It is hard to look at this Boston Celtics roster, a game under .500 and now in their third season with admittedly high expectations not being met, and convince oneself that underneath all the bad luck, poor fits, and substandard returns that there are the seeds of a real contender here without making some moves.
So it probably should not surprise that this perspective seems to be a growing consensus among fans and analysts alike, and not just because the potential novelty of trade season is upon us. The team needs change, but young teams working their way into something better have needed such change as long as the sport has allowed them.
Such is the perspective of The Ringer’s Kevin O’Connor, who compares the Celtics of today to another iteration of the team that couldn’t get over the hump. “One of my most prominent childhood sports memories is Antoine Walker getting traded,” begins O’Connor in a recent column.
“Led by Antoine and Paul Pierce, the Celtics were coming off appearances in the East finals and semifinals,” he added, drawing a parallel between that era’s good-but-not-greatness and the deep-but-not-deep-enough runs of Jaylen Brown, Jayson Tatum, and Marcus Smart.
“Walker was a fan-favorite All-Star who wiggled down the court after making his 3s. But he missed many. And so Danny Ainge’s first big move running the team was dealing Walker away.”
“Brad Stevens is now in his first full season as president of basketball ops after taking over for Ainge,” juxtapositioned O’Connor.
“Stevens made some offseason moves that made sense on paper but haven’t worked out. The Celtics are fighting for a play-in spot, playing a tough-to-watch brand of basketball. And now Stevens is faced with the same question Ainge was nearly two decades ago: How will he make his mark on the franchise?”
Unlike Ainge, Stevens has the pressure of expectations as an additional force to reckon with. Boston fans are hungry for a return to greatness promised them under the previous regime that was kicked off with the era of memories the Ringer analyst points to.
“The Celtics need a dramatic shuffle to the supporting cast,” opines O’Connor. “More shooting would be a start. A better playmaker than Marcus Smart would help.”
“Someone who can facilitate, make 3s, and play great defense would be huge. But Lonzo Ball types don’t grow on trees. Instead, the Celtics were hoping one of their two All-Stars, Jayson Tatum or Jaylen Brown, would blossom into the playmaker they needed. It hasn’t happened.”
“Neither is a high-level passer, which is part of the reason they’re such inefficient isolation shot-creators,” he wrote.
Noting that Brown and Tatum are among the seventh and 11th-worst players in isolation scoring in the NBA respectively, the Ringer analyst brings up an uncomfortable question:
“Tatum and Brown aren’t elite interior finishers or knockdown shooters off the dribble. Should Stevens consider splitting up Tatum and Brown like Ainge once did with Pierce and Walker?”
“Tatum and Brown are far better players than Walker,” he adds, being his own devil’s advocate, “more accomplished at similar stages of their careers, and worth their big contracts.”
“And though it feels like they’ve been around forever, Tatum is only 23 and Brown is 25. They can still get better. But Stevens is on the clock to fix the team. After this season, Tatum has only three more guaranteed seasons on his contract. Brown has two.”
“They’ll be recruited to join teams with better odds of winning a title,” notes O’Connor ominously.
“Moving one of them, more likely Brown, could lead to a massive return and realign the roster around the remaining star and the incoming players,” he suggests.
“But who’s the main target: Ben Simmons? Bradley Beal? Domantas Sabonis? CJ McCollum? De’Aaron Fox? The list of realistically acquirable All-Star-caliber players is short.”
And thus the conundrum — there may be a case for splitting up the duo should the team continue to stagnate, but in the absence of a clear improvement, making moves just to make them is not a real strategy.
“Waiting for the next crop of stars on the move could be far more appealing,” concurred O’Connor.
“Before moving either Brown or Tatum, Stevens should explore changes elsewhere on the roster, by looking at the Celtics’ multiple tradable short-term contracts (Smart, Josh Richardson, Al Horford) and young players who have shown promise (Robert Williams III, Romeo Langford).”
This likely doesn’t vibe with hard-core fans’ attachments to the players in question, but all options ought to be on the table sans evidence sitting pat in part or full is anything less than disaster fuel.
And no matter how you see things, as O’Connor notes something “does need to change” as teams always do in the arc of their contention life-cycle.
It’s time for new President of Basketball Operations to begin his tenure in earnest for the franchise: “Ainge once made a statement by trading Antoine. Now you’re up, Brad Stevens.”
This post originally appeared on Celtics Wire. Follow us on Facebook!