The Celtics season is over. Jaylen Brown is out for 3-6 months with the same injury that ended Romeo Langford’s season in the bubble last year, a torn scapholunate ligament in his left hand.
Thankfully for Jaylen, this injury is in his non-shooting hand, unlike Langford.
Let's be honest, the title aspirations for most (logical) fans went out the window a month or more ago. The team will still make the play in the tournament and has a decent chance at advancing.
Here are five takeaways from the past week in Celtics basketball:
1) With Jaylen Brown out, we never truly got to see this team fully healthy
The Celtics Top 7 players never were available together for a single game. You read that correctly. Jaylen Brown, Jayson Tatum, Marcus Smart, Tristan Thompson, Kemba Walker, Daniel Theis/Evan Fournier and Robert Williams never played a single minute together. This is going to be used by Celtics fans as a pass for this season and ignored by the Fire-Brad-and-blow-it-up crowd.
The Celtics Top 4 of Tatum-Brown-Kemba-Smart played 292 minutes together this season. That doesn’t even rank in the top 125 for lineups in minutes played.
Here’s the truth: no team in the NBA has been more impacted by COVID than the Boston Celtics and it’s not even close.
Most days in COVID protocols
Boston Celtics - 167
Dallas Mavericks - 118
Toronto Raptors - 116
Miami Heat - 116
Here’s the up to date COVID protocols graph for the entire NBA. (Credit: Fansure):
The Celtics, Miami Heat, Los Angeles Lakers and Denver Nuggets played deep into the NBA playoffs while the rest of the league was at home resting up. Is it coincidence that these 4 teams are also decimated with injuries all year long?
The league had its shortest offseason ever, just 71 days. The previous shortest offseason was 127 days.
2) Any chance, and it was miniscule, of Brad Stevens being fired goes out the door with Jaylen Brown’s season ending injury
As I wrote on Twitter (@TylerDevitte) and many of you seemed to misunderstand, Jaylen’s injury “saves” Brad Stevens job. There was maybe a 1% chance Brad would be let go. That would only happen if the team had a disastrous finish and likely one of the stars turning on him. It was a longshot. But losing a star ends any such speculation in my mind.
I know Jeff Goodman presented moving on from Stevens as “Door A” in a recent WEEI appearance. I just don’t see that as a legitimate discussion in a season with COVID and injury issues like Boston had. Roster construction is more of an issue than the head coach anyway.
3) Talk of firing Brad Stevens was always crazy
Danny Ainge gave Stevens a five-year extension back in August 2020 so his job was obviously secure as can be in the mind of his boss. Fans may think Brad “doesn’t know how to coach ‘em up” but the guy remains an excellent strategist. The team is still trying to run his offense but too often ball watches and plays iso ball. Do we believe he forgot how to coach in one season?
I don’t think this team is tuning out Brad Stevens. Jeff Van Gundy flat out rejected that premise on WEEI Tuesday morning and said if this is happening, that’s a player issue.
4) Evan Fournier is legit and so was his battle with COVID
“I’ve been feeling really weird, to be honest,” Fournier admitted on May 2. “It’s like I have a concussion.”
I didn’t have a real battle with COVID nor do I know anyone that has had major complications. I’m lucky but I also admit I too often brushed aside fans or people who use COVID as a reason for their poor play.
Just go back and listen to Tatum talk about his battle with the virus. Fournier has been pretty open about it too.
“My depth perception is really bad right now but I saw a specialist and she gave me some exercises, and hopefully I can get better,” Fournier added on May 2.
Evan is improving health wise as he admitted and is looking more comfortable on the court.
"It was so important for me to come back from COVID to help the team,” Fournier said Sunday after the loss to Miami. “I'm going to continue to get better. And I have to do more.”
His last four games have been incredible and has to make Ainge happy after a slow start to his Celtics career. Fournier looks like the guy Ainge traded for and is averaging 21.5 ppg, 4.8 rebounds and 4.5 assists over the last 4 games, which is second on the team in this span.
Even more impressively, Fournier is shooting 63% on 6.8 three point attempts in this stretch.
5) Aaron Nesmith will get a real opportunity to play meaningful minutes in the playoffs
He sure has come a long way from the beginning of the season where he looked skittish to now looking aggressive with the ball and chasing rebounds. If you watch the TV broadcasts, you know he’s a favorite of Mike Gorman and Brian Scalabrine for his hustle play and nose for the ball.
His minutes all season have remained in the teens if you look at his monthly splits. But Brad has been playing Nesmith more over the past 6 games (22 mpg) because he’s been so active and Brown’s absence with the ankle injury.
Nesmith’s growth remains a key point to watch as the season comes to a close and the playoffs begin.
Here is a great stat from Taylor Snow of Celtics.com:
Aaron Nesmith leads all NBA players in 3-point percentage over the past month (minimum 30 attempts)
1. Nesmith – 53.3 percent
2. Seth Curry – 52.9 percent
3. Raul Neto – 52.3 percent
4. Kevin Durant – 51.7 percent
5. Marcus Morris – 50.7 percent
Jayson Tatum is loving what he’s seeing from the 14th overall pick: "I’m happy for him because he’s worked his butt off all season. Didn't get much opportunity early on, but he's been a great teammate and shows up to work every day, and it’s paying off."