that were able to improve their roster this offseason, I think the Celtics improved theirs the least. Obviously the fact the Celtics were already a good team plays a role in this take, but certainly the Indiana Pacers and New York Knicks drastically improved their roster.

For as much as the internet already loves to troll the Knicks for adding perpetually injured players like Derrick Rose and Joakim Noah, that’s going to be a solid roster. Fans seem to forget how good Carmelo Anthony, Noah and Rose are individually and the casual fans are still snoozing on Kristaps Porzingis. I think it’s reasonable to proceed with caution when facing off with that team.

Meanwhile, the Pacers were able to add Jeff Teague, Thaddeus Young and Al Jefferson to help take the pressure off of superstar, Paul George. The Pacers only finished three games behind the Celtics and were able to significantly improve in three positions, while the Celtics only improved one position. The combination of a proven star, in George, and excellent complementary players in: Teague, Ellis, Turner, Young and Jefferson is going to be tough to handle. Unless the Celtics are able to add another star, my prediction for the ECF is going to be the revival of the King James vs King George rivalry.


http://hardwoodhoudini.com/2016/08/04/3-reasons-temper-expectations-boston-celtics/
I just copied the first reason. The other two are specific to roster/chemistry for the Celtics.
I'm tired,I'm tired, I'm so tired right now......Kristaps Porzingis 1/3/18
AUTOADVERT
crzymdups
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8/5/2016  10:31 AM
Can't wait for the season.

Knicks v Celtics is gonna be good.

Knicks v Bulls is gonna be great fun.

Knicks v Pacers should be good, too.

A lot of old rivalries in the East should be pretty good this coming season.

¿ △ ?
Nalod
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8/5/2016  11:03 AM
Good to see a reasonable Blog. Celtic Love is a bit lost on me and I thought while the east has been improved, its a parity move that does not distinguish.
I think this continues into next season.
Everything goes right with knicks, they are capable of winning 55 games. That's a rare occurance so Im tempering my expectations quite a bit from that.
Not just good health for that to happen, but our PorzinGOD takes a quantum leap and not just defies the sophomore slump, but gains ability and confidence.
All that, and add in the possibility of the new coach's system (including the triangle) adding the chemistry where the sum is greater than the individual parts and you have some real upside.
I know, I sound like Nixluva today, but......
This time the talent is on the court. Depth of bench is a concern. The unproven Minda, rookies and big yoots are hard to rate. Willy can beat on Venezuela, but that's not NBA caliber.

The blog is a fair assessment, which is unusual for any blog looking for eyeballs. My enthusiasm is for how interesting this team is, not the my expectations. This team can be an unmitigated disaster or win the east. While we can say that for about any NBA team, this one has Three "Stars" (Melo, Rose and PorzinGod), A super glue guy (Noah) and a capable 2 (Lee). So its (unlikey) but the talent is there for many things to happen.

nixluva
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8/5/2016  1:30 PM
Celtics are a tough team. Especially in the regular season when you can't always prepare for them. They are pretty much all about Isaiah Thomas. Once a team shuts him down the rest of the team is fairly pedestrian.
callmened
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8/5/2016  9:53 PM
nixluva wrote:Celtics are a tough team. Especially in the regular season when you can't always prepare for them. They are pretty much all about Isaiah Thomas. Once a team shuts him down the rest of the team is fairly pedestrian.

dont forget al horford and their tremendous team defense

Knicks should be improved: win about 40 games and maybe sneak into the playoffs. Melo, Rose and even Noah will have some nice moments however this team should be about PORZINGUS. the sooner they make him the primary player, the better
nixluva
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8/6/2016  2:15 AM
callmened wrote:
nixluva wrote:Celtics are a tough team. Especially in the regular season when you can't always prepare for them. They are pretty much all about Isaiah Thomas. Once a team shuts him down the rest of the team is fairly pedestrian.

dont forget al horford and their tremendous team defense

Oh yeah their defense is one of the things that makes the Celtics so tough. Horford will fit right in. Its gonna be interesting to see which teams improved the most.

BRIGGS
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8/6/2016  10:44 AM
Cs have too many guys on their roster
RIP Crushalot😞
knicks1248
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8/8/2016  6:11 PM
only team standing in our way is Cleveland....if were relatively healthy, 55 wins
ES
Uptown
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8/8/2016  7:40 PM
Celts are a gritty band of over achievers...they play extremely hard every game regardless if its in Milwuakee in the middle of January or the Pelicans in March. They remind me of Pat Rileys Heat teams with with Mourning and Hardaway. They play with playoff level intesity in the reg season and win big but failed to advance very far in the playoffs because everyone steps up their games up. Talent wins out in the playoffs .
Celtics Blog: Three reasons to temper expectations for the Celtics

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