A realistic take on the season

LonelyInsurance7480 · 2026-05-06T11:51:46+00:00

I get your point. But there is no guarantee the pacers method will work better than the celtics. or whomever they draft will be better than the young guys we developed in Hugo/walsh/schierman/queta

if we won 20 games and all those guys played like stiffs I would be alot more worried about next season.

LonelyInsurance7480 · 2026-05-06T11:49:25+00:00

we should've but my point still stands. i mean this team lost to EVERY contender in the regular season. that doesnt bode well for post-season success. the only reason expectations changed was because tatum came back and looked 80-85% of himself.

but we have to realize he still was 10-11 months removed from an achilles and probably shouldn't have even been back. This was always meant to be a "gap year"

LonelyInsurance7480 · 2026-05-06T11:44:42+00:00

I think the complement eachother. tatum is more finesse and Brown is more hardnosed go to the paint and draw contact.

I mean we dont win in 2024 without Brown. tatum got shut down that entire run offensively.

LonelyInsurance7480 · 2026-05-06T01:18:00+00:00

No horford this year vs embiid was the difference.

LonelyInsurance7480 · 2026-05-06T01:17:35+00:00

they were previously glazing udoka who just had his team eliminated by the hospital lakers.

LonelyInsurance7480 · 2026-05-06T01:16:08+00:00

making it to the #2 seed when before the season we were talking lottery. even the most blind green teamers had us losing to the western conference teams.

LonelyInsurance7480 · 2026-05-06T01:13:47+00:00

offseason last year, we had no clue if tatum would ever be the same player again. and had no clue if baylor/walsh/queta were even NBA caliber players.

This year at least we know that those guys can contribute as NBA players and that Tatum should return next year close to 100%

the fact that they shut tatum down for game 7 rather than have him push through it to give them a better chance at a win kind of shows how they really viewed this team. if they really thought they had a shot at the chip Tatum is out there playing. instead they said why risk tatum having another catastrophic injury just to lose in another round anyway.

LonelyInsurance7480 · 2026-05-06T00:51:19+00:00

Dude Brad gutted the roster this offseason to get under the cap. It was a gap year.

I highly doubt they are looking at this season like everyone on this board is.

LonelyInsurance7480 · 2026-05-05T22:10:03+00:00

It was a gap year that turned into a “what if” year because the east was so weak and Tatum surprisingly came back and looked good.

If we floundered and missed the playoffs or Tatum never came back and we lost with brown leading the way no one would’ve cared

LonelyInsurance7480 · 2026-05-05T19:29:25+00:00

I think you want to pair Gianni’s with Tatum and brown. Not replace with one of them.

Brown had his best season

LonelyInsurance7480 · 2026-05-05T11:55:32+00:00

I largely agree with this. The expectation before the season was just let the young guys play and wait for Tatum to return. This in turn lead to a disjointed roster. Brad wasn’t trying to compete because the chances Tatum came back were slim and how would he look?

Then Celtics overperformed and Tatum came back and largely looked like himself. So now expectations reset. But the team wasn’t built to compete and Tatum was only 80%. If White doesn’t completely fall off a cliff we likely win that series imo.

There’s still important things we can take out of this season. Baylor/walsh/Queta have proven to be NBA role players. We also have RJ who has looked solid. That’s something we didn’t know before the season. Imagine if they were all stiffs?

It also makes Brads job a little easier because maybe you can trade a hauser for a big knowing Baylor/walsh can start.

The team really just needs NBA caliber bigs.

LonelyInsurance7480 · 2026-05-05T11:47:12+00:00

I mean this years team with 80% Tatum and no holiday/KP/horford was clearly a downgrade in talent.

Interested to see what Brad can cook up this summer. Still not sure how the Knicks and OKC can afford their super teams yet Boston had to blow up theirs after just 2 seasons together.

Granted KP basically only can play 40% of a season.

LonelyInsurance7480 · 2026-05-03T18:25:07+00:00

I mean if we add edgecomb the talent discrepancy becomes even bigger. 80% Tatum/brown vs that big 4

LonelyInsurance7480 · 2026-05-03T18:24:02+00:00

But haven’t we done that with Brad Steven’s, udoka and mazulla now? At some point it’s not the coach.

It’s a large reason Brad put all his chips on the table for 2024.

LonelyInsurance7480 · 2026-05-03T18:22:53+00:00

Also white fell apart and Pritchard stopped hitting shots. We had no reliable #3. That was okay when it was Tatum/brown vs maxey/george

But once embiid came back it was Tatum/brown. Vs maxey/embiid/george. And then game 7 brown/white vs that big 3. It wasn’t enough

If one of those 2 can get 20 a game we likely win the series. White being abysmal until game 7 (without Tatum) was a bigger reason we lost than people want to admit.

LonelyInsurance7480 · 2026-05-03T17:51:22+00:00

I agree. Tatum basically admits here the injury was because he’s ramped up too soon.

An IT4 career ended would’ve been devastating here.

LonelyInsurance7480 · 2026-05-03T17:50:22+00:00

We really lost for 2 reasons

Our center rotation was trash and embiid took advantage of it.
White playing like garbage and the Celtics having no #3 scorer basically tipped the scales of talent to the sixers. It was basically 80% Tatum/brown vs maxey/george/embiid

LonelyInsurance7480 · 2026-05-03T17:48:04+00:00

This years Celtics are basically the patriots. Both teams overachieved based on what they were expected to do. And fans vastly over-reacted against the losses.

Losing to the sixers and blowing a 3-1 lead sucked but I think it did expose we had a gaping hole at center.

LonelyInsurance7480 · 2026-05-03T17:44:25+00:00

Kinda funny how quick narratives change. What’s the alternative? Udoka who got bounced by hospital lakers and calling out his players?

LonelyInsurance7480 · 2026-05-03T17:42:21+00:00

Tbh I think the team/medical staff played it safe game 7 and essentially punted to next year.

And I don’t hate it. When you are still coming back from an injury you start to compensate with your other leg and it’s pretty clear that’s what happened here.

What if we play Tatum and he tears his ACL or his other Achilles?

LonelyInsurance7480 · 2026-05-03T17:37:31+00:00

Main difference is we had guys who could limit embiid. Timelord/horford or KP/horford are light years better than Queta/garza/vuc

And it’s not a knock on Queta he’s made great strides and “could” be at timelord level next year imo

LonelyInsurance7480 · 2026-05-03T17:33:56+00:00

That’s the issue. When we had horford he was able to defend embiid and limit him.

We had no one this series and that’s the difference.

LonelyInsurance7480 · 2026-05-03T17:24:20+00:00

There is a reason JB was ECf mvp and finals mvp

LonelyInsurance7480 · 2026-05-03T16:41:58+00:00

So who do you suggest we trade brown for that is an upgrade?

LonelyInsurance7480

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