Celtics' demise falls on shoulders of Kyrie Irving, Gordon Hayward

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Celtics' demise falls on shoulders of Kyrie Irving, Gordon Hayward originally appeared on nbcsportsphiladelphia.com

The Boston Celtics were moments away from punching their ticket to the 2018 NBA Finals. With a little over six minutes left in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference finals, Marcus Morris drew a double-team on the left block and passed out to Jaylen Brown at the top of the key, who whipped the ball to Marcus Smart on the right wing, who immediately swung the ball to Jayson Tatum in the right corner. Boom, boom, boom. Tatum took a confident side-dribble and rose up for a 3-pointer in front of the raucous Boston crowd.

"BANG!" yelled ABC's Mike Breen on the call.

Just like that, the Celtics were up one inside six minutes against LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers. The defense dug in and the ball was humming. That 3 by the 20-year-old Tatum came on the heels of his thunderous one-handed slam over James, again fed by Smart, that nearly blew the roof off of TD Garden.

This was an unthinkable scenario. Could the baby Celtics really pull this off without Kyrie Irving and Gordon Hayward?

That question would be answered with a resounding "no." The Celtics imploded from there, missing their next 10 shots from the floor to spur a 15-2 Cavs run that slammed the door shut on the Celtics' Cinderella playoff hopes.

The ending was tough to stomach, but logic dictated that if the Celtics could play like that and add Irving and Hayward to the mix, this team would be nearly unstoppable.

However, the NBA doesn't always follow a linear progression. The "If they could play like that" assumption turned out to be foolish. Integrating Irving and Hayward proved much harder than anticipated. Tatum, Brown and Terry Rozier largely struggled in smaller roles, and the Celtics won just 49 games. The top-seeded Milwaukee Bucks dismantled the updated version of the Celtics in just five games.

The 2018-19 season ended up being a case of subtraction by addition. But should we have seen this coming? And what does it mean for team's future?

Kyrie Irving is a magician with the ball. The six-time All-Star often pulls himself out of impossible knots that would draw the envy of even Houdini himself. Other times, he's more deliberate. Irving's iconic dagger against the Golden State Warriors in the 2016 Finals was preceded by 14 hypnotic dribbles on Stephen Curry just before he darted to his spot. It's easy to get caught up admiring Irving's handiwork.

Too often, that was the case with the Celtics this season, a bad habit that only festered in the postseason. Irving held possession of the ball for 6.9 minutes per game this postseason, according to NBA.com tracking. That's way up from his average of 5.5 minutes of possession in the regular season and represents one of the largest playoff jumps among all players.

Ball-watching was always a worry with an Irving-led offense. You can get away with that hero-ball if Irving is hitting his shots, but Irving often found himself stuck in the mud, shooting 35.6 percent in the series against Milwaukee. More often than not, it was Kyrie against the world. He summed up his Mamba Mentality after struggling through 7-of-22 shooting in Game 4: "I'm trying to do it all. For me, the 22 shots, I should have shot 30. I'm that great of a shooter."

There were hints of Kyrie's hero-ball in the Pacers series, but who wants to point that out during a sweep? Irving made 21 2-pointers in that series; none of them were assisted by teammates. To put that in perspective, Irving was assisted on one of every four 2-pointers during the Cavs' championship run. Tunnel vision wouldn't work against Milwaukee's top-ranked defense. And sure enough, Irving fought through the worst four-game shooting stretch of his playoff career.

If you can point to anything that plagued this year's Celtics team, it was stagnant ball movement. That was the biggest difference separating last year's overachieving team and this year's underachieving version. Last year's Celtics made their near-Finals run with an egalitarian approach that got everyone touches. Boston averaged 314.9 passes per 100 possessions in the 2018 postseason, third-highest in the field behind Gregg Popovich's San Antonio Spurs and the Philadelphia 76ers, led by Pop-disciple Brett Brown.

With Irving on the team, the Celtics got bogged down and averaged 272.4 passes per 100 possessions in 2019, or about 42 passes fewer than they did last postseason. Again, if Irving is hitting his shots, that's something you can live with. Not all great offenses need ball movement to thrive, but it's not a coincidence that the Celtics were 10-19 (.334) when Irving took more than 22 shots in a game over the last two seasons (but you already knew that).


The Celtics are at their best when everyone gets involved. With a young core that had already won enormous playoff games without Irving's services, trust can fray easily and defensive effort can wane. Offense and defense don't operate in silos. Boston forward Marcus Morris put it bluntly after the Game 4 loss.

"I'm sorry to say it, but our offense is dictating our defense," Morris told NBC Sports' Chris Forsberg. "We miss shots, we're not getting back. I feel like we've been pretty soft."

In the Game 1 win, the Celtics were locked in, giving up just 13 field goals at the rim. Here's what that total looked like in the next three games: 16, 23 and 29. By then, the Bucks had broken the Celtics' defense, and in turn, their season.

* * *

Irving's hero-ball tendencies were supposed to be balanced out by Gordon Hayward's facilitating. It didn't work out that way. Injury or not, the Celtics simply needed more from Hayward this season. Instead, he turned into a more expensive Evan Turner, who is a fine role player, but even the best role players don't get four-year, $128 million contracts.

The plan was for Hayward, coming off a catastrophic ankle injury in the 2017-18 season opener, to step in right away and co-star with Irving. But after a string of uneven performances, Brad Stevens removed him from the starting lineup just one month into the 2019 season. Hayward was relegated to the second unit where the hope was he might regain his confidence and become a starter again. But Hayward finished the season averaging just 11.5 points and shooting a disappointing 33.3 percent from downtown, a far cry from his levels in Utah.

Many hoped that Hayward would improve as the season went on, but his role only diminished as the playoffs arrived. In his final season in Utah, his only All-Star season of his career, Hayward's usage rate on offense was 27.6 percent. This season, it fell to 19.0 percent in the regular season and dipped again to 17.3 percent in the opening round. Against Milwaukee, it bottomed out at 14.1 percent.

He just wasn't able to turn the corner as many expected would happen by now and it showed on the court. Too often Hayward would drive into the teeth of the defense and kick out to shooters rather than attack the rim. Hayward's passivity became such a problem that he was almost unplayable in this series. The Celtics were 15.1 points worse per 100 possessions with him on the floor against Milwaukee, per NBA.com data.

We can chalk some of this up to the traumatic injury to his ankle. Overcoming that isn't easy. But we're coming up on 19-month mark since that event. It's becoming harder to fall back on that rationale. Paul George was averaging 27.2 points per game 16 months after his catastrophic leg injury in Las Vegas. Two separate injuries, two separate bodies and minds, sure. But make no mistake about it: This is a big summer for Hayward.

* * *

It's also a big summer for the organization as a whole. Everyone from Danny Ainge and Brad Stevens down to Irving and Hayward need to do some soul searching ahead of a potentially franchise-shifting few months.

Irving's comments throughout the season -- chiding his younger teammates for their inexperience, publicizing his make-up phone call with LeBron James, shifting his free-agency stance back-and-forth (our own Chris Forsberg detailed the roller coaster here) -- raised eyebrows around the league, showing the basketball world that Irving may have some serious room to grow as a leader. But there are still people within the Celtics organization that believe they're the frontrunners for Anthony Davis (should he be moved this summer) because of Irving and his relationship with Davis. It's also no secret that former Cavs GM David Griffin, the new head of basketball operations in New Orleans, has a strong working relationship with Ainge, his former boss.

If Irving can't be a legitimate No. 1, could he be a No. 2 next to Davis? Probably. Would a triumvirate of Irving, Davis and Hayward be the favorites in the East, even after all the red flags this season? Possibly. But that's assuming Irving wants to be back. Irving has a player option for next season, but he is sure to decline it in order to lock in a long-term contract. The Celtics can offer him an extra year, totaling $190 million over five years. If he decides to take his talents elsewhere, he can sign a four-year, $141 million contract with his new team. Teams with cap space like the Brooklyn Nets, Los Angeles Lakers, L.A. Clippers and the New York Knicks figure to be top suitors.

A lot can change. Sixty percent of the starters in the Eastern Conference semifinals can be free agents this summer including Jimmy Butler, Khris Middleton, Kawhi Leonard and Marc Gasol. It's too early to peg Boston's place in the pecking order amongst the East elite. But this much is true: Irving tried to do too much, Hayward not enough. Their star presence was supposed to bring clarity and stability around a young core. Instead, Boston's future looks as unpredictable as any in the East.

Confirms what everyone knows, he’s not Batman.

Also concerning is GH, what happened to the player that was dunking on Miles Turner? Gordon looked great in game 1 vs Bucks too....then it all disappeared...???

Blaming kyrie is always quite the convenient scapegoat. All it really does is ignore the plethora of deficiencies on this team that no one seems to want to address.

KJ

K J,

Sure, Irving is a convenient scapegoat, but that comes with being the best player on just about any team, and certainly when the best player on a team has decided to become the team's leader. This happens on every team in every sport at just about every level.

In Boston this season, he could just not handle to dual role of best player/team leader well enough to bring the team even as far as the Irving-less Cs team of last year.  As a result, everyone was disappointed and frustrated.

wideclyde wrote:K J,

Sure, Irving is a convenient scapegoat, but that comes with being the best player on just about any team, and certainly when the best player on a team has decided to become the team's leader. This happens on every team in every sport at just about every level.

In Boston this season, he could just not handle to dual role of best player/team leader well enough to bring the team even as far as the Irving-less Cs team of last year.  As a result, everyone was disappointed and frustrated.

wideclyde
And because of his failures this year are you in favor of Irving leaving the Celts now?

swish

swish wrote:

wideclyde wrote:K J,

Sure, Irving is a convenient scapegoat, but that comes with being the best player on just about any team, and certainly when the best player on a team has decided to become the team's leader. This happens on every team in every sport at just about every level.

In Boston this season, he could just not handle to dual role of best player/team leader well enough to bring the team even as far as the Irving-less Cs team of last year.  As a result, everyone was disappointed and frustrated.

wideclyde
And because of his failures this year are you in favor of Irving leaving the Celts now?

 swish

Yes unless Kyrie can make some drastic changes to his game. He has to be more about the team and less about himself. He has talented guys around him and refuses to get them involved in the game. Again please tell me what Kyrie has accomplished without Lebron leading the way? Absolutely nothing. Hello Robin.

Kyrie wasn't playing selfish basketball, imo. Had the highest assist avg. Of his career. Maybe we just weren't a great team this year. Our offense is obsessed with the 3 ball and our defense, at one point our calling card, became significantly inconsistent.


KJ

Tardust,

Kyrie sealed the deal against the 73 win gsw. No one wins championships alone, and he is a huge reason why lebron got one in Cleveland.

KJ

Kyrie had career highs in both assists and rebounds during the regular season.  

The Bucks truly had one guy on the Celtics that had to be stopped, our most productive offensive player.  Kyrie was quite accommodating with string after string of really bad decisions.  But I must maintain that the team did not play well.  They could not score the basketball.  They only averaged 102 PPG in the playoffs and that was hardly the fault of Kyrie alone.   A lot of guys could not consistently put the ball in the hole and our frontline, etc could not check the Freak.

The season was a real seesaw.  Their best stretch, an 8 game winning streak was tempered by the reality that 8 bad non playoff teams deserved to be beaten.  The rotations never really worked well.  Starter JB only played 25.9 MPG , TR saw his minutes cut back and GH was a cloudy day with a few periods of sunshine.  Promising rookie Williams did not get an opportunity to develop and we had a rash of players lost to injuries throughout the season.  In general, the offense  looked predictable and the lack of a post offense limited the team's ability to diversify their offense.

Celtics fans are still struggling to face the stark reality that there were better teams out there than us including the Bucks and Raptors.

With so many factors impacting the team's performance this year it is important not to over react.  

The Celtics are going to lose some of their rotation players over the summer but they still have a pretty solid unit.

Danny did a good job building this team but year over year needs change as the competition changes.

If the bath water is dirty, throw out the water but do not throw out the baby.  

Speculation has Kyrie joining Durant in NY.  I really do not see that happening unless GSW gets knocked off.  They are the champions and they look like champions.  The Bucks will be a big challenge but unlike Boston GSW are not going to forget how to put the ball in the hole because they have multiple elite scores.  So if they win again Durant stays put definitely.  If your GSW you will do everything to keep that team together.  The Knicks tanked and are a long way from becoming a real contender so why join them when you are already with a great team?

Kyrie can look at things the same way.  If he thinks the Boston fans and media get a little salty take that times 2 in NYC.

Kyrie is a a player with great talent but he does not know how to lead.  That however is not a good reason to part ways.  He wants to be thought of as the leader of the team but failed in several key leadership opportunities.  Is he capable of growing into a leadership role on the team?  Do we actually need him to be the leader?  These are questions for the Celtics brass.

It may be easy to say get rid of him but Boston would be better off re-signing him and once they own the contract they could always decide to move him down the road if it makes sense for the team.

If you have a notion that we cannot part with a Jason Tatum or a Jaylen Brown think again.  If Boston can add an elite player like AD he is worth his weight in gold.  Our current team does not check all the boxes with or without any particular player or players.

So Danny has to consider going after Davis.  He does not have to wait until 6/30 to make the move.  He can do the deal on draft night and suck all of the air out of the room.  We'll be saddened to see some of our young pups depart but the prospect of pairing 2 elite player is tantalizing.  Rounding out the roster will be a challenge but not insurmountable.

If Kyrie stays, I go!  

For me it isn’t about his play on the floor, except for the last four games when I think he played with a marked indifference, but it is about his horrible attempts to lead, his throwing teammates and the coach under the bus, and his terrible comments during interviews.  I tried to mute the TV every time he spoke starting sometime after the all star break.  Every stupid, narcissistic comment he came up with made me think of Bob Cousy, Bill Russell, Satch Sanders, Dave Cowens, JoJo White, Larry Bird, KG and other past Celtics greats.  I tried to imagine any of them saying anything close to what Kyrie did and just couldn’t.  I realize today’s game is much different than past eras, but I can not root for such a selfish player.  While there certainly were many more factors involved in our disappointing season than just Kyrie, I do believe he was a significant negative influence on the teams chemistry and morale.

I wish I didn’t feel this way, and I tried to convince myself to not let his clown act influence my feelings for the team, but to no avail.  I think in time more will come out about his negative influence.  I’m putting him in the same class as Sydney Wicks, Curtis Rowe, Mark Blount, Ricky Davis and Rick Pitino.

I want to see him gone, and if that means less of a chance at a championship so be it.  If it means we get nothing in return for him so be it.  I’d prefer a team that plays hard and plays as a Team, even if they don’t sniff a championship.

I simply can not imagine rooting for and following the team as I have for 50 plus years if he is on it.  Now if Kyrie comes out and says he is sorry for being a selfish dink and will let his play on the court speak for him, and Brad names Smart and Horford as captains next season, I can get back on board.

For now though, if Kyrie stays I go!  Meaning while I’ll still watch them and follow them, I’ll have to renounce my certified fanatic status and become a casual fan.

My perception is that Kyrie stunted the growth of our young players. I remember how well the team played last playoffs without him. Better ball movement, more players involved, and less isolation sets. To me, this team is best when the offense flows to and through Horford. Ball moves in and out. Too many times this year I saw the ball brought over half court and get launched with four other players standing near the sidelines preparing to run a play. If it goes in, fine, but, as we saw in the playoffs, not enough. A leader elevates the people around him, and doesn’t publicly denigrate them. Those players gained a lot of confidence in last year’s playoffs and got slammed by the “leader and basketball genius”.

Hayward needs more time in recovery from his injury to get his full game back together. And his contract will be difficult to move. Might as well give him another year to see if some of the previous player emerges.

I’m uncomfortable losing Tatum, Brown, and other pieces to get AD. A great player, but without an agreement on an extension he’s a rental. Even with an extension, what prevents a recurrence of another trade demand followed by withdrawal.

mikeod wrote:My perception is that Kyrie stunted the growth of our young players. I remember how well the team played last playoffs without him. Better ball movement, more players involved, and less isolation sets. To me, this team is best when the offense flows to and through Horford. Ball moves in and out. Too many times this year I saw the ball brought over half court and get launched with four other players standing near the sidelines preparing to run a play. If it goes in, fine, but, as we saw in the playoffs, not enough. A leader elevates the people around him, and doesn’t publicly denigrate them. Those players gained a lot of confidence in last year’s playoffs and got slammed by the “leader and basketball genius”.

Hayward needs more time in recovery from his injury to get his full game back together. And his contract will be difficult to move. Might as well give him another year to see if some of the previous player emerges.

I’m uncomfortable losing Tatum, Brown, and other pieces to get AD. A great player, but without an agreement on an extension he’s a rental. Even with an extension, what prevents a recurrence of another trade demand followed by withdrawal.

Hi Mike, and welcome to the board. Nice third post.

I think it's a bit of a "damned if you do and damned if you don't" type of thing.

You need a player like Kyrie (or Westbrook, or like IT was when he was with us) who can get you buckets anytime they want. The league is geared towards one-on-one play with the defenders at a disadvantage and the offensive players being given every opportunity to wow the crowd. In crunch time, and you need points to catch up or to hold them off, you're going to want Kyrie or someone just like him. On the other hand that can get carried away and you got yourself a ball hog.

I think the more Gordon touches the ball the more we'll like Kyrie. Gordon will pass the rock. As I have pointed out in other threads Kyrie will too, he had the best assists/game numbers of his career last year and his 2nd best this year, so he passes too but he's a score first player. Gordon is much more balanced in his on-court perspective.


bob



.

Kyrie is very insecure and his game reflects that, he has tons of talent, but thats not everything. He had to find a balance of getting his own and getting others involved, that was the key to how great he could be and how far our team could go. Sadly he failed so miserably it looked like he lost all patience and could never figure out any better strategy than just chucking the ball. He obviously froze out Brad, the whole team for that matter, so insecure couldn’t even admit he has to be better or it was on him, right it’s the young players fault that their not getting looks or good shots because the first option is a bad shot taking ball hog....he was clueless how to dig in deep when the going gets tough.

In the story I read about Wyc and his feelings about this team, He said it was an extremely hard team to “like” at times
The ups and downs were hard to take. Danny and Stevens are going no where according to their boss. He said they are already talking and making some decisions. Some players will come and some will go, but do not believe all the Rumors out there, a lot of them are there for the purpose of pushing someone else’s agenda.

BobC, in time you will come to terms with all of the negatives, and there will be positives to hold on to.

I refuse to throw Gordon under the bus. Let’s see what happens next year. I have said before, walk a mile in his shoes. This is a guy who has been so good since he was a kid, this injury really threw him for a loop. I believe he is determined to right the wrong

mikeod wrote:My perception is that Kyrie stunted the growth of our young players. I remember how well the team played last playoffs without him. Better ball movement, more players involved, and less isolation sets. To me, this team is best when the offense flows to and through Horford. Ball moves in and out. Too many times this year I saw the ball brought over half court and get launched with four other players standing near the sidelines preparing to run a play. If it goes in, fine, but, as we saw in the playoffs, not enough. A leader elevates the people around him, and doesn’t publicly denigrate them. Those players gained a lot of confidence in last year’s playoffs and got slammed by the “leader and basketball genius”.

Hayward needs more time in recovery from his injury to get his full game back together. And his contract will be difficult to move. Might as well give him another year to see if some of the previous player emerges.

I’m uncomfortable losing Tatum, Brown, and other pieces to get AD. A great player, but without an agreement on an extension he’s a rental. Even with an extension, what prevents a recurrence of another trade demand followed by withdrawal.

Excellent post. Insightful.

Bob33

What I'm hearing is that some do not like Kyrie (Period)  That is fine however that is not a good reason to leave.  What the hell is the matter with you?

If you have been rolling with this team for 50 years I see no reason and no player or coach or anything else imaginable that would cause you to leave.

I have seen more NBA games than I can count and i have seen and heard team members yapping at each other.  MJ was notorious for dogging his teammates.  Larry Bird used to talk more shit than a little bit.  We have experience tragic deaths, bad coaches, bad luck in the lottery...you name it.  Stay the course and trust in Danny!

Mikeod

I do not think that Kyrie threw his teammates under the bus.  He made some comments about the young guys needing to understand what it takes to win  and being able to accept their roles.  What he said was true. They have not won anything and they did struggle with role changes. He did not slam them. He told the truth.  Although perhaps better not to tell the frenzied media.  The one thing that he did that I thought was wrong was when he was upset with GH for no getting him the ball at the end of a game.  And he apologized for doing that.  You want to hold his feet to the fire for saying something you disapprove of?  Players have disagreements with their coaches all the time.  that is nothing new.  I heard Tom Brady tell Josh to go F himself.

Look, Kyrie  averaged 7 assists in the playoffs which was above his season average,  You say he froze out his teammates.  I say his teammates could not make shots.  Should he have pulled back?  Yep but his teammates still sucked collectively.

In the end it is up to coach Stevens to get his team and any player to play the right way.  There is always an empty seat on the bench.

Let's be fair about this.  Kyrie missed a ton of shots that he has been making all year.   Right or wrong?  He was off his game.  Many were wide open looks.  Go take a closer looks at the stats.

With respect to Gordon Hayward, I love the kid and hoped and prayed every game that he would do well.  He had a horrible showing against the Bucks.  Horrible.  Danny signed him to be a top 1 or 2 option.  He deserves a pass this year but come next season he needs to earn his $30,000,000. Celtics fans need to prepare themselves for the very real possibility that he will never get back his game.

I like both Tatum and Brown but I can live with losing either one of them and I would prefer to retain Brown (defense)  AD is super elite.  He is a top 5 talent just starting his prime  25.9 PPG, 12 rebounds, 3.9 assists and 2.4 Blocks per game last year.  If Boston wants to win we need a frontline player that can change the game at both ends.  Al Horford is on a downward arc.  He cannot take us to a title.  That is why we need AD or someone close to his abilities.

Let me say again.  Please remove the horse blinders.  The Celtics got beat DOWN 4-1 because the Bucks are the FAR superior team with a balance upfront and in the backcourt.  Kyrie Irving was not the problem.  He was part of the problem.

Kyrie could have shot the ball well and Boston still losses to the Bucks.

In the end Danny is the one who directs this team and he wants AD.  That is why NO did not make the trade with LAL or anyone else.  Danny has told them he can make a deal that benefits both teams.  With Boston not even making it out of the 2nd round, a Major move must be made.  There is no tweaking needed.

I say let things play out.

Dboss, I don't like Kyrie but I love the Celts, which is why your reasoning makes sense, if acquiring AD means he's signed a long term deal with us.