Stevens has been tuned out!

[liam]

Why does Pritchard have to slowly walk the ball up and stop at the top of the 3 point circle on every possession? Pritchard is super fast with the ball in his hands but never pushes it. The Celtics are better when they push the ball instead of waiting around to force feed Tatum and Brown. RUN, RUN, RUN!!!!

[GreenWarrior]

Every team is better when they get easy baskets. We don't do that because either the players refuse to or stevens doesn't tell em to.

"We just have to be better"....

[Muzzy66]

I don't know if they've tuned him out. But maybe they should, whoever is telling them to continue to Chuck jump shots when you have the opposing team in foul trouble needs to go.

Thank you!!!!

[ozgod]

Besides projection, is there really any concrete evidence of this?

I think Washburn article in today’s Boston Globe triggered this. Haven’t read it if someone can post.

[dang] paywall.

You can get most of the content here:
https://www.celticsblog.com/2021/2/15/22284409/danny-ainge-takes-responsibility-for-struggles-nba-trade-deadline-boston-celtics

Brad was pretty sharp with Gary Washburn in his response to Gary's question about why they looked sharper tonight. "They just needed a day off, Gary" Brad said.


https://twitter.com/BGlobeSports/status/1361896017164124161

Washburn apparently wrote an article the other day after the Wiz game suggesting that the players had stopped listening to their coach, tuned him out. Can someone post it?  I imagine that didn't go over well with Brad.

Footey, this is the article in question from Gary Washburn:

Should any team fear the Celtics? The last two games have shown the answer is no
By Gary Washburn Globe Staff,Updated February 14, 2021, 7:13 p.m.

There are a plethora of excuses available for the Celtics here, but in today’s COVID-19 environment, no one is going to buy any reasons why they didn’t give maximum effort Sunday against the Washington Wizards, especially not the Wizards.

Washington has been decimated by COVID-19 protocols and is among the worst teams in the Eastern Conference, and all the Wizards needed to do was put together a brief flurry at the end of the first quarter to essentially put the game away in a disheartening 104-91 loss.

It’s not that the Celtics missed shots or that Jayson Tatum looked like he needed a vacation day, it was that at certain times players just didn’t compete or show effort. Tatum was one of the main culprits, shaking his head in disappointment after missing a shot and then being slow to cover a racing Rui Hachimura, who scored an easy layup on the other end.

The last two games, losses to the two worst teams in the Eastern Conference, are a prime example that downtrodden teams aren’t going to lay down, let alone fear the Celtics. They are an average team, a .500 record with 10 losses in the past 15 games.

A team with a win against the Clippers in Los Angeles and the Warriors in San Francisco also lost to the Kings, Pistons and Wizards in that span. Sunday wasn’t about execution, it’s about a team that appears to be tuning out its coach and lacks cohesion.

Jaylen Brown, the mouthpiece of the team, has said, “I don’t have anything to say about that” or “no comment” a few times over the past few games. It seems he knows what the problem is, but he doesn’t want to air dirty laundry and cause even more issues.

“It could be (low point that we could build from), it’s up to the mentality of everybody,” Brown said. “How we come in every day, prepare to work. If you let it be a ‘rock bottom’ mentality then that’s what it’s going to be. You come to play, you need to show (up). (Sunday) we weren’t very good.”

When asked if the team was tired mentally and physically, Brown said: “I don’t really have too much to say, we just wasn’t very good today.”

When asked about the team’s lack of ball movement the past two games, Brown said: “I have no comment.”

And then Brown, as he has in the past, expressed his confidence in the franchise: “I have faith in this organization and team, our coaching staff. We sucked. We haven’t played well over the last few stretch of games for whatever reason but I believe we can turn it around at any moment.”

Is this just hope or is there something concrete the Celtics can do? First there needs to be a more balanced effort. Brown and Kemba Walker combined for 50 points, while their teammates scored 41 points on 12-for-51 shooting.

Tatum scored a season-low 6 points in 23 foul-plagued minutes and just didn’t seem engaged, despite the fact his buddy Bradley Beal was scoring with ease. And he gave up on a handful of plays defensively because he was discouraged by his offense.

Secondly, the Celtics just aren’t playing smart basketball. Far too many fouls early in quarters, leading to the opposing team living in the bonus. In one stretch the Celtics made a run to cut it to 14 in the third quarter, and Grant Williams responded with two off-ball fouls that resulted in four free throws and the Celtics were done.

What appeared to be an aberration Friday against the Pistons is now a problem, and the Celtics can’t look to the soft part of their schedule because this was the soft part of their schedule.

The Celtics have to figure out what kind of team to they want to be. Do they want to be a team that gives maximum effort every night, plays smart and takes it chances or do they want to complain about the schedule, fatigue, the officiating and injuries and lose as much as they win?

It’s really up to them.

“It’s us, as a whole, we have to be better,” Walker said. “We have to do a better job. Some very disappointing losses. We’re just not playing the way we’re capable of playing and that has to be fixed, and soon.

“We’ve got to change some things and we will. I’m very confident that we will change things and will continue to get better. It will change. It’s not a great feeling the way we’re playing. It can’t get no worse than this. We’re going to fix it, for sure … We just have to play harder. We’re not playing as hard as we know we can.”

That’s on Brad Stevens, who needs to make some lineup changes if he agrees with Walker that the Celtics aren’t giving a full effort at all times. The Celtics need to win on nights when Tatum and Brown aren’t dominant. They need to grind out games like Sunday and play tougher when shots aren’t going down instead of committing lazy fouls or going under screens on elite 3-point shooters like Beal.

Tatum has to find more ways to contribute even when he is not scoring. And Stevens needs to figure out a consistent rotation. He played rookie Aaron Nesmith 28 minutes after he played a total of 15 minutes since Jan. 25. Stevens is grasping at straws and it’s going to take some soul searching over the next 48 hours to change the course of the season.

Because they’ve gotten nothing accomplished so far through the first 26 games.

Gary Washburn can be reached at gary.washburn@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @GwashburnGlobe.

https://www.bostonglobe.com/2021/02/15/sports/celtics-effort-is-under-fire-after-losses-worst-teams-eastern-conference/

This was what provoked the following response from Brad at that press conference that I linked above:

“We needed a day off,” Stevens insisted. “I wanted to practice so bad [Monday]. Every part of me wanted to be on the practice court but that would have been stupid. This stretch is real. Sometimes just a good night’s sleep and the chance to get back and get some treatment, get your COVID test, smile a little bit, not worry about anything else that’s going on the outside and just come back together, talk about moving the ball a little bit, add a few things is the key to getting a little bit better. It’s not rocket science. I didn’t want to make it that.”

https://www.bostonglobe.com/2021/02/17/sports/after-day-off-celtics-play-more-complete-game-victory-over-nuggets/

It was also after that article that Tatum revealed he was still suffering from the effects of Covid 19.

[ozgod]

But that was then, this is now, and this is Gary's latest article. He's decided that a fire needs to be lit under Danny's backside. Danny probably needs to answer some questions about roster construction and not planning for the departure of Gordon.

Trae Young, Hawks make for another night exposing Celtics for all they lack
By Gary Washburn Globe Staff,Updated February 17, 2021, 2 hours ago

It’s not that Brad Stevens wants to expose the weakness of his roster intentionally by placing players in positions where they have little chance of succeeding, but that’s exactly what he’s doing.

The Celtics roster is so limited at this point, especially defensively and especially without Marcus Smart, that he actually opted for Jeff Teague — the former Hawks standout point guard now aging, declining, and perhaps close to being out of a job — on the masterful Trae Young, the Hawks’ current point guard and one of the most prolific scorers in the NBA.

You can image the results. Young scored on anybody who faced him. Stevens refused to trap because the Hawks were also scoring so much in the paint, and the young, flawed Hawks beat their equally flawed opponent, 122-114, Wednesday at TD Garden.

“We’ve won a lot of games, played tremendous against the good teams and some other teams. We’ve just got to find some consistency,” Celtics forward Jaylen Brown said.

“I know it’s probably tough to watch. [Expletive], it’s tough to play.”

Young finished with 40 points, which is acceptable if you contain the Hawks’ other weapons. That’s usually what Atlanta opponents attempt to do, let Trae score and turn him into a one-man team. But Atlanta focused early on the paint and scored layups and dunks at will, forcing the Celtics to try nearly anything to get defensive stops.

This is supposed to be a team that prides itself on defense, and the “missing Smart” argument is valid, but getting tired. The Celtics just aren’t making in-game adjustments to curtail big scoring nights, and it’s getting embarrassing. Nikola Jokic scored 43 two nights ago, but the Celtics were decent enough against the other components to pull away.

This wasn’t the case against Atlanta. The Hawks did pretty much whatever they wanted early, then Young got warmed up and closed the game. He hit two uncontested 3-pointers in the final period on efensive mistakes. Stevens tried Javonte Green and that didn’t work. Payton Pritchard picked up fouls and couldn’t provide resistance either. So check another box of Celtics major deficiencies: A lack of a backcourt, on-ball defender to at least make these elite point guards work.

And there wasn’t much else Stevens could do except to trap, hoping that Young wouldn’t be able to distribute the ball to open teammates for easy scores. Stevens even tried a zone defense in the second half after Atlanta shot 60 percent in the first, a pretty glaring sign of desperation.

“I thought we tried a bunch of different guys on [Young],” Stevens said. “Obviously, we switch a lot to try to guard the 3-point line on the other guys. We also missed some [chances to stop him] and he made us pay when we missed. It was like the [Joel] Embiid game [last month in Philadelphia]. He gets 42, he crushes you. He gets 30, and you’re right there.

“We tried all our guards, our guys off the bench; he’s just a tough cover.”

So what do the Celtics do? The answer is not much because they are so limited. More Robert Williams may be the answer. He played solid basketball in his 19 minutes, but is he ready for more responsibility? And it’s apparent that Tristan Thompson is a workhorse under the basket, but he doesn’t have enough bulk or length to contain players such as Clint Capela defensively.

Capela made his first eight shots, and then missed two in the same sequence only to tip in his second miss. The Celtics were helpless. The Hawks made the sloppy Celtics (16 turnovers) pay for each mistake, and were clearly confident in their ability to score every time down the floor.

As usual, Boston countered with Jayson Tatum and Brown, who combined for 57 points, but also 24 missed shots. Again, the supporting cast couldn’t score consistently, nor help out to get defensive stops.

“Physicality, we definitely lost that battle,” Brown said. “They had a lot of points in the paint. Defense is a team dynamic and this year we’re not as connected as in past years. This year, we’re not as physical as in past years, but this is a unique year. We’ve got a unique team, a new team, a young team, and we’re trying to put the pieces together.”

But the major moves during that process needs to be up to management and the front office. The Celtics are 28 games into the season, an extensive enough sample size to determine what they have and what they need. Team president of basketball operations Danny Ainge isn’t just waiting until trade discussions pick up approaching the March 25 deadline to ponder moves. This stretch of 11 losses in 17 games has to be distressing since he is responsible for putting this team together.

The Celtics still lack a consistent rim-protecting big man unless Stevens decided Williams is that guy. The Celtics still can’t stop anybody off the dribble, which allows guards to [dang] near roast marshmallows in the paint before deciding whether to pass or score. And the Celtics lack a consistent wing who can defend and score when open at the 3-point line.

Instead, the Celtics have two top 20 players, a couple of seen-better-days veterans, and a slew of younger players trying their best, but constantly placed in positions where they can’t succeed. Such as Green, in his second year, assigned to contain Trae Young or rookie Payton Pritchard trying to distribute and score in replacing the unavailable Kemba Walker.

It’s not fair, but Stevens apparently has no choice, and we continue to be exposed to this roster’s limitations.

Gary Washburn can be reached at gary.washburn@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @GwashburnGlobe.

https://www.bostonglobe.com/2021/02/18/sports/trae-young-hawks-make-another-night-exposing-celtics-all-they-lack/

[SparzWizard]

Just get a new coach. This guy isn't working out at all with this team. Should have been fired after 2018 playoffs.

[Androslav]

Just get a new coach. This guy isn't working out at all with this team. Should have been fired after 2018 playoffs.

The top coach in the league.
Give him a lifetime contract.

[Tr1boy]

“It’s not (a coaching problem),” Ainge said. “... It’s always a fear I have when you have a little bit of success, you’re not quite humble enough and respect your opponent. I don’t think we respected our opponents enough. It’s that simple; it has nothing to do with coaching. It has to do with the players. It’s just a maturity issue with the team.”

[Donoghus]

“It’s not (a coaching problem),” Ainge said. “... It’s always a fear I have when you have a little bit of success, you’re not quite humble enough and respect your opponent. I don’t think we respected our opponents enough. It’s that simple; it has nothing to do with coaching. It has to do with the players. It’s just a maturity issue with the team.”

Removing Danny's personnel decisions from the equation, I do think this is more a player problem than a coaching problem.  You can blame rotations & substitution patterns to an extent but a lot of the problems on the court right now are simply just poor execution.  Stupid mistake.  Stupid decision making.   That's on the players.

I still do think that some of the issues we're seeing right now can be attributed to fatigue. The schedule has been brutal lately and the team has certainly looked gassed out there at times. 

[nickagneta]

“It’s not (a coaching problem),” Ainge said. “... It’s always a fear I have when you have a little bit of success, you’re not quite humble enough and respect your opponent. I don’t think we respected our opponents enough. It’s that simple; it has nothing to do with coaching. It has to do with the players. It’s just a maturity issue with the team.”

Removing Danny's personnel decisions from the equation, I do think this is more a player problem than a coaching problem.  You can blame rotations & substitution patterns to an extent but a lot of the problems on the court right now are simply just poor execution.  Stupid mistake.  Stupid decision making.   That's on the players.

I still do think that some of the issues we're seeing right now can be attributed to fatigue. The schedule has been brutal lately and the team has certainly looked gassed out there at times.

Spot on Dons. As Ainge said, the players tuning out Stevens is pretty ridiculous. The players put together by Ainge hasn't worked and the players are making lots of mistakes on the court.

Stevens is doing the best with what he has, but the players have to bring it. None of the defensive intensity we saw last season is there now, and that simply can't be attributed to losing Kanter and Hayward or that Stevens system doesn't work. The players are simply not motivated on that side of the ball.

Now whether that's because the team thinks they are better than they are and not taking teams seriously, only the players, the coaches and Ainge know that for sure. I am going to take Ainge at his word on that. And if that's the case, those players need to be told that in no uncertain terms. Ainge going public with that better do the trick otherwise, a lot of those players could be gone next year.

And as Dons said, they do look very tired at times. Not sure how to fix that while trying to play everybody not needs to play as much as they do because of players missing games.

[Big333223]

I've always been a big Brad fan. I still am. I think he's a great coach. I also think that at a certain point, getting a new voice in the locker room and getting a new set of eyes on the players can be valuable. Not just any voice or any eyes. Don't fire Brad to bring in a worse coach. But we're talking about 8 years here. 8 years where the team usually over-performed expectations (with one big exception that I don't think you can blame on Stevens).

This year, the team has talent but is losing winnable games and isn't playing with cohesion. If Kemba and Smart get healthy and they reel off some wins and wind up the 3rd seed and making a deep run, then maybe it'll all be fine. But if they finish 37-35, it might be time.

[RJ87]

I've always been a big Brad fan. I still am. I think he's a great coach. I also think that at a certain point, getting a new voice in the locker room and getting a new set of eyes on the players can be valuable. Not just any voice or any eyes. Don't fire Brad to bring in a worse coach. But we're talking about 8 years here. 8 years where the team usually over-performed expectations (with one big exception that I don't think you can blame on Stevens).

This year, the team has talent but is losing winnable games and isn't playing with cohesion. If Kemba and Smart get healthy and they reel off some wins and wind up the 3rd seed and making a deep run, then maybe it'll all be fine. But if they finish 37-35, it might be time.

The only player that's he's coached that long is Marcus Smart. With the sheer amount of roster turnover we've had, no player has really been here long enough to justify "tuning him out".

[ozgod]

I've always been a big Brad fan. I still am. I think he's a great coach. I also think that at a certain point, getting a new voice in the locker room and getting a new set of eyes on the players can be valuable. Not just any voice or any eyes. Don't fire Brad to bring in a worse coach. But we're talking about 8 years here. 8 years where the team usually over-performed expectations (with one big exception that I don't think you can blame on Stevens).

This year, the team has talent but is losing winnable games and isn't playing with cohesion. If Kemba and Smart get healthy and they reel off some wins and wind up the 3rd seed and making a deep run, then maybe it'll all be fine. But if they finish 37-35, it might be time.

The only player that's he's coached that long is Marcus Smart. With the sheer amount of roster turnover we've had, no player has really been here long enough to justify "tuning him out".

Yes here's how long each player has been coached by Brad:

Code: [Select]

Player Time Coached (yrs)
Smart 6
Brown 4
Tatum 3
Ojeleye 3
Theis 3
Walker 2
R. Williams 2
G. Williams 1
J. Green 1
Edwards 1
Waters 1
Fall 1
Langford 1
Pritchard <1
Teague <1
Nesmith <1
Thompson <1


Maybe it's the fans that are tuning him out. Good thing we're not on the team 

[GreenWarrior]

Ya know the rumor that stevens can't coach the ego of the nba stars.

Coincidence that horford, hayward and kyrie aren't here.

[ozgod]

Ya know the rumor that stevens can't coach the ego of the nba stars.

Coincidence that horford, hayward and kyrie aren't here.

I don't know about Kyrie, but I suspect there are 109 million reasons why Horford isn't here, and 120 million reasons why Hayward isn't. But you could be right of course and maybe they thought Stevens wasn't respectful enough of their elite stature in the game.