The Celtics have now lost 11 straight games.

Good.

Hopefully, they’ll lose a lot more.

For there should be no pretense now.

Half the season is over, the record is 12-31, and this should be all about the future. Nothing else makes any sense. This is a team that’s so young it belongs on training wheels, a team that’s simply not ready to win consistently win in the NBA, a team that went into this season poorly constructed, its flaws as obvious as all those championship banners that now stare down on this sorry season almost as some cruel joke, a reminder of just how far this franchise has fallen.

That shouldn’t be forgotten.

This is not the Sacramento Kings we’re talking about here. Not the Memphis Grizzlies. Not some franchise without a history. Not some franchise that’s lucky it has an NBA team. This is the Celtics, one of the most storied franchises in sports history, and the saddest thing is not that they’ve lost 11 straight games in this lost season, it’s that that no longer seems to count, merely filler between the Patriots and the Red Sox. Who would have ever believed it?

Lest anyone forget, the stated goal going into the season was to make the playoffs, one that quickly seemed like sheer folly after a 1-6 start and the growing belief that this was a team on some treadmill to nowhere, and that was with Paul Pierce, arguably the greatest scorer in Celtics history. A team that simply did not have enough, especially defensively. Take away Pierce and this is what you get, 11 straight losses, a team that’s simply too young and too inexperienced to get out of the NBA swamp.Take away Paul Pierce and the rest of the roster gets exposed.

You also get the pressure off.

Gone are the “Fire Doc” chants that ran through the building during a game in October. John Wooden wouldn’t win with this team, so what’s the point of blaming Rivers? Danny Ainge also gets to skate, for everyone has spent the last couple of months talking about the Pats, and Pierce is out, and when exactly do the Sox go to spring training, anyway?

That’s been the reality the last month or so as the Celtics have become all about on-the-job training. The flip side of all the losses has been the chance for all the young kids to play.

And we have learned some things, no question about it. We have learned that Al Jefferson can be a productive player in the league, someone who will put up double-doubles if can stay healthy and stay on the court. We have learned that Delonte West can be a legitimate guard, even if he’s a classic “tweener” — not really a point, not really big enough to be a two. We have learned that Gerald Green has big-time talent, as raw and inconsistent as he can be. We’ve learned what many of us knew all along: that if Ryan Gomes gets a lot of minutes, good things will happen. We’ve learned that Tony Allen was finally back from his knee problem.

After that?

We’ve learned that this team still doesn’t have a point guard, that Sebastian Telfair isn’t good enough, Rajon Rondo isn’t ready, and why does a team need two tiny guards? We’ve learned that Kendrick Perkins is still a tease, and that the Wally Szczerbiak for Ricky Davis and Mark Blount trade was not one of Ainge’s best.

And the biggest thing we’ve learned?

Young teams struggle. Young teams aren’t good defensively. Young teams often play just good enough to lose. Young teams will break your heart. And players who still should be in college are going to be inconsistent, however much potential they might have.

So here are the Celtics at basketball ground zero. But this is not meant as an assessment of Ainge’s four-year tenure. Ultimately, it’s about where this team goes from here that’s important. And that should be straight to the lottery with the worst record possible.

The worst place you can be is in the amorphous middle, the NBA lumpenprole where you’re not very good and there’s really no way of ever getting good. It’s the landscape the Celtics have been in for a while now, and the fear is that when Pierce comes back they will get there again. No longer horrible. Not really good. But good enough to take you away from being in the Greg Oden-Kevin Durant sweepstakes For the Celtics should want to keep losing. They should want to have the worst record they can possibly have. They should want to have a chance at the best possible draft pick they can get. They should forget any pretense about this year and point everything to the future.

And keep losing games.

breynold@projo.com