Here is my unsolicited advice for the Celtics:
Yo, Wyc, Steve, Brad, Joe, and anyone else in power: Shut it down for two weeks.
I mean it.
This is absolutely the wrong time for anyone to be making decisions. Game 7 vs. the Heat was a disaster, not that it ever should have come down to that. We all know this. So now is the time to step back and take a deep breath. Shut the entire operation down. Go to Turks and Caicos. Go to the Greek Islands. Go to the Jersey Shore. Hey, nothing wrong with Hampton Beach.
But get away from basketball. Do not watch the NBA Finals, which will only aggravate you. This is no time to be making roster decisions.
I’m totally serious.
Now then, where were we?
Speaking as a fan who made his first pilgrimage to the original Boston Garden in 1964 and not as someone who started covering the Celtics professionally in 1969 and was privileged to report on the last six of their 17 championships, rooting for this team was hard work. I doubt I’m telling anyone who has lived and died with this bunch something he or she doesn’t already know.
I firmly believed all season that the Boston Celtics were the most talented collection of basketball players on the planet. With the acquisition of Luke Kornet and Mike Muscala, I thought they had 11 legitimate NBA players, something no other team could say. What other team could lose three starters and still win a game with eight men finishing in double figures? I thought they had all the bases covered.
Of course, in the playoffs that kind of depth is irrelevant. Coaches invariably tighten their rotations, seldom relying on more than eight men. Joe Mazzulla went so far as to eliminate Grant Williams on occasion, which turned out to be not such a great idea.
Whether anyone buys that bold premise or not, no one could deny that this was a sufficiently skilled team. The ongoing problem has been their curious lapses. This bunch has become notorious for lead-blowing. Many a seemingly safe lead turned into an L in the past two seasons. In Game 6 of the Miami series, they squandered a 10-point lead late in the fourth quarter and survived only thanks to a heads-up play by Derrick White.
Before the 2022-23 season even began, I declared them to be “annoying.” What changed? Nothing.
In their defense, one issue Celtics teams will always have to deal with is History. We don’t always allow a Celtic to just be himself. Jayson Tatum is Jayson Tatum. He’s not Paul Pierce and he certainly isn’t Larry Bird. Robert Williams is who he is and he is most definitely not Robert Parish. Marcus Smart is not Dennis Johnson. OK, you get the idea.
However …
These players inhabit a different world than the Celtics of yore. Bob Cousy, Bill Russell, John Havlicek, Dave Cowens, Larry Bird, Kevin McHale, and Robert Parish were all developed prior to college in high school and only high school. Nowadays we are dealing with AAU pups. It is a very different culture, which focuses on showing off one’s individual skills.
The Old Guys just wanted to win. Too many players these days worry about the wrong things. It’s fair to ask if Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown worried a bit more about making an All-NBA team than winning ballgames. And it’s definitely a distraction that Brown is in line for a so-called “super-max contract” only because he made second-team All-NBA. That shouldn’t have anything to do with anything.
Which reminds me. How infuriating in the aftermath of that horrendous Miami Game 3 was it to hear Mazzulla take the fall for not having the team properly prepared? What? This is a veteran team that should have been self-motivated. Win or go home. That’s pretty simple. It was a ridiculous thing for him to say unless, of course, it was true.
Please don’t get me started on the three. My Globe colleagues have all made it clear that the Celtics have become disastrously dependent on making threes, so I will refrain from issuing any official “I Told You So” pronouncements. But is it too much to ask for a little offensive balance? How many times must we watch someone approach the basket and then spurn a layup in order to pass out for his buddy to clank an errant 3-pointer?
Mazzulla will be subject to major scrutiny. That’s obvious. I am willing to give him the benefit of the doubt because I have faith and trust in the judgment of Brad Stevens, who truly believed the youthful coach was capable of doing the job. My question is, do they even have, well, plays? It’s always iso this and iso that and maybe an occasional lob to Al or Robert.
A team this good should not be losing all these home games. I’m not holding them to the standard of the ‘85-86 team that went a combined 50-1 at home (don’t forget the three in Hartford), regular season and playoffs combined, but losing six of their final nine home games was inexcusable.
In the end, what they were was a colossal tease. We fans shouldn’t have to work this hard.
Say, how are the Red Sox doing?
Bob Ryan can be reached at robert.ryan@globe.com.
June 03, 2023 at 12:00PM
https://news.google.com/rss/articles/CBMiaGh0dHBzOi8vd3d3LmJvc3Rvbmdsb2JlLmNvbS8yMDIzLzA2LzAzL3Nwb3J0cy9ib2Itcnlhbi1pdC13YXMtaGFyZC13b3JrLXRvLWJlLWEtY2VsdGljcy1mYW4tdGhpcy1zZWFzb24v0gEA?oc=5
It was hard work to be a Celtics fan this season - The Boston Globe
https://news.google.com/search?q=hard&hl=en-US&gl=US&ceid=US:en
No comments:
Post a Comment