Is Doc in trouble?

In the past 6 years the Patriots have won 3 Super Bowls and the Red Sox broke through as World Series champions. This once in a lifetime string of success has not made me arrogant as if the local teams’ victories somehow correlate to my value as a person or the weight of my opinions (see FSN personalities). Rather I’m like Peter from Office Space after he was hypnotized. I’m just along for the ride and in the process I’ve approached an unflappable state. That’s not to say I like to see the Patriots lose to Denver in the postseason, the Yankees sweep the Red Sox or the Celtics stumble out of the gate this year without a rotation or an understanding of defense. I still follow the teams, get into the games and have concerns about the state of each organization. But I’m more likely to compare the Celtics players to Nintendo characters than to lose sleep over their start. Having said all that I’m a little concerned by the Truth’s recent comments following the loss to the Pistons,

“You know it’s just hard for me to see right now. There are so many guys in their second and third years. It’s hard to see who’s really going to be the core. I don’t know if we can sign eight or nine of the young players. Right now we’re trying to figure that out. We’re trying to see who steps up. Probably by the end of the year you’re going to find that out.”- Paul Pierce

And to a certain extent he’s right. The Celtics have to figure out who their core is and somehow get them to perform. Unfortunately development does not occur over night and you can’t force it to happen. The C’s need only to look at their most recent opponent to see three guys – Rip Hamilton, Chauncey Billups and to a degree Rasheed Wallace – who got it after a combined 10 teams (I did not count Sheed’s one game in Atlanta) gave up on them. Outside of making a trade to bring in a veteran and clear up some of the log jam for minutes there is really only one area the C’s can improve quickly: coaching. I’m sensing this is going to be a common cry on Celtics blogs, message boards and perhaps even the mainstream media over the next few weeks. It should be interesting.