The curtains closed on Monday evening for the Boston Celtics’s Jekyll and Hyde routine.
100 fifty N.B.A. groups had tried and failed to beat a 3-0 playoff collection deficit. The Celtics made it 151 with their loss towards the Miami Warmth in Sport 7 of the Jap Convention finals. The ultimate sport in a collection stuffed with momentum swings was not aggressive: Miami led by double digits for a lot of the evening and gained comfortably, 103-84. It was Boston’s third house lack of the collection and a bitter disappointment for a staff that reached the N.B.A. finals final season and had been anticipating to return.
“We failed, I failed,” a despondent Jaylen Brown informed reporters after the sport. “We let the entire metropolis down.”
For a lot of the common season and this playoff run, the Celtics alternated between wanting like an unstoppable offensive juggernaut (Video games 4 and 5 towards Miami) and showing listless and uninspired (Video games 3 and seven). Only a few main contenders for a championship have vacillated as wildly from evening to nighttime, from dominant to dominated, because the Celtics had this season. However getting into the playoffs, the Celtics nonetheless harbored championship hopes, assured that their franchise centerpieces, Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown, and a flexible roster able to complement them would discover a technique to win.
For many of their careers, Tatum, 25, and Brown, 26, had led unexpectedly deep postseason runs. Beating expectations grew to become their model. This 12 months was their fourth time making a minimum of the convention finals prior to now six years.
But after Boston misplaced to the Golden State Warriors within the N.B.A. finals final season, this was the 12 months that the bar was raised. A championship was the purpose. Tatum, Brown and their teammates might not merely exceed expectations: The Celtics have been the anticipated.
As an alternative, the Celtics will now need to ponder if Brown and Tatum might be the partnership that carries this staff over the ultimate hurdle. And the Celtics’ possession, together with the staff president, Brad Stevens, should determine if Joe Mazzulla, the 34-year-old head coach with just one season beneath his belt, is the suitable individual to steer the staff.
Mazzulla was unexpectedly given the job simply earlier than coaching camp in September after the abrupt suspension and eventual firing of Ime Udoka.
He was a shocking alternative: His solely head teaching expertise was at Fairmont State, a Division II program in West Virginia, and he had been an N.B.A. assistant for 3 years. He was immediately given the duty of taking a staff to the highest of the mountain.
One of many Celtics’ large acquisitions final summer season, ahead Danilo Gallinari, tore a knee ligament and missed the season. And one of many staff’s defensive anchors, Robert Williams III, didn’t make his debut till December after a knee damage. Nonetheless, Mazzulla obtained the Celtics off to a blistering 21-5 begin.
However within the common season, the Celtics fell into stretches of lackadaisical, head-scratching play, as after they blew a 28-point result in the Nets in March. That carried over into the playoffs: In opposition to the Warmth, the Celtics routinely blew double-digit leads. But they nonetheless clawed their technique to the doorstep of the N.B.A. finals.
“It’s one thing that continues to occur,” Celtics middle Al Horford mentioned of the staff’s shifting performances. “It’s a sample that occurs with us. We’re going to need to do some soul-searching there, as a result of some issues have to vary in that regard.”
For some, the decision is evident: Swings like that aren’t ok. Mazzulla, together with his penchant for not calling timeouts and guiding the Celtics to flat efforts like Monday evening’s, isn’t the suitable individual for the job.
To those that like their glasses half full, Mazzulla’s first 12 months as coach, and not using a full low season to organize, was spectacular. He swiftly put collectively a system that led to the second-best offense and protection within the N.B.A. Tatum and Brown had their finest seasons. As for strategies that his inexperience made him unfit for the job, Mazzulla will now have a 12 months of expertise, a deep playoff run beneath his belt and a full low season to make adjustments. And his greatest star supplied his help on Monday.
“I believe Joe did an incredible job — we gained 50-some odd video games,” Tatum mentioned. “ We obtained to Sport 7, convention finals. Clearly, everyone might be higher, study from this. However I believe Joe did an incredible job.”
A few of this decision-making about roster building earlier than subsequent season might not be as much as Boston in any respect. The staff doesn’t have cap area or significantly precious draft picks. Brown, who made the All-N.B.A. second staff this 12 months, is a free agent after subsequent season. He’s eligible for a contract extension value near $300 million if he chooses to stick with the Celtics, an quantity no different staff can provide him.
Boston’s greatest roster drawback is that beneath the N.B.A.’s new collective bargaining settlement, increased spending groups face extra restrictions in constructing their rosters. Which means that holding Tatum and Brown collectively could also be near inconceivable for the Celtics, even when they need to proceed to construct round them.
And Brown could not need to keep. In a number of interviews this season, Brown has expressed reservations about life in Boston.
Requested Monday evening about his thought course of getting into the low season as he considers a possible contract extension, Brown paused for a number of seconds.
“I don’t even actually know how you can reply that query proper now, to be trustworthy,” Brown mentioned.
Tatum was extra clear: He mentioned it was “extraordinarily vital” that Brown be re-signed.
“He’s among the finest gamers on this league,” Tatum mentioned. “He performs each ends of the ball and nonetheless is comparatively younger. And he’s achieved lots up to now in his profession. So I believe it’s extraordinarily vital.”
Brown definitely grew this season. At instances, he, not Tatum, was the staff’s finest participant. However within the playoffs, Brown was once more unreliable, and defenses centered on his greatest weak spot: ball dealing with.
That is the conundrum for the Celtics. It’s solely attainable — even doubtless — that the Celtics haven’t seen the very best of Tatum and Brown, given their ages. With a summer season of preparation for Mazzulla, one other leap from Tatum and Brown and a completely wholesome roster, they may absolutely be in title rivalry once more. Progress doesn’t need to be linear.
That’s the straightforward and handy answer. However what if that is the restrict for the very best younger tandem within the league? With the N.B.A.’s stringent cap limitations, the Celtics don’t have a number of methods to get higher that don’t contain transferring on from Brown.
The Celtics confronted the same quandary 20 years in the past with Paul Pierce and Antoine Walker, two beloved All-Stars. On the time, they have been at across the identical ages and levels of their careers as Tatum and Brown are actually. Pierce was clearly the higher participant, however Walker helped Pierce lead the staff to the convention finals in 2002. When Danny Ainge took over the staff’s basketball operations the subsequent 12 months, he tore down the staff and traded Walker, playing that he and Pierce had peaked as a pairing. The fan base was initially irritated, however the transfer finally paid off with a championship in 2008.
There’s a skinny line between true contenders and high-level pretenders within the N.B.A. Now that their newest title pursuit has come up quick, the Celtics face tough questions on which path ahead places the staff firmly within the contender camp.