Wait...what?? Celtics WIN Opening Night??? (10/29/14)

The title of the blog is basketbawful. Meaning, its going to highlight the incompetence of the Boston Celtics. The team who is without a true superstar and won just 25 games last year. Well someone forgot the script because the 2014-15 Celtics began their year with a 121-105 win over the Brooklyn Nets in the Boston Garden.

Before the game the Celtics had a pre-game ceremony to honor Isaac Austin, the surefire lottery pick who's career ended before it began due to a serious disease. He was presented with an honorary Celtics jersey as the Garden faithful gave him a standing O. I once said during the draft that if the Celtics had an extra second round pick, they would have taken Austin just like they drafted Landon Turner with their final pick in the 1982 draft.

As for the game, quite simply the Nets played ZERO defense. The Celtics used a complete team effort to put up 121 points with 8 out of the 10 players scoring in double figures. In fact, there wasn't a single bawful player. All 10 players scored, rebounded and assisted plus kept the vaunted Nets offense of Deron Williams and Joe Johnson to a minimum. Rajon Rondo said there was a 79% chance he would play. I'll say he played alright....13 points, 12 assists and 7 rebounds, falling just short of a triple double. A lot of people said he would be detrimental to the new team philosophy of spreading the ball but the game was over in the 3rd quarter. If this is how things are going to go for the season, its definitely better when he's in the lineup than out of it.

The game began with a rousing ovation for Kevin Garnett although Joe Johnson got the shaft. I guess KG's 396 regular season games, 84 playoff games and a championship leave a better impression than Joe's 48 games.

                     KG -"Look at the bright side man, at least you didn't turn out like Joe Forte"

Right from the start the Celtics attacked defensively and Jeff Green picked up the first foul of the season 16 seconds into the game. Still, the Celtics pounced on every rebound and used their speed advantage to push the action. The first points of the season came on a Jeff Green shot off a rebounded Kelly Olynyk miss. KG was called for his first moving screen of the season a minute and a half into it. The first 3 pointer was from Avery Bradley and that's enough firsts. The Celtics opened a 5-2 lead and never relinquished it. What was a breath of fresh air throughout the first quarter was the Celtics asserting their will on the offensive glass. Avery Bradley picked up two quick fouls and Marcus Smart was summoned off the bench halfway through the first quarter. Smart would finish with a respectable 10 points but his 4 steals and total harassment of Deron Williams kept Brooklyn from finding a rhythm in their offense all game. Eric Turner, the onetime Philadelphia villain entered the game and found Olynyk for a two point shot. The Celtics ended the first quarter 32-23.

The bench was a big strength for the Celtics. Brandon Bass, Tyler Zeller, Evan Turner, Marcus Smart and Marcus Thornton combined for 44 points, 2 blocks, 12 rebounds, 9 assists and 7 steals. Turner fell 3 rebounds and 5 assists short of a triple double, who saw THAT coming? Also, the team scored over 30 points in the first three quarters for the first time since 2002. It was 101-72 to end the third quarter and the rout was on.

The defense was able to limit Johnson and Williams to 13-35 shooting combined. In fact, if it wasn't for Mirza Teletovic catching fire (20 points on 8 of 11 shooting) the Celtics would have won by 30 going away. It was a complete team effort in the victory which is why the Celtics leading scorer only had 19 points (Kelly Olynyk). It was only one game, of course, but the smothering defense displayed could win them more games than expected if its consistently good. It wasn't even the Bombs Away Offense as they were only 8 of 22 shooting 3's.

Lastly, which Jeff Green showed up tonight...Dr. Jekyll or Mr. Hyde?

                                                           Jekyll

                                                        Hyde

I'd have to go with Dr. Jekyll tonight. He had 17 points with 6 rebounds, 3 assists and 2 steals. This was not a game he was asked to take over so he performed well to the situation.

Now for the Bawful report:

In terms of the actual game, nothing! Seriously, all 10 players played well.

There's the key word though...10 players. 2 guys were inactive and 3 guys didn't get into the game. Vitor Faverini and Dwight Powell get checkmarked for the Ellison Award while Gerald Wallace, Phil Pressey and James Young gets checkmarked for DNP-CD's. That's about it, the guys who got into the game played well.

Hell the only reason Wallace, Pressey and Young didn't get in is the team fell asleep to begin the 4th quarter and barely woke up. Had they maintained a 20-25 point lead for most of the 4th quarter I'm sure Young would have saw some action. Then again, he's been dealing with a hamstring and Wallace is still recovering from his knee surgery so that could have been precautionary. Don't know why coach Stevens left Pressey to rot on the bench though with a double-digit lead with minutes remaining.

                                                       Poor Phil

Hero of the night is a tough one. Again, in a team game where everyone played well its hard to choose just one guy. I'm gonna have to go with Rajon Rondo under the circumstances. He was expected to be out a month and he damn near had a triple double in the season opener. If he plays the majority of the season, no one will remember he broke his hand before the year started. Tonight he was brilliant and his passing led to several open buckets, so here's to the hero!

                                                       Hero of the Night

Final Thoughts:

If this is the formula they'll use to win ballgames, I'll take it. It won't be pretty but it may be successful. Since they don't have the one guy to take the game over like a Kobe Bryant or a Paul Pierce down the stretch, they're going to have to play like the 2001 New England Patriots in terms of team play. 8 guys scored 10 points or more, not one guy stood out but they got the W.

It was good to see Rondo back to his usual self and it was great to see the new guys such as Turner, Thornton, Zeller and Smart step up big. Truth be told I HATED the Turner signing because of his past but if he's actually matured, he was a number 2 overall pick for a reason.

The next game will be a real test as the Celtics travel to Houston to play a Rockets team that has arguably the best center in Dwight Howard and best shooter in James Harden. Also, their head coach is this man:

                                                Sorry Kevin but you're on the wrong side

Let's see if this win was a fluke or if they got something going here.

One Final Run-through (10/28/14)

The final rundown of the nightly awards:


The Mario - goes to anyone with under one minute of playing time

The Hamilton - goes to any big man who has more fouls and turnovers than points/rebounds/assists

The Fernsten - goes to anyone that comes into the game just to commit one foul

The Trillion - Anyone that comes into the game for over a minute and does absolutely nothing.

Suck Differential - goes to anyone that bricks a shot or free throw, commits a turnover or gets a tech without doing anything positive.

Jackass of the Night - goes to the man most responsible for costing his team the game

Hero of the Night - goes to the man most responsible in the miracle the Celtics actually win



Now for the end of the season awards:



The Mario - the man with the most Mario's

The Hamilton - the man with the most Hamilton's

The Fernsten - the man with the most Fernsten's

Richest Man in Basketball - the man with the most money made from trillions

The Ellison - the man who misses the most games due to injury

Bawful Player of the Year - the man with the most Suck Differentials

Jackass of the Year - The man who loses the most games

Plus there will be a new award just named yesterday. While the name is up in the air (to be settled after careful deliberation with some well known scholars) the award will be for the player that attains the most Did Not Play - Coaches Decision.  For those who are unfamiliar with what that means, basically if you're on the active roster (the 12 man, not the injured list) but don't get in the game, it was the coaches decision to keep you out. It could be because the player sucks and the coach doesn't want to play him, or its a starter coming back from injury and simply couldn't go that night, or a player suddenly had massive diarreah before tipoff...bottom line is he's active but doesn't play.

So for example opening night there can only be 12 men on the active roster but there's 15 total, that means 3 need to be injured every single game. For example sake, let's say the 3 are Vitor Faverini, Dwight Powell and Phil Pressey tomorrow night. All 3 get credit for the Ellison Award. Now, let's say James Young doesn't get into the game at all. He'll get a DNP-CD next to his name in the boxscore. So there's the difference between being hurt and simply not playing. The name for the end of the season DNP-CD award is still up in the air but in the end, it'll be decided.

Are there any favorites for the upcoming awards? Not really. Again, this isn't like baseball where you can easily point to a pitcher giving up 7 runs or a batter striking out three times with the bases loaded. Someone has to truly utterly suck to be singled out in a basketball game. If the Celtics lose 122-120, Gerald Wallace may score 25 but his opponent he guarded could have scored 45 and his lack of defense would be a real big reason why they lost, but he did score 25 to keep them in the game. Evan Turner may have missed the last second 3 pointer, but what if he had 15 points and 6 assists in the game? See the problem there? Even if the Celtics lose 110-80, obviously more than one guy didn't score many points. Again, its not like baseball or hockey where a pitcher or goalie can carry the incompetent offense. Nor is it like football where the defense can win 7-0 and score the winning touchdown by itself on a pick six. Its the most team oriented game of all so more often than not its tough to choose one singular Jackass of the Night.

Remember Glen Davis' 0-10 performance against Miami in Game 4 of the 2011 playoffs? Its easy to blame him for the loss but remember the game went to OT when Pierce missed at the buzzer in regulation. Do you blame Pierce for missing the buzzer beater, Davis for going 0 for 10 or whoever was on the court in OT that allowed the Heat to score the winning points?

Remember Game 4 of the 1987 Finals when Magic hit the junior skyhook after McHale fumbled the Kareem missed free throw and Bird missed at the buzzer? Do you blame McHale for fumbling the free throw, Bird for missing, both of them for allowing the skyhook....or do you blame the bench for being totally useless or Danny Ainge and DJ for letting the Laker guards run through them like swiss cheese in the 3rd and 4th quarter?  A lot of factors go into games which make singling out very tough.

Still, all that gum yapping was reserved for one award. The rest of them are plainly easy. A guy gets into a game for under a minute is a Mario, not hard to figure out. A team that's expected to fail has more opprotunities to be bawful than a team expected to go all the way. Again, as I pointed out in the past, the 1986 Celtics only had 15 jackasses but had all 82 games for bawful. Sly Williams would have won the Ellison (ironically the same year Pervis Ellison himself led Louisville to the NCAA title) if he wasn't released in December. I'm sure during garbage time some of the legends such as Sam Vincent and Greg Kite picked up a Mario or two. Danny Ainge once had a trillion in the 84 NBA Finals!

Bottom line is, this is going to be a fun season.

Bye Bye Bynum (Final Pre-season report) 10/27/14

In a move that surprised no one, the final roster spot came down to Dwight Powell and Will Bynum with Powell winning out. Bynum's 3 million dollar contract simply didn't justify his production the last couple of seasons. You don't put up Tyler Zeller numbers and expect Roy Hibbert money.

With that, the roster is now set:

C - Kelly Olynyk, Tyler Zeller, Vitor Faverini

F - Brandon Bass, Jared Sullinger, Dwight Powell

F - Gerald Wallace, James Young, Jeff Green

G - Marcus Thornton, Avery Bradley, Evan Turner

G - Rajon Rondo, Marcus Smart, Phil Pressey

While this roster may not scare too many people, a big trade could propel them to the top of the standings. A team desperate to unload a star at the deadline would fall into the Celtics hands who has complimentary players and draft picks at their disposal.

Also, it was put in writing that Rondo had a "79% chance" of playing in the season opener. Whether he plays or not is up in the air but the bottom line is he's not going to be out until December/January like last year unless he's more hurt than what the team is telling us.

Still, the final pre-season game against Brooklyn was against scrubs but anyone who paid attention saw that without Rondo, the ball movement was distrubuted and everyone got in on the action. When Rondo has the ball, he gets it before anyone else. When he's out, its everyone pitching in. This could be the fork in the road for coach Brad Stevens because what will guarantee more wins, keeping Rondo happy or making the team effort. It doesn't matter if Rondo has a triple double or 7 guys have 10-15 points, the bottom line is to win.

Remember this is not the New York Knicks where if Carmello isn't in the spotlight, he pouts and the team suffers. The Celtics during their dynasty years prided themselves on winning the game by any means necessary. That's why Chamberlain had the stats and Russell had the rings. Hell up until Lebron James teamed up with Dwayne Wade, Chris Bosh, Mario Chalmers, Shane Battier, Udonis Haslem and Mike Miller....that's why James had the stats and Pierce had the rings.

Which brings me to my next rant. Its payback time on the Miami Heat and their "fans". For a bit of reference, the Sixers were still nasty in 1969 after they "traded" (more like gave away) Wilt Chamberlain. They still had Billy Cunningham and most of the same crew that took a 3-1 series lead on the Celtics the year prior in the Eastern Finals. Without Chamberlain though, they were beatable. Fast forward 46 years later to the Miami Heat. They're still pretty good with Bosh, Wade, Chalmers, Haslem, Ray Allen and company...but they're not the same without Lebron James. If the Celtics and the rest of the NBA want to cream the Heat to stick it to their fairweather fans, this is the time to do it. All those Dwayne Wade commercials with the morons in the Miami Heat jersies, the "Not one, not two" speech, the "decision", the 4 straight finals appearances, its payback time. While the Heat ruled the roost for those four years, other teams loaded their guns to beat them, which San Antonio and Dallas managed to do. Also, the flip side is, now we see who the true Heat fans really are. If the arena is still packed every night without Lebron James, then those fans are the ones I respect. Otherwise, they go by the way of the Chicago Bulls. The Bulls ruled the world from 1991-98 but they didn't do a damn thing before or anything since. In fact, they lost to a far inferior Sixers team in the playoffs after Derrek Rose went down (the second time). That's a different story for another day. If the Celtics have any pride, especially their fans, they'll want to pound the Heat into the ground to show that they may have been on top for four years, but the Celtics have been doing it a lot longer.

The season opens Wednesday night with the exact same Celtics team against a much different Nets team than the one they creamed in their final exhibition game. One that's rested and playing Deron Williams, Brook Lopez, Kevin Garnett and Joe Johnson. It'll be a good test to see if the new look Celtics with Zeller, Smart, Young, Turner and a returning Wallace can hang with a still good Nets team that happens to be missing Paul Pierce.
Which leads to my next rant. Its sad Pierce couldn't end his career with the Celtics because Ainge treated him like he himself was treated in 1989, but if this is his final year...the Wizards? Really? Its not like the Wizards are the same incompetent suckbags they were in 2011, but at least the Nets were in the title hunt last year. With Pierce, this year they'd still be a playoff team (barring key injuries) but the bottom line is it would be a shame to see Pierce go out a loser with the Wizards. Maybe somehow Ainge will bring him back next year on the veterans minimum just so he can retire here. Which leads me to my final rant.

One things for sure, no matter how popular a player is in Boston, with Ainge around he will NOT finish his career here. He himself was jettisoned in 1989 while McHale and Bird were allowed to retire in Boston after several crippled seasons.Whether this is his revenge for not being allowed to stay or his way of doing business, as long as he's around eventually a guy like Pierce, Rondo, Smart, etc will be gone eventually. Its a shame because even though the Celtics COULD have traded Bird, Parish and McHale while their values were high, it was better for morale and the big picture that they weren't. Even though Bob Cousy and Dave Cowens came out of retirement with other teams, they, along with the Jones boys, Russell, Tom Heinsohn, Jim Luscutoff, Don Nelson, John Havlicek and others finished their careers here. In fact, the last one to have any sort of linneage with the team that retired here was McHale in 93. Antoine Walker spent 7 years here before being shipped to Dallas, Kenny Anderson spent 5 years before being exiled to Seattle. Tony Battie spent 5 1/2 years in Boston before being shipped out to Cleveland. Eric Williams spent the better part of 7 years in Boston before joining Battie in Cleveland. Kevin Garnett lasted 6 years before being sent to the Nets. Pierce himself lasted 15 before being sent to the Nets. This will be Rondo's 9th year in the league and rumors of him being traded have been going on for two years now. To be fair, unlike Pierce and Garnett, none of the others are 1st ballot hall of famers. I'm sure if Jared Sullinger is the real deal, he'll last about 10 years barring injury. Only question is as his career winds down, if Danny Ainge is still around, how long will he be around until he's traded? Retiring with the team is out of the question.

For the final part of the post, its time to discuss "the trade". Pierce, Garnett and Jason Terry to the Nets for their 1st round pick in 2014, 2016 and 2017, Marshon Brooks, Keith Bogans, Gerald Wallace and Kris Humphries. So far, Bogans and Brooks has turned into Tyler Zeller and the pick in 2014 turned into James Young. That's basically a younger Pierce and Garnett (in size ONLY) in Young and Zeller although KG was a forward (despite playing center in 12 and 13) and Zeller a center. Whether or not Young can be a star depends on how hard he's willing to work and Zeller can never be KG in both personality and skill but he could either be a good backup to a real center or step up and become the next Robert Parish, who didn't flourish until Bill Fitch got a hold of him. The jury is still out on the trade because Wallace is still with the team and they have two picks left. Wallace was the team's mouthpiece last year until he was lost for the season and Humphries was the classic "right player, wrong year" as he had a good year but for a team that went nowhere. If they had him in 2012 against the Heat or 2010 against the Lakers, maybe there would be another banner in the rafters. Still, so far the Nets pretty much gambled their future on Pierce and Garnett and they failed to defeat the Heat last year. Now Pierce is gone, Johnson and Garnett are another year older, Lionill Hollins replaced Jason Kidd so who knows if Deron Williams can be contained or not, plus if Lopez gets hurt again then what? I said before the year started that the Celtics should have taken this year;s pick and not 2016. Remember the Ted Stepian rule? Well I would have gone 14, 15 and 17 but instead Ainge went 14, 16 and 17. In my opinion, if the Nets go in the tank this year they'll have money coming off the books and will have a lottery pick and the ability to sign a free agent. They could turn it around or at least servicable enough where their pick in 16 would be middle of the pack like last year. Still, if James Young pans out or is traded in a package for a star, middle of the pack isn't as bad as it sounds. The Celtics still have the Clippers pick this year which is going to be useless because Donald Sterling is gone and the Clips may actually get over the hump.

Its going to be an interesting year regardless. Last year their gameplan was to tank, everyone knew it as much as the front office denied it. Well they tanked and they got Smart out of it. This year they may suck but at least they're going to be fun to watch. Maybe Ainge has something up his sleeve or maybe he'll let it play out. After all, the core of the 1970's Don Chaney, Jojo White, Cowens, Steve Kuberski and Tom Boswell (having Havlicek and Silas helped too) maturing together netted them 2 titles. Best case scenario, the core of Olynyk, Sullinger, Smart, Young and Pressey all drafted within the last 3 years nets them superstars in a trade or they become stars themselves. Let's see what happens.

Pre-Season Report: Rondo's Back?? (10/23/14)

Hmmm, perhaps there's some good news on the horizon after all. Not only will the Celtics of the $2.9 million dollar contract of Will Bynum soon, Rajon Rondo may play after all in the season opener......or not.

In a conflicting report, Celtics coach Brad Stevens says Rondo will be ready by opening day while Rondo himself says maybe he won't. Usually when a player wussies out, he deserves to get booed but when someone breaks a hand, all bets are off.

If Rondo is better suited to help the team by sitting in a coat and tie on the bench until his hand is fully healed, that may be the better option. Its not like this team has a legitimate shot at the NBA Finals and all wins matter like from 2008-12. Why risk him re-injuring his hand by having him rush his return?

The flip side is if he IS ready, it'll be a huge shot in the arm for a team that's slowly coming back to the top. If Marcus Smart is any good and Evan Turner's head is in the right state of mind, that's 2 good backups to go with Avery Bradley and Rondo. Phil Pressey would be the odd man out but then again, he and Turner can battle it out in practice over who deserves minutes. Also, if Pressey is improved from last year he'll be chomping at the bit for a chance to prove himself. That's known as the good kind of competion. Although, he could go the other way and pout like Joe Forte in 2002 but let's not go there.

Bottom line is if Jared Sullinger is the real deal and Kelly Olynyk is much improved from last year, both will benefit from Rondo being on the floor. Still, the one that REALLY benefits will be Marcus Thornton. If he's hot, Rondo will be feeding him the ball until he cools off.

In other NBA news, as sad as it sounds the Celtics may be one of the front runners in the Atlantic Division. The Nets aren't as good as they were last year and the Knicks and Sixers aren't scaring anyone. That just leaves Toronto who has to prove last year was no fluke and that's always hard to do with a team like that.

As of now, the Celtics have 16 men on the roster. Rondo, Bynum, Bradley, Olynyk, Sullinger, Pressey, Smart, Turner, Thornton, Brandon Bass, Vitor Faverini, Tyler Zeller, Jeff Green, Gerald Wallace, James Young and Dwight Powell. Young's hamstring is improved so he could play in tonight's pre-season finale although Wallace, Rondo and Faverini remain out. Like I said earlier, the Celtics look to keep Powell over Bynum due to Will's massive contract but if they decide to go the other way and cut Powell, at least they'll have insurance at center in case Olynyk and Zeller get hurt. Or they could cut Faverini and keep Powell and Bynum. Bottom line is, you can never have enough depth, especially in an 82 game season. Opening Day could be Zeller, Sullinger, Green, Bradley and Rondo start with Olynyk, Bass, Thornton, Turner and Smart the backups with Young and Pressey 11th and 12th man with Faverini and Wallace out with injury plus Powell/Bynum the healthy scratch.

In terms of bawful, Faverini and Wallace would get checkmarks for the Ellison Award but not Powell/Bynum since they're not hurt. In terms of a feel-good story, it would be nice for Powell to make the team considering nobody outside of Boston knew his name two months ago (or even now really).

Tonight's pre-season finale will bring old pals Joe Johnson and Kevin Garnett back to the Garden as the Brooklyn Nets are in town. I said before the year started that the Ted Stepian Rule bites the Celtics because this Nets team will be weaker than last year's that gave the Celtics the number 17 pick (James Young). For those who don't know, the rule refers to former incompetent Cleveland Cavaliers owner Ted Stepian who was famous for trading their first round pick nearly every single year. Pretty much the rule was designed to protect Ted from himself and it disallows the trading of first round picks in 3 consecutive years. That's why the Celtics got the Nets pick this past draft and in the 2016 draft but not this coming year. The Nets may suck this year to get in the lottery but may make some moves that make them a contender again next year. That's what I'm afraid of anyway. As of now the Celtics have their own first round pick and the Clippers, which would have been a sure lottery pick had Donald Sterling not waved the white flag and sold the team. Seriously, had Sterling stayed half the team including coach Doc Rivers would have been gone.

We'll see shortly after tonight't game how they look going forward.

Introduction to 2014-15

Welcome to another season of Boston Celtics basketball. Normally the Celtics are the class of the NBA but this year is a little different. Last year the Celtics were expected to suck in order to land two high draft picks. Basically the 2013-14 season was called "Tankapalooza" They did, indeed, suck and landed number 6 overall pick Marcus Smart and number 17 overall pick James Young.  This year wasn't supposed to be another tankapalooza but since Danny Ainge made no big trades (unless you count Joel Anthony for Will Bynum and Chris Babb/Chris Johnson/Keith Bogans for Tyler Zeller), this year could go either way. The Celtics could suck or Kelly Olynyk, Jared Sullinger and Tyler Zeller develop into stars with Brandon Bass, Jeff Green, Gerald Wallace and Bynum providing strength in the front court.

The wild card in all this is Rajon Rondo. He's going to miss the first two months of the season with a broken hand, which means the starting guards will be Evan Turner and Avery Bradley with Paul Pressey and Marcus Smart the backups. Add in Marcus Thornton as their knock down shooter, this season really can be hit or miss. The problem is that's a hell of a supporting cast....but they have no stars. Rondo was never on the same level as Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen and that's before the knee injury. If the team is clicking without him, they may very well have to move him. If they're under .500, they'll definitely need him back to see if he has anything left in the tank.

As of now the team looks like this:

C- Zeller

F - Sullinger

F - Green

G - Bradley

G Turner

Bench

C- Olynyk

F - Bass

F- Wallace

G - Pressey

G - Smart

  11th and 12th men - James Young and Marcus Thornton

The remaining men are training camper Dwight Powell, the injured Rondo and Vitor Faverini along with Will Bynum. One of these guys has to go and the Celtics seem to be on their way to waiving Bynum and eating his $2.9 million dollar contract. Yes they'd have to pay his contract this season but it comes off the books next year. If Ainge is willing to have another tankapalooza, he may part with Green, Bass, Rondo and or Wallace by the end of the season.

Keep in mind its not like the Celtics pulled a Red Sox and Bruins by doing nothing in the off-season on purpose. No, they actually tried to go after star forward Kevin Love but Cleveland won the lottery (again...for a 4th time in 10 years...no shadyness there right?) and their offer was a little bit better than the Celtics. Getting a 7 footer in Zeller also gives them some much needed height. Like I said before, it would be nice to see Pressey, Olynyk and Sullinger to develop further and Young/Smart to show some promise. That's the one thing about Brad Stevens that he's superior to Doc Rivers over, Young and Smart wouldn't even sniff the court under Rivers no matter what but Stevens will at least give them a look. Remember Rivers leaving E'Twuan Moore to rot on the bench in the 2012 Eastern Finals while Mario Chalmers blew past Keyon Dooling when Rondo wasn't in the game?

So, what this means is the Celtics have the troops not to suck this year and may get in the playoff picture as a low seed. The problem is they have no established superstars and can't be considered a contender with the roster they have. It would  be nice to see Sullinger and Olynyk turn into stars and Marcus Smart play well enough to be in the Rookie of the Year picture. Realistically, unless they trade their roster to go into the tank, this has all the makings of a 35-47 season. They're good enough to beat the dregs of the league such as Philadelphia and New York, but against San Antontio, Miami and Cleveland they don't stand much of a chance.

Which means this season has plenty of opportunity for bawful. There will be nightly awards and end of the season awards. Here's the rundown:

In (dis)honor of Pervis Ellison, the Celtic that misses the most games by injury by season end wins the Ellison Award. Rajon Rondo and Vitor Faverini have a head start on it already.

In honor of legendary Celtics practice man Eric Fernsten, anyone who comes into the game and all he does is give or commit one foul....he gets the Fernsten Award.

Also, the now legendary "trillion" made famous by Mark Titus will be in effect. In other words, guys who get into a game and do nothing for over a minute get a "trillion". That's 1 minute played with 0 points, 0 rebounds, 0 assists, 0 turnovers, 0 fouls, 0 shots, 0 steals, 0 free throws and 0 tech fouls.

In (dis)honor of legendary bumbler Thomas Hamilton, any big man that commits more turnovers and fouls than points, rebounds and assists gets the Hamilton Award

In (dis)honor of former Celtics camper Mario West, anyone who gets less than one minute in a game gets the Mario Award. There are bonuses, if its under 20 seconds it is considered a Super Mario and under 10 seconds is the Super Mario Galaxy.

Now for guys who come in and do nothing positive but commits one or more of the following; bricked shots, missed free throws, fouls, turnovers and techs results in Suck Differential. Maybe anyone that actually reads this can get a guy who sucked enough to put a name on this.

The two obligatory nightly awards depending on the outcome of the game are Hero of the Night and Jackass of the Night. Unlike baseball, this is a bit harder to grade since its a team game. For example Avery Bradley can go 0 for 6 but could have 5 steals and a game saving block at the buzzer. Jeff Green could have 35 points but have 8 turnovers and 3 missed free throws that cost the team the victory. More often than not there won't be just one guy at fault in a loss, but the suckiest of suckbags will get counted.

The end of the year awards besides the Ellison will be the guys who tally the most Mario's, the most Fernsten's, the most money (trillions), the most Hamilton's, Bawful Player of the Year (suck differentials) and Jackass of the Year. The difference between Bawful and Jackass is a guy can consistently suck night after night to be bawful but a guy that loses the most games gets the Jackass. When the Celtics went 67-15 in 1986, there were only 15 Jackasses but their bench players had plenty of opportunities for the Bawful Player of the Year. You may be wondering why there are no positive awards, well this is basketBAWFUL so its not supposed to highlight any positives. Still, Hero of The Year will be presented to the guy that actually helps the team win more often than not.

That about wraps up the introduction. As of right now the Celtics are 4-3 during the preseason including a 17 point comeback win over KG's Nets. While it doesn't outcome the regular season, it does show the Celtics aren't ready for primetime but don't totally suck either.