Boston Celtics 2021-2022 Season

We started 8-3, then went 28-33 after Kemba Walker came back. Reports he blew up the lockeroom, which Brad has confirmed. Blake Griffin got the same reports after his buyout to stay away. Certainly not the only issue, yet it's what we are seeing right now no? Something you can't explain, yet something is just off. Add in every player is basically playing worse than last year besides Grant Williams. Who else are you going to blame? The team doesn't play better with no Tatum or Brown. There's no they play better team ball without Irving type crap. If you think this is last year when it's confirmed the coach lost the lockeroom, why can't that be this year's problem? With the cause instead of Walker blowing crap up because his career as a superstar was over, it's just an inexperienced coach?

By all means trade Smart, he's part of the problem given how Ime uses him. First time in his career he's played 100% PG and you see why. Any hope we had that giving him a starting job would make him better is gone. Nevermind just highlighted by who Ime also plays with him.

Do you agree with starting Robert Williams, Horford and Smart? This isn't a perfect team, yet it's a deep team. Yet Ime won't use the depth. I still say pick a big, start Tatum at PF unless you face one of the few teams that actually play big. Then try some combos that actually make sense, like I really liked Richardson and Schroder the one game we got to see them. Make Pritchard the PG with Smart at SG. I wouldn't bitch about starting Nesmith to add shooting. 

Say Robert Williams, Tatum, Brown, Richardson and Schroder. Second unit of Horford, Smart, Pritchard, one of Tatum or Brown and insert one of Grant Williams, Nesmith, Langford, etc based on matchup. That's not a perfect team, that's not a true championship contender, yet that's a top 4 team in my book. Work on small ball units with Grant and Juan, something Ime completely stopped after trying it against the Raptors that were playing the biggest most athletic top three in the league. These are just examples, you can mix and match in many different ways given this teams depth. Yet you need a coach who can use it.

Not Robert Williams, Horford, Tatum, Brown and Smart. With a small rotation of Schroder, Grant and Langford with no wholesale changes. There's a reason coaches have regular season and post season rotations, Ime hasn't even figured that out yet. He needs to go study Bill and how he adjusts to his roster to get the most out of it. Ime is like the exact opposite of that. He's the guy who would try and use Cam Newton like he was Brady, instead of changing the offense around Newtons strengths and becoming a running team.

If the same underperformance is happening two years in a row despite different coaches and different role players, chances are that the issue is with the core. Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown are players who, at this point in their careers, are not capable of making their teammates better. They both like the ball in their hands and rely too much on iso ball while lacking court vision and passing instincts (especially Brown, who once again has more turnovers than assists). Combine that with defensive inconsistency and weird locker room vibes and I’m ready to start seriously thinking about breaking them apart (which really means thinking about trading Brown). I really like Brown as a player and as a person but it’s become increasingly clear that he’s a poor fit with Tatum. The juice has to be worth the squeeze, and there are only a handful of players I’d consider (not Simmons, not Beal, not Fox, not a quarter for two dimes and a nickel type trades, but someone like Lillard), but it’s no longer out of the question.

Or possibly another constant is that they haven't had good coaching despite the change.

You’re literally just making stuff up about Kemba. It became a bad basketball fit but he’s neither petty nor a bad teammate.

I don’t think Jaylen and Tatum are entirely to blame for everything - they haven’t had to best players around them the past couple years, and the coaching this season has been straight up bad. But it feels like they deserve some responsibility for the last couple seasons, particularly when you look at the lack of ball movement, inconsistent effort, and flat out bad leadership.

This team! Win the likely losses, lose the creampuff games. Great win, big last surprise for 2021!!!

Big test when Tatum returns, let's see if they can keep themselves from f*ckballing again.

Working hard...and succeeding...in playing below their weak competition. Infuriating team.

Yeah it was ugly as hell but at least we actually fought and came back in the 4th quarter and won.

Need to start winning the games that we should win. Big win without Timelord.

Ime really needs to wake up and stop playing Smart and Schröder together.

I don't get almost anything Ime does. I used this as a bar game given Cole Anthony and Suggs were out for the Magic, leaving a rookie in Wagner as there best player. They failed horrible, it took a magical game from Brown to even get a win.

These are the games you play the whole bench. The more players you give chances too, the better chance you find guys having games when they have it. I feel lucky Pritchard even got 13 minutes, if Langford wasn't out he likely gets almost no minutes. Ime is just so rigid, no matter what happens he still wants to role out the same lineups. No matter the team or matchup, Horford or Williams out Grant starts, Tatum or Brown out he starts Schroder. Fully healthy it Robert, Horford, Tatum, Brown and Smart, with Richardson, Schroder, Grant and some Langford. Type of crap a new coach might do second half of his first season after he gets to know the team. Ime is like a Baseball manager that doesn't know how to manage a bullpen, he just runs them into the ground. Stevens could have good defensive teams not by just playing his best D guys big minutes, yet with matchups and bringing in fresh engery guys.

Stevens needs to talk with him or force his hands with trades, this is just hard to watch.

Rumors Lakers are interested in Smart, they can't trade a first till 2027, yet that's perfect as long as the protections are favorable. I'm really starting to get on board with just trade Horford, Smart, Schroder and maybe even Richardson. Get back young players, play your young guys and at minimum develop talent if this is just a learning season for our coach. Watching Nesmith, Langford, Pritchard and Robert Williams play a bunch of minutes gives me more reason to watch than this crap.

I'm interested in what happened between Stevens and Ime. Is Stevens surprised by this? You don't build a team like he did if he knew it would be used this way.

I would think Stevens is trying to stay completely away from how Ime coaches. Not a good look for the former coach to be telling the new one what to do so early in the season. You usually don't showcase players till the last 5-10 games before the trade deadline. I just don’t think that's what's going on, if Stevens was telling Ime who to play wouldn't we also being seeing more Stevens like lineups and rotations? If that was true, shame on Stevens. Yet I actually think he needs to start getting slightly involved. Just throw around ideas. That relationship could be great if Ime could learn from Stevens.

This years draft will be interesting since we know nothing about what to expect from Brad. As a Duke fan, Wendell Moore Jr has finally come alive and is a very interesting prospect in the middle of the first round.