I was reading through many of these posts. Understandably, many are emotional.
After a day of thinking, do many of the posters that abide by the theory that this season is over still believe this?
If so, why? What has changed since Gordon Hayward is no longer available?
I'm an optimist and wear green goggles, but even I thought that this team would have their hands full with CLE and would lose to GSW in the finals.
After a day of reflection, I don't think the Celtics destiny this year will be all that different.
Yes, I'm bummed that I won't be able to watch Gordo play this year, but I'm also intrigued that I'll be able to see more Tatum and Brown.
Anyone think that either the Celtics would have beat the Warriors w/ Hayward, or now they won't even make the playoffs without him?
Elite 3pt shooting.
Losing him means defenses colapsing on all Kyrie's action. It's gonna be rough
My point is not to beat up on Hayward here.
However, he shot .398 from 3 last year, which is the exact same % as Jae Crowder. Do you consider Jae to be an elite 3 point shooter?
I think Hayward is a good overall bball player. He will be missed.
I just don't think that he pushed the Celtics over the goal line into a new category of winning. In his absence, I don't think that the Celtics will be dramatically different.
Then you must have not watched GH last year. He does everything this team gonna miss him so much. Kyrie gonna be trapped/doubled everytime now. Offense is going to be ugly and the defense we all knew was going to be a work in progress.
The Celtics beat a pretty good team tonight. Both the offense and defense have looked solid at times. I think there's plenty to play for this year. Might there be consensus that this season is, in fact, not over?
Of course we're going to look good and win some games. But to think we're not going to miss an all star that is capable of taking over games is foolish. The guy cna get 20 points in his sleep. Guys Jaylen and Tatum have a lot of potential but they're going to be up and down and aren't quite ready to be go to guys and consistently take pressure off Kyrie.
I don't think anyone is saying that the Celtics won't miss Hayward. That is not the point.
My point is that I don't think the Celtics destiny will be impacted that much this year. Though the Cavs look like a mess, I believe they will put together a roster that is better by the playoffs. I think that they were a tough team to beat, even with Gordo.
I'm not yet buying into other teams in the East being significantly better than the Celtics. Milwaukee and Washington are very beatable, and I think Trouble 07 matches up well with Toronto. Besides Cle, Milwaukee, Tor, and Wash, who else could/would beat the Celtics in the playoffs?
We may well have lost to the Cavs this year with Hayward. But his injury has significantly reduced whatever chancer we had. I guess you didn’t need to watch the season play out since you already knew the outcome but I was looking forward to watching the team in the finals. At least that’s the attitude I was taking and something much more enjoyable than watching the kids grow.
So you basically put them on the fast express to the finals when they got Hayward and Irving? I did not anticipate a finals appearance. They got crushed by CLE in the ECF. Those fans that put them on par with CLE are, in my estimation, delusional.
I'm assuming that CLE improves between now and the playoffs. If this really is Lebron's last ride in CLE, they're going to make it a special trip.
The Celtics are not a clear #2 in the East after the Gordo injury, but they are still in the mix.
The Celtics can still beat Lebron's Cavs in the ECF, but they're not favored. They also weren't favored before the Hayward injury. We have to assume that there would be growing pains (even if not literally) with a nearly complete turnover.