New coach or new core. Take your pick

[coco]

Coach is good.  No issues there.

But we need an ALPHA.  Tatum and Brown are good, but no Alphas...at least not yet.

If we can’t get an Alpha to join Tatum/Brown, then go get a fearless scorer.

Everyone is expendable with the exception of those two.

...and if we can’t get a scorer, then the identity of the team needs to change.  Trade for defense minded players.

[Moranis]

The core isn't good enough to actually win a championship and hasn't been for years.  The team is in a bit of a lull right now, but a new coach is not going to make this team something it isn't i.e. a real championship contender. 

[NKY fan]

If the Js give up on the season (especially Tatum) this will give you all the answers. If they don’t have the fire to at least make the playoffs and play a competitive series despite their supporting cast we probably should look for a new core

[droopdog7]

Unfortunately it’s a new core.  That means either we continue along this fruitless road for a few more years then start over or whatever, but we ain’t winning anything with the jays. 

Not stars.

[Jiri Welsch]

Unfortunately it’s a new core.  That means either we continue along this fruitless road for a few more years then start over or whatever, but we ain’t winning anything with the jays. 

Not stars.

The Jays seems like Ray and Pierce, but they need their KG.

[KG Living Legend]

I think CBS is a good coach and if we let him go, some team will immediately pick him up. That said, I think the team is ready to hear a new voice, particularly the Jays

Part of me thinks that and part of me thinks that it is ridiculous to let a very good coach go just because our young players decided they don’t want to listen to him anymore.

Before letting Brad go, I would bring in a former player as Associate Head Coach to really mentor and get on these guys. Someone like Larranaga is good at what he does, but he is even more boring that Stevens. And, no, I wouldn’t fire Brad to bring in someone like KG or Perk lol - that is just crazy. Just because they used to play basketball doesn’t mean they are ready to step into a head coaching role.

 Here is the thing. This isn't about Xs and Oscar anymore. He's lost the team. Lost the respect of the players.

 Doc Rivers has the respect of players. It makes a difference. 

[hpantazo]

Unfortunately it’s a new core.  That means either we continue along this fruitless road for a few more years then start over or whatever, but we ain’t winning anything with the jays. 

Not stars.

The Jays seems like Ray and Pierce, but they need their KG.

They do seem like Ray and Pierce, but Tatum is like Pierce before Pierce matured when Doc forced him to. Tatum needs to take that next step to make his teammates better. Until then, he will not win.

[hpantazo]

From the comments coming out from players, Stevens and the sportswriters, it really is clear that these guys don't trust each other on the floor and don't work together basketball-wise. Kemba said something along the lines that some guys have to put their egos aside for the team and time is running out. Bulpett said its not Stevens, its the players who are not working together. Stevens said they are all great guys, he can't say enough about how good they are as people, but they are not working together as a team.

With all that in mind, which players do you think are not working together and why?

My guess is Kemba and Tatum just don't work together. They both need the ball in their hands to run the offense, and they both want it at the end of games. Tristan Thompson also does not seem to be meshing well on the floor with anyone.

The best stretch this team had earlier this season was when Kemba was out and Thompson was out or limited and Brown and Tatum were running everything on the floor. Pritchard complemented them really well at the PG spot with his shooting too.

[NKY fan]

I think CBS is a good coach and if we let him go, some team will immediately pick him up. That said, I think the team is ready to hear a new voice, particularly the Jays

Part of me thinks that and part of me thinks that it is ridiculous to let a very good coach go just because our young players decided they don’t want to listen to him anymore.

Before letting Brad go, I would bring in a former player as Associate Head Coach to really mentor and get on these guys. Someone like Larranaga is good at what he does, but he is even more boring that Stevens. And, no, I wouldn’t fire Brad to bring in someone like KG or Perk lol - that is just crazy. Just because they used to play basketball doesn’t mean they are ready to step into a head coaching role.

 Here is the thing. This isn't about Xs and Oscar anymore. He's lost the team. Lost the respect of the players.

 Doc Rivers has the respect of players. It makes a difference.

Doc was ran out of town by George (and maybe Kawhi). You are overrating him a bit

[Neurotic Guy]

I do want to point out that team culture can turn on a dime.  While I agree that there are certain combinations that don't seem to be working, we only need to look back at the arrival of KG and RA to see how fast a struggling team culture and serious coaching doubts (see 2005 - 2007) can change overnight.

DA won't pull off getting another KG/RA, but he could definitely add the right pieces to the Jays to shift back to a winning culture pretty swiftly.   I like Brad and wouldn't want to see him gone -- but am much more open to it today than I've been in the past.   Of course the far bigger question is who do you replace him with?    As far as new core goes -- pretty risky -- but other than hanging onto young Rondo, young Perk, and Pierce, the C's went all in back in 2007 and it worked.  But big risk if new core means parting with Jaylen and/or Jayson.

[Celtics4ever]

They do seem like Ray and Pierce, but Tatum is like Pierce before Pierce matured when Doc forced him to. Tatum needs to take that next step to make his teammates better. Until then, he will not win.

Trouble is they don't trust the talent around them and I think this is merited.   Our talent drop off after what 5-7 players is precipitous.   You can pass to these guys all you want but it won't change their talent levels.   Most of the bottom half of the roster is G League level talent or low NBA roster talent.

This is very disheartening to a star player.   Stars usually believe in themselves but it clear they won't believe in their team mates.  I don't blame them as the talent around them after a handful of players is marginal.   Brown has noted Rob and Pritch.   He never dotes on the other guys and there in lies the problem.   I share this opinion.   Anyone who has played basketball knows that there are guys you play with you don't trust.   You see it at every level of sports.   There is a reason for it, and it is trust in other abilities.   I think our bench depth is horrible. 

Some guys games just can't be elevated.   Brown and Tatum are not facilitators either so I think it is a pipe dream.  So this is not as simple as elevating others games.   There is only so much you can do for some guy's games.   How many times have we seen this player or that get the ball and get blocked or miss.   Too often!   Scorers often would rather take the shot than take a chance on a dicey team mate.  You see this at every level of basketball too.

It is a bad situation.   Guys are not cutting but this is all just on the J's.   Other teams know this and key in on Brown and Tatum.  Ainge put together a poorly fitting roster and took chances and swung for the fences and missed on guys like Grant Williams, Nesmith and Romeo.   It did pay off with Timelord.

But all the passing the world, all the scheming is not going to make G league level players into NBA rotational  level talent.  I love Ainge but I think him and CBS over reacted with the good guy stuff when they should have been looking for gamers.   Culture matters but our team is full of good gus and good team mates who are not good enought to trust.   I am  sure we all have players on the team we cringe when they get the ball.   Our team is full of them.

[SparzWizard]

Unfortunately it’s a new core.  That means either we continue along this fruitless road for a few more years then start over or whatever, but we ain’t winning anything with the jays. 

Not stars.

The Jays seems like Ray and Pierce, but they need their KG.

Their KG will be Nikola Vucevic.

[GreenlyGreeny]

If anybody has gotta go, it’s Ainge. He now runs around saying he values our players more than anybody, as if the whole league doesn’t know he has zero respect for players. Dude even tried to talk Red into trading Larry Legend back in the day. If we move Ainge and have Zarren in the driver seat, we’re back to people wanting to trade with us and can possibly reestablish good relations with players.

A full rebuild with Stevens is the way to go. There are probably 5-6 basketball coaches in the world who are better, and all of them are either retired from coaching (Phil Jackson, Pat Riley), old/unavailable (Pops, Coach K) or NCAA only/uncertainty (maybe Bennett is better than Stevens, or maybe he does not translate as well to the NBA as Stevens). If Stevens has been tuned out, ship them all out except for Tatum, who owes a lot of his development to his relationship with Stevens.

If we lose Stevens, we better throw more money than anybody can imagine at Bennett. It’s the only replacement option possibly available. In comparison, we’ve already got someone on staff (Zarren) who can do a better job than Ainge. This is a no-brainer.

[gouki88]

New coach. The offensive philosophy over the last few years has been yuck to me, and now our D is bad too!

[Donoghus]

Gotta improve the core.