Celtics might be a problem.
Let's get to the final, first.
I know a championship isn't won in 25 games, but Boston is the best team in the NBA right now and it isn't even close. We know they have another gear defensively that they haven't hit yet this season and should get TimeLord on the court by Christmas. Tatum & Brown are statistically better than last season, Smart is more efficient (career highs in Asst/TO ratio & eFG%), Grant Williams has taken a jump forward offensively, White is more comfortable and more effective this year and they added Brogdon who is leading the league in 3P% plus Hauser is a great shooter off the bench.
Managing injuries and minutes to keep them ready for the playoffs will be the key.
The Celtics have predictably regressed. Their shooting rate was unsustainable.
The problems I see
1) There are common arguments that Tatum and Brown cannot play together, but what is often not discussed is that Marcus Smart is likely a bad fit next to both of them. I get that he has elite defense and is called the heart and soul of the lockerroom alongside Horford, but Smart's limitations on offense plus the typical offensive limitations of the pivot position means putting an unusually high load on Tatum/Brown.
2) Derrick White, Malcolm Brogdon and Sam Hauser have come back down to Earth. White and Brogdon were both good adds in general to the roster. But you can't have White and Smart out there at the same time plus the standard pivot and not feel it hit basic offensive flow
3) The lack of conditioning has started to catch up to this team. The offense opens up by pressing the gas pedal all the time, attacking the rim and keeping the ball moving. It's too simplistic to say it's just a long stretch of a shooting slump across the roster. You need to hunt high efficiency shots. Maybe one of the worst things to happen to Tatum's early career was thinking he should be Kobe Bryant ( bad shot selection, no commitment to defense, black hole player/ball stopper, falls in love with isolation offense ) This early part of the season, he made adjustments out of that. But you see a slow regression to the old Tatum. His defense however has been largely better this year
4) The team is not committing to defense like earlier in the season. If your shot is not falling, you need to find another way to help your team win.
This is a franchise that can win lots of games, but has close to no margin of error. The roster is not a seamless fit together.
If they just want to make the playoffs, make deep runs, and win lots of regular season games, there is nothing wrong with their roster right now. If they want to move up a level, they have to eventually trade Smart. The downtick in defense will be worth the uptick in offensive gravity if they find a young cost controlled 3&D league average wing.
I'm not sure much can be done with Jaylen Brown's discipline issues. He has spurts where he just doesn't play high BBIQ type of basketball. But he's worth more to the Celtics than to any other team. He doesn't seem to understand the difference between hunting down individual matchups for personal bragging rights and hunting down the defense to facilitate practical offensive flow.
It's on Tatum to keep attacking the rim and being responsible for jump starting the offense.
This team in general has really poor shot selection. You can overcome that by going on hot shooting streaks for a short while, but it's going to catch up with you. I don't see how the shot selection issue gets fixed until Brown starts to wise up again.
Best team in the NBA?
Great regular season team when they are committing to playing the right way is as far as I'll go with that.
I thought we were gonna make the dramatic comeback, but couldn't get a shot to fall late. Grrrr. Tough little stretch for us, but still confident in our team. One thing is apparent, we really need B.I. back to compete with the top handful of teams. A little worried that he's more hurt than they're letting on. He's been out for longer than I would've expected for a "foot contusion."
