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.
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