The Boston Celtics were one of the most disappointing teams in the league last season. They were dubbed as one of the favorites to win the NBA championship when the regular season began, but they were severely inconsistent to the point that they got destroyed by the Milwaukee Bucks in the second round of the playoffs even though they have won the first game of the series convincingly.
Celtics' President of Basketball Operations Danny Ainge shared his thoughts on why the team fell short of competing for the title last season. He was recently a guest at The Michael Holley Podcast, where he said that the players had individual goals, which caused Boston to struggle to play as a team.
“Certain guys thought they were going to be All-Stars this year. And they work hard all summer to reach these individual goals, but we just had too much individual goals. We didn’t have enough guys that winning was the most important thing. And when you have 21- and 22-year-old kids, that’s gonna happen.”
It was actually what most people thought about the Celtics at the end of last season. Every player on the roster was playing with purpose, but not for the benefit of the team, but themselves. All-Star guard Kyrie Irving found it hard to play with the younger guys on the team, and those guys were also the ones who reportedly hated his leadership.
What started as a season filled with hopes of building a dynasty crumbled before the Celtics' eyes. Now they are doing their best to recover and replicate the success they had a couple of years ago when they were contending in the Eastern Conference Finals.
They have a solid team to compete for a playoff spot once again, and who knows? If they become more cohesive, they might just make it to the NBA Finals.
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