I was listening to a radio broadcast, and I heard some analysts say that for sure the Celtics tanked this season to pickup Oden/Durant and even extended the leave on some player's injuries so they wouldn't do as well. Does anyone think this is true?? I personally think if it was true, that they could have done fine with their players, but they wouldnt have a good draft pick so its kind of controversial.... Would you have tanked this season if you were the Celtics, or was it just a concidence only 3-4 players on the team were injured?
I don't know if Boston actually tanked, but some recent comments made by Ryan Gomes and Doc Rivers somewhat led people to believe that they in fact did tank.The way I look at it is that if you are management, you definitely would want to tank and get the highest pick possible, especially when you have two talents like Oden and Durant coming out this year. However, I don't think the players would be on board with tanking... they have too much pride to just throw away games like that. As for the coach, I don't know... it depends.
It's now pretty obvious to anyone with a brain that the Celtics have been tanking games. The comments from Gomes/Rivers confirm it.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (BrewCityBuck @ Apr 17 2007, 05:36 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>It's now pretty obvious to anyone with a brain that the Celtics have been tanking games. The comments from Gomes/Rivers confirm it.</div>Doc is an idiot who should be fired. Seriously, he doesn't know what he's talking about half of the times.Ryan Gomes made a pretty stupid comment as well. If the Celtics were tanking, Pierce wouldn't want to be there. Pierce wants to win, and it really didn't seem like they were tanking. They just had so much injuries that they had to deal with this season, they really didn't have a team.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (AiRuPtHeRe? @ Apr 17 2007, 04:53 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>Doc is an idiot who should be fired. Seriously, he doesn't know what he's talking about half of the times.Ryan Gomes made a pretty stupid comment as well. If the Celtics were tanking, Pierce wouldn't want to be there. Pierce wants to win, and it really didn't seem like they were tanking. They just had so much injuries that they had to deal with this season, they really didn't have a team.</div> Yeah, it's just coincidence they have no players the last couple weeks of the season....same thing with the Bucks....
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (BrewCityBuck @ Apr 17 2007, 05:57 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>Yeah, it's just coincidence they have no players the last couple weeks of the season....same thing with the Bucks....</div><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'>BOS: Paul Pierce is out for season (elbow, knee, foot, eye)BOS: Wally Szczerbiak is out for season (recovering from ankle surgery)BOS: Tony Allen is out for season (torn ACL/MCL)BOS: Brian Scalabrine is out for season (strained left hamstring)BOS: Michael Olowokandi is out for season (fractured bone in left foot)BOS: Theo Ratliff is out for season (recovering back surgery)</div>Theo - Allen - Szcerbiak and Kandi Man have been injured for a while now. Pierce has had troubles, so why play him with a week left of games? Not sure whats up with Scals injury. If we were tanking, why would we play Jefferson? Wouldn't we wanna keep our players healthy and make sure nothing happens so they come back good next season? I honestly don't think the Celtics were tanking regardless to Gomes & Rivers comments.EDIT: Scal has been injured since 3/26/07.
How can you tank on accident?hahaYes we tanked and so did Memphis, Milwaukee, Charlotte, Atlanta..I don't see why we're the only team being attacked for it
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (AiRuPtHeRe? @ Apr 17 2007, 05:01 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>I honestly don't think the Celtics were tanking regardless to Gomes & Rivers comments.</div> Yeah, let's just completely disregard the coach admitting to tanking.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'>Yeah, let's just completely disregard the coach admitting to tanking.</div>After this season with all the injuries Boston has faced the only viable thing to do is play all the young guys. We almost have more injured players than we do active guys, we had to sign Kevinn Pinkney for christ sake. This has been the season from hell for this team. When Doc said what do I have to gain from this win against the Bobcats. I don't understand how people can criticize the guy. What did he have to gain? What is wrong with playing young guys in the 4th quarter against the Bobcats in a meaningless game? And also people are saying oh Doc has been sitting Rondo/Gomes/Perk in the 4th quarter. That's a rookie, a 2nd year player, and a 4th year player out of high school who is taking a long time developing. It's not like he's sitting Bird and McHale.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (playaofthegame @ Apr 17 2007, 06:05 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>How can you tank on accident?hahaYes we tanked and so did Memphis, Milwaukee, Charlotte, Atlanta..I don't see why we're the only team being attacked for it</div>Because it's Boston Celtic's Day!
Yes, we tanked on purpose. It was to the point where we were closing out close games with Leon Powe, Sebastian Telfair, Allan Ray, and Kevinn Pinkney... Rondo, Gomes, and Perkins sitting on the bench. That's tanking on purpose, and Ryan Gomes even said it to the media. We did tank on purpose and I'm very worried that karma will come back to bite us in the ass on May 22nd.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'>Wasn't it like a month ago that all of you were saying that no teams in the NBA tank?</div>I did say that but people are forgetting games against the Orlando Magic, late in the season, when we were supposively in "tank mode" where Al Jefferson and Paul Pierce were playing like absolute beasts and Pierce hit about 6 clutch shots to keep us in a 2OT game that we eventually won. Once Paul went down and Al J took some games off who the hell is left? Our best player is delonte west/ryan gomes after that. Are those guys supposed to lead us to victory every night?
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (WELCOMEtotheJUNGLE @ Apr 17 2007, 07:17 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>I did say that but people are forgetting games against the Orlando Magic, late in the season, when we were supposively in "tank mode" where Al Jefferson and Paul Pierce were playing like absolute beasts and Pierce hit about 6 clutch shots to keep us in a 2OT game that we eventually won. Once Paul went down and Al J took some games off who the hell is left? Our best player is delonte west/ryan gomes after that. Are those guys supposed to lead us to victory every night?</div> Yeah, I believe we only tanked for about a week and a half, about 5-6 games, that's it. I still don't support tanking at all, but in our defense, we only tanked for a little over a week. The worst part about it was announcing it.
at some point in the last 4-6 weeks all of the lower rung teams started to tank.If you're outta play off contention, it makes sense when you have such a stacked draft.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (CelticFan @ Apr 17 2007, 07:20 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>at some point in the last 4-6 weeks all of the lower rung teams started to tank. If you're outta play off contention, it makes sense when you have such a stacked draft.</div> But we made it so damn obvious, especially in the Bucks game on Friday. Then we come out and announce it like complete idiots (I don't want to mention any names... cough cough Gomes and Doc, cough cough). Has any team ever done that? Just announce it to the media? Now, I'm not sure if I believe the lottery is rigged, I don't think I believe that, but if there were any truth to it... I am worried as hell, because what we did is a perfect reason why the lottery would be rigged in the first place. I don't know, I'm too paranoid/anxious about this lottery. I try to be mature about it and just try to wait and see, and I did that successfully for a while, but I just can't anymore. I think about it too often, every day. I can't help it, I just can't wait until it finally happens.
Can't help but think about this one. On one end I really wanna say we didn't because we had 894328543209 injuries to deal with this year. Especially with some of the wins we came up with. Why beat San Antonio? Why push Orlando to 2 OTs? Why bother putting Jefferson in for these last 2 games? (yes I realize after we clinched 2nd worst...) Why bother beating Cleveland, Toronto and Atlanta? On the other end you can't help but look at Gomes comments and who ended up on the floor at the end of some of the games. Either way, the Celtics injuries definitely caught up with them, and you can't really blame Doc for playing the young kids, because 1) that's all they had, and 2) if the seasons basically gone, why not develop them a little more?All that I really think matters is that we saw what the kids we have on our roster have to offer, and they're all willing to fight hard and play their hardest, even if they do lose 18 in a row, I guess that I can respect.Do I think we tanked? I'm not sure. I'm still undecided about this topic.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (WELCOMEtotheJUNGLE @ Apr 17 2007, 06:17 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>I did say that but people are forgetting games against the Orlando Magic, late in the season, when we were supposively in "tank mode" where Al Jefferson and Paul Pierce were playing like absolute beasts and Pierce hit about 6 clutch shots to keep us in a 2OT game that we eventually won. Once Paul went down and Al J took some games off who the hell is left? Our best player is delonte west/ryan gomes after that. Are those guys supposed to lead us to victory every night?</div>Hey man, I haven't seen the games. For all I know, you guys weren't tanking. Or maybe they are trying to preserve Pierce and AJ's talents. I don't know. All that I know is that a player on the team insinuated that the Celtics tanked. I can't recall a guy ever saying that in any sport. It's kind of a deal, if not a big deal. And yeah, y'all don't have a great team, but it's one thing to suck when you're playing all your best players and another thing to tank for realz.
I don't understand why some of you are even questioning this. When you play Kevinn Pinkney, Leon Powe, Sebastian Telfair, and Allan Ray to close out games... with Rajon Rondo, Ryan Gomes, and Kendrick Perkins on the bench at the end of those games... you are tanking. When you sit Al Jefferson out because of a touch on the knee, then bring him back the day after we clinch the 2nd worst record.. you are tanking. We did tank, people. Stop sugar-coating it, it happened.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'>I don't understand why some of you are even questioning this. When you play Kevinn Pinkney, Leon Powe, Sebastian Telfair, and Allan Ray to close out games... with Rajon Rondo, Ryan Gomes, and Kendrick Perkins on the bench at the end of those games... you are tanking. When you sit Al Jefferson out because of a touch on the knee, then bring him back the day after we clinch the 2nd worst record.. you are tanking.We did tank, people. Stop sugar-coating it, it happened.</div>The only reason I question it is because this team arleady had a ton of injuries, Paul Pierce played with a bad elbow and a weak foot against the Magic (a playoff team) on March 29th and we took the Magic into 2OT. Doc didn't play Powe, Ray, Telfair down the stretch of that game. They tried to win that game. If they were really on board the tank train why didn't they try to lose that game when they weren't even sure if they were going to lock up the #2 pick. It's not like after January this team just sat down and folded. They were still competing up until the beginning of this month when Paul was officially ready to shut it down.
