cloverleaf wrote:I know it has been frustrating and he has worked hard, but it seems like Stevens and the players have been talking him out of being kind of hang-dog for a year now.
Can you blame him? He leaves the team he's been with his whole career to join his college coach as a heralded free agent, he's been improving season by season, and gets hurt in the first game, then watches the team flourish without him, comes back after a year of grueling rehab to see the team struggle with him, has to go back to the bench, and can't finish anything in the paint because he's got no lift. Who wouldn't be depressed in those circumstances?
He's not all the way healthy yet, but he's never played with serious offensive help before and I believe him about the time on the sidelines helping him to see the game differently, because I can't think of a smarter offensive player on the Celtics in the post-coach-M.L.-Carr era.
You've got Durant, Kawhi, then Giannis/Lebron as 3.5/4s, Paul George, and I think of Jimmy Butler as a 2, but you could count him as a small forward - and I guess you'd have to put Doncic up there long-term.. So you're talking a player who's still getting better, recovering his athleticism and rounding into the prime of his career as an all-star tier, arguably top 5 player at his position.