After reaching the Eastern Conference finals in Orlando, the Boston Celtics have struggled so far this season. At about a third of the current campaign, the Celtics are fifth in the East, with a record of 0.500 (13-13). They have lost seven of the last 10 games and 10 of the last 15. In other words, they seem to be trending in the wrong direction.
The main problem is that the Celtics are a heavy top team. At Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown, they have one of the best – and most versatile – perimeter pairs in the entire league. However, behind these two young stallions, Boston has many questions. Kemba Walker still did not look like him this season, after losing the first few weeks with a knee injury, and his bench is not as productive as in the past. The Celtics are ranked 24th in the NBA in bench scoring this season. Tatum and Brown are great, but the Celtics just don’t seem to have enough around them the way they are built today.
So, where’s the blame for the team’s struggles this season? According to general manager Danny Ainge, it is up to him.
“We are not playing with the passion we need. I think it is in the players. And the players in the team are in 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 any names. I will assume that responsibility. This is a team that was put together by me, and we are not playing with sufficient consistency and urgency, and it is my job to see what we can do to improve the team, but this is always much more difficult than improving internally. ”
Despite Boston’s slow start, Ainge is not yet in a panic.
“It is definitely not time to panic,” said Ainge. “But it is always a time to reflect. My job is to reflect after each game on where we are and where our team is and how they can improve. I know our team is better than how they are playing, and I am confident that that they will play better … I am not judging all my players, but I see that there is a consistent lack of urgency and part of that is our success. We started with 8-3 and we “We have many boys and many boys who have been at the end of the conference three times. I think sometimes you don’t realize how hard it is to win every night. “
“I don’t think it is rock bottom, because we are not healthy, we are not playing well and we are young,” added Ainge. “Rock bottom would be if we expected to win a series of playoffs and lose to a team that we should be defeating. That would be rock bottom … I’ve seen a lot of bad basketball streaks in the regular season to consider this rock bottom. But said this, we have been playing very, very badly and inconsistently and without enough urgency in the last few weeks. ”
Although Ainge denies being in a panic, he acknowledged that changes may be necessary if the team’s fight continues. And as he made it clear that he doesn’t think the problem is coaching, these changes would be related to the squad.
“Changing faces doesn’t always change things,” said Ainge. “But it may have to come to that.”
The NBA’s negotiation deadline is March 25, so Ainge has just over a month to make a move to update the squad. It is not yet known what the move to Boston would be like, but it is probably safe to say that Tatum and Brown are both off the table. The rest of the list, however, including Walker, could be a fair game. Given the fact that Ainge is clearly not satisfied with the way his team is playing, the Celtics will definitely be a team to keep an eye on how to reach the deadline.