The Boston Celtics' 2018-19 season was a disaster, at least relative to expectations, as the team scuffled through a drama-filled regular season before getting blitzed by the Milwaukee Bucks in five games in the second round of the playoffs.
There were plenty of reasons for the failure, but Celtics head coach Brad Stevens admitted to ESPN's Jackie MacMullan that it was tough to get a group of talented perimeter players to all fit in his system together:
“The bottom line,” Stevens told ESPN, “is that we had seven perimeter guys who were all very good players, and all of them brought something different and unique to the table. If you ask any one of them, I'm sure they'll tell you it was hard to find all that they wanted this season.
“I don't lose any sleep over that. They were all extremely competitive, well-intentioned guys. The pieces just didn't fit.”
Kyrie Irving has taken a lot of blame for how the season went, but it wasn't all his fault. The youngsters on the roster struggled to find their groove as they took a step back, and Gordon Hayward never got totally comfortable in his return from a devastating injury. While the mix of players was indeed very talented, the chemistry and buy-in was never there with all the different agendas in play.
Stevens himself takes some of the blame:
“I really don't think it's anyone's fault,” Stevens says. “If you blame anyone, it's me. I'm the guy who couldn't fit the pieces.”
It now looks like Irving, Terry Rozier and veteran Al Horford will be moving on from Boston. However, the Celtics are set to rebound quickly with the apparent addition of Kemba Walker, assuming things go according to plan.
Boston could bounce back quickly with Walker aboard and more development from the young core, and Stevens will once again be tasked with making it work.
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