Was the Celtics success in 2018 a curse?

[LloydFree]

The curse is two consecutive drafts with 3 first round picks each (including picks from Sacramento and Memphis that you hoarded like gold) and the best you get out of all that is Peyton Pritchard and Romeo Langford.

[JN61]

Tatum is just not that good. He is one of the worst finishers around the rim and Smart has horrible body language. He dogs out everyone and he is not that good of a player himself..

[phanman]

they overpaid IT...jaylen and tatum have topped out and will only be more expensive to keep

The never resigned IT, only traded for him. Dude was arguably the best value in the entire league during his time in Boston @ 6.9, 6.5 and 6.2m

Tatum is just not that good. He is one of the worst finishers around the rim and Smart has horrible body language. He dogs out everyone and he is not that good of a player himself..

You obviously don't watch him. Guy converts 72.5% of his looks at the rim.

The big issue in Boston is losing that rotational/veteran talent (Horford, Hayward, Rozier etc.) while not hitting on any decent draft to fill out the rotation.

[FlatearthZorro]

Brav, we were literally one very unfortunate landing from making the finals. It's hindsight, but I truly believe we would've at least been in the Finals last year, same the first year Kyrie was with us. It is what it is.

I would agree the construction of the team has been poor and Danny has whiffed probably 3-4 early to late first rounders(most obvious are Hunter, Young and I don't expect much of Edwards and G Williams). He has not signed a legit 6th man who can score in ages. We've needed a proven vet off the bench(maybe even 2) for years and we haven't gotten 1.

This year Kemba has been a really poor fit, too. He's a score first PG/SG and his shooting has been pretty poor. Would be nice to have a better facilitator who isn't a liability on defense.

[Bobbymcgee]

Really not sure how they can get better without trading Brown or Tatum. Unless they get really lucky and find someone willing trade for Walker.

[Ballerhogger]

Really not sure how they can get better without trading Brown or Tatum. Unless they get really lucky and find someone willing trade for Walker.

Id try to trade brown for Towns

[strokerace]

[quote="raylewis"]they overpaid IT...jaylen and tatum have topped out and will only be more expensive to keep[/quoteYou obviously don't know what you are talking about. Please stop and maybe do a little research before commenting.

[Fencer reregistered]

No. The curse was making the ECF last season. That led to exhaustion, shortened offseason, and so on in the year of COVID. Those in turn have led to .500 ball.

And everybody knows that once a team languishes at .500 for over half of a season, it is doomed forevermore.

There's no hope for the Heat, for the same reason.

[Infinite Llamas]

2018 was a horrible year in the East. It gave the Celtics a false level of pride for being 2nd place in a conference of losers and tanking teams.

This season is proof that Kyrie was the scapegoat for 2019. They regress this season and now everyone but their two All-Stars are harboring blame on the Celtics board.

I mean, the C’s took down Giannis and the Bucks (yea, I know Prunty was the coach) but they were still an up and coming opponent. They took out Embiid and a rookie Simmons. They took Lebron to 7. That’s not exactly an “easy” path. The C’s were the underdogs in pretty much all those series despite the home court.

[Mamba81p]

If we had played the Celtics in the 2nd round that year we would have beaten them handily. The two Cav series we had those years should have been in the ECF.

this makes 0 sense. raptors got swept by the Cavs. Celtics took them to 7.

[Metallikid]

If we had played the Celtics in the 2nd round that year we would have beaten them handily. The two Cav series we had those years should have been in the ECF.

this makes 0 sense. raptors got swept by the Cavs. Celtics took them to 7.

It doesn't work that way. Keep trying to make examples like that and you'll see why.

[scottyno]

Really not sure how they can get better without trading Brown or Tatum. Unless they get really lucky and find someone willing trade for Walker.

Arguably their 3 best players are 22 24 and 23 years old, and you don't see a really obvious way that they can get better without trading one of them?

[Rendei]

They had IT playing for peanuts, and they had Tatum, Brown, and Smart on rookie deals. They went from having a boatload of value contracts to none really.

[beeshma]

The dilemma is that by making the conference finals so often in the past few years, Tatum, Brown, and Smart have got it in their heads that they are a championship core already. That has messed with their ability to accept new star teammates. Ainge effectively can't trade for or sign a superstar, because of Tatum, Brown and Smart's egos. He can only sign players willing to get a pat on the head and be praised as a "great teammate" while playing supporting roles like Kemba.

[RoyceDa59]

Ainge never landed that superstar to take them to the next level.

In a league where in the past few years alone LeBron, KD, Kawhi, Davis, Butler, Harden, George amongst many others all switched teams, Ainge wasn’t able to land a single one of them despite having a near perfect landing spot franchise and a war chest of assets.

[PD28]

They still have a young core however, I think people expected faster growth from their young guys given the crazy playoff experience they gained early.

[Bobbymcgee]

Really not sure how they can get better without trading Brown or Tatum. Unless they get really lucky and find someone willing trade for Walker.

Arguably their 3 best players are 22 24 and 23 years old, and you don't see a really obvious way that they can get better without trading one of them?

Those three make around 90 million combined the next two years. For that amount of money, Tatum, Brown, and Walker should be the team's core superstar players. The remainder of the salary cap for role players to surround them.

Can they sign another superstar player for 30 million a year? And, still surround them with quality role players? I still don't see how they can get significantly better in order to compete for a championship without trading one of them.

[donnieme]

The dilemma is that by making the conference finals so often in the past few years, Tatum, Brown, and Smart have got it in their heads that they are a championship core already. That has messed with their ability to accept new star teammates. Ainge effectively can't trade for or sign a superstar, because of Tatum, Brown and Smart's egos. He can only sign players willing to get a pat on the head and be praised as a "great teammate" while playing supporting roles like Kemba.

Keep hearing this and don't know if there's any credibility to it but if true they will definitely regret taking the help they had for granted

[SomeBunghole]

Ainge never landed that superstar to take them to the next level.

In a league where in the past few years alone LeBron, KD, Kawhi, Davis, Butler, Harden, George amongst many others all switched teams, Ainge wasn’t able to land a single one of them despite having a near perfect landing spot franchise and a war chest of assets.

The really sad thing is that I don't think this is a case of him being unable, but unwilling. A lot of people have talked about how Ainge seems to want to fleece the other team, but I think there's a different psychological issue at play here. He arguably did put together the greatest warchest of assets(though stay tuned for OKC) in NBA history, and I think he bought into his own hype there. I think he grossly overvalues those assets, in the same way people overvalue things on those "pickers" shows. He adds some kind of emotional value to all the picks he's obtained and players he's drafted so of course he's never going to find a deal he likes for them.

[stormi]

He tricked yall.

Watch on YouTube

Masterpiece. Would give five stars on letterbox'd.