On my way home from work today I was listening to the Celtics Reddit Podcast.
https://soundcloud.com/celticsredditpodcastI wanted to give this podcast a shout out on here because in discussing last night's game and what thoughts they're having about the Celtics in view of the team getting crushed by the Bucks, they made some really excellent points about the nature and importance of true superstar players.
One of the podcasters -- I don't know the names of all of them very well -- basically said that truly elite superstars bend reality. That would include guys like Giannis, LeBron, Durant, Kawhi, etc.
By "bend reality" he meant that those stars sort of warp the perception of the game that their own teammates and their opponents have. A teammate of Giannis simply knows that the Bucks aren't going to give up a huge run. Giannis is going to find a way to get some points, one way or another. They are going to have that consistent presence. That gives the players on the team the freedom to play with confidence and composure. They don't need to make a forced or rushed decision when the ball hasn't gone in the basket recently.
Essentially, if you don't have a superstar who does that for your team, it doesn't matter how many very good players you have. When you run into a team that has that guy who bends reality, as long as the roster is built reasonably well around that guy, you're probably going to lose.
I think that's what happened to the Celts last year against LeBron, too, although the roster around him was far weaker than this Bucks roster.
As for Kyrie, they concluded, rightly I think, that Kyrie is simply not that level of player. Do we have any reason to think he will be that player? I kind of doubt it.
I think AD is probably that level of player. The question of course is whether he can stay healthy and whether he would re-sign in Boston if the Celts traded for him.
Anyway, none of this is a new idea, exactly. But I thought the way they put it was exactly spot on, and I'm not sure I'd heard somebody explain it in quite the way they did.
Certainly I think it's fair to say that no matter how good Kyrie has been at times this season statistically -- and this goes back to last season as well -- I dont' think we've ever seen this Celts team appear to hit another level in terms of their confidence and trust in one another. For whatever reason, having Kyrie around doesn't instill that unassailable confidence that teams only seem to have when they know their main guy is completely reliable and impossible to stop.
At any rate, check out the podcast. "Pro Bono Celtics Therapy" --- exactly what I needed today.
Topic: Celtics Reddit Podcast -- Elite stars bend reality (Read 1009 times)