Brief history of slow starts with Brad Stevens & what to expect now

[thenotoriousjts]

The Celtics season got off to a pretty slow start in each of their last two seasons, where they eventually won 48 games followed by 53 and an ECF appearance. Post-Hayward injury, the Celtics again find themselves in a spot whether they have to "figure out" how to win games. For the time being, we're replacing IT with Kyrie in the winning equation, which is "IT + Horford + somebody steps up = win."

You should remember that at around this time last year, we were wondering if Isaiah Thomas could really lead any iteration of the Celtics to meaningful levels of success. You should also remember that in the past two seasons, the Celtics were more or less a .500 team for 30 games or so. If you're active on Reddit, you'll remember the Raptors fans branding the Celtics a "fake 2 seed" (that eventually became the #1 seed).

Am I making excuses for this team? No. They really should have beaten Milwaukee, if you ask me, but I'm not going to go into detail on that. What I'm doing is laying out the context of the Brad Stevens system: Experimenting with lineups. The Celtics have been vocal in the past about their frustration of this system at times. The lack of a set rotation paired with bad home losses does not sit well with players.

But, in each of the past two years, they've "figured it out". I don't know what, exactly, they figure out, but they certainly figured out something. And by "they", I mostly mean Brad Stevens. Remember when Brad put out a 4 guard + Horford lineup against the Wizards? That lineup single handedly won a playoff game.

Now? Expect Larkin. Expect Theis, Ojeleye, and Yabusele at some point. Expect Rozier, Smart, and Irving to share the floor. Expect Al Horford at point guard. Expect Smart to cover power forwards and centers. Expect some sweet Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum posters. Expect some .500 basketball. Expect them to figure it all out. And dare I say it, expect the miraculous Hayward return in April. (I can dream, ok?) Expect good things. Trust Brad Stevens.