I feel like you say something like “the whole season was a failure” and people jump to their own conclusions on what that means. The failure was a failure. That doesn’t mean nothing good came of it, it doesn’t mean I’m saying give up on our 22 year old core. It means that the season was a failure. Every NBA team should feel this way, if you don’t win the title your season was a failure. That is the goal for every team, realistic or not every team wants to win the title. The Celtics are a Top 5 team in the league and this year they failed.
Talent isn’t everything, this Eastern Conference Finals proves that. Hell, this entire playoffs prove that. The Celtics are more talented then the Heat. The Celtics didn’t lose because their roster wasn’t good enough, they lost because they didn’t try. I don’t mean that as they gave up, they went down with a fight, that was pretty clear but they took plays off. Specifically in Game 6, they went away from what was working when Miami pulled ahead late. Talent can only take you so far, if you’re down 8 with 5 minutes left in the 4th and you start chucking threes early in the shot clock instead of running the offense that was destroying the zone, that isn’t a talent problem. It’s a discipline problem. It’s a mental toughness problem. It’s a coaching problem.
This season, as fucked up as it was because of the virus, was the best chance the Celtics had. Next year, the Warriors are back, the Nets are getting a healthy KD and Kyrie, the Bucks are still going to have the back to back MVP and the Lakers, Clippers and Heat are going to look fairly similar. This was the golden opportunity. I think what sucks the most is it wasn’t a talent problem, it was an attitude and coaching problem. Our hope is that the players develop not only more skills on the court and get better but they grow mentally. There is no guarantee that happens and no way for us to quantify that, we as fans have to wait another year to see if they can do it. If it was a talent issue we can fix the roster immediately, I’m not saying this roster is perfect either but it was good enough to get past the Heat and give the Lakers a tough time.
I’ll have something out later this week on what realistic changes and roster moves can be done but this team won’t win shit unless the young guys grow. I hate saying it because they are so young and it’s not fair to expect so much from them but this is Tatum and Browns team for the next decade. If they want a ring they need to talk personal steps very soon.
This team failed but they’re not dead.
This is an exciting time in my life I like to call the trinity. It's when my seasonal depression combines with my pandemic depression and my Celtics lost another ECF depression.
— Eddie (@EJS_4) September 28, 2020
Gonna be a fun ride I think!