The Boston Celtics have the best opportunity to win their 18th banner and break the tie with the Los Angeles Lakers this 2023-24 season. Brad Stevens ensured that they would surround Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown with star-caliber talent. Now, the team has the most-talented seven-man lineup with a couple of shooters and rebounders around them. Kristaps Porzingis and Jrue Holiday were additions to patch up their safety nets whenever their stars do not pop off. But, the feeling of losing serviceable playmakers like Marcus Smart and Malcolm Brogdon echoes all the way into the NBA Preseason.

Brad Stevens once acquired Malcolm Brogdon to fix the 2022 NBA Finals woes of the Celtics. It was a match made in heaven for both parties because Malcolm Brogdon could focus on facilitating while Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum could play better without the ball in their hands. His departure means that there are growing pains that the team has been facing in the NBA Preseason. Marcus Smart is also one of Brad Stevens' huge losses in this department and the Celtics are looking to take a dip while waiting for Jrue Holiday, Jayson Tatum, and Derrick White to step up.

The biggest concerns for the Celtics: Ball security and Playmaking

The Celtics often stall on offense in search for the best shot. This makes it difficult for them to get a shot up before time expires. Now, it does not mean that they get a lot of 24-second shot clock violations. But, their efficiency suffers by a great extent and defenders often catch with their passing. This NBA Preseason was a huge example of this.

Against the Philadelphia 76ers, the Celtics got 24 assists. This was fairly decent for a team that moves the ball quite a lot. But, the huge drawback was their 17 turnovers which eclipsed the 13 that the Sixers had. The offense would stall at times with the ball sticking on the perimeter or top of the key to search for better passing lanes. It makes the schematic they are running more predictable which leads to a broken play and a costly steal from the other team.

The same thing happened in their loss against the New York Knicks. The Celtics committed 17 turnovers to the Knicks' 13. The ball was only stolen seven times from the Payton Pritchard-led squad but the offense had a lot of broken plays. It came to a point where isolation calls were the only way to salvage their possessions.

What should the Celtics do?

There is still a lot of time left before games matter after the NBA Preseason. This means that Holiday, White, and Pritchard can still work to patch up their woes on facilitating the offense. But, a secondary ball handler between Tatum and Jaylen Brown should be ready to step up just in case. This was a huge problem when the team imploded during the Eastern Conference Finals because Tatum or Brown would just take hasty shots from far out.

The failure to find the open man or driving lane means that the team have a lot of issues to fix. Porzingis' acquisition comes to play in these situations. They could pass him the ball in the post and have players rotate off-ball. This allows them to have a new dynamic to bail out schematics that get trapped. It has only been three games but there are a lot of ways to solve these issues.