Post-Mortem: 2021-22 Boston Celtics

[rzzzzz]

Boston had a phenomenal run to end the season. I don’t know how much gas Horford has left in the tank, yet can only imagine what the addition of a good point guard would do for their offense. But the East is more stacked than I’ve ever seen it. A healthy Milwaukee would be a tough out, and if I were Philly, I’d get Biid off his MVP hang up and keep him on ice until the playoffs. Can’t bet on Ben Simmons, but playing with KD and a full season of Kyrie on the ball still has an enormous ceiling. And what if Riley can pull off the one trade he has to make? Everybody catch their breath and get ready to rumble next season.

[cl2117]

Run it back.

I was trying to enjoy being in the moment for the playoff run but in the back of my head I kept being like "holy **** we can bring this whole core back next year". Despite how disappointing the end of the run was, that's such an amazing silver lining.

You bring back the core 4: Tatum/Brown/Smart/Timelord, your key bench pieces: White/Grant/Pritchard, and your vets: Horford/Theis. That's an amazing level of continuity. Given how well this season panned out, I'd expect them to be a solid destination for ring chasers plus they've got Nesmith and some draft and stash guys (Madar/Begarin) who are decent back-end of the bench fodder.

Obviously they fell short and have room to improve, but I wouldn't make major changes. Look for another Derrick White-esque type trade where you can get a guy who can come in and fit into the system they've already got in place but take it to another level. I'm disappointed the Mavericks got Christian Wood because he was a guy I had really thought would work well for the C's. He doesn't fit the defensive identity but he'd really add a punch offensively and he'd provide insurance behind Horford/Timelord who are concerns for age/health. C's have some TPE's they can use to absorb salary plus they'll have taxpayer MLE, so there's some options to add a guy who could break into the rotation.

Horford is probably my biggest worry. He was amazing this season and really proved me wrong, but I'm still very cautious about him falling off a cliff due to age catching up. Hopefully his decline lines up with the rise of Grant and Robert Williams and it balances out. Worst case scenario is that he's not the same guy, but he'll either a) serve as an amazing veteran presence and solid 15-20 minute per game or b) he can be perfect salary ballast in a trade with his massive expiring deal. I love Big Al, but I wouldn't flinch at the opportunity to turn him plus all our picks into a legitimate 3rd star next to Tatum/Brown if it didn't mean reworking too much of the rest of the "core" (assuming that type of deal would ever be on the table, which I realize is a long-shot).

Don't overthink it though. The second half of the season they were legitimately one of the best teams in the league. Their young guys can continue to improve, continuity will go a really long way to make them a more cohesive team and if you can get better in the margins then all the better.

[moonie_mcgee]

They need a point guard. It’s undeniable. You’re not gonna get Lowry, Holiday, or CP3. Make a trade for Lonzo Ball or dare I say…John Wall on an expiring?

Ball would be great here.
Great transition player.
6'6 defender. Uptempo!

[Johnny Bball]

Ended up far above Brad Stevens expectations is all I know.

[John Murdoch]

Ironically what they are missing is a guy like Rozier.

[al bondiga]

Run it back.

I was trying to enjoy being in the moment for the playoff run but in the back of my head I kept being like "holy **** we can bring this whole core back next year". Despite how disappointing the end of the run was, that's such an amazing silver lining.

You bring back the core 4: Tatum/Brown/Smart/Timelord, your key bench pieces: White/Grant/Pritchard, and your vets: Horford/Theis. That's an amazing level of continuity. Given how well this season panned out, I'd expect them to be a solid destination for ring chasers plus they've got Nesmith and some draft and stash guys (Madar/Begarin) who are decent back-end of the bench fodder.

Obviously they fell short and have room to improve, but I wouldn't make major changes. Look for another Derrick White-esque type trade where you can get a guy who can come in and fit into the system they've already got in place but take it to another level. I'm disappointed the Mavericks got Christian Wood because he was a guy I had really thought would work well for the C's. He doesn't fit the defensive identity but he'd really add a punch offensively and he'd provide insurance behind Horford/Timelord who are concerns for age/health. C's have some TPE's they can use to absorb salary plus they'll have taxpayer MLE, so there's some options to add a guy who could break into the rotation.

Horford is probably my biggest worry. He was amazing this season and really proved me wrong, but I'm still very cautious about him falling off a cliff due to age catching up. Hopefully his decline lines up with the rise of Grant and Robert Williams and it balances out. Worst case scenario is that he's not the same guy, but he'll either a) serve as an amazing veteran presence and solid 15-20 minute per game or b) he can be perfect salary ballast in a trade with his massive expiring deal. I love Big Al, but I wouldn't flinch at the opportunity to turn him plus all our picks into a legitimate 3rd star next to Tatum/Brown if it didn't mean reworking too much of the rest of the "core" (assuming that type of deal would ever be on the table, which I realize is a long-shot).

Don't overthink it though. The second half of the season they were legitimately one of the best teams in the league. Their young guys can continue to improve, continuity will go a really long way to make them a more cohesive team and if you can get better in the margins then all the better.

yes I agree, but there's one major upgrade that has to happen... smart... if Boston wants the next level , you can't have a thug for a point guard

[hugepatsfan]

Spacing. Spacing. Spacing. That's gotta be the tagline of this offseason for me. We spend so much time talking about another playmaker because Tatum/Brown/Smart all struggle playing through traffic. Let me tell you something, any ball handler/playmaker we add for a TPE/MLE and what project to be late 1sts is going to struggle playing through traffic inside. Because that's how basketball works. It is very hard to get inside and play through traffic. It's much more effective to have good spacing that minimizes the traffic inside or minimizes the need to go inside and play through the traffic.

I don't care what the percentages say, neither Horford nor Grant Williams are feared from the 3 point line by defenses. Al Horford played 35 minutes per game in the playoffs. Grant played 27. The two big lineups are definitely effective, but we shouldn't play them THAT much. I think Horford needs his role cut back anyway due to age and coming off a deep playoff run vs. a year off like he had last year. I'd plan for him to be more of a 25 minute guy than 35 minutes next year in the playoffs. And Grant should be more like 20. So take those minutes off of what they played this year and add a stretch 4 for an extra 18-20 minutes/game. I've mentioned Otto Porter Jr. (MLE signing) but could be other guys. Get someone who's a more natural shooter to help bring some more floor spacing.

Pritchard played 13 minutes a game in the playoffs. He's just flat out not a playoff rotation caliber player. Replace him with a more reputable shooter. Tatum played 41 minutes/game and Brown played 38 minutes a game in the playoffs. I get that those guys are younger, but for comparison Curry played 36. Slashing a few minute off those guys would help their 4th quarter fatigue. So add those minutes to the shooter you replace Pritchard with. And beyond that, Smart played 36. White played 25... that resulted in too much of them together which is weak spacing. So slash a few minutes off each again and give to the new shooter. Between Pritchard's rotation spot and a minute or two taken from the rest you've now carved out a 20+ minutes/game role for a shooter. I keep mentioning Kevin Huerter (give up our 2023 1st and take him into the Evan Fournier trade exception) but number of guys could fit the role.

I think if you target those two areas and carve out the roles I described then you can run it back with the same top 7 players we have. I think the expanded rotation would have the benefit of keeping guys fresher over the long playoff run and during the 4th quarters of games. But most importantly, it will inject some much improved floor spacing to our offense over the course of the game. There will either be less traffic inside or less of a need to intentionally drive into that traffic.

[Fencer reregistered]

Tatum and Beal will talk this summer and agree to team up to get us over the hump (some S&T with Horford's expiring or something more complex with White/Theis, etc.)

Smart
Beal
Brown
Tatum
RWIII

Would be lethal

For reasons of hard cap, that only happens unless either Beal leaves vast amounts of money on the table or else the Cs gut the rotation. I.e., it's not happening.

[Fencer reregistered]

I feel like Boston really need to work hard on their flopping. If they sold the fake fouls more they probably win the championship. That is there one area to really improve on next year. They've got to stop trying to play good defence and fall on the ground more instead.

I presume that's meant as a joke, but in fact earlier in the postseason a ref told Udoka that Boston wasn't getting calls because guys weren't falling to the floor eough.

[Fencer reregistered]

I'm super interested how the Celtics will move forward. To me it feels like they have a big decision to make: either come back with a very similar team or try to use of on their good pieces to make a little bit of a shift in style. As currently constructed, they have great defense and 2 high-level scoring options but they are lacking a reliable offensive hub that can also playmake or even more generally in the playmaking aspect. With that, they have relatively small margin for error due to offensive limitations.
However, they could risk their defensive identity and cohesiveness by moving one of their main pieces.

They have a bunch of really nice pieces on their roster (meaning: good to great players on good to great contracts):
Brown, Tatum, R. Williams, Smart. They all are at worst fairly paid.

If they could consolidate the remaining pieces and get a starting quality guard to add to the group above, they'd be almost unstoppable.

Unfortunately, the salaries they could trade away don't come with much value. Derrick White at 16 million for next season looks really bad and Theis at 9 million doesn't look great either. You probably need to attach draft capital to get something useful back here. This is why they might decide to make a bigger move if they feel like it's unrealistic to make it back to the finals next year with that group.

They gave up significant draft capital for Derrick White. Moving him is not a goal.

[Fencer reregistered]

The answer for the Celtics may be a simple one. If ur Udoka see is there any way you can convince Brown or Tatum to be the Scottie Pippen type player of the team. If one of them can be convinced to assume that role than that may be all it takes

Tatum already brings the ball up the court, gets a ton of assists for a non-PG, and plays intense defense. That's the Pippen template right there.

[Fencer reregistered]

probably never pass ginannis again. so no more finals for them in the future.

Giannis has been passed in all but one playoffs in his career so I don't think he is so invincible as all that.

Celtics have eliminated him twice.

[Fencer reregistered]

Tatum had 5.4 assists/game or more in each postseason series, 7.0 vs. the Warriors, and >6 for the whole postseason. Yeah, the TOs were horrendous, but there's a considerable base of passing ability there.

[al bondiga]

I feel like Boston really need to work hard on their flopping. If they sold the fake fouls more they probably win the championship. That is there one area to really improve on next year. They've got to stop trying to play good defence and fall on the ground more instead.

I presume that's meant as a joke, but in fact earlier in the postseason a ref told Udoka that Boston wasn't getting calls because guys weren't falling to the floor eough.

I don't believe a ref would say something that dumb... anyway this Celtics fake enough, that was not the issue, issue was for meeting a better team

If the Celtics want to beat a better team ...have to pay better ...you can't fake that

[Fencer reregistered]

I feel like Boston really need to work hard on their flopping. If they sold the fake fouls more they probably win the championship. That is there one area to really improve on next year. They've got to stop trying to play good defence and fall on the ground more instead.

I presume that's meant as a joke, but in fact earlier in the postseason a ref told Udoka that Boston wasn't getting calls because guys weren't falling to the floor eough.

I don't believe a ref would say something that dumb... anyway this Celtics fake enough, that was not the issue, issue was for meeting a better team

If the Celtics want to beat a better team ...have to pay better ...you can't fake that

I don't think an NBA coach would risk lying about a conversation he had with a referee.

[Bostondave]

At some point when the see sawing got to be too much for me I decided this current Celtics squad just wasn't ready yet. That's the only explanation for what we saw. At their best, before the injury to Timelord, I thought they were unbeatable. But at their worst they were truly wretched and painful to watch. it literally caused pain watching them perfoem sometimes. To me their lows were just unfathomable from veterans. The core goes from 5,6.8 year veterans so I really don't understand it. For some reason Ime has escaped any criticism. But I think he's not a very good game coach. He sat and watched over and over and over again Tatum struggling with his ISO and crazy throwing himself into a crowd with a weak hoop move looking for the foul. And speaking of which the coach needs to put a **** absolute stop to the goddamn whining and crying over calls. It's infected the entire damn team. Everyone is crying to the refs. And to my knowledge not once has a ref said "you know you're right, let me reverse my call". It's spread to most of the damn team.

In general I'm excited about this squad though and they got some much needed seasoning and experience.

[al bondiga]

I presume that's meant as a joke, but in fact earlier in the postseason a ref told Udoka that Boston wasn't getting calls because guys weren't falling to the floor eough.

I don't believe a ref would say something that dumb... anyway this Celtics fake enough, that was not the issue, issue was for meeting a better team

If the Celtics want to beat a better team ...have to pay better ...you can't fake that

I don't think an NBA coach would risk lying about a conversation he had with a referee.

I can see very little character and personality in ime... to me lying is right up his alley... I think Udoka is the total opposite of Brad and that is why he hired him... he just doesn't look like a winner...let ime go, the Celtics can't do it now, 2 or 3 seasons more...

then again there is 20% chance a miscalculation with him, he's got great teachers and a great name

[Ruma85]

Spacing. Spacing. Spacing. That's gotta be the tagline of this offseason for me. We spend so much time talking about another playmaker because Tatum/Brown/Smart all struggle playing through traffic. Let me tell you something, any ball handler/playmaker we add for a TPE/MLE and what project to be late 1sts is going to struggle playing through traffic inside. Because that's how basketball works. It is very hard to get inside and play through traffic. It's much more effective to have good spacing that minimizes the traffic inside or minimizes the need to go inside and play through the traffic.

I don't care what the percentages say, neither Horford nor Grant Williams are feared from the 3 point line by defenses. Al Horford played 35 minutes per game in the playoffs. Grant played 27. The two big lineups are definitely effective, but we shouldn't play them THAT much. I think Horford needs his role cut back anyway due to age and coming off a deep playoff run vs. a year off like he had last year. I'd plan for him to be more of a 25 minute guy than 35 minutes next year in the playoffs. And Grant should be more like 20. So take those minutes off of what they played this year and add a stretch 4 for an extra 18-20 minutes/game. I've mentioned Otto Porter Jr. (MLE signing) but could be other guys. Get someone who's a more natural shooter to help bring some more floor spacing.

Pritchard played 13 minutes a game in the playoffs. He's just flat out not a playoff rotation caliber player. Replace him with a more reputable shooter. Tatum played 41 minutes/game and Brown played 38 minutes a game in the playoffs. I get that those guys are younger, but for comparison Curry played 36. Slashing a few minute off those guys would help their 4th quarter fatigue. So add those minutes to the shooter you replace Pritchard with. And beyond that, Smart played 36. White played 25... that resulted in too much of them together which is weak spacing. So slash a few minutes off each again and give to the new shooter. Between Pritchard's rotation spot and a minute or two taken from the rest you've now carved out a 20+ minutes/game role for a shooter. I keep mentioning Kevin Huerter (give up our 2023 1st and take him into the Evan Fournier trade exception) but number of guys could fit the role.

I think if you target those two areas and carve out the roles I described then you can run it back with the same top 7 players we have. I think the expanded rotation would have the benefit of keeping guys fresher over the long playoff run and during the 4th quarters of games. But most importantly, it will inject some much improved floor spacing to our offense over the course of the game. There will either be less traffic inside or less of a need to intentionally drive into that traffic.

I don’t think cutting back 3 minutes or so for Brown and Tatum does much, they just just need to be better with conditioning.

They are missing some shots that they usually make and missing free throws in this series is a no go.

[Ruma85]

I don't believe a ref would say something that dumb... anyway this Celtics fake enough, that was not the issue, issue was for meeting a better team

If the Celtics want to beat a better team ...have to pay better ...you can't fake that

I don't think an NBA coach would risk lying about a conversation he had with a referee.

I can see very little character and personality in ime... to me lying is right up his alley... I think Udoka is the total opposite of Brad and that is why he hired him... he just doesn't look like a winner...let ime go, the Celtics can't do it now, 2 or 3 seasons more...

then again there is 20% chance a miscalculation with him, he's got great teachers and a great name

If anything they just need to play stronger with the ball not caught looking to get fouls especially Tatum.

[Fencer reregistered]

I don't believe a ref would say something that dumb... anyway this Celtics fake enough, that was not the issue, issue was for meeting a better team

If the Celtics want to beat a better team ...have to pay better ...you can't fake that

I don't think an NBA coach would risk lying about a conversation he had with a referee.

I can see very little character and personality in ime... to me lying is right up his alley... I think Udoka is the total opposite of Brad and that is why he hired him... he just doesn't look like a winner...let ime go, the Celtics can't do it now, 2 or 3 seasons more...

then again there is 20% chance a miscalculation with him, he's got great teachers and a great name

You ... have ... got ... to ... be ... kidding