Some final thoughts on Celtics season 2025-26

[Vermont Green]

I hope both Tatum and Brown work on their handles in the off season.  We had way too many turnovers.   This has always been an issue with Jaylen.

BOS averaged 11.9 TOV per game in the series, 3rd best for all teams in the first round.  OKC and PHI were tied for best with 10.7 TOV per game.  It is similar if you look at opponents points off TOV.  BOS was 3rd best at 12.9 pts/gm given up off TOV (90 total for the series), PHI 2nd best at 12.7 pts/gm given up off TOV (88 total for the series), and OKC leading the way with only 10.3 pts/gm given up off TOV (they only played 4 games).

Brown had like 10 offensive fouls and averaged more turnovers(3.6) than assists (3.3).

That's turrrrrrible

That part is true, but the original post said "we have way too many turnovers", which is simply not correct.  Overall, as a team, in spite of how bad Brown can be at times, they take care of the ball quite well.

Also, I would quibble with equating "bad handles" to turnovers.  As you say, many of Brown's turnovers result for offensive fouls, pushing off with his forearm.  If he cleaned that up, his overall turnovers would not be all that bad.  And I don't disagree that Brown should work on this "handles".  That part is fair.  It is just simply not true that the teams turns it over way too much.

[angryguy77]

They lost 1st round. When you have two top 10, possibly top 5 players on the team, that?s a wasted season.

Only fans in title town think that way.   The rest of the country does not compete every year at the highest levels.

I think the series loss was a disappointment, but give full credit the Sixers coming to play and playing high level D.    I think the season was a big success.   We over achieved many thought we could struggle to be a .50% win team.   The team was fun to watch and competitive most nights.

The real failure here was people thinking we have a clear path to the finals based on an overachieving team and a guy rushing back from a injury.    That is on us, not the team.

"They were frauds, and it's your fault for believing in them"

They didn't look like frauds in the reg season for the most part. They played like an 8th seed the last 3 games. They didn't have a clear path, but they were playing the best ball in the conference heading into the playoffs. It wasn't unrealistic expectations to beleive we should have been in it longer than the first round.

[SparzWizard]

They lost 1st round. When you have two top 10, possibly top 5 players on the team, that?s a wasted season.

Only fans in title town think that way.   The rest of the country does not compete every year at the highest levels.

I think the series loss was a disappointment, but give full credit the Sixers coming to play and playing high level D.    I think the season was a big success.   We over achieved many thought we could struggle to be a .50% win team.   The team was fun to watch and competitive most nights.

The real failure here was people thinking we have a clear path to the finals based on an overachieving team and a guy rushing back from a injury.    That is on us, not the team.

"They were frauds, and it's your fault for believing in them"

They didn't look like frauds in the reg season for the most part. They played like an 8th seed the last 3 games. They didn't have a clear path, but they were playing the best ball in the conference heading into the playoffs. It wasn't unrealistic expectations to beleive we should have been in it longer than the first round.

The C's were the 2 seed and at times almost took the 1 seed from Detroit. They just mentally didn't show up and the coach sat on his hands doing nothing and finally only made some adjustments in Game 7. Where said adjustments blew up in his face.

[jambr380]

Not only were we the 2 seed, but we also had a 3-1 seed. Before this year, the team was 32-0 all time when up 3-1. While we did overachieve in the regular season, this is a stain on the organization and an embarrassing performance from the supposed more experienced team.

We'll get over it because we lost in the 1st round and it's not nearly as devastating emotionally as losing in the Finals or ECF. We also are about where we thought we would be coming into the season. Unfortunately, we have pick 27 instead of say pick 17.

At the very least, we know that Tatum is still Tatum and he won't have to make his big comeback next season. That part is over. Now let's see how we build around him. And let's be clear, moving forward, it should only be about how we build around Tatum. Everyone else is on the table in the right deal.

[CFAN38]

I agree with most of the OP.


After letting it settle for a few days these are my very broad thoughts on this season and next.

Rotation
Playing deep into the bench is a great way to develop talent and win regular season games. This should continue as it also takes minutes off of the established vets over an 82 game season.

The deep bench style is a problem in the playoffs when your top 8 typically play 95% of the minutes. Maybe next season the playoff rotation needs to be planed for/implemented earlier in the regular season?

Bigs
Queta proved himself as a capable starting 5 for a playoff team. However if the team has championship aspirations he needs to be the 1A and have a legit 1B behind him. Meaning his back up needs to be as good as he is and reliable. This can be either a redundant skill set play or a change of pace big. Garza and Vuch are really good regular season backups but nothing more than emergency 3rd bigs in the playoffs. Having Al instead of Vooch changes the series immensely.

Wings
The youth movements play this season will pay dividends next season but for 25/26 the Cs really played with 5 wings who are 7th man in a playoff rotation (Hauser, Walsh, Baylor, Hugo, and Harper). Great players but not yet at the level to really be the 5th starter on a contender. Hugo is the guy who could make the soph jump and change this. If no major moves happen this off-season I can see Hauser being traded to open the wing minutes up and help bring in a big or future draft capital. JB and JT need to be given another healthy season together before any JB trade is ever considered. I hate the media speculation with JB but that's the nature of modern sports.

Guards
I feel this area of the roster is just too thin. If and when White/PP struggle the Cs really have no one to turn too. I would love to see the Cs bring in a combo guard to develop behind them. Simons showed us that a scoring combo can work in this system and while I understand (cap) and agree (needed a Center) with the Simons/Vooch trade if it didn't happen Simons possible shoots the Cs into the second round. This is where I really like Meleek Thomas in this draft.



Next Season
This is probably a homer take but I wouldn't look to make a big splash move.

Let Vooch walk and try to sign a better system fit, maybe go back to the green well with R-Will, KP, or AL? Figuring Garza/Williams can give good productive reg season minutes while keeping one of those 3 hopefully healthy,

Look for a combo/PG in the draft to develop and ideally get some reg season minutes behind White and PP

Move Hauser to either target a big or a combo guard. In doing so open up minutes for Hugo/Walsh/Baylor one needs to emerge as the 5th starter by the deadline or a trade is needed.

ALT plan; move PP to the starting lineup and look to sign a Colby White like (6'4+) combo guard as the 6th man. With a better option behind Queta and a healthy JT this roster can on D easily insulate PP as a starter allowing his minutes to be staggered with another stronger scoring option. 
 

[Who]

They lost 1st round. When you have two top 10, possibly top 5 players on the team, that?s a wasted season.

That is a fair.

[ozgod]

Should have tanked like Indiana. Wasted season.

So all that joy they gave you for 5 months of the year, the development of the young guys, all wasted?

I guess I?m a journey > destination person?I collect enjoyable moments. A bad end doesn?t remove those moments for me?I loved this season. I wouldn?t call it a waste at all, but I can understand for championship or bust folks it could be seen as a waste because either you?re contending for a championship or you are tanking to collect assets for a championship. I enjoyed this season, much more than Indy fans probably did 

They lost 1st round. When you have two top 10, possibly top 5 players on the team, that?s a wasted season.

I guess you're right, but what I'm surprised about is how you seem to be saying they blew it by going out in the first round. Wasn't it you who was saying this team was going to end up in the lottery and was trash last summer? So why do you seem to be expecting them to progress past the first round?

If both teams are healthy, I don?t see how the Celtics are better than the Hornets.

Starters: LaMelo Ball, Colin Sexton, Brandon Miller, Miles Bridges, Mason Plumlee

Bench: Mann, Dinwiddie, Josh Green, Knueppel, Grant Williams, Salaun, Kelkbrenner.

That?s a much better roster than what Boston has.

2026 draft lottery, here we come! 

The Celtics more than likely won?t be a winning team this season. So there?s that.

Tatum is expected to miss 8-9 months, according to his father. So there was chance he could be back early next year.  I don?t think that justifies gutting the team. I understand moving a piece or two to get under a threshold, but this roster is just trash now.

This is just a reset year. What?s the point of having a functional roster this coming season.

I guess your - our - expectations changed throughout the season  I'll freely admit mine changed and dig up my own (wrong take) past posts, I didn't think they would be as bad as you did, I thought they would be around the 6th seed:

I'm not ready to get on yet. I think we're going to be a top 6 seed at least with how weak the East will be. Without knowing what moves the other teams will make, as the rosters are right now you can't tell me we will be worse than WAS, CHA, BRK, TOR, ATL, CHI...and we're probably still better than IND without Hali, MIL without Dame, Brook and maybe Giannis, or MIA. That leaves CLE, NYK, ORL, PHI and maybe DET better than us.

Bit early to slit wrists

I'm excited to see how this team goes when there's not a lot expected of them. We always love rookies and young players, well now's the time to see if they develop because they will actually get to play. I'm also excited to see how Joe coaches this coming season, when he doesn't have a super team to coach, and when he has to spread out his minutes a little more to develop players. Will he be up to the challenge, like Brad was when he was faced with a mini-rebuild, or was his success due to the fact that he had a stacked team? I'm excited to find out 

There's a lot I'm looking forward to this year but then again I've never really been a championship or bust kind of person (and this team won't go in with massive expectations and underdeliver, like the 2019 team did - those seasons are worse than these developmental ones in my opinion)

I guess that's why I don't see it as a wasted season - I saw it as a season of development, to build for the next big spending window. Like you, I had to revise my expectations of them because they played so much better than any of us thought they would, so for me making the playoffs as the 2nd seed was kind of gravy. But we didn't really have stars, we had role players, vet min guys, overachieving, and in the playoffs you need stars. Unfortunately the fact that we only really had 3 shot creators (the Jays and PP) and our key role players underperformed in the playoffs:

Code: [Select]

Season PPG FG% 3FG% eFG% APG RPG

Pritchard
Reg 17.0 .464 .377 .561 5.2 3.9
Playoffs 14.6 .424 .309 .516 5.1 3.7

White
Reg 16.5 .394 .327 .489 5.4 4.4
Playoffs 11.1 .321 .273 .414 3.1 3.3

Vucevic
Reg 9.7 .439 .340 .504 2.0 6.6
Playoffs 6.2 .378 .292 .473 2.3 4.3

Walsh
Reg 5.4 .509 .384 .599 0.8 4.0
Playoffs 1.7 .211 .167 .263 1.0 2.6

Hauser
Reg 9.2 .419 .393 .584 1.5 3.8
Playoffs 7.7 .413 .421 .587 0.9 4.3

Scheierman
Reg 5.5 .453 .399 .599 1.5 3.5
Playoffs 4.3 .423 .381 .577 0.6 2.9

Queta
Reg 10.2 .653 .125 .654 1.7 8.4
Playoffs 9.3 .735 - .735 0.6 8.6

Garza
Reg 8.1 .577 .433 .654 1.0 4.1
Playoffs 4.4 .500 .308 .600 0.9 1.7

Brown
Reg 28.7 .477 .347 .522 5.1 6.9
Playoffs 25.7 .544 .405 .514 3.3 5.7

Tatum
Reg (16g) 21.8 .411 .329 .493 10.0 5.3
Playoffs 23.3 .475 .365 .569 10.7 6.8

I'm less worried about the raw averages because regular season and playoffs will get skewed by Tatum taking up a lot of usage, but if you look at the efficiencies of White, Walsh, Vuc, Garza and PP they all dropped in the playoffs. Jaylen's and Jayson's actually increased (though most people will only remember the last 3 games because negative memories imprint on our brain much more vividly than positive ones).

None of this is to excuse Jaylen. Sure he should have been better. But I'm posting the stats to try to show that in the glare of the playoffs, while our stars managed to maintain or increase their levels, the supporting cast around them struggled. Overachievement in the regular season, which brought our hopes up, and deterioration in the playoffs, particularly the last 3 games. But I guess it's why I'm not as upset as others here might be, they just weren't good enough but I don't think the season was wasted, given where we started. 

One last thing - people will criticize Joe's strategy of being 3 heavy and rightfully so. But if we're going to criticize them for bricking all their 3s in the last 3 games, we have to also recognize that they won two games by 30+ points using the same strategy - the only difference is in the wins we shot 50% and they shot 25% and in the losses we shot 25% and they shot 50% (40% in the last game). That 50% 3FG% might have made us feel we were much better than Philly were. It's the playoffs and it's stars that usually lift their games in the playoffs, and they had an ex MVP and two All-Stars, all healthy, while we had Jaylen and an 80-85% JT. And as the stats showed, our role players didn't play to the level they did in the regular season.

My 2c. I don't expect very many people to agree with me...it's much easier to keep being mad 

[Goldstar88]

They lost 1st round. When you have two top 10, possibly top 5 players on the team, that?s a wasted season.

I guess you're right, but what I'm surprised about is how you seem to be saying they blew it by going out in the first round. Wasn't it you who was saying this team was going to end up in the lottery and was trash last summer? So why do you seem to be expecting them to progress past the first round?

Right, but that was when Tatum was expected to be out the whole year. Once JT returned and the Cs went 16-3 with wins against contenders like OKC, that changed the expectations for the season. Going into the playoffs, Boston had the 3rd highest odds to win the championship.

[ozgod]

They lost 1st round. When you have two top 10, possibly top 5 players on the team, that?s a wasted season.

Only fans in title town think that way.   The rest of the country does not compete every year at the highest levels.

I think the series loss was a disappointment, but give full credit the Sixers coming to play and playing high level D.    I think the season was a big success.   We over achieved many thought we could struggle to be a .50% win team.   The team was fun to watch and competitive most nights.

The real failure here was people thinking we have a clear path to the finals based on an overachieving team and a guy rushing back from a injury.    That is on us, not the team.

"They were frauds, and it's your fault for believing in them"

They didn't look like frauds in the reg season for the most part. They played like an 8th seed the last 3 games. They didn't have a clear path, but they were playing the best ball in the conference heading into the playoffs. It wasn't unrealistic expectations to beleive we should have been in it longer than the first round.

The C's were the 2 seed and at times almost took the 1 seed from Detroit. They just mentally didn't show up and the coach sat on his hands doing nothing and finally only made some adjustments in Game 7. Where said adjustments blew up in his face.

But which players didn't show up in the playoffs, Sparz? I already know the answer, and as a hint it's not your pinata...if we're going to blame people we have to blame the right ones at least

[Kernewek]

They lost 1st round. When you have two top 10, possibly top 5 players on the team, that?s a wasted season.

Only fans in title town think that way.   The rest of the country does not compete every year at the highest levels.

I think the series loss was a disappointment, but give full credit the Sixers coming to play and playing high level D.    I think the season was a big success.   We over achieved many thought we could struggle to be a .50% win team.   The team was fun to watch and competitive most nights.

The real failure here was people thinking we have a clear path to the finals based on an overachieving team and a guy rushing back from a injury.    That is on us, not the team.

"They were frauds, and it's your fault for believing in them"

They didn't look like frauds in the reg season for the most part. They played like an 8th seed the last 3 games. They didn't have a clear path, but they were playing the best ball in the conference heading into the playoffs. It wasn't unrealistic expectations to beleive we should have been in it longer than the first round.

Clearly it's a bit of both - the team fell down to earth at the worst possible time, as they tend to, but if Brown or Pritchard make either one of those wide open shots, we likely win the series.

That being said, the latest CBA was designed to encourage parity, and - like keevsnick posted in the JB thread - not only is winning a championship the way the Celtics won one in 2024 really hard to do, we've not seen a repeat champion since the '17-'18 season, which is a massive shift compared to the last 25 years of NBA basketball (and, arguably, the last 40 years of NBA basketball).

[boscel33]

This is exactly what I've been talking about:

"They just did not adjust," Colin Cowherd said on Monday's episode of "The Herd." You're trailing by a point with 3:49 left, you shoot seven threes and you miss all of them! Adjust!"

The inability for the C's, or should I say Joe, to back out of the three has cost them two seasons in a row now.  How come I have a fear that the run is over and we're back to where we were when we traded PP and KG after only winning one title!

https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/nba/celtics-latest-playoff-collapse-exposes-fatal-strategic-flaw/ar-AA22nuAA?ocid=hpmsn&cvid=69f9cb841bf046ac8dc6c9b944f59e41&cvpid=326e995347594456f32a7315f6a60a08&ei=10

[ozgod]

This is exactly what I've been talking about:

"They just did not adjust," Colin Cowherd said on Monday's episode of "The Herd." You're trailing by a point with 3:49 left, you shoot seven threes and you miss all of them! Adjust!"

The inability for the C's, or should I say Joe, to back out of the three has cost them two seasons in a row now.  How come I have a fear that the run is over and we're back to where we were when we traded PP and KG after only winning one title!

https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/nba/celtics-latest-playoff-collapse-exposes-fatal-strategic-flaw/ar-AA22nuAA?ocid=hpmsn&cvid=69f9cb841bf046ac8dc6c9b944f59e41&cvpid=326e995347594456f32a7315f6a60a08&ei=10

Just to play devil's advocate, when we started Game 4, did you know we started 2 of 9 from 3? I think we missed 7 in a row then too. Here's our performance by quarter:

Q1 - 5-13
Q2 - 6-15
Q3 - 5-9
Q4 - 8-16

Imagine if they had stopped shooting at 2 of 9. We might not have won that game because we shot 50% in that game after the slow start. I'm not defending Joe's strategy, I 100% agree it needs to be more diversified and less predictable and dependent on RNG, I'm just pointing out that it's easy to second guess shots that miss. Because ultimately basketball is all about making shots. You make shots fans are happy. You miss them, they are mad.

And missing 3s happens more than missing 2s so it really enrages people, plus it's so far away, we can't imagine how hard it must be to make those shots than just driving the ball (forget about the fact that Philly's entire strategy was to wall off the paint and force us into being a jump shooting team of which we were only successful 3 out of the 7 games). A lot of us are old timers and even Bird and Co didn't shoot the 3 anywhere near as much as these guys do today, so I think it's been very hard to adjust to this type of team.

That said I agree they were one-dimensional. I think they were trying to drive, but Philly walled off the paint:



Ironically it's made 3s either from high screen, flare actions or pick and pop that tend to open the paint up, but since we were missing, and especially our stretch big in Vuc, Embiid and Drummond could camp in the paint and protect the rim. So it just compounded. Make-miss league 

[ozgod]

Chad Finn has an article in the Globe and he raised a good point about how as Tatum came back and got closer to 100% his presence changed the way the Celtics played. Not necessarily bad, since he was our leading scorer, rebounder and passer in the playoffs, but he changed the way we had played without him, which I think JB alluded to in his post game interview when he said "I wish we had trusted our style this year more". I thought that was some minor shade being thrown either JT or Joe's way (or both).

Here's what Finn had to say.

Can they please play faster next season?

A good number of Celtics fans would say Mazzulla?s biggest mistake was sticking with the bombs-away offense.

I get that frustration. It?s hideous basketball when the shots aren?t falling. But it?s also something old-school fans in particular were harping about right up until everyone boarded the duck boats on Causeway Street two years ago. It?s how the game is played now, even as the Celtics often take it to the extreme and don?t adjust when the rim is enduring dent after dent.

But my bigger frustration ? by far ? is the sluggish pace of the offense, particularly when it is being initiated by Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown, and the ball goes nowhere as they hunt mismatches that sometimes aren?t mismatches at all. They should have run Embiid into the parquet. Instead, they too often played at his preferred pace.

Tatum?s comeback was incredible, but let?s acknowledge something: Once he felt 100 percent, or as close to 100 percent as he was going to feel, he fell back into his ball-dominant ways, and Brown reacted by going into my-turn-now mode way too often.

Brown has made it clear, including after Game 7, that he wants to play faster and with more energy. That was how they played before Tatum came back, got into his old habits, and broke out his bag of slow-developing iso-ball moves.

To take it a stutter step further: Neither Brown nor Tatum should be the initiator/facilitator on offense next season. Let a guard get it started, and preferably before there are eight seconds left on the shot clock. Now who wants to tell them?

https://www.bostonglobe.com/2026/05/05/sports/celtics-76ers-lingering-questions/#bgmp-comments

[jambr380]

Didn't the Celtics literally play at the slowest pace in the league this year? What's he talking about, run and gun? That just didn't happen.

The team went 13-3 with Tatum in the regular season and were up 3-1 in the Philly series with a 13 point lead in the 3rd quarter of game 5. This revisionist history stuff that Tatum ruined the team's chemistry and slowed them down just doesn't make any sense and isn't true.

The team choked. Same way they did last year. Maybe part of that is on Tatum, but it's not his presence that brought them down. It's the fact that they had nobody to stop Embiid and had the worst playoff shooting for a team shooting 40+ 3PA all-time. Yes, all-time.

[Kernewek]

Didn't the Celtics literally play at the slowest pace in the league this year? What's he talking about, run and gun? That just didn't happen.

The team went 13-3 with Tatum in the regular season and were up 3-1 in the Philly series with a 13 point lead in the 3rd quarter of game 5. This revisionist history stuff that Tatum ruined the team's chemistry and slowed them down just doesn't make any sense and isn't true.

The team choked. Same way they did last year. Maybe part of that is on Tatum, but it's not his presence that brought them down. It's the fact that they had nobody to stop Embiid and had the worst playoff shooting for a team shooting 40+ 3PA all-time. Yes, all-time.

This is correct, and a good fact check.