Complacent Celtics Complete Collapse!
The story of the 2022-2023 Boston Celtics is a story of what happens when a team is driven by one factor, numbers and percentages. Any grit and poise the Boston Celtics had in they're revenge tour was all lost by a lack of control in the locker room. The Boston Celtics deformed from one of the toughest scrappiest teams in NBA history in the 2022 playoffs since the fabled since the 04 Pistons, to a soft discount 2018 Houston Rockets. A team led by Mike D'antoni that had a whole philosophy based on offensive tempo 3 point shots and getting to the foul line. While the idea behind it, is that this is the modern game this stems from the Golden State Warriors that "revolutionized the game of basketball" What everyone fails to realize is that the Warriors are the outlier there will never be another Steph Curry that can kill you from anywhere on the court. The Warriors have a defensive identity and they build around there star player.
The Celtics on the other hand fail to do this drastically. While at times during the regular season they looked like a prime Golden State Warrior brand of basketball with tremendous ball movement, watching the rock swing around the arc in great speed can be a very pretty style to witness, a finesse heavy offense. They failed to realize that Curry is largely hidden on defense for the golden state warriors. Meanwhile Jayson Tatum is the teams leading defender based on his strength, size and IQ. Jayson Tatum is also the lead playmaker for the Celtics normally quarterbacking the offense. He is also the leading rebounder to prevent second chance opportunities for the opposition. And finally of course Jayson Tatum is the leading scoring threat for the Celtics. Tatum has way more responsibility in the overall game compared to Steph Curry and this is why the overall philosophy failed the Celtics this year in embarrassing fashion. Jayson Tatum bailed the Celtics out in game 7 against the Philadelphia 76ers with a 51 point barrage but the team idenity could not just comeback to him when they couldn't hit shots.
Yes Jaylen Brown needed to be better in game 7 of the Eastern Conference Finals, yes Jayson Tatum was a shell of himself after injuring his ankle yes Joe Mazzula is a rookie head coach learning on the fly but putting the blame only these factors is dodging the real issue of this team. The team philosophy cannot be just shoot and hope for the best. The Celtics waisted a critical year. They have never had a clearer path and now they have serious prices to pay in regards to roster building. This was truly a collapse of epic proportions.
Comments
Post a Comment