Weighing in on the state of the C's

Don't know if you all caught it this weekend, but the Globe surveyed its own writers on the current state of the Celtics. So, are they better off today than they were, um, several years ago? Here are some highlights. As per usual, Acid Dan has the harshest take.

Bob Ryan:

This is an exasperating bunch, utterly unreliable, often tepid at home and usually docile on the road. Danny put this bunch together, and the results are not close to what they were last year, let alone when he got here.

Dan Shaughnessy:

No. They are not better... Thus far, Danny has been Pitino without the lies.

Shira Springer:

If you look past a rise and fall in wins (36 in his first season, to 45 last season, to a team on pace for 30-35 this season), then you see a team with a markedly improved outlook... But Jefferson's recent injury shows just how uncertain the future can be.

But I think Peter May probably has the best take:

If you happen to be someone who is ''results-oriented," then the answer is easy. No. In fact, they are worse. Two and one-half years ago, Ainge inherited a 44-win team that made the second round of the playoffs. He did not like that team and felt, correctly, that it needed to be rebuilt. Since then, he has had six first-round picks (one of them already gone) and has had his hand-picked coach for 1 1/2 years and has Paul Pierce playing the best basketball of his life -- and the team is 10 games under .500. It's been about ''next year" for three years now. Then again, next year has to be better than this year, doesn't it?

A quick aside: is there really a GM, player or fan in professional sports who isn't "results-oriented"? The goal is results -- at least somewhere down the line. That being said, May acknowledges that the team Ainge inherited had gone as far as it possibly could -- and probably farther than it ever should have -- and needed to be rebuilt. He also acknowledges that the overhaul has been thorough, but that the changes have yet to bear fruit. I think that's a fair take. We're all waiting to see. Finally, Jackie MacMullen weighs in with the wisest thoughts on the matter.

[A]s Danny's good friend, Kevin McHale, once told me, ''The worst thing you can do in the NBA is become impatient. It will backfire every time." What it does is turn a five-year plan into one that could span eight years -- or more. He'd better hope the kids are as good as he thinks they are.

Um, yeah.