It seems all the rage these days.
Publicly handing out blame when it comes to current bleak existence that is the Celtics.
Ime Udoka has done it a few times, taking an approach certainly not experienced during Brad Stevens' tenure. Jayson Tatum has made it a habit of putting the referees in the crosshairs during this 2-5 start. And then came Marcus Smart's pointed remarks after the Celtics' Monday night collapse.
"They don't want to pass the ball."
That, of course, was in response to how Smart viewed the Celtics' lot in life when it comes to living life with Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum as the no-questions-asked alphas.
So, let's follow suit. Let's hand out some blame.
1. Brad Stevens
He was/is a good coach. Team-builder? That remains to be seen. But Stevens' execution in both of these jobs are a big reason why we are seeing what we're seeing seven games in.
There are clearly bad habits the key players on this Celtics team have carried over from playing under Stevens. That not passing the ball thing? Isn't that what we all wanted to scream throughout the peaks and valleys of the 2020-21 season? Stevens built an offense around 'Hero Ball' with Smart absolutely part of that equation.
This comment from Udoka after Thursday night's loss jumped out: “A habit we definitely got to break. Maybe something from last year carrying over, but we have to get off to better starts." Now, he was talking about slow starts. But when you even introduce anything "carrying over" everyone's head is going to whip around and look at what else was wrong that needs to be righted.
2. Danny Ainge
Stevens has actually added some solid pieces to the 2021-22 puzzle, with Al Horford representing much more of the solution than the problem. But there is a very real issue when it comes to the roster construction that will be supremely difficult to fix: They need another star.
It's why Kyrie Irving, Gordon Hayward and Kemba Walker all were brought on board. It can't just be Tatum and Brown. That's not going to work, as we are finding out. (By the way, Walker is leading the NBA in three-point field goal percentage at 58 percent with the Knicks.)
Not maneuvering his way through the Hayward and Walker situations to give the Big 2 a helping hand heading into this season was a big miss by Ainge.
Dennis Schroder. Horford. Smart. There is nobody close to being the kind of difference-maker the aforementioned building blocks represented.
3. Jayson Tatum
Tatum has gone from the be-all, end-all star on the Boston sports scene to somebody firmly in the crosshairs of the critics. While we were promised an offense of more movement and ball distribution, too many times Tatum has simply gone back to the approach encouraged by Stevens. In fact, he is doing it more than ever, far and away taking more shots (172) than any player in the NBA. (Toronto's OG Anunoby is second at 146.)
Perhaps it's unfair to carve out this much of the blame pie when it comes to Tatum considering the team's lack of scoring options. But the optics so far are not good, with the combination of ref-complaining and losses leading to this perception.
4. Ime Udoka
The idea was for the new coach to take the good in what Stevens and Ainge had built, sprinkle in a few new ideas, and watch this team take it to the next level. Instead, we have presented with an uncomfortable mish-mash of approaches.
To suggest Smart is the distributing point guard Udoka tried to sell us on just isn't realistic. And devaluing last year's two first-round picks, Payton Pritchard and Aaron Nesmth, this early in the season seems unwise. (Pritchard has three games in which he has played 11 minutes or fewer, while has totaled one minute in the last four contests.)
Priority No. 1 has to be finding the most productive way to build around his two superstars. So far, that venture has not gone swimmingly.
5. Marcus Smart
Smart is right, the Big 2 has to distribute the ball more. But it's a tough look to say such a thing on a night where you come away with ZERO assists. Sure, the guard had his best shooting night of this season (5-for-11), but he is still managing just 29 percent from the field while making only 11-of-39 three-point attempts.
He is a winning player on a winning team. That's it. On this version of the Celtics? It has simply been uncomfortable.
There you have it. Jumping right into the one thing these Celtics have mastered ... The Blame Game.