Boston Celtics: Offense Not All About Kyrie Irving

Boston Celtics offense needs to be about more than just Kyrie Irving’s scoring

The Boston Celtics have dropped three straight games, and their offense has been a disaster over the last two loses. The Celtics have seen that they have the individual talent to be one of the best offenses in the league, but nothing has come together in any kind of positive way over the last two games.

The oddest part about these struggles is that one of the games featured Kyrie Irving dropping 40 points, while he was on the sideline for the other one. The team looked completely lost without their top instigator against the 76ers, but then it looked like nobody was on the same page when he came back with one of his most impressive individual games with 40 points against the Magic.

We know that defense is going to be the most important thing if the Celtics want to be stringing together multiple wins, but it is a lot more frustrating to see so much talent on offense not get good enough results to win.

They have all the individual pieces they love, and we see how dominant they can be when everything is working together. Unfortunately, the Celtics will never be able to dominate like that if everything is about Irving on offense.

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In the game Irving missed, it was about him because nobody was able to replace his play making ability, and they did not work together in any way to make up that impact in another way. Then Irving came back, and had one of his most impressive individual performances of the season. Irving came back and put the offense on his back. Once again it was all about Irving, and the results did not follow.

Obviously, Irving is still going to be the most important player on offense. So much of what they want to do and what they are capable of doing is a result of the kind of impact Irving has on a defense. The problem is that each and every other player needs to be incorporated in how they are functioning. Irving may have the biggest impact on how the offense is trying to play, but it is not going to matter if the rest of the team is not embracing the impact around them, and figuring out how to become a part of the overall offense.

The Celtics need to make sure that they are generating the ball movement that will create the open looks, because they do not have enough reliable shooting to depend on hitting contested shots. They also need to make sure they are not turning the ball over, because that breaks down what they want to do, and forces them into the trap of playing like individuals.

We have seen some of the most amazing offensive performances from Irving this season, but it is usually a different story when the entire offense is at their best. The Celtics already know how much Irving can do by himself, and that individual scoring has won them plenty of games, especially in the clutch.

If, however, you are looking for the very best this overall offense has been this season, you are not going to see many otherworldly scoring outputs by Irving, because every player needs to be getting involved for the offense to their very best. When every player is getting involved, there will not be enough shots for just Irving to have the kind of scoring night he did against the Magic.

There will be some exceptions, but the Celtics clearly do not want Irving to have to carry everything on offense all the time. When you look at Boston’s best overall offensive performances this season, the less the Celtics need from Irving, the better they are going to be overall.

You can look at the game they dominated the Cavaliers, and Terry Rozier was the leading scorer. The Celtics found their balance, got every player who saw the court involved, and they got their commanding victory despite getting just 11 points in 28 minutes from Irving.

The Celtics were also able to score 116 points against the Suns, one of their highest totals of the season, even though Irving failed to get 20 points. Their highest scoring game of the season came against the Nuggets, where Irving took just 19 shots.

The Celtics need to use space created by Irving and the problems he causes the defense, to make things easier on the players around him. There is only so much Irving can do by himself, but when the team uses him impact to benefit all of the other players, then they are able to score with the best offenses in the league, while having that option that can bail them out when it is needed.

The Celtics always want to see Irving get going and the impact of his scoring is the most important part of this offense. The key to the best overall success, however, is not just high volume for Irving. It can be a lot of fun to watch Irving go and get a bucket every time they go up the court, but that will inevitably limit their overall potential.

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The Celtics need to embrace Irving not by asking him to do everything on offense, but to find the best way to use his ability to get the best overall impact. Irving will impact everything that goes on around him when he is on the court, and when you add in a passer like Al Horford and intelligent shooting across the board, you start to see how good overall unit can be on offense for Boston.

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