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Although it certainly stopped short of a full-blown evisceration, The Ringer's Bill Simmons used a recent podcast to ask a question that many fans in New England have been wondering themselves: “What's going on with the Celtics?” The Boston Celtics are the defending NBA champions, but have dropped 14 games already this season, a month and a half sooner than they suffered their 14th loss last year.
On the surface, there doesn't seem to be much different from last year to this year. Much of the Celtics core remains the same, and their tandem of superstars — Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown — has been just as productive this season as they were last, though their shooting percentages are down. Their supporting cast is still solid, led by a trio of interchangeable guards and versatile bigs.
So what is it that's causing the Celts to just look different this year? I'll leave it to the body language doctor himself to break it down.
“The camaraderie/connection with the guys doesn’t seem the same right now,” Simmons noted. “It might just be like ‘oh they’re an older married couple, they’ve done this, they’ve been together, they don’t need to do it.' But there’s a lot of plays where there is just five guys on the court who just seem like they’re not connected in any way.”
Simmons went on to note that the personality of the team seems to have changed from last year, and anyone who has read or listened to the Sports Guy frequently knows that it may be ‘The Disease of More' that is plaguing the Celtics. In his 2009 best-seller “The Book of Basketball,” Simmons discussed this Pat Riley-inspired concept, which focuses on championship caliber teams that crumble because of a desire for “more minutes, more money, and more shots.”
“Year after year, at least one contender fell short for reasons that had little or nothing to do with basketball,” Simmons observed. “And year after year, the championship team prevailed because it got along and everyone committed themselves to their roles.”
Is this what is happening to this 2024-25 Celtics? Only time will tell, but if anyone is qualified to identify it before it comes to fruition, it's Bill Simmons.
