The 10 Most Disappointing Celtics Seasons of the Last 30 Years

[PhoSita]

A lot of talk these days about how disappointing this Celtics team is.

Tempers are flaring.

It's understandable.  The media consensus before the season -- national media, not just local yokels -- was that the Celts would win 60+ games.  They were the favorite to make the Finals out of the East.

Yet here we are: 5th seed with 10 games remaining.  The narrative around the team all season long has been about dysfunction, stagnation, and questions about whether Kyrie is going to stay and whose fault it is that the team just isn't very good.

I wanted to take a step back and look through the story of the Celtics franchise over the last three decades.  My question: Is this season really that bad?  Is it such an outlier?  Or are people like me, who feel really disaffected by this season, forgetting the not too distant past?

Below is my list of what I figure to be the 10 most disappointing Celtics seasons of the last 30 years. 


#10 - 2009-2010 (50-32, 4th seed)

End result: Loss in Game 7 of the NBA Finals in LA



It may seem strange to list this season as a "disappointment" since the team went so far in the playoffs.  Yet in 2009 the team won 62 games, and with KG back from injury the team played at a similar pace for the first couple of months of the season.  Then they went .500 the rest of the way, acting like they simply couldn't be bothered to try.

Of course, winning in the playoffs made up for most of that.  They "flipped the switch" and never looked back.  At least, until they had to win a Game 7 on the road because they didn't have home court advantage and lost in the fourth quarter.  Still, ultimately a good season.

#9 - 2011-2012 (39-27, 4th seed)

End result: Loss in Game 7 of the ECF in Miami



Another season with a fairly positive ending thanks to a deep playoff run.  But this was also another one where the regular season was dispiriting.  Coming off a 56 win season, the Celtics traded Kendrick Perkins for Jeff Green only to lose Green for the year due to heart surgery.  During the regular season they played at a sub-50 win pace and were more reminiscent of the 2010 team than the 2011 team.  They made up for it by going deep in the playoffs and actually taking a 3-2 lead on the Heat before LeBron played the one of the best games of his career in Game 6 in the Garden.


#8 - 1989-1999 (19-31, 12th seed)

End result: Missed playoffs



This was a bit of a tanking season, but the reason I put it on the list is the team finished with the equivalent of 31 wins after winning 36 the season before.  Instead of forward progress, the young Celtics under Pitino took a step back.  Rookie Paul Pierce averaged 16.5 points per game, but after starting 7-7 the Celts lost ten of their next eleven games.  They went 4-14 in March and were out of playoff contention.


#7 - 1988-1989 (42-40, 8th seed)

End result: Swept in the 1st round by the eventual champion Pistons



Bird went out with an injury very early into this season and never came back.  Without Bird the team struggled to gain any traction.  They did not win a single road game over a team with a winning record.  Not much more to say about this season (I can't personally remember it, for one).  This was one of the latter years of Bird wasted due to an injury, which is obviously a bummer.  That ultimate defeat came at the hands of the team that had defeated them in 6 games in the ECF the year before added insult to the injury (if you'll pardon the pun). 


#6 - 2005-2006 (33-49, 11th seed)

End result: Missed playoffs



Coming off a 45 win season in which the Celts lost a 7 game series to the Indiana Pacers, the Celts saw Antoine Walker leave for the Heat in the off-season.  The young pile-of-assets Celts led by Paul Pierce and featuring Delonte West, Ricky Davis, and Al Jefferson struggled to compete even though Pierce averaged 39 minutes a game and scored 26.8 points per game.  Doc Rivers went from a rookie coach who picked up the pieces from Jim O'Brien and led the team to 45 wins to the guy who saw a young team falter.  They were 12-29 on the road and did not have a winning record for any single month of the season.


#5 - 2003-2004 (36-46, 8th seed)

End result: Swept by the Pacers in the 1st round



Head Coach Jim O'Brien quit halfway through the season.   Far from being galvanized by a coaching change, the Celtics lost 12 of their first 13 games under interim head coach John Carroll.  Then, after Danny Ainge suggested the team might be better off missing the playoffs for lottery pick purposes, the team went 9-5 in March, ultimately making the playoffs with 36 wins (yuck).  For that they earned the privilege of getting pounded by the Pacers.


#4 - 2002-2003 (44-38, 6th seed)

End result: Swept by the Nets in the 2nd round



This season reminds me a lot of our current season.  Coming off a season in which they won 49 games, earned the 2 seed, and came within 2 wins of making the NBA Finals, the Celts fell back to the middle of the pack rather than taking a step forward.  They started the season 16-7 but couldn't maintain that pace the rest of the way.  They lost 6 straight in March and ended up without home court advantage in the 1st round.  After the season, Ainge traded Antoine Walker to Dallas, perhaps recognizing that the team was not going to blossom into a contender.


#3 - 2018-2019 (43-29, 10 games remaining, 5th seed)

End result:



We all know this story too well.  Pre-season expectation: 60+ wins, the favorite to make the Finals.  The most talented team in the league outside of Oakland.  The heir apparent to an Eastern Conference lacking a LeBron-sized post-season obstacle for the first time in a dozen years.  The year before, without their signature superstar guard or their highest paid player, the young and hungry Celtics won 55 games and came within several minutes of the Finals.  It seemed a sure thing they would be awesome, and that awesomeness would be a preview of the next five years of a new Celtics golden age.  Rebuild complete!  Instead, the team has spent the season having a new "rock bottom" loss every two weeks, sniping at each other in the media, and trying to ignore stories about Kyrie leaving or who is going to get traded in the summer for Anthony Davis.  This is a Celtics season that few people will look back on fondly, unless like the 2010 and 2012 teams they can achieve major redemption in the post-season.


#2 - 2012-2013 (41-40, 7th seed)

End result: Loss to the Melo-Stoudemire Knicks in 6 games in the 1st round



Another disappointing season coming off an Eastern Conference Finals appearance.  Ray Allen left in the off-season to join the hated rival Miami Heat.  The Celtics replaced Ray with Jason Terry who seemed like he might provide a needed boost of shot creation.  Pierce and KG were old, but seemed to still have a lot left in the tank.  Jeff Green, back from heart surgery, was set to make his Celtics debut and provided much needed wing size and athleticism.  This was going to be the year that the keys were finally handed over fully to Rajon Rondo.  I remember picking this team to win the Finals (although it was admittedly a bit of wishful thinking) and expecting that Rondo would be an MVP candidate.  I was very wrong.  Rondo wasn't good enough to elevate the talent around him, which never quite gelled.  Then, Rondo went down after 38 games with an ACL injury.  Pierce and KG didn't have enough to carry the team.  Terry was a bit of a disappointment (he was nothing like what we all saw in the 2011 Dallas Mavericks championship run two years prior).  I recall being quite glad to see this season end.


#1 - 1993-1994 (32-50, 10th seed)

End result: Missed playoffs



R.I.P.

Kevin McHale retired at the end of the previous season.  Reggie Lewis died before the season started.  This season was over before it began.  Parish signed with the Hornets the following summer.  This was the first losing, non-playoffs season for the Celtics since 1978-1979.  The less said about this season the better. 




What do you think?  Are there any seasons you think should be on this list that aren't?  How would you rank them?

[gpap]

Well written thread.

I must say the sting of losing the finals in 2010 after being so close is still quite fresh in my mind.

What stings even more about the 2011-12 season is before the season began, there were rumors that Ainge was looking to trade Rondo for Chris Paul, but no Paul had no interest in coming to Boston which subsequently killed the deal.

If we have Chris Paul that season, we eliminate Miami in the playoffs (IMO)

[SparzWizard]

I think #10 and #9 should be #1 and #2 respectively, at least for the younger generations.

But 2010 NBA Finals will sting badly. I still have not bothered rewatching that NBA Finals, and every time I scroll through YouTube that Game 7 thumbnail always happen to pop up and I just never bother viewing it or I just scroll past it. We had like a 13-point lead and blew it, and the Lakers had a 21-4 FT advantage in the 4th quarter? Absurd. The Celtics should've been the one celebrating on the Lakers' home floor that night even if it was 7 games.

As for 2012 ECF, that was just a trash ending. The Celtics had the series had they won Game 2. I still remember that classic PP34 clutch 3-pointer over LeBron James in Game 5 (hence my sig). That would have been sweet for Boston to celebrate the Eastern Conference Finals trophy in Miami. Instead, Game 6 happened, LBJ played like he was supersaiyan. And Game 7, Chris Bosh showed up big- effectively putting an end to that Big 3 era.

[PhoSita]

Well written thread.

I must say the sting of losing the finals in 2010 after being so close is still quite fresh in my mind.

that was really tough. but i have to say my enduring memory of that season is in two parts:

(1) My intense disgust for the team during the regular season

(2) My deep, deep satisfaction as they humiliated the Cavs

[PhoSita]

I think #10 and #9 should be #1 and #2 respectively, at least for the younger generations.

But 2010 NBA Finals will sting badly. I still have not bothered rewatching that NBA Finals, and every time I scroll through YouTube that Game 7 thumbnail always happen to pop up and I just never bother viewing it or I just scroll past it. We had like a 13-point lead and blew it, and the Lakers had a 21-4 FT advantage in the 4th quarter? Absurd. The Celtics should've been the one celebrating on the Lakers' home floor that night even if it was 7 games.

As for 2012 ECF, that was just a trash ending. The Celtics had the series had they won Game 2. I still remember that classic PP34 clutch 3-pointer over LeBron James in Game 5 (hence my sig). That would have been sweet for Boston to celebrate the Eastern Conference Finals trophy in Miami. Instead, Game 6 happened, LBJ played like he was supersaiyan. And Game 7, Chris Bosh showed up big- effectively putting an end to that Big 3 era.

Those were painful endings, but in retrospect those seasons gave me some of my favorite memories from the KG / Pierce era.   The playoff redemptions made those seasons less disappointing overall.

[gpap]

I think #10 and #9 should be #1 and #2 respectively, at least for the younger generations.

But 2010 NBA Finals will sting badly. I still have not bothered rewatching that NBA Finals, and every time I scroll through YouTube that Game 7 thumbnail always happen to pop up and I just never bother viewing it or I just scroll past it. We had like a 13-point lead and blew it, and the Lakers had a 21-4 FT advantage in the 4th quarter? Absurd. The Celtics should've been the one celebrating on the Lakers' home floor that night even if it was 7 games.

As for 2012 ECF, that was just a trash ending. The Celtics had the series had they won Game 2. I still remember that classic PP34 clutch 3-pointer over LeBron James in Game 5 (hence my sig). That would have been sweet for Boston to celebrate the Eastern Conference Finals trophy in Miami. Instead, Game 6 happened, LBJ played like he was supersaiyan. And Game 7, Chris Bosh showed up big- effectively putting an end to that Big 3 era.

And the kid yelling "good effort" at Lebron (lol.)

I just added to my prior response that imagine if Ainge was able to trade Rondo for Chris Paul before the season began as was rumored.

I think we definitely would've beaten Miami.

[gpap]

Well written thread.

I must say the sting of losing the finals in 2010 after being so close is still quite fresh in my mind.

that was really tough. but i have to say my enduring memory of that season is in two parts:

(1) My intense disgust for the team during the regular season

(2) My deep, deep satisfaction as they humiliated the Cavs

This is true. The sweet memory of the Celts dismantling Lebron and his Cavs team one final time before his decade of dominance began in Miami the following year will live forever. I'll never forget game 5 of that series and embarrassing the Cavs in Cleveland 120-88. I also remember vividly remember in that game during the 2nd quarter, Lebron sat down on the bench and had a look of defeat on his face, knowing he didn't have a chance in hell.

[SparzWizard]

I think #10 and #9 should be #1 and #2 respectively, at least for the younger generations.

But 2010 NBA Finals will sting badly. I still have not bothered rewatching that NBA Finals, and every time I scroll through YouTube that Game 7 thumbnail always happen to pop up and I just never bother viewing it or I just scroll past it. We had like a 13-point lead and blew it, and the Lakers had a 21-4 FT advantage in the 4th quarter? Absurd. The Celtics should've been the one celebrating on the Lakers' home floor that night even if it was 7 games.

As for 2012 ECF, that was just a trash ending. The Celtics had the series had they won Game 2. I still remember that classic PP34 clutch 3-pointer over LeBron James in Game 5 (hence my sig). That would have been sweet for Boston to celebrate the Eastern Conference Finals trophy in Miami. Instead, Game 6 happened, LBJ played like he was supersaiyan. And Game 7, Chris Bosh showed up big- effectively putting an end to that Big 3 era.

And the kid yelling "good effort" at Lebron (lol.)

I just added to my prior response that imagine if Ainge was able to trade Rondo for Chris Paul before the season began as was rumored.

I think we definitely would've beaten Miami.

Oh yeah the infamous good job good effort 

Heck, imagine if the David West deal followed through. The Celtics would have creamed that Heat team and the Eastern Conference. They'd have the physicality to abuse Miami. I think the Celtics could've also seriously won a championship in that lockout season too, dang it. Another wasted opportunity. Boston could be working on like banner 20 right now if they'd won in 2010 and 2012 lol.

[SparzWizard]

I think you also forgot 2017-2018 Celtics. I'd rank that about/around the same as 2012 ECF.

We were just 9 points shy of making it to the NBA Finals. Instead, the Celtics lost to Jeff Green of all people. Rozier did not show up, Brown was not playing his best basketball. Ugh. Between Game 7 2018 and Game 6 2012 IDK which one is worse. LeBron played out of his mind in that Game 7, but that is to be expected of a player like him.

And the Celtics were like undefeated all-time when they lead a series 2-0...wtheck.

[ozgod]

Definitely 93-94 for me. I was gutted by Reggie's death and the entire season had a pall of gloom over it for me.

[PhoSita]

I think you also forgot 2017-2018 Celtics. I'd rank that about/around the same as 2012 ECF.

We were just 9 points shy of making it to the NBA Finals. Instead, the Celtics lost to Jeff Green of all people. Rozier did not show up, Brown was not playing his best basketball. Ugh. Between Game 7 2018 and Game 6 2012 IDK which one is worse. LeBron played out of his mind in that Game 7, but that is to be expected of a player like him.

And the Celtics were like undefeated all-time when they lead a series 2-0...wtheck.

I mean, they won 55 games despite losing Hayward in game 1 and then made it to game 7 of the ECF against LeBron even though they were missing Kyrie.

[nickagneta]

TP. Well done thread. I agree that in the time frame given, that first year after Reggie was the worst.

I wonder why the 30 year cut off? That 1986-87 year after Bias died that the C's lost to the Lakers in the Finals that was pretty disappointing. Or 2 years before where the team lost a Finals to the Lakers for the first time ever.

And then there was the John Y. Brown Celtics, the first time the word disappointing could probably ever be used for a Celtic team. This group was so bad it led to Hondo retiring, Tommy Heinsohn being fired, Cowens being driven so nuts he went to go drive a taxi and made Red want to quit to join the Knicks.

You want disappointing. Welcome to the 1977-78 and 1978-79, Wicks-Rowe-Barnes-McAdoo, John Y. Brown Celtics.

[Sophomore]

I think you also forgot 2017-2018 Celtics. I'd rank that about/around the same as 2012 ECF.

We were just 9 points shy of making it to the NBA Finals. Instead, the Celtics lost to Jeff Green of all people. Rozier did not show up, Brown was not playing his best basketball. Ugh. Between Game 7 2018 and Game 6 2012 IDK which one is worse. LeBron played out of his mind in that Game 7, but that is to be expected of a player like him.

And the Celtics were like undefeated all-time when they lead a series 2-0...wtheck.

I mean, they won 55 games despite losing Hayward in game 1 and then made it to game 7 of the ECF against LeBron even though they were missing Kyrie.

Yeah. Terribly disappointing game 7, but at that point they were playing with house money.

[Sophomore]

Three before number 2. Expectations for this season were almost universally very high - we were strong favorites to go to the finals. Barring a sudden and unexpected personality transplant, this team is bowing out before the ECF. So many disappointing losses already.

[Celtics4ever]

Any Pitino team