So what were you wrong about this season?

[tonydelk]

I wouldn't say I was wrong but I had reservations that they could stop the 4th quarter meltdowns.  It wasn't log ago in the season that they'd have 3rd quarter meltdowns. 

I was wrong on the contributions of Hauser and PP.  I didn't think they would be as good as they were.  I thought our bench would possibly be a big issue.  I still think they need a wing to take regular season minutes off of the J's.  With the Olympics this year Tatum is going to need rest. 

I was also wrong about expecting Zinger to make it through the whole playoffs unscathed.  I loved how they managed his minutes and wear and tear this year and thought if he gets to the post season were good.  No back to backs.  A lot of 3 days off.   

[radiohead]

I didn?t think that Joe?s 3 point-centric offense would translate into a championship. Am I glad to be proven wrong.

On a related note, it?s nice to see all the so called ?experts? praise the Jays and act as if they weren?t part of the ?break them up? movement. Jay Williams, Perk, Skip, etc etc.

[Indocelts]

I honestly thought that Brown would pull a Marc Blount on the Cs once he got the 300 million salary. 
Glad I was wrong. In fact, I think Brown has improved alot this season, and his consistency is  what got him the MVP.

[aefgogreen]

I like Jrue, but are we going to be too thin up front with an oft-injured seven-footer and an 38 year old?

[dannyboy35]

  I thought the Celts didn?t do enough at the deadline. I thought they should have mortgaged the future and overpay by throwing 2 1sts to acquire Alex Caruso.

[keevsnick]

Honestly? Nothing. I liked the KP deal, I liked the Jrue deal, I've always thought Tatum and Brown work as duo, I have no problem with the team bombing threes. I'm not a huge Mazzula guy in terms of his in game adjustments, but I've also never called for him being fired or anything. Its obvious in retrospect that his system is elite and his style of just being the extremely weird dude seems to work for the players.

The one thing I worried about was whether they'd be able to break out of their "clogged toilet" late game offense, but in the end it didn't really end up mattering as they bludgeoned the rest of the NBA enough that they didn't get caught in late close games, and when they did they went to another level on defense and scored juuuust enough.

[footey]

I was at the Wizards game at the end of the 2022-2023 season, when he just dominated the Celtics, and made Al and Rob look small and ineffective.  I bumped into Brad at the airport the next morning, said my "hello's, love the job you're doing, we'll be okay".  Little did I know then what Brad was probably thinking: "How the heck can we get Porzingis. Guy's a stud." LOL

I liked Derrick White a lot, but did  not expect to see the insane growth in his game this season.  I wrote a thread here a few months back that the departure of Smart FACILITATED this transformation of D White.  I still feel that way. I guess it doesn't matter. Chicken or egg. 

I had mixed feelings about the Jrue Holiday trade.  A lot because I was, and still am, a huge Rob Williams fan.  I also was concerned about Jrue's age.   But I obviously was wrong, he fit in perfectly, and played a crucial role to our winning the championship.  He elevated his game in the playoffs, when he was needed most, particularly when Jaylen or Jayson struggled shooting.

I did not expect Pritchard to be such a significant contributor this season. 

I was worried about our bench. 

I always rooted for Joe, and felt that the criticism of him was overly harsh last year given the circumstances.  Early on this season, I became a great admirer of his coaching. He is such a committed, hard working, creative coach who focuses in on the little details. And I feel that the team bought in and adopted this approach to their play. Was really classy of him last night to credit the prior guys, including Ime, Brad, and Danny, as building a foundation for them to get there.  Joe can be weird and say things that make you cringe, but so what.  Sure glad he is our coach.

I love this team.  Like most of you, I have been fully invested in them since the beginning, which I would say was when we hired Brad and made the big trade.  This is the 9th NBA Celtics championship I have experienced as a fan (started watching them 66/67, Russell's first year as player coach).  This has been one of the most satisfying for me as a fan, because of the long and winding road they took to acheive it. Also, their nucleus is young, so I am very excited about our future.  But just want to relish the feeling today. I have been up most of the night soaking it all in. 

The Boston Celtics are the 2024 NBA Champions!!

[Yuckabuck33]

I thought that we would have no killer instinct without Marcus.

I feel bad for him. He bled green and left it all on the court.

Mike

I kinda can?t believe the Marcus reminiscing im seeing/hearing.

The team needed to move on from him to take this step, sorry

I can't believe the people who think Brad WANTED to trade Marcus as part of some plan of addition by subtraction. You can bet, if Brad could have found a way to keep Marcus and still get KP and Jrue, he would have.

[Kernewek]

I thought that we would have no killer instinct without Marcus.

I feel bad for him. He bled green and left it all on the court.

Mike

I kinda can?t believe the Marcus reminiscing im seeing/hearing.

The team needed to move on from him to take this step, sorry

I can't believe the people who think Brad WANTED to trade Marcus as part of some plan of addition by subtraction. You can bet, if Brad could have found a way to keep Marcus and still get KP and Jrue, he would have.

Of course - but by the same token, I'm sure Milwaukee would have preferred to keep Jrue and still get Lillard.

What we can say for sure, though, is that we know that Stevens was trying to keep Marcus out of the KP deal. Whether or not he would have held off on trading for Holiday trade if that had happened? Impossible to say, and I don't think we'll ever hear for sure from the man himself.

[celts55]

I was wrong about the bench, which I thought was a bunch of mediocre players at best.

I was also wrong about them being able to finish games. While I would still love to see them not give up big leads by going into a prevent offense, this year they still won most of them. I keep hearing a lot of noise about them being soft, but standardly soft teams don?t win championships

[Surferdad]

  I thought the Celts didn?t do enough at the deadline. I thought they should have mortgaged the future and overpay by throwing 2 1sts to acquire Alex Caruso.

Me too. At one point, I thought they should give up picks/players for Andre Drummond.

[jpotter33]

I thought that we would have no killer instinct without Marcus.

I feel bad for him. He bled green and left it all on the court.

Mike

I kinda can?t believe the Marcus reminiscing im seeing/hearing.

The team needed to move on from him to take this step, sorry

I can't believe the people who think Brad WANTED to trade Marcus as part of some plan of addition by subtraction. You can bet, if Brad could have found a way to keep Marcus and still get KP and Jrue, he would have.

Of course - but by the same token, I'm sure Milwaukee would have preferred to keep Jrue and still get Lillard.

What we can say for sure, though, is that we know that Stevens was trying to keep Marcus out of the KP deal. Whether or not he would have held off on trading for Holiday trade if that had happened? Impossible to say, and I don't think we'll ever hear for sure from the man himself.

Zarren talked a little bit about this on the Hoops Collective podcast after the game last night. Said how difficult it was to trade Smart.

[Kernewek]

Oh interesting, haven't heard that - this is the Windhorst podcast, right? any chance you have a link?

[liam]

I thought that we would have no killer instinct without Marcus.

I feel bad for him. He bled green and left it all on the court.

Mike

I kinda can?t believe the Marcus reminiscing im seeing/hearing.

The team needed to move on from him to take this step, sorry

I can't believe the people who think Brad WANTED to trade Marcus as part of some plan of addition by subtraction. You can bet, if Brad could have found a way to keep Marcus and still get KP and Jrue, he would have.

Smart would've wanted to start but White and Jrue are both way better players. The team fit together without Smart. I hope Smart has a good year with the Grizz but I was happy he was gone. Smart being the heart of the team is what made us as inconsistent as he was...

[Vermont Green]

I can honestly say that I did not fall into the traps that many other fans did.  I continued to believe in Brown and believed he could play just fine with Tatum (although I may have traded him for Durant back when that was being rumored).  I gave Mazzulla a mulligan for last season due to the circumstances but was hopeful on him and did not believe that he would be the reason for us not winning a title.  And I never bought into the narrative that the owner's are cheap.  Those were the most common "fan traps" and I was able to avoid them.

I did think we overpaid for White (although I liked the player).  Same for Holiday.  I was never critical of the trade, more neutral, I was in on Holiday from the start, just seemed like a lot to give up until both Brogdon and Williams broke down.

The final thing is one that is hard to define conclusively.  I never bought into the narrative that Smart was somehow bad for the team.  That he was impacting the development or the leadership of the J's.  I loved getting Porzingis and 2-firsts for Smart, but I am not down on Smart.  Not clear who is right on the negative Smart impact narrative.  I still see it as we won the title due to the addition of Holiday and Porzingis, not due to the subtraction of Smart.  That debate I guess will rage on.