Something is missing from this team…

[Roy H.]

I don’t know exactly what it is.  But, after the hot start, this team has looked more like the .500 team in Brad’s last year, or the Celts at the beginning of last year.

This year’s team is clearly more talented than the 2022 squad, but it’s simply not firing on all cylinders.  Is it lack of leadership?  Identity?  Accountability?  Coaching?  Motivation?

[SparzWizard]

Definitely coaching is one of them. Also possibly lack of leadership. Our best player is only a 26 year old. Still need to learn to lead. And they keep squandering big leads and lose them. It's happened too many times. They need to have that killer mindset.

The way it's been going, hard to see the C's go back to the finals. I fear for a second round exit looming. Obviously, prove me wrong and win the chip and all is well.

[Atzar]

I think the team has a lack of paint presence and rim protection that some opponents are exposing.  Al is getting older and slower, and Rob isn’t the guy who was getting DPOY consideration before his injury.  Grant and Muscala are an additional dropoff when they enter the game.  At the other end, our threes are a naturally high-variance playstyle and we can be slow to adjust when it’s not happening for us.  Or hell… maybe we’re willing to live with the occasional L because we shot 8-40 or whatever. 

The lapses in effort are much harder to explain.  I don’t know why we put in All-Star Game effort against some teams.  We haven’t earned this arrogance and it’s frustrating to watch.

[Donoghus]

Accountability/leadership/coaching.

They're coasting right now.  Playing up & down to their competition.  I think part of it is the long season and a team that is looking ahead to the playoffs and not taking the dog days of the season too seriously.  They're a switch team right now.  Whether it eventually comes back to biting them in the butt is yet to be seen but they certainly don't seem to think that HCA is an end all, be all.

[Who]

Lacking in defined identity.

Are they a small ball team with combo guards, two forwards in the Jays and one big man? A team that wins with their offense - their three point shooting, ball handling and passing.

Or are they a team that plays big with two bigs, two big wings and one big PG? A team that grinds its way to wins. A team that wins because of his defense & physicality.


They have to pick a path. They look more like the first group than the second group to me. They just don't have the same mentality / identity as under Ime for the defense-first mindset. Mazzula does better coaching offense. Let that be their identity.

[liam]

I think what's missing is consistent energy.

[Roy H.]

I think what's missing is consistent energy.

Right.  But most of the same players showed that energy last year.  Why aren’t they showing it now, but did then?

One thing guys have asked for in the past is accountability.  I get the sense that Ime was better at holding players accountable than Joe is.  (If only Ime showed that same judgment toward himself…)

[Phantom255x]

The coaching, but also a full 48-minute defensive effort. Now I'm not saying the defense HAS to play 48 minutes of exceptional defense (that's impossible even for historically good teams), but it does feel like the C's have these lapses on defense during games and they end up either blowing them, or making things more difficult than needed.

The C's to their credit did clamp down on defense last year in the 2nd half and carried it into the playoffs. This year is sort of the opposite though, they started off poorly, then improved greatly, but since the Break they've resorted back to a "meh" team.

Udoka got through to them last year. We'll see if Mazzulla can too.

Smart is the heart and soul of this team (and defense), but he's looked meh lately too and at times has melted down as well (against PHI, then last night vs BKN). The body language is questionable. We need him to get his head straight ASAP too

[jpotter33]

Don, Who, and Roy seem to have hit the nail on the head for me.

There’s clearly a lack of accountability under Joe that wasn’t there for Ime, who seemed more respected by the group than Joe. Ime had them playing hard almost 100% of the time, because that was their identity and how they won. That’s not the case with Maxzulla ball.

 Joe is also clearly doing a lot of the job training given how green he was coming in and still is, and he doesn’t do his job well enough to maximize the strengths of the team (e.g. making players try to figure things out themselves in inappropriate times).

I also think Who is right about identity, though. Not sure that our big lineup makes as much sense under Joe’s philosophy and less emphasis on the defense. Feels like Joe is trying to combine some of the successful big lineups from last year that just aren’t as successful with how he wants to play.

[celticinorlando]

Lack of leadership. Feels like they think they can roll the balls out and win most nights. Last year the poor start gave them an identity to prove everyone wrong. Carried on through the playoffs.

This year they act entitled and lack consistent effort each night. They don't really play very hard.

[gouki88]

To me it feels as if they're all waiting for the playoffs to come around. Taking weaker teams too lightly, ramping up against strong rivals, all of which reflects upon the coaching to me. We didn't just lose Ime.

But, Mazzulla has the locker-room humming. If we can stay healthy, then that will go a long way I believe.

I still don't favour any opposition team over us in a 7 game series.

[radiohead]

To me it feels as if they're all waiting for the playoffs to come around. Taking weaker teams too lightly, ramping up against strong rivals, all of which reflects upon the coaching to me. We didn't just lose Ime.

But, Mazzulla has the locker-room humming. If we can stay healthy, then that will go a long way I believe.

I still don't favour any opposition team over us in a 7 game series.

This. They’re just waiting for the playoffs. They know they can beat anyone once the playoffs start. I hope that is the case.

[Indocelts]

Motivation, accountability and leadership .

I just don’t think the young Star players are hungry enough to get banner 18, instead they are focusing more on individual achievement, such as trophies, stats, NBA22k rating, social activities, that I seldom read their comment about wanting fight collectively to get banner 18. Their excuse that they lost the last final due to being exhausted is, imo, a sign that they are mentally weak, as has been shown again lately.

It is the coach who must hold them accountable. Play them when they play well, but take them out when they don’t perform. Reward the bench when they outperform the starters.

I feel that Joe somehow is reluctant to instill discipline/accountability to his Star players (though he does to the bench players), maybe because he feels indebted to them.

[angryguy77]

Ime is what's missing.

[gouki88]

Ime is what's missing.

Which is a good thing, given he was harassing staff