It's interesting that Danny singled out Gordon and Jaylen as the two players who accepted their roles. We already know that Terry was one of the people unhappy and struggled all year with accepting his role. So who else is there really? Kyrie's role didn't really change, neither did Al's. Tatum, Smart and Mook's roles actually increased to an extent. Baynes was injured much of the year, Theis was never getting a lot of minutes anyway. Semi's probably the one players whose minutes dropped the most from last year but I can't see him complaining.
So does this mean that Terry's the cancer in the locker room? Or were JT and Mook unhappy despite playing bigger roles, they wanted even bigger ones? Or did Kyrie reject his role as leader?
“It didn’t really ever take where we had 100 percent buy-in from 100 percent of our players,” Ainge admitted. “I did not anticipate that.”
That lack of buy-in can be blamed on everyone, Ainge and Stevens included. They, like many people on the outside looking in, expected guys to eventually settle into their necessary roles.
“At some point you fight, compete and then however it works out you accept your role and you move on and you keep going,” Ainge said, singling out Gordon Hayward and Jaylen Brown for being two of the few who could. “I wish our team would have done a better job with that this year.”
https://www.masslive.com/celtics/2019/06/boston-celtics-could-bring-back-terry-rozier-in-the-right-role-according-to-danny-ainge.html
I haven’t watched the full interview but this is pretty interesting. If I had to guess, I’d say...
- Jayson Tatum probably wanted an even bigger role. He didn’t want to be Kobe playing with Shaq. He wanted to be Kobe playing with Gasol/Odom.
- Mook probably wanted a bigger role, got it, and then didn’t want to step down when his play didn’t merit it anymore. Not as bad definitely as like a TR (or a JT) but maybe that’s why DA was saying not everyone 100#
- Kyrie probably wanted to do things a certain way (probably like how he played in the Bucks series) and he didn’t super buy-in deferring more and more to the other young guys. Again, not as bad as TR but probably some real resistance there
Technically nobody else got significant minutes, really. I can’t imagine Horford complaining too and I think Smart played the best he’s ever played this year.