People are understandably frustrated over a series loss that it seemed we could have won. I am not down on this Celtics team though. We lost because Miami had guys like Herro, Iguodala, and Robinson play at times, like all stars. Bench players are not the ones that are supposed to play big in big playoff games but it happens I guess. We missed opportunities, had too many turnovers, and made other mistakes but you have to hand it to Miami. They beat us after beating Milwaukee.
As to moving forward, we have an unbalanced roster with too much invested in wings and not enough in bigs. Easy to see, harder to fix. We also have a ton of money tied up in Walker and Hayward who both didn't help in the series commensurate with max players. Both are probably dealing with injuries that are not anyone's fault.
Hard to think Hayward won't pick up his option so we probably have him for another year. Walker for a few more years. Not sure where we stand with these guys. They may bounce back, may not. I suspect that both are trade candidates. And I love Marcus Smart. I am happy to keep him.
My prediction is that trades for Hayward and/or Walker will explored but probably nothing comes of it. We get a few draft picks, maybe a minor FA or two, and run it back next season hoping Walker and Hayward stay healthy and the young players all improve. That is not the worst thing.
I don’t agree that too many wings was the problem. The team was right there, and when they played to their potential they won those minutes. When you get to the conference finals, the other teams are really good. It’s pretty likely your opponent will be better than you are in at least one position, maybe 2. So yes, Bam was better than our centers. But if we didn’t blow big leads in the fourth quarters of games 1 and 2, we probably win the series in 5 or 6 games. This team, for unknowable reasons, has a bad habit of going away from its strengths when things get tough. They stop attacking and start settling for early 3s. They lose focus on D. (Jaylen is an excellent 1 on 1 defender, and maybe my favorite C right now, but man, he loses his place in the team scheme too often.) They had plenty to get to the finals this year, they just lose their composure. How to fix *that* I don’t know.
Get a new coach. That's how you fix that. And change the offensive philosophy. I prefer not to see them hover outside the 3pt line and just try to cut/slash, attack the paint, or dribble in and take 2s instead.
Topic: This team reached it's ceiling (Read 8816 times)