Celtics have lottery tickets, but now is the time for a few payouts
Boston Celtics players Isaiah Thomas (4), Marcus Smart (36), Amir Johnson (90), Jae Crowder (99) and Evan Turner (11) walk to the bench during a timeout.
COMMENTARY
The Celtics get the benefit of the doubt in the present for a few reasons, not the least of which is that the future is both enticing and within reach. Frustrating times are easier to accept when the bright glimmer of better days is visible on the horizon.
Thanks to the Auerbachian heist that Celtics president of basketball operations Danny Ainge pulled off in July 2013, sending Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett and roster filler to the Nets for three first-round draft picks and the right to swap selections in ’17, it’s not difficult to envision a time when young, talented coach Brad Stevens is overseeing a roster of young, talented core players.
Those Nets picks have become not only a source of hope for the Celtics, but a source of bemusement regarding how the deal worked out for the Nets. In case you forgot, here is what Nets principal owner Mikhail Prokhorov said in his introductory comments when the trade was announced: “Today, the basketball gods have smiled on the Nets.’’ Something tells me this current team — the Nets are 10-28, but have lost five straight and eight of 10 — have turned the owner into a firm basketball atheist.
What a place to be.
The Nets are a terrible team in the moment with nothing to show from the trade other than a grim future. Pierce departed for Washington after one season and Garnett returned to his original NBA home in Minnesota late in his second with Brooklyn. Just a few days ago, the man who made the trade, Billy King, was fired in a housecleaning that suggests chaos will be chronic and victories few for Brooklyn. In a related note, I’m on board with the Ben Simmons/Lamar Odom comp.
But for as fun as it is to daydream on how just lopsided this deal will look when all matters are settled and Ainge has either used or swapped the picks, it’s also fair to acknowledge that we expected a little more from the team as currently constructed than we are currently receiving. Having lost five of their previous six games, including a meltdown Sunday against the Grizzlies in which they blew a 21-point lead, the Celtics entered Tuesday night’s matchup with the Knicks with a 19-18 record and a ninth-place standing in the Eastern Conference.
Sure, they’re only eight games behind the first-place, cruise-controlled Cavaliers in the tightly packed conference. But considering how last season ended — with 24 wins in the final 36 games — there were reasonable expectations that they would be better than they have been. They’ve had their moments — they were 13-9 in early December, and nearly had a 14th win against the then-undefeated Warriors. The argument can be made that loss was the high point: They’re 6-9 since, and their recent performances have been pocked by some recurring problems that had better not fully morph into habits.
They’ve complained to the officials after bad calls or no-calls like they’re paying homage to Ainge’s whinier moments during his playing days. Worse, they’ve let those instances affect their play and their unity, whether it manifests in a failure to hustle — something that is imperative to this team’s success — or bickering among themselves. After a foolish foul late in the Grizzlies loss, Marcus Smart cursed at teammate Jae Crowder, who was rightfully angry about the mental blunder. Smart and the rest of the Celtics have acknowledged that they need to play smarter and with more discipline. That’s progress, but we’ll believe them fully when their emotions cease getting the best of them on the court.
Of course, some of that is born from the frustration of so many near misses. Because they don’t have a true go-to scorer, at least on the nights when Isaiah Thomas isn’t at his jittery best, they tend to struggle in late-game, gotta-have-a-bucket-here situations. They’re 0-5 in games decided by three points or less. (After all those years of griping about it, you kind of miss the Paul Pierce clear-out at the elbow, don’t you? It’s OK to admit it.) The admirable Avery Bradley can’t stay healthy. Smart is reckless at times. Jared Sullinger is shooting 42 percent. David Lee doesn’t fit. Even a coach as creative as Stevens is challenged to find playing time for 10 players who can make an argument that they deserve it, and that doesn’t include Jordan Mickey, whose D-League dominance should have him under consideration for playing time with the big club.
The Celtics have skated during this slide. In part, that has happened because we want to like them — they have given us reason to, for at their intense, ball-moving best they are an immensely likable team. Part of the reason is that the collective sports focus in New England is on the Patriots as they begin their postseasson. And part of it, of course, is that the Nets picks are always there as a mental pick-me-up when the present isn’t going according to plan.
Those lottery tickets are fun to have, as fun to dream on as, say, a $1.5 billion Powerball jackpot. But cashing in a few more winners starting now would be swell, too. Victories have been fewer and farther between lately for the Celtics than we — or they — have expected. If it keeps up, pretty soon they’re going to start hearing about it.
Chad Finn can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @GlobeChadFinn.
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