At 3-3, with the league’s best offense and its second-worst defense, the Boston Celtics are not who we thought they would be.
We thought they would be a two-way powerhouse that challenges the Cleveland Cavaliers for Eastern Conference supremacy. But, as of now, they seem unsettlingly mediocre and overwhelmingly flawed on the defensive end—which doesn’t really surprise team president Danny Ainge, per Steve Bulpett of the Boston Herald:
“I think that often times you get feeling like you’re a little better than you are,” Celts president of basketball operations Danny Ainge said yesterday. “And when that happens, no matter how good your team is, you’re going to get humbled if you don’t realize what it takes to win. Winning is very difficult in our league, no matter who you’re playing, and we’re certainly not a team that can just show up to play. We have to show up to win.”
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“We knew before the season that we don’t have the great rim protectors and we’re not a great defensive rebounding team,” he said. “We have to win in other ways. We’re still trying to improve our team, and we know that we have some holes, but that’s not the reason why we’re not putting forth the effort that we need to, and I think that Sunday night, to me, rather than overreacting, is a good awakening for our players.
All this said, Ainge isn’t jumping the gun and working the phones like crazy trying to strike a trade that salvages Boston’s season. It’s too early for such panic—especially for the Celtics.
The offense is clearly fine. Unlike last year, it’s spacing the floor with general efficiency and finding ways to score no matter who’s on or off the floor. Even if the Celtics don’t maintain hold of the top spot all year, they’re in business on that end.
Defense is more of a question. Boston finished inside the top five of points allowed per 100 possessions last year, so this free fall down to 29th is beyond troubling. But the Celtics have yet to see Al Horford, Jae Crowder and Marcus Smart, along with Kelly Olynyk, healthy at the same time. That matters. Those four, together, can change the entire defensive outlook of this squad.
Once the Celtics are at full strength, we’ll be able to make more sweeping conclusions, good or bad. For now, it’s not so much that they entered 2016-17 too high on themselves; it’s that we’re still waiting to see who they are.
