That’s not deja vu, Boston Celtics fans. For the second year in a row, pundits and media heads around the country are pointing to the team’s underwhelming frontcourt as the biggest area of improvement heading into the trade deadline.
In 2019-20, we were not sure of the scope of the struggles Boston’s bigs would face when the games mattered. The Celtics were winning enough games to table the talk of needing a more significant upgrade at the pivot.
In 2020-21, the narrative has drastically changed. We know the center rotation cannot compete with the likes of Bam Adebayo and the Miami Heat, and the Toronto Raptors big man brigade was also able to offer significant resistance in the Eastern Conference finals during last year’s postseason in the Lake Buena Vista bubble.
Not only that, but the losses have piled up to the point where the team occupies the #7 seed while sporting a 20-20 record. Last night’s 117-110 loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers was a tipping point for a squad that cannot build consistency during what has been a slog of a season.
Bleacher Report’s Andy Bailey sees the C’s solution as the one thing Hardwood Houdini has been complaining about since Danny Ainge put the finishing touches on the post-Kyrie Irving roster in 2019: more (and better) size:
"You couldn’t fault anyone with the Boston Celtics for feeling a little non-buyer’s remorse right about now. Boston is surrendering the sixth-highest opponents’ field-goal percentage within three feet of the rim and is barely in the top half of the league in defensive rebounding percentage.The ability to play positionless on both sides of the floor is a plus, but in the Eastern Conference, with potential matchups against Joel Embiid and Giannis Antetokounmpo on the horizon, bigger options than Thompson (6’9″), Daniel Theis (6’8″) and Robert Williams III (6’8″) might help."
It’s okay for fans to wonder if their calls will be answered, as Ainge has avoided making any splashes to add size since integrating the “Team Shamrock” core of Kemba Walker, Jaylen Brown, Jayson Tatum, and Marcus Smart (and formerly Gordon Hayward).
It made sense to not tinker too much with a roster that came within two games of the NBA Finals, but it makes no sense for Ainge to sit on his hands as the team continues to sink down the standings.
Boston Celtics fans should hope that Ainge isn’t too proud to shuffle the deck with this flawed roster because the line between being a hopeful contender and a team in need of a direction change is razor-thin, and the Cs seem to be swaying towards falling off and becoming the latter.
Stay tuned, folks. This trade deadline could be a defining one for Ainge and this current Boston Celtics squad.