I have been trying to write about this Celtics team since their 2-5 start. And, now, with a Saturday night collapse at the hands of the Cavaliers, the exercise hasn't become any easier.
That first week or two of the season was frustrating and frankly off-putting for this lifelong, passionate Celtics fan. Saturday evening on Halloween Eve (a road loss to Washington) had an outcome nearly as brutal as John Carpenter's original 1978 horror movie classic, 'Halloween' as the Celtics gave away leads in both regulation and in the first (and avoidable) overtime. The day after Halloween on November 1st the Celtics really bottomed out at home against the lowly Chicago Bulls, posting back to back horror show performances.
In terms of the timing surrounding that ghoulish Halloween holiday, the Celtics play was eerily scary. Frustration was at an all-time high. I was fuming at what I was seeing on the floor.
As I prepared to write two nights later when the Celtics embarked on a three-game road trip to Orlando, Miami and Dallas my fingers froze. Then my brain froze as an overwhelming feeling came over me: the Celtics were going to win in Orlando and Miami and this article was going to land like a flaming turd on your doorstep. The Celtics did win those games, then played with heart and toughness in Dallas in a tough buzzer-beating loss at the hands of the inimitable Luka Doncic. Wash-rinse-repeat with that guy. He's literally Bird-esque. Tough praise to lend for a child of the '80s like me but it's true. That guy is great.
Though the Celtics are clearly imperfect, it's been difficult to voice the frustration of this 6-7 season to the appropriate level because the target of said frustration keeps moving. It took me a couple of weeks but I finally discovered my words; something or rather, some things are simply off with this Celtics team and as they continue with this emotional shell game of a 2021 season, it's time to break it down. To do so, let's turn back the clock.
2017-2020: Close but no cigar.
These Celtics advanced to three Eastern Conference Finals in four years, losing them all. To some degree, the results in these individual series' mattered less than the vibe surrounding these deep playoff appearances and what it seemingly meant for the future. Encouragement, youthful energy, pride and championship optimism were abound.
Fast forward to 2021. Do you still feel the same way? I do not.
Each of those teams had unique problems where this 2021 team seems to have developed new ones. In 2017, an upstart Celtics team led by their diminutive force "The little guy" Isaiah Thomas, were beyond lovable. That team embodied everything that I love about sports. At the time I coined it "Celtics Madness" as that 2017 team had the makeup of a mid-major March Madness tournament team like the one its coach of the time Brad Stevens led before coming to Boston, Butler University. Lovable, endearing and over-achieving, those 2017 Celtics outperformed their collective talent level for the final three months of the season before being soundly swept by a superior Cleveland Cavaliers team led by the league's most prominent player, LeBron James.
In 2018, then President of Basketball Operations Danny Ainge made a bold and championship motivated stroke, trading away the city's new found love Isaiah Thomas for a legitimate NBA star, Kyrie Irving. It was a brilliant move at the time, until we all realized what a jack-wagon Kyrie actually was. His injury that year oddly emboldened that team and a young star in Jaylen Brown began to shine. Like the 2017 team that preceded this one though, again it simply didn't have enough to get by LeBron James and the contending Cavaliers.
In 2019, the train wreck that was Irving finally reared its ugly head and the carnage of a lost season was left behind. This club had seismic chemistry issues. Former Red Sox CEO Larry Lucchino used to say that "a team's biology meant more than its chemistry." In the case of the 2019 Celtics however, that theory was proved wrong.
In 2020, it finally felt like the upstart Celtics of the years prior were ready to elevate to the next level; returning to the Eastern Conference Finals once again. At the end of it though, the feeling surrounding this third conference finals loss was far different than those in 2017 and 18'. For the first time since the near misses of the late Pierce-Garnett-Allen days post 2008 championship, this one felt like a missed opportunity. A disappointment and what has followed since has been nothing but a long string of ongoing disappointments.
The simple truth is that the feelings surrounding this Celtics team and their realities have changed for the worse.
Last year it was clear that the team lacked veteran presence and leadership. Recognizing that in himself and on the roster he once coached, newly knighted President of Basketball Operations Brad Stevens started correcting that problem. Replacing himself as coach with a new, relatable but tough new floor general, Ime Udoka. Then Stevens added some much needed veteran presence on the floor; first making a savvy move to reacquire Al Horford, who is a natural leader, followed by the acquisition of Dennis Schroder, which has turned out to be an absolute steal. The addition of Josh Richardson provides some much needed veteran depth to the team as well.
These are all moves that I like and have proven helpful thus far, so what's the problem now? I think it's at the top of the roster. The undercurrent of disappointment from what just two years ago felt so promising has been stained with a new feeling that maybe this core, one that we once fell in love with just isn't going to work out together. What a bummer.
The Tatum/Brown/Smart Dynamic:
Two and a half tastes that sometimes taste really good together. Not exactly a Reece's commercial.
As I mentioned above during the 2017-20 segment of the article, the first phase of this young, upstart triumvirate was damn near blissful. It was fun, exciting and hope inspiring. The next phase should have started in the 2020 NBA Finals for a chance at Banner 18. Instead, the Miami Heat showed the Celtics what a team that is committed to team basketball can accomplish. Miami went onto win that conference final and the notion of team basketball has been a fleeting concept for this Celtics team ever since.
They have never been quite right since that oddly timed September 2020 series. The balloon literally popped on this core that very fall and every episode of Celtics basketball since then feels like and underwhelming movie sequel. If 2017 was Rocky then 2021 is and was Rocky V.
So what now? Can it actually work with these three key ingredients of two parts Tatum, 1 1/2 parts Brown and a 1/2 part Smart? I once thought it would but I'm no longer confident that it can.
If forced to choose on what to do and who to move to get the right mix in place, the decision is easy. You move Tatum. The reasons are plenty:
1. You'll never get equal value for what Jaylen Brown brings.
2. Brown is the exact kind of player, with the exact kind of leadership qualities and attitude I want to build around. He is the Celtics' true leader.
3. Marcus Smart also could never bring you back the return to cover what you would lose. If Brown is their true leader then Smart is their spirit animal and his unique style of play and the presence he has created is not only impossible to replicate, it's hard to peel away. Smart stays.
4. Have you ever heard of Bob McAdoo? Watching Tatum at his best is tantalizing for sure. He's easily a top-five to ten scoring threat in the league every single night. At his worst however, he reminds me of McAdoo, who was known for lighting up the stat sheet far more than helping to put wins in the win column. I hadn't thought of McAdoo in a long time but Tatum's isolation play in the first couple of weeks as well as during the waning months of last season brought him top of mind. This isn't a compliment.
In fairness, McAdoo is a Hall of Fame player and a two time NBA champion in his own right but those titles came late in his career while on the absolutely stacked Lakers teams of the 80's. If McAdoo got an assist, it was by accident. Tatum at his best is a better all-around player than McAdoo and he's shown it plenty; just not consistently which makes me wonder why?
5. Between Tatum and Brown who is most likely to be seduced by the glitzy drama of NBA Free Agency when that time comes? I'd say it's Tatum in a landslide.
6. Between Tatum and Brown who can get you the biggest yield back. Hands down it's Tatum.
So if they build around Brown and add a couple of highly talented players in a deal for Tatum that can give the Celtics a better mix of team basketball, I say do it. Accomplish that and maybe the next sequel in the Celtics basketball franchise will be more like the winning film 'Rocky Balboa' versus the aforementioned 'Rocky V.' Needless to say, something is wrong with this current script and I think the Celtics are in need of a revision.
