The first five games of the regular season games aren’t enough to diagnosis a team’s problems, no matter how obvious they might seem. However, when those five games function as an extension of the previous season, then we’re looking at a relevant sample size. It’s early but it’s still worth wondering whether the Boston Celtics’ offseason of change has addressed the fundamental issues with this team.
The changes started from the top. Almost immediately after the season ended at the hands of the Brooklyn Nets earlier this year, Danny Ainge retired from his position as team president and de facto general manager. Head coach Brad Stevens—who was criticized all last season for being too reticent for speaking out against his players—was kicked upstairs to replace Ainge. In his stead, the Celtics went with Ime Udoka as a replacement, especially after he was recommended by the all-important triumvirate of Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown and Marcus Smart.
So far, Udoka has been that straight shooter that many fans have been clamoring for. After the team’s disappointing loss to the Washington Wizards on Wednesday night, Udoka went right after his biggest advocate in Brown. “I’m trying to ramp him up during the game, pump him up to get going,” he said after being directly asked about the All-Star wing, “but the contrast of some of those previous games, especially Charlotte and the New York game, and the way you see him come out tonight is kind of mind-boggling.”
In the Celtics’ first game of the year—an overtime loss to the New York Knicks in the season opener that might still somehow mark the team’s best overall effort—Brown scored 46 points while returning from illness. He also put up 30 points in an overtime win against the Charlotte Hornets. Brown is clearly a key to unlocking the best version of the Celtics and he also had an inexplicable 1-of-11 start from the field against Washington.
Brown claimed not to be upset about Udoka’s comment but also admitted that he’s still suffering from the aftereffects of Covid-19, another familiar theme carrying over from last season. For the 2020-21 Celtics, it was Tatum who was primarily hurt by the disease, to the point where he was reduced to using an inhaler before games. This time around, the virus spread during the preseason, meaning that the team entered the regular season without the collective practice time it normally had. Udoka has said several times that these unavoidable absences have fed into how he has treated these first few games.
Looking at Udoka, it's still too early to note if his differing approach has paid dividends. It may be that, as many of us argued last season, how a head coach discusses his players in public might not actually make all that much difference when it comes to the final product of wins and losses.
What should have changed things for the Celtics were the moves Stevens made in free agency. For reasons that had as much to do with the salary cap as anything else, he began his tenure by sending Kemba Walker to the Oklahoma City Thunder in exchange for Al Horford. While this was a clear downgrade in talent, Horford probably doesn’t have any more All-Star Game trips left in him, it was supposed to clear up a roster that just didn’t click last season.
Walker, who was injured for much of last season, never really gelled with the rest of the team in his second year in Boston. Meanwhile, the often-rudderless 2020-21 Celtics were desperately craving the leadership that they know Horford can provide.
The acquisition of a new big man (who also happened to be their old big man) allowed the team to move on from Tristan Thompson and his contract. Using the money that they saved when Evan Fournier spurned them in the offseason, they even signed Enes Kanter so they could add yet another familiar figure unafraid to make his voice known. They also added Dennis Schröder, who has made an immediate impact, and Josh Richardson, who hasn't.
So far, none of these moves have translated to sustainable on-court successes. The Celtics are now 2-3, with the two wins coming over a completely over-matched Houston Rockets and in a game against Charlotte where they needed overtime to close things out. Their offensive output is inconsistent and their defensive effort—their main issue last season—was close-to-nonexistent on Wednesday.
“We don’t have so much talent that we can’t play well,” Stevens told the Toucher & Rich radio program on Friday. That about sums things up: the best version of this Celtics team could be a dark horse candidate to emerge from the Eastern Conference. The version we’re seeing now is headed, at best, to a play-in tournament loss.
