The Boston Celtics welcome the dawn of a new era as Danny Ainge recently stepped down from his post as the franchise’s President of Basketball Operations while Brad Stevens takes his place, leaving a vacant head coaching position.
Ainge, the only Celtic to win a title both as a player and executive, had been with the team’s front office for the last 18 years. Stevens, meanwhile, was on the sidelines for eight years and left as the fourth winningest coach in franchise history. The Celtics will now look for a new coach to call the shots.
This is a startling development in Boston following its first-round exit at the hands of the Brooklyn Nets who were dominant in the five-game series.
The Celtics will now have to go through the murky waters of the offseason with Stevens, a familiar face in a new position. The hiring of a new coach will be crucial to the team’s identity and makeup and will subsequently affect more offseason moves. While the Celtics are on the lookout for the next person to hold the coaching reigns, there are already a handful of concerns that need to be addressed if they want to improve their title chances.
Granted that this Boston team battled through a ton of health issues throughout the season, including Jayson Tatum and Evan Fournier getting COVID-19. All-Star Jaylen Brown was unavailable for the playoffs, while Kemba Walker and Robert Williams missed the last two games.
Nonetheless, it’s clear that the Celtics’ current pieces are not enough to compete with the beasts of the East. They’re an OK team, but an OK team won’t cut it. If they want to be in the conversation with the likes of the Nets, 76ers, or Bucks – and eventually play for a championship – a roster shakeup is needed.
The Tatum and Brown combo
First things first, whatever rebuild or improvements the Celtics will make, they should be centered around the team’s two dynamic stars: Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown.
Brown just had the best statistical season of his five-year career. His 24.7 points, 48.4 percent field goal shooting, 2.8 triples, 3.4 assists, and 1.2 steals were all career-highs. His first All-Star selection this season was a validation of his gradual improvement. He’s not a backup to Tatum but a co-star and a wingman equally dangerous with the basketball.
Would the Nets still win if Brown played? Probably not. But Brown would have given the Celtics a different look and another star that the Nets will have to respect. Maybe the series would have dragged to six games, giving Boston a fighting chance for an upset. It’s a shame that his season was cut short because of a left wrist injury.
Then there’s Tatum. This season saw him take his scoring capabilities to a whole different level. He had 53 points in a game in early April then notched his career-high 60 in the same month. He continued to bring the big guns after the regular season with a 50-piece in the play-in game versus the Wizards and another 50 in the playoffs that punched their only win against the Nets. His shot-making was through the roof this season.
Both Tatum and Brown are more than your average two-way players. Their scoring exploits are well documented but their defensive prowess might be a little underrated. The same could be said of their playmaking abilities. The two have increased their assists average and often make the right reads when faced with a double-team. However, they still fall into the trap of doing too many isolation plays, hoisting numerous difficult shots, and passing only because they couldn’t dribble or shoot their way out of trouble.
That being said, they’re both still very young and raw. Tatum is only 23 while Brown is just 24. We haven’t even seen what their primes would look like. So for Boston to have not one but two young exemplary wing players who can do multiple things on the floor is a luxury in itself.
Surrounding Boston’s one-two punch
Assuming no crazy and out-of-this-world trades happen between Tatum and Brown, the roster moves by the Celtics should complement the two.
The team has to make tough decisions on the expiring contracts of Marcus Smart and Tristan Thompson, and whether or not to re-sign Fournier.
The 27-year-old Smart has been with the team the longest and has proven his value time and time again. His defense is the first thing talked about, but he’s also shown to be a significant offensive threat alongside Tatum and Brown.
As for Thompson and Fournier, they had a good extended run against the Nets which should be taken as a promising sign. It’ll be up to Boston’s front office who gets paid and how much or who’s going out the door.
Just run it back?
Then again, maybe this season was just bad luck all throughout. Many teams have wilted under the weight of the pandemic-fused shortened season. If they were healthy, it would have been a totally different story. Maybe keeping all the right pieces (and paying them appropriately where everybody is happy) is an option.
Arguably the biggest concern for Boston is how to get Kemba Walker back into All-Star form. A prior stem-cell injection to his left knee made him miss the start of the year, as he played only a total of 43 games this season. He usually skipped the second night of back-to-backs. Health issues plagued Walker throughout the year and haunted him until the playoffs. Can the 31-year-old guard still get back to his glory days? A healthier Walker would drastically change the outlook of the Celtics in the future.
The Boston young guns should also be taken into account. Grant Williams, Romeo Langford, Payton Pritchard, Aaron Nesmith, and Robert Williams all have the potential to be key role players for a competing squad. They were thrust into the fire of the playoffs because of all the team injuries and found themselves battling against the Nets juggernaut. Developing this young group should be among the priorities of the franchise.
A first-round exit after reaching the conference finals the year before is far from ideal for the Boston Celtics. But given the circumstances of this season, it was still impressive that they fought their way into the playoffs.
Brad Stevens as the team’s President of Basketball Operations is just the beginning of a new and fresh direction. The hiring of a new coach is the next step towards that upward trajectory. The team still has a lot of promising talent and that alone can be considered a sure path back to being a contender.
