Time To Panic? I Think So

[#1P4P]

I’m not worried about seeding, home advantage, or being the favorite, the coaching is an issue.

The lack of killer instinct to put teams away, depth not utilized optimally, and losing for the same reason to different teams regardless of caliber. Udoka’s Celtics put teams away, not happening under Maz. Our 2nd and 3rd string put up 116 on a full strength Bucks, but Maz has increased Tatum and Brown’s minutes and staggers them implying there’s “not enough offense” without them (which isn’t true). And lastly, if all less talented opposition have to do is play with a high motor to beat us, it’s a clear weakness that any team can exploit.

Now, there is a silver lining to these issues taking place at this point in the season because the issues are clear, they have to be addressed, and there’s enough time to address them.

[radiohead]

I’m really worried about Joe’s coaching, specially in crunch time. That JT at the backcourt formation has been used a lot the past few games. Does he have nothing else in his bag of tricks? It’s been dissected and analyzed in several youtube videos. It’s a nice play. But everyone knows what it is already.

[Phantom255x]

Well on the bright side, I got tickets for me and sis to attend a playoff game (Round 1)! So I’m happy about that at least 

Ok now back to being sad about this team currently 

[jpotter33]

Brian Robb - who has consistently brought up some of Mazzulla’s questionable rotation and strategy decisions - with probably his strongest piece calling out Joe for not playing White down the stretch and instead sticking with Kornet when it was clearly not working. And this is despite all the analytics pointing to play White more, even with Joe supposedly being an analytics guy.

https://www.masslive.com/celtics/2023/03/joe-mazzulla-compounded-celtics-issues-with-questionable-choice-in-jazz-loss-brian-robb.html

Just an outright failure not only by the coaching staff but also management and ownership. I generally think Brad has done great, but the decision to put Joe as head coach and then not provide him more experienced support on the bench given how green he is is just truly terrible management.

[jpotter33]

If I told you at the beginning of the year that Boston would win over 68% of its games with 11 to play, I think we'd all take that as that is a 55 or 56 win season.

The really unsustainable start has really caused much of this panic as Boston has come back to the mean of where it always should have been i.e. a mid 50's win team.

If you had asked us if we would start hot and then look like similar to the team from the 1st half of last year, I don't think many would take that deal.

Right.  It’s not the record, it’s the level of play.

Yes - Mo is wrong.  What we are seeing (and he is seeing) is a team that went to the NBA Finals last year, finished 2 wins shy of a championship, had a 2nd half of the year in 2021-22 in which they played a long stretch of dominant basketball, added Malcolm Brogdon to an already stacked roster, had a 25 game stretch to start this year in which they were the best team in the NBA... and have looked, since January, like a mildly better than mediocre NBA team.  The Celtics currently look vulnerable to a 1st round defeat -- something that was totally unexpected coming into the season.  This doesn't mean they will be a 1st round out -- but that it seems entirely plausible and that most of us, I think, would be surprised to see them get past Philly in round 2 (despite our success v. them), is not where we expected them to be.   55 wins, maybe that was expected. Looking like a run of the mill playoff team that no team in their right mind would fear - unexpected.

Yep. While the roster is mostly the same, this is essentially an entire new team given the completely new offensive and defensive philosophies.

At least last year we had a consistent strategy that was always available to us - our defense. This year, we have no identity and no consistent strategy that will win us games. Our only distinguishable identity is a “live by the three, die by the three” philosophy that is little better than a coin flip, and we’ve seen last night that even that isn’t enough sometimes.

So, no, this isn’t just about misaligned expectations after an unsustainable start. There have been plenty of us here from the start who have been raising red flags about Joe, this overall change in philosophy, and the general demeanor and character of this team since the beginning, but those perspectives weren’t taken seriously due to us winning and hitting the unsustainable amount of threes we were at the time. Now that things are different, people are seeing some of these issues more clearly.

[Neurotic Guy]

If I told you at the beginning of the year that Boston would win over 68% of its games with 11 to play, I think we'd all take that as that is a 55 or 56 win season.

The really unsustainable start has really caused much of this panic as Boston has come back to the mean of where it always should have been i.e. a mid 50's win team.

If you had asked us if we would start hot and then look like similar to the team from the 1st half of last year, I don't think many would take that deal.

Right.  It’s not the record, it’s the level of play.

Yes - Mo is wrong.  What we are seeing (and he is seeing) is a team that went to the NBA Finals last year, finished 2 wins shy of a championship, had a 2nd half of the year in 2021-22 in which they played a long stretch of dominant basketball, added Malcolm Brogdon to an already stacked roster, had a 25 game stretch to start this year in which they were the best team in the NBA... and have looked, since January, like a mildly better than mediocre NBA team.  The Celtics currently look vulnerable to a 1st round defeat -- something that was totally unexpected coming into the season.  This doesn't mean they will be a 1st round out -- but that it seems entirely plausible and that most of us, I think, would be surprised to see them get past Philly in round 2 (despite our success v. them), is not where we expected them to be.   55 wins, maybe that was expected. Looking like a run of the mill playoff team that no team in their right mind would fear - unexpected.

Yep. While the roster is mostly the same, this is essentially an entire new team given the completely new offensive and defensive philosophies.

At least last year we had a consistent strategy that was always available to us - our defense. This year, we have no identity and no consistent strategy that will win us games. Our only distinguishable identity is a “live by the three, die by the three” philosophy that is little better than a coin flip, and we’ve seen last night that even that isn’t enough sometimes.

So, no, this isn’t just about misaligned expectations after an unsustainable start. There have been plenty of us here from the start who have been raising red flags about Joe, this overall change in philosophy, and the general demeanor and character of this team since the beginning, but those perspectives weren’t taken seriously due to us winning and hitting the unsustainable amount of threes we were at the time. Now that things are different, people are seeing some of these issues more clearly.

I don’t really know enough about what Joe does in terms of day to day coaching, or where he projects down the road as a more experienced coach. Right now he appears to be leading what was  a strong contender to being a 1st or 2nd round out. It seems pretty clear that under Joe this team has regressed.  This live by the three philosophy is agonizing to watch, especially from a team that was a defensive juggernaut a year ago. 

[Kuberski33]

Biggest issue I see right now is the over-reliance on Tatum at crunch time. And he's been performing poorly during those periods. That could well be due to overuse or fatigue and that's on the coach. It could also be that he, along with certain teammates (Smart) are trudging through what's left of the regular season waiting for the playoffs to start.

Joe's got just under a month to this all sorted out.

While losing to Utah there in March has no bearing on their playoff chances, the way they've been blowing games is a cause for concern. Tell me this team is going out of the playoffs early and I wouldn't be shocked. But there's still time to get their act together.

The regular season and playoffs are two completely different animals.

[Phantom255x]

Well, if we are going to be the 3 seed, I guess we get an easier 1st round matchup than if we got the 2 seed? Nets just aren't good. Yes, I know we blew a 28-point lead against them recently, but are we expecting that to happen multiple times in a playoff series? Nope. I'd still rather face them than Miami if given the choice.

[gouki88]

Brian Robb - who has consistently brought up some of Mazzulla’s questionable rotation and strategy decisions - with probably his strongest piece calling out Joe for not playing White down the stretch and instead sticking with Kornet when it was clearly not working. And this is despite all the analytics pointing to play White more, even with Joe supposedly being an analytics guy.

https://www.masslive.com/celtics/2023/03/joe-mazzulla-compounded-celtics-issues-with-questionable-choice-in-jazz-loss-brian-robb.html

Just an outright failure not only by the coaching staff but also management and ownership. I generally think Brad has done great, but the decision to put Joe as head coach and then not provide him more experienced support on the bench given how green he is is just truly terrible management.

He seems to unfairly bench White a lot. I do not get it, especially after how much he starred with Smart down

[Kuberski33]

Brian Robb - who has consistently brought up some of Mazzulla’s questionable rotation and strategy decisions - with probably his strongest piece calling out Joe for not playing White down the stretch and instead sticking with Kornet when it was clearly not working. And this is despite all the analytics pointing to play White more, even with Joe supposedly being an analytics guy.

https://www.masslive.com/celtics/2023/03/joe-mazzulla-compounded-celtics-issues-with-questionable-choice-in-jazz-loss-brian-robb.html

Just an outright failure not only by the coaching staff but also management and ownership. I generally think Brad has done great, but the decision to put Joe as head coach and then not provide him more experienced support on the bench given how green he is is just truly terrible management.

He seems to unfairly bench White a lot. I do not get it, especially after how much he starred with Smart down

Luke was in there last night because they couldn't get a defensive rebound. Of course, neither could he. But maybe if Tatum, Jaylen etc had committed themselves to helping out on the boards, White could have played. White vs Brogdon it's going to be Brogdon because he's a better offensive player.

[gouki88]

Brian Robb - who has consistently brought up some of Mazzulla’s questionable rotation and strategy decisions - with probably his strongest piece calling out Joe for not playing White down the stretch and instead sticking with Kornet when it was clearly not working. And this is despite all the analytics pointing to play White more, even with Joe supposedly being an analytics guy.

https://www.masslive.com/celtics/2023/03/joe-mazzulla-compounded-celtics-issues-with-questionable-choice-in-jazz-loss-brian-robb.html

Just an outright failure not only by the coaching staff but also management and ownership. I generally think Brad has done great, but the decision to put Joe as head coach and then not provide him more experienced support on the bench given how green he is is just truly terrible management.

He seems to unfairly bench White a lot. I do not get it, especially after how much he starred with Smart down

Luke was in there last night because they couldn't get a defensive rebound. Of course, neither could he. But maybe if Tatum, Jaylen etc had committed themselves to helping out on the boards, White could have played. White vs Brogdon it's going to be Brogdon because he's a better offensive player.

Brogdon has sat for White several times. Kornet is only a marginally better rebounder than Tatum, and is worse than Blake (Timelord is the far and away best).

I just think we avoid our strengths too frequently.

[hpantazo]

I think the biggest issue and also the biggest difference from last year to this year is Smart and Rob are not what they used to be, which kills our defense. Defense was our calling card last year. It's hard to rely on that when your top 2 defenders are not performing due to health issues. Smart himself said he has had a mediocre season defensively due to his nagging ankle issues. Rob, we all know he isn't even available most nights, and when he is, he's not the explosive, mobile defender that he used to be.

[Neurotic Guy]

I think the biggest issue and also the biggest difference from last year to this year is Smart and Rob are not what they used to be, which kills our defense. Defense was our calling card last year. It's hard to rely on that when your top 2 defenders are not performing due to health issues. Smart himself said he has had a mediocre season defensively due to his nagging ankle issues. Rob, we all know he isn't even available most nights, and when he is, he's not the explosive, mobile defender that he used to be.

Can’t argue that not having these 2 up to par hurts the D, but Cs outside of Smart/Rob are good defenders who don’t seem to be as active, as communicative, as engaged as they were in their intense switching defense last year.  They should be better than they’ve been without Smart and Rob playing at their best. 

[Sketch5]

I was at the game last night, Tatum was getting doubled team all night, but didn't do much to help out outside of scroing, made some bone headed plays. He's only 24, and he's just now coming into mental maturity, but he also has a ton of experience, and seemed to have more moves and grit his firts two years.

His body language sucks and he's not a leader, which again asking a 24 year old to bark at team mates with respect is hard to ask for, but he's just whining at them.

Brown needs to step that part up too, Smart seems to be the only really vocal leader on the team, but you need an other who is on the floor more.

Not having Al or TL hurt a lot, Utah was just bigger last night. MAybe if Al played we would have won. But TL isn't relialbe to play, so I think he either needs to be a back up, or moved for a reliable option.

Tatum and Brown are too similar, and they don't Help each other with spacing for some reason.

If this team gets bounce int he second round, a massive shake up is needed, best package for either Brown or Tatum, and keep whos left. I don't get so see many games, but most of the ones I've seen drives me nuts,and just don't enjoy watching them drive into traffic and complain to the refs every 5 minutes cause they're playing like fools.

[Moranis]

If I told you at the beginning of the year that Boston would win over 68% of its games with 11 to play, I think we'd all take that as that is a 55 or 56 win season.

The really unsustainable start has really caused much of this panic as Boston has come back to the mean of where it always should have been i.e. a mid 50's win team.

If you had asked us if we would start hot and then look like similar to the team from the 1st half of last year, I don't think many would take that deal.

Right.  It’s not the record, it’s the level of play.

Since Boston started 21-5 it is 28-18, which is basically a 50 win pace and would put Boston as the 5th seed only 1 game behind Cleveland for the 4th seed.  Since the start of February, Boston is actually winning a greater pace than the Cavs are on the season.

In other words, Boston's level of play is that of a top 4 or 5 team since it started out on fire.  I just don't buy the idea that Boston's level of play is not there.  Sure a game here or there they blow it, but that happens every year to basically any team that is not one of the best teams ever.