Celtics (43-29) at Hornets (32-39) Game #73 3/23/19

[Somebody]

So who's now on the sack Brad train? I'm almost there, I really believe this team can make the finals but we're playing like **** with Brad's wonky rotations and schemes.

Sack him for what? The first not great professional coaching season he has had in over a decade?

Stevens ran into problems he never saw before this year. He didn't handle it great. Not sure even the best of coaches would have had a much better year than this given the team make up and what went down starting in early February.

Stevens is too intelligent a guy and too good of a basketball mind not to keep on and let him learn from this and be an even better coach.

Firing Stevens just smacks of shortsightedness and looking for a scapegoat. Ainge will move players on this team well before he would ever fire Stevens. And I agree with that.

Still doesn't change the fact that he's absolutely made this year of opportunity into a shambles of a season, but you're probably right if you're thinking long term. I just believe this team can win with better coaching, and we should prioritize the now when we can actually win, since the future is always an unknown.

[Sophomore]

Just sad about how this season has gone.

Done watching unless they get to the playoffs and show signs of life.

[slamtheking]

awful finish -- again.  this team has just lost all concept of how to close out a game.

too much hero ball by Kyrie down the stretch but other than Brown, he wasn't getting much offensive help

[ozgod]

Thankfully I missed this game, these earlier weekend games usually suck for me  I will force myself to watch the DVD for all the mistakes later. But I have a question: who was on the floor when the Hornets went on their 30-5 run? Apparently it happened right after Brown scored a layup to make it 112-94 with 8:21 left in the 4th. Who was on the floor when that run happened?

Kyrie, Tatum, Brown, Morris and Smart.

Then with about 3 minutes left, Smart had 5 fouls so Brad replaced him with Rozier.

Yabusele and Ojeleye also saw very minor minutes during this time.

Those guys should be embarrassed then. It's not like it was end of bench guys that gave the lead away. TP for the update!

[ozgod]

Thankfully I missed this game, these earlier weekend games usually suck for me  I will force myself to watch the DVD for all the mistakes later. But I have a question: who was on the floor when the Hornets went on their 30-5 run? Apparently it happened right after Brown scored a layup to make it 112-94 with 8:21 left in the 4th. Who was on the floor when that run happened?

It was a little bit of everyone really. After that the only two scores where a Jaylen 3 and a Kyrie drive and layup I think. Things starting falling apart when we went to Smart (once off the drive, once on a deep post up) and he committed offensive fouls on two straight possessions. Tatum kept getting switched onto Kemba and just didn't stand a chance. Blow by, fading three (a hard attempt), stop and pop jumper, blow by all while guarded by Tatum, in part because Brad benched Smart with 5 fouls after those two offensive fouls. Then we went Iso Hero ball with a Tatum missed three, a terrible Rozier missed three, 2 long iso Kyrie threes, a Kyrie turnover is charlottes end after a defensive rebound, and just basically everything going wrong. We got killed in second chance points with literally no one bigger than Mook playing after Williams went out. Morris couldn't guard anyone without fouling. First 40 minutes, beautiful offense. last eight not so much. Didn't go back to Jaylen who was scorching.

TP to you and gpap for the explanation! Might have saved me a brutal night of watching the DVR.

[ozgod]

So who's now on the sack Brad train? I'm almost there, I really believe this team can make the finals but we're playing like **** with Brad's wonky rotations and schemes.

Sack him for what? The first not great professional coaching season he has had in over a decade?

Stevens ran into problems he never saw before this year. He didn't handle it great. Not sure even the best of coaches would have had a much better year than this given the team make up and what went down starting in early February.

Stevens is too intelligent a guy and too good of a basketball mind not to keep on and let him learn from this and be an even better coach.

Firing Stevens just smacks of shortsightedness and looking for a scapegoat. Ainge will move players on this team well before he would ever fire Stevens. And I agree with that.

Still doesn't change the fact that he's absolutely made this year of opportunity into a shambles of a season, but you're probably right if you're thinking long term. I just believe this team can win with better coaching, and we should prioritize the now when we can actually win, since the future is always an unknown.

It was clear from Danny's lack of action at the trade deadline that he's looking at the team to be competitive over the long term even if it meant giving up a chance to be better for this season only. Otherwise he would have shipped some players out, since it's obvious there's not enough minutes for everyone. This team was built to trade for AD. Because adding AD to the mix, even if we lose Tatum or Brown or both, makes us a championship caliber team over the next couple of years at least.

I also think the team is built for playoffs. where Brad can game plan for a team for 7 games. They get bored with the regular season. I don't know why, but they do. Maybe it's because they experienced success last year and think they can switch it on when needed? No idea.

On another note, Gordon, Al and Aron must be all happy they missed this game 

[gpap]

So who's now on the sack Brad train? I'm almost there, I really believe this team can make the finals but we're playing like **** with Brad's wonky rotations and schemes.

Sack him for what? The first not great professional coaching season he has had in over a decade?

Stevens ran into problems he never saw before this year. He didn't handle it great. Not sure even the best of coaches would have had a much better year than this given the team make up and what went down starting in early February.

Stevens is too intelligent a guy and too good of a basketball mind not to keep on and let him learn from this and be an even better coach.

Firing Stevens just smacks of shortsightedness and looking for a scapegoat. Ainge will move players on this team well before he would ever fire Stevens. And I agree with that.

Even Brad Stevens admitted that he screwed up tonight by not calling a timeout before Rozier's attempted 3 pointer.
Brad has admitted MANY times that he "needs to do a better job" and yet he continues to let the team down with poor coaching and decision making.

After the game, Kyrie referenced Kemba saying "We should have probably trapped him a little bit more like every other team does in the league. He torches us every time. It's no surprise."

It's quite clear that Brad has been doing an inadequate job all year and is not getting the most out of his players.

[nickagneta]

So who's now on the sack Brad train? I'm almost there, I really believe this team can make the finals but we're playing like **** with Brad's wonky rotations and schemes.

Sack him for what? The first not great professional coaching season he has had in over a decade?

Stevens ran into problems he never saw before this year. He didn't handle it great. Not sure even the best of coaches would have had a much better year than this given the team make up and what went down starting in early February.

Stevens is too intelligent a guy and too good of a basketball mind not to keep on and let him learn from this and be an even better coach.

Firing Stevens just smacks of shortsightedness and looking for a scapegoat. Ainge will move players on this team well before he would ever fire Stevens. And I agree with that.

Still doesn't change the fact that he's absolutely made this year of opportunity into a shambles of a season, but you're probably right if you're thinking long term. I just believe this team can win with better coaching, and we should prioritize the now when we can actually win, since the future is always an unknown.

So tell me, who is this great coach who is available to be hired that would have had the experience to handle:

- Your possible best player coming back from a gruesome injury and struggling the whole year while trying to be productive and earn his $30 million a year.

- Telling a 20, 21, and 24 year old that led you to a quarter away from the Finals that they need to take much smaller roles because of returning vets and have them be 100% good with that and not let it effect their game.

- Having a mercurial superstar who loved talking about what a great leader he is but goes public with locker room stuff and show he is no leader

- Have a player on another team demand a trade, have all the drama surrounding it effect your star who is involved, have it become clear that many of your players are not in your future because they will be traded this offseason.

- Deal with several players rollercoaster seasons like Morris so good and now not, Brown being so bad and now so good, Tatum's good start and then not so good slow downhill slide. Rozier is a very good starter and so bad you think about not even playing him when coming off the bench. Hayward is nothing what you expected. Baynes has been in and out with injuries. Theis too. Three players gave you what you expected this year: Kyrie, Horford and Smart. No amount of coaching is going to change that.

Find me the guy that is available that is a good coach that would have handled all that and still come away with almost 50, if not 50 wins. Find me that guy and sure, fire Stevens. The only ones I can think of that may have done better are Doc, Pops, Carlysle....not sure who else. Kerr is kinda facing something similar in Golden State this year and he doesn't appear to be handling it perfectly. Spoelstra did handle the biggest pain in the ass player in the world, so maybe him.

But where is the guy that would have done a better job? Find him and then sure, fire the guy that in October was voted the best coach in the league by the 30 GMs in the NBA. Fire Stevens and he will have half the league looking to hire him, immediately.

[ozgod]

So who's now on the sack Brad train? I'm almost there, I really believe this team can make the finals but we're playing like **** with Brad's wonky rotations and schemes.

Sack him for what? The first not great professional coaching season he has had in over a decade?

Stevens ran into problems he never saw before this year. He didn't handle it great. Not sure even the best of coaches would have had a much better year than this given the team make up and what went down starting in early February.

Stevens is too intelligent a guy and too good of a basketball mind not to keep on and let him learn from this and be an even better coach.

Firing Stevens just smacks of shortsightedness and looking for a scapegoat. Ainge will move players on this team well before he would ever fire Stevens. And I agree with that.

Still doesn't change the fact that he's absolutely made this year of opportunity into a shambles of a season, but you're probably right if you're thinking long term. I just believe this team can win with better coaching, and we should prioritize the now when we can actually win, since the future is always an unknown.

So tell me, who is this great coach who is available to be hired that would have had the experience to handle:

- Your possible best player coming back from a gruesome injury and struggling the whole year while trying to be productive and earn his $30 million a year.

- Telling a 20, 21, and 24 year old that led you to a quarter away from the Finals that they need to take much smaller roles because of returning vets and have them be 100% good with that and not let it effect their game.

- Having a mercurial superstar who loved talking about what a great leader he is but goes public with locker room stuff and show he is no leader

- Have a player on another team demand a trade, have all the drama surrounding it effect your star who is involved, have it become clear that many of your players are not in your future because they will be traded this offseason.

- Deal with several players rollercoaster seasons like Morris so good and now not, Brown being so bad and now so good, Tatum's good start and then not so good slow downhill slide. Rozier is a very good starter and so bad you think about not even playing him when coming off the bench. Hayward is nothing what you expected. Baynes has been in and out with injuries. Theis too. Three players gave you what you expected this year: Kyrie, Horford and Smart. No amount of coaching is going to change that.

Find me the guy that is available that is a good coach that would have handled all that and still come away with almost 50, if not 50 wins. Find me that guy and sure, fire Stevens. The only ones I can think of that may have done better are Doc, Pops, Carlysle....not sure who else. Kerr is kinda facing something similar in Golden State this year and he doesn't appear to be handling it perfectly. Spoelstra did handle the biggest pain in the ass player in the world, so maybe him.

But where is the guy that would have done a better job? Find him and then sure, fire the guy that in October was voted the best coach in the league by the 30 GMs in the NBA. Fire Stevens and he will have half the league looking to hire him.

What's funny is you visit all the other NBA team forums and there's threads and comments about how they think it's crazy that our fanbase wants to fire Stevens after one mediocre year. Here's one from the Philly forum when we were playing them the 2nd last time this season:



And it's all relative to who could replace him out there anyway. Unless people are hoping to get Pops to avoid his retirement for another few years.

[Somebody]

So who's now on the sack Brad train? I'm almost there, I really believe this team can make the finals but we're playing like **** with Brad's wonky rotations and schemes.

Sack him for what? The first not great professional coaching season he has had in over a decade?

Stevens ran into problems he never saw before this year. He didn't handle it great. Not sure even the best of coaches would have had a much better year than this given the team make up and what went down starting in early February.

Stevens is too intelligent a guy and too good of a basketball mind not to keep on and let him learn from this and be an even better coach.

Firing Stevens just smacks of shortsightedness and looking for a scapegoat. Ainge will move players on this team well before he would ever fire Stevens. And I agree with that.

Still doesn't change the fact that he's absolutely made this year of opportunity into a shambles of a season, but you're probably right if you're thinking long term. I just believe this team can win with better coaching, and we should prioritize the now when we can actually win, since the future is always an unknown.

So tell me, who is this great coach who is available to be hired that would have had the experience to handle:

- Your possible best player coming back from a gruesome injury and struggling the whole year while trying to be productive and earn his $30 million a year.

- Telling a 20, 21, and 24 year old that led you to a quarter away from the Finals that they need to take much smaller roles because of returning vets and have them be 100% good with that and not let it effect their game.

- Having a mercurial superstar who loved talking about what a great leader he is but goes public with locker room stuff and show he is no leader

- Have a player on another team demand a trade, have all the drama surrounding it effect your star who is involved, have it become clear that many of your players are not in your future because they will be traded this offseason.

- Deal with several players rollercoaster seasons like Morris so good and now not, Brown being so bad and now so good, Tatum's good start and then not so good slow downhill slide. Rozier is a very good starter and so bad you think about not even playing him when coming off the bench. Hayward is nothing what you expected. Baynes has been in and out with injuries. Theis too. Three players gave you what you expected this year: Kyrie, Horford and Smart. No amount of coaching is going to change that.

Find me the guy that is available that is a good coach that would have handled all that and still come away with almost 50, if not 50 wins. Find me that guy and sure, fire Stevens. The only ones I can think of that may have done better are Doc, Pops, Carlysle....not sure who else. Kerr is kinda facing something similar in Golden State this year and he doesn't appear to be handling it perfectly. Spoelstra did handle the biggest pain in the ass player in the world, so maybe him.

But where is the guy that would have done a better job? Find him and then sure, fire the guy that in October was voted the best coach in the league by the 30 GMs in the NBA. Fire Stevens and he will have half the league looking to hire him.

The Raptors replaced Casey with an assistant in Nurse, so we could probably try and do the same if there is a dude who has the tactical nous in our staff. It's not even about handling personalities at this point, it's about making the right rotations and having a better offensive scheme than having your guards chuck up brick after brick when you have a wing who's on fire. I want Stevens to stay (as I said I'm still not fully aboard the sack train) but he has to start getting things right.

[Kiorrik]

So who's now on the sack Brad train? I'm almost there, I really believe this team can make the finals but we're playing like **** with Brad's wonky rotations and schemes.

Sack him for what? The first not great professional coaching season he has had in over a decade?

Stevens ran into problems he never saw before this year. He didn't handle it great. Not sure even the best of coaches would have had a much better year than this given the team make up and what went down starting in early February.

Stevens is too intelligent a guy and too good of a basketball mind not to keep on and let him learn from this and be an even better coach.

Firing Stevens just smacks of shortsightedness and looking for a scapegoat. Ainge will move players on this team well before he would ever fire Stevens. And I agree with that.

Still doesn't change the fact that he's absolutely made this year of opportunity into a shambles of a season, but you're probably right if you're thinking long term. I just believe this team can win with better coaching, and we should prioritize the now when we can actually win, since the future is always an unknown.

So tell me, who is this great coach who is available to be hired that would have had the experience to handle:

- Your possible best player coming back from a gruesome injury and struggling the whole year while trying to be productive and earn his $30 million a year.

- Telling a 20, 21, and 24 year old that led you to a quarter away from the Finals that they need to take much smaller roles because of returning vets and have them be 100% good with that and not let it effect their game.

- Having a mercurial superstar who loved talking about what a great leader he is but goes public with locker room stuff and show he is no leader

- Have a player on another team demand a trade, have all the drama surrounding it effect your star who is involved, have it become clear that many of your players are not in your future because they will be traded this offseason.

- Deal with several players rollercoaster seasons like Morris so good and now not, Brown being so bad and now so good, Tatum's good start and then not so good slow downhill slide. Rozier is a very good starter and so bad you think about not even playing him when coming off the bench. Hayward is nothing what you expected. Baynes has been in and out with injuries. Theis too. Three players gave you what you expected this year: Kyrie, Horford and Smart. No amount of coaching is going to change that.

Find me the guy that is available that is a good coach that would have handled all that and still come away with almost 50, if not 50 wins. Find me that guy and sure, fire Stevens. The only ones I can think of that may have done better are Doc, Pops, Carlysle....not sure who else. Kerr is kinda facing something similar in Golden State this year and he doesn't appear to be handling it perfectly. Spoelstra did handle the biggest pain in the ass player in the world, so maybe him.

But where is the guy that would have done a better job? Find him and then sure, fire the guy that in October was voted the best coach in the league by the 30 GMs in the NBA. Fire Stevens and he will have half the league looking to hire him.

What's funny is you visit all the other NBA team forums and there's threads and comments about how they think it's crazy that our fanbase wants to fire Stevens after one mediocre year. Here's one from the Philly forum when we were playing them the 2nd last time this season:



And it's all relative to who could replace him out there anyway. Unless people are hoping to get Pops to avoid his retirement for another few years.

Love the opinions here <3

On board with the "slow down a minute" crew. No need to fire just yet. Crummy seasons happen. We had a lot of weird, odd Dynamics around this season. Not all of the way it was handled was Brad's fault imo!

[SparzWizard]

This meltdown also happened against the Hawks last week. The Celtics barely hung on, but tonight, they lost after holding an 18-point lead mid 4th qtr.

This team simply does not have that killer mentality.

[SHAQATTACK]

Im now counting myself lucky i couldn't get the game ....so i read a book.

I m starting to think this team needs a complete reboot of much of the players .  The chemistry is just all wrong.

[nickagneta]

Im now counting myself lucky i couldn't get the game ....so i read a book.

I m starting to think this team needs a complete reboot of much of the players .  The chemistry is just all wrong.

Strangely, I think a reboot at about this time was planned on all along because stories are Ainge has been posturing this team to eventually trade for Davis since early in Davis' rookie contract.

I find it easy to think about fours years ago once IT appeared to be a star, that Ainge envisioned a Thomas, Horford, Hayward, Davis foursome knowing Horford would be available one year, Hayward the next and Davis for a trade either this year or next. He positioned everything for that to happen and this is before drafting Brown and Tatum and seeing how good they would become. They were just assets for Davis.

And given he upgraded from IT to Kyrie, I think that reboot is even more likely to happen but now he probably hopes to keep one of the Jays. Hope he can.

[tenn_smoothie]

Rozier and Morris can stay far, far away from this team. Stevens can pack his bag and leave with them too. Tatum and Brown needs to be dealt for a generational talent soon.

That is all I can think of right now.

Tatum and Brown ? Why would we ship out our two best players of the young core who were drafted to rebuild this team ?