Teams Need More Than Four Good Players To Reach The Finals

[Roy H.]

There's a lot of anger around here, based upon the premise that we should have beaten Miami.  Blame Brad, blame Kemba, blame Theis, blame our system.

Frankly, I think the team overachieved.  We made it through the regular season as a third seed, and took out Toronto and Philly in the playoffs, despite playing with essentially four above-average players:  Tatum, Brown, Kemba and Smart.  During the regular season, Hayward was well-above average, as well -- playing at a near all-star level -- but that wasn't the guy we saw in the Conference Finals.

During the regular season, we ranked 29th out of 30 teams in bench production.  Our bench ranked 28th in 3PT%.  In the playoffs, it was the same story:  our bench was 14th out of 16 playoff teams in terms of bench scoring.

That isn't a coaching or scheme problem.  It's a pure talent deficit.  Why are people acting like we should be in the Finals?  I think we should be praising this team for over-achieving based upon an extraordinarily flawed roster.

If a finger needs to be pointed, it's at Danny Ainge.  If we could have had Bertrans for two #1s, we should have taken the deal.  If we could have signed competent veterans instead of carrying seven rookies, we should have done so.  If we could have traded up to get Tyler Herro, we should have done so.  I know that having a very tight salary cap influenced some decisions, but was any part of that due to us carrying more than a $1 million cap hit for Yabusele?  If so, shouldn't we have packaged Yabu with cash to pay his salary and sent him to another team?  Was Poirier really the best we could do with his salary slot?  Where did Danny expect the bench scoring to come from?

This may be the only time I agree with Kyrie Irving, but we was absolutely right about the need for veterans.  Not only do experienced players have a calming presence, but presumably they've stuck around the league because they know how to play basketball.

I know it's a hard pill to swallow, but we lost because we're not good enough.  We were running an extremely handicapped team out there, and that can't happen again in 2021.  It's time for Danny to give us a complete roster.

[NKY fan]

Other general managers know that Danny is desperate to move his picks so they would either low ball him ( which he hates lol) or just let him add 4 more rookies. I don’t see how we add solid veterans to the bench.. there are only that many roster spots.
Ironically I think this is the draft in which quantity beats quality of draft picks because there are so many unknowns with the players coming in. There will be relatively even distribution in talent from 1-40 which means that there is a “high” chance that the four best players in the draft are picks 5,15,25,35
The best strategy might be to just randomly pick 4 guys and see what we got instead of getting too cute with draft day deals and such

[Bobshot]

Just look at the box score.

The Celtics need a center. No Bam or Davis/Howard there.
They had no answer to Bam.

The Celtics have never won anything without a good center.

Ed McCauley wasn't good enough  defensively.

[Roy H.]

I don’t see how we add solid veterans to the bench.. there are only that many roster spots.

Don't sign Poirier or Javonte Green.  There are two spots.

[BitterJim]

I don’t see how we add solid veterans to the bench.. there are only that many roster spots.

Don't sign Poirier or Javonte Green.  There are two spots.

Would 2 minimum contract vets actually have been any better for the team? Sure, they would be better than those two, but I doubt they would be good enough to crack the rotation

[PAOBoston]

I think they overachieved overall but can’t help that they left something on the table on that series. That being said, the roster before the season started was not supposed to be a title contender and wasn’t constructed as such.

This team is overall in a good spot. They don’t need a massive overhaul. They have too many young players. Keep a few that are promising (Timelord/G Williams/Langford) and discard the rest. Get rid of Poirier/Green/Kanter. They need a shooter off the bench and big man.

[Roy H.]

I don’t see how we add solid veterans to the bench.. there are only that many roster spots.

Don't sign Poirier or Javonte Green.  There are two spots.

Would 2 minimum contract vets actually have been any better for the team? Sure, they would be better than those two, but I doubt they would be good enough to crack the rotation

It couldn’t have hurt.  The Rockets are paying former Celtics Austin Rivers and Jeff Green the minimum, for instance.

[ederson]

We lost because our top5 could not stick to the plan at the end of the games.

It could be they were tired

we could also use someone like Herro of the bench .... We had him in Hayward but got injured. I doubt Miami beats us without Herro or Robinson

Sure we need a better bench but imho we lost cause we lost our minds in the last 5 mins of every game. I did not mind missing shots but we took bad shots and i expected better

[CFAN38]

Playoff teams typically need 8 guys. This playoff run the Cs basically made it to game 6 of the ECF with 5.

Kemba
SMart
Brown
Tatum
Theis

all proved themselves to be playoff rotation of better NBA players

Hayward I don't count because he was a shell of himself coming off the injury.

G Williams
Wanamaker
Kanter

are all guy who can be counted on as the 9th man for spot/emergency minutes. Maybe Grant can be one of the 8 next season but time will tell.

[wiley]

before the Heat series started I called for a healthy dose of Romeo to help deal with Herro and Robinson.  Believe it or not he would have really helped with those two...and thus the series.

another injury that bit us.  We needed our young specialist....who will hopefully evolve into more in a year or two.

[footey]

Some of what you say is true, but Brad shares in the blame. He was outcoached by Eric Spoelstra. 

[Who]

I don’t see how we add solid veterans to the bench.. there are only that many roster spots.

Don't sign Poirier or Javonte Green.  There are two spots.

I view Poirier as a vet (lot of experience in Europe). He just didn't work out. But I view him as an attempt to get a big man with some experience. Someone that could step in and give reliable minutes.

The plan failed.

[wiley]

two comments from the OP that I agree with. 

1.  The team should be praised for how far they went.  Give the Heat credit instead of ripping your team apart.  They beat the Bucks WITH Giannis...not just without him, confirming my early season thread about how good Miami is.  Just give them the freaking credit.  A Celtics team with two injured wings (Hayward and Romeo) was not good enough.  The end.

2.  The bench numbers speak for themselves.  Have to improve from second worst in the league next year.  Get the bench numbers up even a little and we're golden.

[LilRip]

Were we really at a talent deficit? Don’t top heavy teams generally outperform deep teams come playoff time? If you have 4-5 above average guys, you should be in a good position. Even the Uber deep Raptors team ended up having to rely heavily on their starters to force a game 7.

Hindsight is 20/20. Prior to the series, I didn’t see a thread on here talking about how stacked the Heat were or how Herro is a threat we need to lockdown. Were we fearing Duncan Robinson? Is Iggy really a player we all thought would bury us with his threes?

I agree with you that we weren’t good enough and I think the Heat totally deserved their series win, but I don’t think we can blame the lack of individual talent on the floor.

[wiley]

Were we really at a talent deficit? Don’t top heavy teams generally outperform deep teams come playoff time? If you have 4-5 above average guys, you should be in a good position. Even the Uber deep Raptors team ended up having to rely heavily on their starters to force a game 7.

Hindsight is 20/20. Prior to the series, I didn’t see a thread on here talking about how stacked the Heat were or how Herro is a threat we need to lockdown. Were we fearing Duncan Robinson? Is Iggy really a player we all thought would bury us with his threes?

I agree with you that we weren’t good enough and I think the Heat totally deserved their series win, but I don’t think we can blame the lack of individual talent on the floor.

I asked for Romeo to deal specifically with those two...even if Kemba had to play less.  But you're right, most of the blog, due to hopfefulness probably, vastly underrated the Heat.  Not sure how a team that smashed the NBA's best record Bucks could be so underrated.  Maybe Indiana's a pretty good team too...4 zip.

The Celtics made it as far as they did due to our top end talent...But they're young and that cost them the first two games against Miami imo.  Nothing wrong with improving the bench, not just for offense/shooting, but for calming vet presence.