I’m sure many Celtics fans didn’t think this season would turn out the way it has. I am guilty of it. I was one of many Celtics fans who thought, “the Celtics are better without Gordon Hayward.” So many of us were wrong. It would have been perfectly fine if the Celtics replaced Gordon Hayward with a player or players that would give them similar production, but Danny Ainge didn’t. The NBA is a players league, and coaches are often the scapegoats of a team that is performing poorly. Yes, Hayward could not consistently stay on the floor, and that’s a huge problem. But, he could go out and create his own shot, and that’s a valuable trait in the NBA that you can’t have enough of. Hayward moved on to Charlotte, and I’m sure a good amount of Celtics fans thought that was a good thing. Well, it hasn’t been.
The Celtics have gone 2-4 since returning from the All-Star break. The team, fans, and media are all left wondering: What’s the underlying issue this team has besides the obvious holes in the roster? I’ve got an answer, and it's similar to the 2018-19 team. It’s the fact that this “team” doesn’t play like a team for 48 minutes. Anyone who watched the Sacramento Kings game on Friday night saw it. The team could put it together in spurts, but not consistently, which led them to losing a game to a sub-.500 team. While watching the game, you could tell they didn’t enjoy being out there with each other. The lack of ball movement. The collapse in the fourth quarter after erasing a deficit. The two best players, Tatum and Brown, playing all for themselves. True superstars in this league make others around them better, consistently. Tatum and Brown have shown glimpses of it this season, but haven’t done it consistently enough. Marcus Smart said it best after the game on Friday night: “We're not having fun, we're not playing like we are having fun, we're not playing with that energy and same fire.” Even more concerning, the Celtics are a measly 11-17 while playing a league-high 28 clutch games (score is within 5 points in the final 5 minutes). This team seems to be missing the resolve that all good teams have. You would think that with Tatum and Brown on the floor, the Celtics would be better in those clutch games.
I’m not sure a trade deadline acquisition of Harrison Barnes, Jerami Grant, Nikola Vucevic, Aaron Gordon, or John Collins is going to fix these issues. They’ll certainly add some sort of talent infusion that is much needed. But the underlying problems are something those guys won’t be able to fix. The Celtics are left to try to pick up the pieces and put them back together, because this season feels like Groundhog Day.
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