After the Boston Celtics advanced to the Eastern Conference in Orlando, they have struggled so far this season. About a third of the current campaign puts the Celtics in fifth place in the East with a record of 0.500 (13-13). They have lost seven of their last ten games and ten of their last 15. In other words, they seem to be heading in the wrong direction.
The most important thing is that the Celtics are a top-heavy team. In Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown, they have one of the best and most versatile perimeter duos in the entire league. Behind the two young studs, however, Boston has many questions. Kemba Walker has yet to look like himself this season after missing the first few weeks with a knee injury, and their bench is not as productive as in the past. The Celtics are ranked No. 24 in the NBA this season. Tatum and Brown are both great, but it looks like the Celtics just don’t have enough as currently built.
Where does the blame lie for the team’s struggles this season? According to Danny Ainge, general manager, it’s up to him.
“We are not playing with the passion we need. I think it’s up to the players. And the players on the team are on me,” Ainge said in an interview with the Boston Globe. “There are things I could have done better, but I’m not going to name names. I will accept this responsibility. It’s a team put together by me, and we are not playing with enough consistency and urgency, and that’s mine. task to see what we can do to improve the team, but it’s always much harder than improving from the inside. ‘
Despite the slow start of Boston, Ainge is still not in a panic.
“This is definitely not a time to panic,” Ainge said. “But it’s always a time to think. My job is to think after every game about where we stand and where our team is and how much better they can get. I know our team is better than how they are. play, and I am I am confident that they will play better … I do not judge all my players, but I see that there is a lack of consistent urgency, and that it is our success.We have with 8 -3 started, and we We have a lot of young guys and we have a lot of guys who have been to the conference final three times already.I think sometimes you do not realize how hard it is to win every night.
“I do not think this is the bottom line because we are not healthy, we are not playing well and we are young,” Ainge added. ‘Rock bottom would be if we were to expect to win a play-off series and lose against a team we would have to defeat. That would be a bottom line … I’ve seen too many bad series of basketball to consider this rock bottom. But that said, we have been playing very, very weak and contradictory over the last few weeks and not with enough urgency. ‘
Although Ainge denied that he was in a panic mode, he did admit that changes might have to be made if the team’s fight continued. And since he has made it clear that he does not think coaching is the problem, these changes will be roster-related.
“Just changing faces doesn’t always change things,” Ainge said. “But it might have to come to that.”
The NBA deadline is March 25, so Ainge has a little over a month to take a step up to upgrade the roster. What a move would look like for Boston remains to be seen, but it’s probably safe to say that Tatum and Brown are both off the table. However, the rest of the roster, including Walker, could be a fair game. Given that Ainge is clearly not happy with the way his team is playing, the Celtics will definitely be a team to watch with the run-up to the deadline.