To Tank or not to Tank

The lack of talent in the Eastern Conference, coupled with the loaded draft class has found most NBA teams fighting not for first place, but for last. The same can be said for my favorite team, the Boston Celtics. I find myself torn between wanting them to play well, and wanting them to be awful so they can get a top draft pick come summer.

With the top prizes of the draft Jabari Parker of Duke, and Joel Embiid of Kansas considering potentially staying in school for another year; and no guarantee of the worst record giving them the top pick, it makes me hesitant.

So lets assume that both of these guys do leave school after just one year and head to the draft, what do the Celtics have to do to place themselves in a position to grab one of these young studs to build around? Currently, at 18-34, the Celtics find themselves with the 6th worst record and a 6.3% chance of winning the top pick in the lottery. However there are a handful of teams within a game or two of the Celtics which could see them sway anywhere from ninth to third worst. But with still half a season to go and All Star point guard Rajon Rondo beginning to find his rhythm after missing a year following surgery on his torn ACL the Celtics might be too good for their own good. 

Nothing is worse then finding yourself in the middle of the pack in the top heavy NBA. Being consistently average in a bad conference can be the kiss of death to a franchise. The same bad teams always seem to find their way to the bottom of the standings despite getting top picks year in and year out, so being only slightly better then them leaves you little chance of getting the building blocks needed to turn an OK team into a contender. That is why I agree with Danny Ainge's tactics of shipping out the house and starting from scratch with a few key pieces.

One of those pieces he has been keen on keeping up until recently has been 6'9" forward Jeff Green. Green is a physical freak who is capable of stuffing the stat sheet on a good night. His issue is that those good nights are few and far between. For instance, on January 22, he had a monster game carrying the shorthanded C's to victory against a talented Wizards team with 39 points in a 113-111 overtime thriller. However the next 4 games saw his performance consistently dip with a low of 6 points just days after almost scoring 40. And this isn't the first time it has happened to him either. For someone so gifted, he seems to become disinterested and lacks the killer instinct necessary to be the main scoring option that he is required to be on this Celtics team. 

He could be really good as a third or fourth option on a good team, and following a miserable 8 point night on 2-13 shooting a week ago against a terrible Orlando Magic team, he has had 3 very good games including a 36 point effort against the 76ers. Maybe now is the time for Ainge to sell high on Green with the trade deadline looming. Get the most out of him and his ridiculous contract while they still can, because he makes them too good to be bad enough to win in the draft lottery.