The biggest threat to the Celtics' season? Themselves

The biggest threat to the Celtics' season? Themselves

NBC SPORTS BOSTON By A. Sherrod Blakely February 10, 2019 2:47 PM

BOSTON -- For months the focus for many has been on how the Boston Celtics would gain traction in the Eastern Conference standings, forced to play what has been a season-long game of catch up after a slow start to the season.

But we had it all wrong, folks!

Instead of Toronto, Philadelphia and Milwaukee, the Celtics’ worst enemy resides much closer to home.

Following Boston’s 123-112 loss to the Los Angeles Clippers, we now know the real enemy with the potential to sabotage this season is the Celtics themselves.

Marcus Morris delivered an extremely candid speech following the loss, a game in which Boston led by as many as 28 points against a Clippers team with a rotation comprised heavily of trade deadline additions who had not played a single game together prior to Saturday night.

Morris pulled no punches in proclaiming there were too many individual agendas at play, and that the team collectively wasn’t as locked into putting team success ahead of individual achievements.

Whether you believe him or not, it makes a lot of sense when you consider how irrationally erratic this team has been all season.

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They have shown the ability to thrive against the stiffest competition, only to fold like a summer lounge chair against below-.500 clubs.

With the trade deadline having come and gone, it’s not like they can do anything of great significance at this point in order to shake up the roster.

With each passing day, there’s an increased level of concern that all the promise this team has shown will go to waste.

And it won’t be because of the improvements made by other teams, but more about the lack of cohesiveness from within this group.

That’s what makes the direction this franchise is going right now, something all should be worried about.

“Guys are hanging their heads, it’s not fun; we’re not competing at a high level even though we’re winning it’s still not fun,” Morris said. “I don’t see the joy in the game. I watch all these other teams in the league, guys up on the bench, they're jumping on the court, all the stuff that looks like they’re enjoying their teammates’ success, and they’re playing together, and their playing to win. When I look at us I see a bunch of individuals.”

His words are a scathing rebuke for a team that only a year ago, was the model of how far a team dealing with adversity can go when all oars are paddling in the same direction, at the same time with the same clear and undeniable goal - win games.

Boston has had stretches where its play resembled that team, but more times than not it hasn’t lasted more than a few games here and there.

Losses like Saturday’s to the Clippers and Thursday’s to the Los Angeles Lakers, only reinforce the belief that this team isn’t as together as they would want folks to believe.

Morris’ comments only cement that point.

So at this point, Boston has to hope that this adversity, which is on full display for public consumption, can do what their team meetings failed to do.

And that’s bring about an increased level of togetherness and accountability for each individual player to put aside their own egos and agendas, and focus on doing what is best for the team.

A lot of attention has been paid to the team’s young players who comprise a central component of the team’s core, something that has been both a blessing and a burden at times.

Young players are looking to establish themselves in the NBA, and often get to do that on bad teams.

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Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown and Terry Rozier to a large extent don’t have that opportunity in Boston, a team that’s built to contend for a title which involves each of them playing a certain role that requires a good amount of sacrifice from each of them.

Former Celtics coach Doc Rivers, now head coach of the Los Angeles Clippers, recalled his time in Boston when he had a young core of players that included Al Jefferson and Kendrick Perkins.

As they were trying to figure out roles for each player, a decision was made to make Jefferson more of a focal point offensively while Perkins would be utilized more as a defensive anchor.

“Perk was like, ‘what the hell are you talking about? I scored like 30 a game in high school,” Rivers recalled. “And we were like, ‘yes, and now you’re going to be a picker and a roller.’ It took Perk a while; I would say four years before he really accepted that role.”

Rivers added, “Young guys and roles don’t match. Every young guy that comes in was probably an All-American; was probably the guy at his college.”

And dreams of taking their games to another level in the NBA and enjoy comparable success, are there from the start.

“Everybody has all-star dreams on their mind,” Rivers said. “Whereas a coach, you only have winning; that’s your only goal. You hope they make all that, but you really don’t care. You want them to learn how to win.”

That more than anything else, is the point that Morris was making with his post-game comments on Saturday.

There’s a growing sense that this team doesn’t want to collectively make the sacrifices required to win at the highest of levels, assuming their way of playing is the way success will come about.

And at least from Morris’ standpoint, that has made this season not a lot of fun lately even as the victories piled up in greater abundance.

“It’s not about one game, it’s not about two games,” Morris said. “It’s about this entire experience. We have a great team. We have a lot of names, a great team. But if it’s not fun, not together, then how can we win? I’ve never seen a team not having fun, bonding well on the court, win a championship. If the goal is to win a championship, that has to change first.”

That change begins with putting the focus on the real enemy that can keep them from achieving their dreams this season - themselves.

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Reminds my of the cartoon character "Pogo", a swamp possum. He was charged with taking an expedition into the swamp to find out who was polluting it and militarily  defeating them.

He returned and gave his report: "we have met the enemy and he is us."

Berlin-T

could it be that Tatum, Brown and Rozier ARE the problems on this team?

I ask this because this article kinda implies as much and Irving actually said it (without naming names).

IF that's so, this team will get torn down after this year and rebuilt for sure.