Trades won't matter unless C's core decides to change

https://www.nbcsports.com/boston/celtics/nba-trade-deadline-moves-wont-matter-unless-celtics-core-decides-change



Trades won't matter unless C's core decides to change


1H AGO

BY CHRIS FORSBERG
CELTICS INSIDER



The NBA trade deadline looms a week away and all eyes are on Boston Celtics president of basketball operations Danny Ainge.

But here’s the sobering truth: No move Ainge can make is likely to change the trajectory of the 2020-21 season unless the core players of the team are willing to change their ways.

For all the obvious obstacles encountered, the Celtics have woefully underperformed this year. There is no combination of moves that will fully remedy a team that lollygagged its way to a 21-point first-half deficit in Cleveland on Wednesday night then ran out of steam at the finish line of another unsightly loss to a bad opponent.

Two-thirds of the way through the season, Boston is 20-20. If the playoffs started today, Boston would be the seventh seed in the Eastern Conference and would be forced to navigate the play-in tournament for the right to play one of the conference’s top seeds in the first round.

“It’s been a challenging year,” Ainge admitted during his weekly chat with 98.5 The SportsHub’s "Toucher and Rich” program. Ainge noted the team’s struggles have added a layer of difficulty in how he navigates the trade deadline.

“I feel like there’s parts of games we play well. It’s just how long that part is. Is it a quarter? A half? Three quarters? We’ve struggled to close out games, and we’ve struggled with consistency. I think you hear me talk a lot about resolve and it seems like we don’t have a lot of characteristics of a really good team, for sure.”

These Celtics don’t have an identity. There’s no facet of their game that they can consistently lean on when things get tough.

Boston does not lack for talent and that makes its roller coaster ways even more maddening. Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown are All-Star talents but they’ve struggled to get the most out of the players around them. Kemba Walker has struggled to find consistency working his way back from left knee rehab. Marcus Smart missed 18 games with a calf injury and is still navigating a minutes restriction as he ramps back up.

But that core, and with the recent emergence of Robert Williams, should seemingly be something better than one of the nine teams in the NBA within three games of .500. Instead, Boston is 12-17 over the past two months. Even when Tatum and Brown have had solid nights, it hasn’t consistently translated to wins. In fact, Boston has lost each of its last six games when both Tatum and Brown score 25 points or more.

The root of the issue is seemingly effort. The Celtics, when they want to be, can hang with the NBA’s elite. They showed it Tuesday night while trading haymakers with the Utah Jazz. But crunch-time woes and a general inability to collect themselves whenever things go sideways has sentenced this team to mediocrity.

Can a talent infusion aid this team? Almost certainly. The Celtics, because of health woes, have been forced to lean heavy on the likes of Semi Ojeleye, who has one field goal in 38 minutes of floor time while being a spot starter the past two games. Jeff Teague continues to get floor time because Brad Stevens is relentlessly faithful to his veterans, even at the expense of rookie development as Aaron Nesmith withers after an encouraging stretch in which he provided much-needed energy.

This is where Ainge can help. He cannot sit on his hands at the deadline. Even if Ainge elects to pocket the Gordon Hayward traded player exception in hopes of maximizing it this summer, Ainge must prune this roster and find creative ways to infuse more trustworthy talent on the bench. Boston needs to cut bait with players that don’t fit their long-term vision and invest deeper in the younger players with the potential to blossom like Williams has in recent weeks.

But even after the dust settles from the trade deadline (and the buyout market that follows), the Celtics need an attitude adjustment.

This team simply isn’t good enough to show up and expect to beat inferior opponents. Boston needs to figure out how to more consistently play with the defensive energy that had been the calling card of Stevens’ teams throughout his NBA tenure. It’s downright flabbergasting that Boston sits 22nd in defensive rating this season while allowing 112.3 points per 100 possessions. Well, flabbergasting unless you’ve watched opposing guards shred Boston this season.

The Celtics desperately need to figure out what’s ailing them in crunch time, including not allowing offensive struggles to linger onto the defensive end. It would help, too, if Boston stopped settling for jump shots and more consistently attacked the basket.

Trades can help this team but the bigger makeover needs to occur with their attitude and effort.


Bob
MY NOTE:  In a videocast with Abby Chin, Chris Forsberg and Perk Forsberg said all this and Perk said it's like they "have a sense of entitlement about them, like they just think it should be easy".  If he's right, and it sure looks like he is, then that's on the players.  A coach can scream and yell as much as he wants, if his players won't play hard because they think they're entitled then swapping out coaches doesn't fix the problem, does it?  Not unless you bench their asses, then you might get their attention.  Forget about Brad, would any other coach bench the Js?  And suppose you named a coach that would do that, how would the Js respond to that?  How would anybody who feels entitled, and who knows they are wanted by every competitor, react to that?  I think Forsberg nailed this one.



.

Hi,
This explanation won't get any argument from me.
The only "but" is that there got to be more. I don't think it's one-facet problem.

AK

This issue can only be resolved if you want to keep the players and the coach, by doing one simple thing.

You set expectations and enforce accountability. If that means you pull a guy out of the game because they are not playing the right way you have to do that.

That decision is a coaching decision. As I have mentioned before, I do not believe that this team can self-correct. They need their coach to discipline them when bad habits persist.

+100!

Berlin-T

Brian Robb @BrianTRobb
about 5 minutes ago
Marcus Smart: "We have to go out there and we got to have fun again. We're not having fun, we're not playing like we are having fun, we're not playing with that energy and same fire."


Marc D'Amico
Marc D'Amico @celtics
about 9 minutes ago
Marcus Smart: "We’ve got to find a way. Right now, we’re kind of blind, but we’re searching for that light. We’ve got to keep searching."


Chris Forsberg
Chris Forsberg @ChrisForsberg_
about 9 minutes ago
The last time a Marcus (Morris, in this case) ranted about the Celtics not having fun was 2018-19


Jared Weiss
Jared Weiss @JaredWeissNBA
about 13 minutes ago
Here’s a quote you could only really get from Marcus Smart: “We gotta go over or under or through that brick wall.”


Jay King
Jay King @ByJayKing
about 13 minutes ago
Marcus Smart said the Celtics are “not having fun” and need to find that again. He said the Celtics have had a lot going on in their lives personally. He thinks they need to find a way to give each other energy and pick each other up.


John Karalis
John Karalis @RedsArmy_John
about 18 minutes ago
Smart: A lot of things has happened in our lives, personally, individually, where it's hard to come here & give that energy to somebody else when in your own individual personal life energy has been drained or you don't really have it. We got to find a way to pick each other up


Bob
MY NOTE:  "The last time a Marcus (Morris, in this case) ranted about the Celtics not having fun was 2018-19".  Kyrie blamed the kids and was blamed himself for being disruptive in the locker room.  Kyrie's gone.  Can't blame him anymore. Morris was seen as "mouthy" and disruptive.  Morris is gone.  Can't blame him anymore. Maybe they weren't the problems, maybe they were just the canaries in the coal mine?  


.

bobheckler wrote:https://www.nbcsports.com/boston/celtics/nba-trade-deadline-moves-wont-matter-unless-celtics-core-decides-change



Trades won't matter unless C's core decides to change


1H AGO

BY CHRIS FORSBERG
CELTICS INSIDER



The NBA trade deadline looms a week away and all eyes are on Boston Celtics president of basketball operations Danny Ainge.

But here’s the sobering truth: No move Ainge can make is likely to change the trajectory of the 2020-21 season unless the core players of the team are willing to change their ways.

For all the obvious obstacles encountered, the Celtics have woefully underperformed this year. There is no combination of moves that will fully remedy a team that lollygagged its way to a 21-point first-half deficit in Cleveland on Wednesday night then ran out of steam at the finish line of another unsightly loss to a bad opponent.

Two-thirds of the way through the season, Boston is 20-20. If the playoffs started today, Boston would be the seventh seed in the Eastern Conference and would be forced to navigate the play-in tournament for the right to play one of the conference’s top seeds in the first round.

“It’s been a challenging year,” Ainge admitted during his weekly chat with 98.5 The SportsHub’s "Toucher and Rich” program. Ainge noted the team’s struggles have added a layer of difficulty in how he navigates the trade deadline.

“I feel like there’s parts of games we play well. It’s just how long that part is. Is it a quarter? A half? Three quarters? We’ve struggled to close out games, and we’ve struggled with consistency. I think you hear me talk a lot about resolve and it seems like we don’t have a lot of characteristics of a really good team, for sure.”

These Celtics don’t have an identity. There’s no facet of their game that they can consistently lean on when things get tough.

Boston does not lack for talent and that makes its roller coaster ways even more maddening. Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown are All-Star talents but they’ve struggled to get the most out of the players around them. Kemba Walker has struggled to find consistency working his way back from left knee rehab. Marcus Smart missed 18 games with a calf injury and is still navigating a minutes restriction as he ramps back up.

But that core, and with the recent emergence of Robert Williams, should seemingly be something better than one of the nine teams in the NBA within three games of .500. Instead, Boston is 12-17 over the past two months. Even when Tatum and Brown have had solid nights, it hasn’t consistently translated to wins. In fact, Boston has lost each of its last six games when both Tatum and Brown score 25 points or more.

The root of the issue is seemingly effort. The Celtics, when they want to be, can hang with the NBA’s elite. They showed it Tuesday night while trading haymakers with the Utah Jazz. But crunch-time woes and a general inability to collect themselves whenever things go sideways has sentenced this team to mediocrity.

Can a talent infusion aid this team? Almost certainly. The Celtics, because of health woes, have been forced to lean heavy on the likes of Semi Ojeleye, who has one field goal in 38 minutes of floor time while being a spot starter the past two games. Jeff Teague continues to get floor time because Brad Stevens is relentlessly faithful to his veterans, even at the expense of rookie development as Aaron Nesmith withers after an encouraging stretch in which he provided much-needed energy.

This is where Ainge can help. He cannot sit on his hands at the deadline. Even if Ainge elects to pocket the Gordon Hayward traded player exception in hopes of maximizing it this summer, Ainge must prune this roster and find creative ways to infuse more trustworthy talent on the bench. Boston needs to cut bait with players that don’t fit their long-term vision and invest deeper in the younger players with the potential to blossom like Williams has in recent weeks.

But even after the dust settles from the trade deadline (and the buyout market that follows), the Celtics need an attitude adjustment.

This team simply isn’t good enough to show up and expect to beat inferior opponents. Boston needs to figure out how to more consistently play with the defensive energy that had been the calling card of Stevens’ teams throughout his NBA tenure. It’s downright flabbergasting that Boston sits 22nd in defensive rating this season while allowing 112.3 points per 100 possessions. Well, flabbergasting unless you’ve watched opposing guards shred Boston this season.

The Celtics desperately need to figure out what’s ailing them in crunch time, including not allowing offensive struggles to linger onto the defensive end. It would help, too, if Boston stopped settling for jump shots and more consistently attacked the basket.

Trades can help this team but the bigger makeover needs to occur with their attitude and effort.


Bob
MY NOTE:  In a videocast with Abby Chin, Chris Forsberg and Perk Forsberg said all this and Perk said it's like they "have a sense of entitlement about them, like they just think it should be easy".  If he's right, and it sure looks like he is, then that's on the players.  A coach can scream and yell as much as he wants, if his players won't play hard because they think they're entitled then swapping out coaches doesn't fix the problem, does it?  Not unless you bench their asses, then you might get their attention.  Forget about Brad, would any other coach bench the Js?  And suppose you named a coach that would do that, how would the Js respond to that?  How would anybody who feels entitled, and who knows they are wanted by every competitor, react to that?  I think Forsberg nailed this one.



.

. In no way am I encouraging a coaching change. I think Brad a very good coach. But just because a player feels entitled doesn’t mean that that feeling of entitlement Will carry over if there is a change at the head of the snake. A coaching change, depending on who the coach is could change that feeling of entitlement. IF that coach has the backing of management and is a strong coach with cache’. It’s happened before and can happen if the right coach is brought in the right way. Those attitudes can be changed quickly. Not quite the same situation but what happened when an entitled Lebron James tried that crap with Speolstra in Miami? Riley squashed that shoot right away and Lebron never tried usurping his coach again.
Again, I’m not advocating that Brad be removed but what I am advocating is that Brad and management send a message to the entitled brats that they can sit or be moved if they don’t want to play as a team. Doesn’t mean you’re going to move them but the fact that they think that they may end up in Memphis or Sacramento may just be enough to change that entitlement “tude”.