Celtics chemistry, leadership, psychological issues.

[airjaw]

Rondo_Fan wrote:
Personally, I'm a little disappointed in all of the Celtics this postseason.

With that said, there has been a lot of Pierce boosterism as usual on the forum this year, ("How could people give KG credit for the turnaround? Don't they know it's really Pierce? Pierce is one of the greatest ever?", etc.), so maybe threads like this are a way of cutting off criticism of Pierce at the pass.

I mean, talk about not showing up...

And a lot of other things have gone wrong. Ray Allen hasn't shown up either. And Cleveland has played off Rondo, which a lot of people on this board saw coming (confession: not me) and that has hurt us too.

And the biggest problem: we don't have a true leader yet. This business of both KG and Pierce going to press conferences together after the game is a load of crap. Only one of them is the team leader, and we all know who it is. Yet for political reasons, we have to play it like they are equals. I thought that the TNT commentary before the game last night was insightful. Someone (I forget who) made the point that when you're screwing up on the road like this, your team leader has to take charge and get in people's faces. I have no problem seeing KG being able to do this. But for political reasons he's not allowed to. After all, he's not the captain.

In the end, we have to see how the playoffs work out. Maybe we will get a wakeup call at some point. But right now we are a ship without a captain. Actually, we are a ship with two captains, which equals a ship with no captain. If KG had a different personality, it would be OK for him not to have a vocal leadership role with Pierce as captain, a la Manny Ramirez and Jason Varitek. But he doesn't have a quiet personality. He is obviously, far and away, the best motivator on the team. But he isn't the captain... You can't really take charge when you have a very proud man in the locker room who has been designated as the guy to take charge, but who isn't doing it... It is kind of awkward, to say the least.

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airjaw:
All of you should read this and take note (I'm looking at you, Doc Rivers) because this is one of the most insightful posts about the team's chemistry and overal psychological makeup that no one seems to be talking about.

Pierce isn't a motivator. We saw that much when Antoine was in Boston and was the heart and soul of the Celtics. Now Garnett is the heart and soul. That isn't to say that Pierce isn't a great player or that he doesn't bleed Celtic green, just that his demeanor requires that of a co-captain at least to take some of that "leadership" pressure off.

Now you can see the team is struggling without CLEAR roles and expectations. This 3-headed hydra monster is all nonsense. Pierce should be taking over the game in crunch-time situations and taking the majority of shots. Garnett should be the reliable 2nd-man, as he has always been his entire career. Ray Allen should be shooting when he is open and not during any other time. instead what do we have? Forcing Garnett to be in a position which he is not comfortable with (Taking over at the end of game 1); stifling Pierce with all this talk of "unselfishness" so much that he's lost a bit of his edge and forgotten how to score; no clear person to be afraid of on the Celtic team.. a person who will yell at the other players and whip their butts in shape when they keep screwing up on the road.

Perhaps this team has not been around enough. It's still a very new team and sometimes it takes time for players to find their niche and for the team shape to take hold. I think Garnett should be made co-captain at the very least, and Sam Cassell should be the player-coach who is in charge of yelling at people. The problem is that Cassell hasn't been here for very long, and Garnett can't demand the co-captain position.



Ok, the posts above are taken from another thread. I wanted to start a new thread about the team's chemistry, leadership, and psychological issues.

I think the team's roles as it is now is fundamentally flawed. I don't care if they won 66 games, because the Mavericks did something like that too and still lost in the first-round. Are there any similarities between the Mavericks team and this Celtics team?

I think the biggest similarity has to rest in both team's lack of a clear leader who will demand accountability. That leader was not Dirk, is not Garnett, and is not Pierce. we need someone who will get angry, who will yell at his team, who will "will" his team to victory, carrying them on his shoulders through freezing snow and bleeding from numerous injuries. I remember Pierce used to be mr. 4th quarter. Now, he's an afterthought. He's not even a focal point of the offense. I believe this takes away from his killer edge. I saw an interview with the "big 3" where they were asked who should take the last shot. And Pierce answered, "Ray Allen". Excuse me, but where are the days when Pierce would throw a fit when O'Brien didn't draw up a play giving him the last-shot? Ray Allen? Really? And then Garnett said, "No no, its supposed to be like this: we each say each other's name." So Pierce ended up saying Garnett, Garnett ended up saying Ray Allen, and Ray Allen ended up saying Pierce. Is there any confusion now as to why these players seem confused in the 4th quarter?

Garnett is a great team motivator. His passion and intensity carry over to the Celtics. But his role is that of a facilitator. He creates good feelings and vibes. You need that on a team. But you also need someone who can be an "****" - someone whom you fear and who will keep you in line if you don't get your crap together, who will keep the entire team in line when you are down on the road and the crowd is hollering at you and oh my god the pressure and noise is getting to you and you don't know if you can take it anymore and *Smack! Your star player tells you to man up and get your **** together. And the look on his face tells you that no its not going to be OK and no there won't be any good feelings left if you don't man up and you end up blowing this game.

Jordan was that guy. Kobe is that guy. Lebron seems to be that guy. Chris Paul has it. They all are capable of giving dirty looks at their teammates for making mistakes. There is a ruthless edge to them, a mean streak, that makes your teammates glad that you are on their team and not the others, because deep inside they fear you a tiny bit. Or perhaps the fear and discipline comes from the coach, like Greg Popovich and the Spurs. Whether it be the coach or a player, the Celtics need someone like that.