Growth Mindset

[litangel]

I assume that the Celtics will probably have to be better next year to win back to back championship. Because every year, the league gets a little bit better. Some of the teams evolve and adjust, some even aim to have a roster that can compete with last year's champion.
Now some may think, "Wo, we're in trouble" because we will add precious little in new players to improve ourselves.
But that is a limited way to look at growth. Great teams, and great players add new skills every year, Look at 23-24. It was not just that we had Holiday and KP, but Tatum, Brown, and White all made major improvements to their game. As did Hauser, Kornet, and to a lesser extent Pritchard. We would have not won the championship without these improvements, Players who are self motivated to be great will improve something, often something significant, every year. And they will be a better player every year up until age 33 or so, when their improvements balance with the loss of skills from aging. Joe, Brad, and most of the Celtic players have a growth mindset, and I expect them to come back better. So when I look at next year, I ask the question what all of our roster will look like after a summer and preseason of working on things. (note: not all players think this way, but on great teams, they do. The Warriors at their peak, and the Heat are two other examples of other teams that appear to have a growth mindset.
What do you think the Jays will work on this year? I wonder what a lot of the non rotation players will look like. If Tillman comes back as a 37% 3 pint shooter, he will be very playable. What if Neimas improves a number of his rough edges? What will Walsh, Davison, and Springer look like?
And beyond just individuals, what will the starting 5 look like knowing each other for one more year.
I look forward to hearing other's thoughts on this.

[Moranis]

I see health as the biggest factor.  Boston was mostly healthy all year long.  It allowed them to rest players and everyone was fresher for the playoffs.  And even in the playoffs KP was the only guy that got banged up and the C's had a very nice draw where they didn't need KP to win.  If Boston stays mostly healthy again, they will have an excellent chance to repeat and they are, and should be, the clear favorites at this point.

[libermaniac]

JT simply needs to work on 3 point shooting and shot selection.

[tenn_smoothie]

JT simply needs to work on 3 point shooting and shot selection.

Amen, though his shooting % will improve significantly with improvement in the shot selection.
But watching him year after year, I don't know if he even sees it as a problem, nor does his coach.

I would love to see Tatum return to his mid-range game, which he and Brown are very good at - at least on a limited basis given the priority this team puts on 3-point attempts. Look, shoot all the open, catch & shoot within the offense 3's you want, but a pull-up 12-footer is a much better shot than a contested fall-away 3-point shot. Those attempts off the hold & dribble are not only very low % chances, but they paralyze the rest of the offense with players standing and watching. You want to see improvement, that change would help Tatum, Brown and the entire offensive attack.

[BitterJim]

JT simply needs to work on 3 point shooting and shot selection.

Amen, though his shooting % will improve significantly with improvement in the shot selection.
But watching him year after year, I don't know if he even sees it as a problem, nor does his coach.

I would love to see Tatum return to his mid-range game, which he and Brown are very good at - at least on a limited basis given the priority this team puts on 3-point attempts. Look, shoot all the open, catch & shoot within the offense 3's you want, but a pull-up 12-footer is a much better shot than a contested fall-away 3-point shot. Those attempts off the hold & dribble are not only very low % chances, but they paralyze the rest of the offense with players standing and watching. You want to see improvement, that change would help Tatum, Brown and the entire offensive attack.

I would settle for him just taking more pull-up mid range shots instead of fadeaway mid-rangers. He has great length and a pretty quick shot, he should be easily able to just shoot over guys without needing to fade away. It would be a way better weapon and more of a go-to.

[cman88]

health and a better Tatum in the playoffs are the only things we need IMO. have to wonder if pressure of winning was getting to tatum and made him tight. now a weight has been lifted and he can play more free. Jaylen in game 5 hyping tatum up saying "dont worry i got you, you arent doing this alone" makes me think he was feeling the pressure to win.

do wish Tatum could just shoot better in the playoffs. not sure why his 3pt shot went to garbage. he needs to do like Brown who consistently gets to his spot and just rises up for a mid range shot.

all of these moves in the east honestly don't scare me that much. Bucks are getting older and really cant do much and are stuck with their team. only problem is they have been a 1st round exit last 2 years and have Doc Rivers as their coach.

knicks loading up on high quality role players. and Sixers pining for over the hill guys like Klay Thompson or perennial playoff chokers like Paul George to put them over the top.

they will be better teams, but theres no moves yet that are like "whoa that puts them above boston." like at the time, the Dame move sort of scared me. It just never occurred to me that losing Jrue's defense would have that much of an effect on them. And dame just not learning how to play in a team setting.

[hpantazo]

I see health as the biggest factor.  Boston was mostly healthy all year long.  It allowed them to rest players and everyone was fresher for the playoffs.  And even in the playoffs KP was the only guy that got banged up and the C's had a very nice draw where they didn't need KP to win.  If Boston stays mostly healthy again, they will have an excellent chance to repeat and they are, and should be, the clear favorites at this point.

Agreed. Our ceiling is much higher with a healthy KP. We didn't have that for most of the playoffs. If our top 6 are healthy, that is already a significant improvement from this recent playoff run.

[cman88]

I see health as the biggest factor.  Boston was mostly healthy all year long.  It allowed them to rest players and everyone was fresher for the playoffs.  And even in the playoffs KP was the only guy that got banged up and the C's had a very nice draw where they didn't need KP to win.  If Boston stays mostly healthy again, they will have an excellent chance to repeat and they are, and should be, the clear favorites at this point.

Agreed. Our ceiling is much higher with a healthy KP. We didn't have that for most of the playoffs. If our top 6 are healthy, that is already a significant improvement from this recent playoff run.

I think somewhat recency bias has people forget how different our team looks with a healthy KP. Boston had historically great numbers all season long.

We saw it briefly for game 1 of the finals. It takes us from a very good team to an amazing team. We kind of lucked out we didn?t face any teams where we conceivably needed him based on the matchups we got.

But if we had to face next year a healthy Milwaukee, sixers, Knick?s, Denver or Minnesota. You want a healthy KP who is a cheat code even if he plays 20 minutes.

[Roy H.]

I think they'll automatically be better, because they got the proverbial monkey off their back.

[No Nickname]

I see health as the biggest factor.  Boston was mostly healthy all year long.  It allowed them to rest players and everyone was fresher for the playoffs.  And even in the playoffs KP was the only guy that got banged up and the C's had a very nice draw where they didn't need KP to win.  If Boston stays mostly healthy again, they will have an excellent chance to repeat and they are, and should be, the clear favorites at this point.

Totally agree about KP.  It irks me when the media/fans say that the Celtics had an easy road to an NBA championship because other teams star players were injured.

If I recall correctly, the Celtics lost their THIRD BEST PLAYER, the guy who scored 20ppg, 7rbs, 2asts, 2blks!!  He only played in a handful of games.

How is that any different than the other teams who had players out with injuries?

The Celtics won this title with one hand tied behind their backs, lost only three games the entire postseason, and were never threatened, that's how good they were.

They blew the doors off all four teams.  If they won some 7-game series then maybe it would look like they weren't worthy, but that wasn't the case.

Agreed. Our ceiling is much higher with a healthy KP. We didn't have that for most of the playoffs. If our top 6 are healthy, that is already a significant improvement from this recent playoff run.