The Celtics are the same basically minus a very good wing defender in James Posey and Rasheed basically being PJ Brown. Posey was huge for them. The Celtics are also older and not quite the same players they were, mainly KG.
Powe is probably a bigger loss for them then Posey or Brown. Sheed more then replaces Brown and Tony Allen + Marquis Daniels are a wash for JP... Big Baby has taken some of the minutes that Leon garnered but he's not been as good.
the Celts are older? Fisher is 35, Kobe 31, Artest 30, Odom 30, Pau 29... Bynum is just 22 but he's been struggling with injuries
and is a major question mark, so my best guess is he'll be contributing off the bench in limited minutes. If so their starting 5 averages 31 years of age.
The Celtics starters ages are Rondo 23, Allen 34, Pierce 32, Garnett 33, Perkins 25... average age of 29
here's a link to the box scores from 2008
Last time Gasol and Odom were the starting front court with Radmanovic(lol) the starting SF. Now it's Bynum and Gasol with Odom coming off the bench and Artest the starting SF. Big difference.
Artest's PER is 11.4 for the playoffs... I know his D is still pretty good but I don't see him as a much of a deterrent to Pierce's perimeter game/a big difference. Using PER as an overview of offensive effectiveness, this past season's 12.1 was the worst year of his career... both his season and playoff PER ratings are actually below Vlad's in 2008. He certainly doesn't spread the court as well... why no mention of departed Lakers Turiaf or Ariza?
Idk, the way Kobe is playing right now I'd say he's better. 9/10 games he's score over 30pts and just got done torching the Jazz and suns. He's on fire right now. At worst it's a wash.
it's undoubtably easier to focus on scoring when you're guarding Grant Hill and CJ Miles then trying to stay with any of the Celtic's main guards/wings.
I'm not really sure who is declining on the Lakers other than Fisher. Everyone else is pretty much the same. Gasol is actually arguably a better player now than he was in 2008 imo.
Are you going to go with the
PER is BS and only your personal observations are admissible argument or can we look at stats which we actually can compare? If you do place value in that measure (PER) as an overview of whats what, then you'll be surprised to learn that Kobe Odom Pau Fisher and Ron Ron all posted higher PER ratings during the 2008 season. Bynum has improved, but again he's a question mark on what he'll be able to bring because of injury
Things are different this time around.
we shall see
STOMP
