Michael Grange believes winning begats winning

Nice truisms are nice:

5. How important is the simple act of winning to good performance? It’s something that most sports psychologists can’t explain, let alone sports writers. But if you accept the notion that most NBA players are excellent, with the exception of the small handful of superstars who are even better, winning, or the confidence you get from winning, seems to have a pretty important impact on actual performance. The Celtics started the second quarter with Paul Pierce, James Posey, Glen Davis, Tony Allen and Eddie House on the floor. Last season a group slightly better than this – substitute Al Jefferson for Davis and Delonte West for Eddie House – was one of the worst teams in the NBA and a blight on the Celtics proud history. But now they’re part of the Celtics juggernaut that his laying waste to the NBA. Now they’re poised to go on a 10-2 backbreaking run to start the quarter (at which point Garnett subbed for Pierce) and pretty much end the game. Those guys aren’t great players by NBA standards, but they’re confident, winning NBA players, which means they are playing loosely and passionately. The result is an effective second unit on a team that most critics panned for a lack of depth.

Yeah, okay, there may be something to that. The Celts are now playing for something with the confidence that they can beat any team in the league...

BUT.

What they have now, independent of the scrubs that surround the big 3 is a quick, powerful forward who demands double teams every time he gets the ball down low (more open shots for said scrubs), an outside shooter that bails out just about any offensive set (assists and spread defenses for said scrubs) and that dude who stuck around who is unafraid to penetrate (more opportunities for those lovely scrubs). And that's just on offense.

Good players (not chuckers) distract defences giving marginal players the space to perform better. On a large scale (with a few good players, and enough marginal players who realize they are getting opportunities) this will correlate to wins. Most of us thought Kendrick Perkins, Rajon Rondo the like were not smart enough to figure out to figure it out. Or to make adjustments if the Big 3 were slumping or injured. So far, we have egg on our face. But with Allen going down and the Celts schedule about to get serious, they could very easily come back down to earth. And if that happens, I suggest they sign the scrappylicious win-loving David Eckstein to play point guard.

Makes more sense than drinking the magic win potion, don't it Grangey?