Isaiah Thomas and the Boston Celtics really enjoyed this season

http://www.masslive.com/celtics/index.ssf/2016/05/the_boston_celtics_enjoyed_eac.html



Isaiah Thomas and the Boston Celtics really enjoyed this season






Jay King | mjking@masslive.com By Jay King | mjking@masslive.com




on May 02, 2016 at 10:15 AM, updated May 02, 2016 at 10:34 AM



The Boston Celtics know they need to improve. After getting bounced out of the the playoffs, head coach Brad Stevens admitted his team's not as good as the Atlanta Hawks. Isaiah Thomas freely discussed a desire for roster improvements. Marcus Smart said, "We did a lot of great things this season," but also added, "We have a lot of work to do obviously." It's clear everyone involved understands more progress needs to be made -- which should be obvious, of course, after a second consecutive first-round exit.

Still, the Celtics appreciated this season. The following quotes were either collected after the Game 6 loss to Atlanta, or the following day when the players visited the team practice facility for exit interviews.

Isaiah Thomas: "One thing I do know, I ride with these guys to the wheels fall off, I mean this was a special group. Hopefully we can all stick together and have something special in the future but, I love those guys in the locker room and hopefully we can keep this together."

Jae Crowder: "That's what sucks about it (some players may be gone), but like Isaiah said its a part of the business, but we did build a bond with each and every guy in the locker room and it was fun. We just tried to have fun each and every night. We have a locker room that's bonded like the way we do and have fun you never want to see it end, and it was tough to see it end today."

Jared Sullinger: "You've got a bunch of dogs that don't give up. We could have easily folded the tent in that fourth quarter and we decided to make it a game. That's just the mindset of this basketball team the whole season was to fight, fight, fight. If I leave (as a restricted free agent), I'm gonna miss these guys like hell. If I'm here, I'm gonna be excited, because we have one great group of guys in this locker room."

"The only positive (of the first-round loss) I think I can say is you look around this room, you see the guys we have on this team, it's a great group of guys, win lose or draw. I'll be with this team the same exact people from Day 1. These guys are great. We had tons and tons and tons of fun. It was just great to be a part of the team."

Marcus Smart: "We just played hard. Our fight. I think that's what everybody's going to remember is our fight."

"This team, we're a team. One thing for sure that we're going to do is always fight every game. And I think everybody likes to play with guys that are going to fight and compete every game."

Evan Turner: "That's definitely tough looking back on the kind of chemistry we had. It's a great group of guys we had in that locker room. We genuinely care about each other, so you hope we follow that up. We had great chemistry, Everybody was able to buy in."

"(The season was) cool. I thought we all grew. I thought we all took leaps especially from last year. I thought we all did a great job of being professionals and most importantly in general the camaraderie. A lot of locker rooms wasn't like this locker room. I think we all generally got along and wanted the best for each other and we all took great advantage and took playing our roles very serious. So that's huge."

"(Brad Stevens has) done a lot. He rekindled my fire for the game. Enjoy it. Brad's definitely helped me grow as a player in regards to seeing things in a bigger-picture format. I think he's definitely helped us all becoming better pros and doing the little things. Everybody in this locker room he's always trying to put in positions to succeed so I definitely appreciate that and most importantly off the court he's a great friend and a great guy."

Terry Rozier: "You're just so caught up in just being in the playoffs, especially me I'm young, having so much fun being there. I wouldn't really say it was kind of a crash, just looking back at it, it was an amazing time, an amazing time to be here."

"Something happened with Avery (Bradley's strained hamstring) and, with this business, how it works is all about opportunity and my opportunity just happened to come. I try to take advantage of it as much as I can, whether it was rebounding, whatever I had to do, whatever Coach needed me to do. Like I said, I was just more so happy to be out there just enjoying the time with a lot of my teammates. It's been a great year. Great guys. Had some great veterans on our team. So I just had a lot of fun."

Jonas Jerebko: "We had a real good chemistry on this team. We like to play with each other and when we play well, we play really well. We just got to play the right way more times than not. We'll take that with us."

Amir Johnson: "I had a good time. It was the funnest season I've definitely been in, just figuring out everything and putting everything together, not knowing how far or how good of a team you are. And we made it pretty dang far. Just the atmosphere, top-notch organization, guys fun to be around, coaching staff, it was just fun for me. I had a great year here."

The Celtics were a lovable bunch this season, sharing the ball, flying around on defense, and showing their enjoyment for each other to the very end. Young teams can be pulled apart by individual goals, but Boston went the other way, gelling as a group that relied on synergy as much as talent. Of course, the organization dreams of a not-so-distant day when deep playoff runs become the norm. But 48-win seasons can be fun, too.



bob
MY NOTE:  I enjoyed the season too.  I got to see the Boston Celtics play some beautiful basketball that, quite frankly, I didn't think we had in us at this point in the rebuild.  The past two seasons, to me, are proofs of concept of Brad's system, approach and demeanor.  He made a team that, with the exception of maybe 2 or 3 players, wouldn't rise above 6th men on other teams, and made them a team to be feared on any given night but especially on the 2nd night of a back-to-back and absolutely, positively if they lost the first game.  What does it say about a team that is even more dangerous when they are trying to bounce back from a loss on the 2nd game of a back-to-back?  It says they are focused, motivated and driven and those are traits you want on a playoff team roster.  Some of these junkyard dogs are going to be gone, but they will leave with my appreciation for the thrills they gave me this year.


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