Boston Celtics: 4 burning questions heading into 2021-22
By Mark Nilon
Boston Celtics question No. 3) Will Ime Udoka take a while to get acclimated?
As we all know, earlier this summer Brad Stevens opted to drop the clipboard on the sidelines and move on up the totem pole to replace Danny Ainge in the front office.
Though viewed as one of the best head coaches in the game today, the franchise seemingly felt that a change was necessary for this role, and many rumblings indicated that the Boston Celtics had two top priorities when it came to who they wished to target as Stevens’ replacement — they desired both a former player as well as a person of color to claim the vacant position.
A few short weeks after their first-round exit, the Cs found a person who fit both of these molds in seven-year NBA veteran and nine-year NBA assistant coach, Ime Udoka.
Most notably being a part of the storied Popovich tree (spent seven years on the sidelines in San Antonio) and most recently finding himself on Steve Nash’s coaching staff with the Brooklyn Nets, Udoka has plenty of experience working with top-notch organizations, all of whom have been in the mix to win a league championship (in 2014 he actually won a title as an assistant with the Spurs).
Because of this, many appear to be confident that the rookie head coach should wind up proving to be a tremendous hire for the NBA’s winningest franchise. However, the question we have at HH is how long will it take for him to get used to this role?
Typically speaking, first-year head coaches take some time to get used to their new positions and, quite often, they find themselves in charge of teams with little expectations attached to them — there are certainly recent exceptions to the rule (Nick Nurse, Steven Nash, etc.) but, for the most part, this is typically the trend.
The Boston Celtics, however, find themselves with a rotation consisting of a legitimate MVP-hopeful in Jayson Tatum, a rising star in Jaylen Brown, an All-Defensive caliber player in Marcus Smart, and constant high expectations attached to the franchise.
No, we’re not going to sit here and say that we expect the shamrocks to have a putrid season throughout and, in turn, be left with questions of whether they made the right decision with hiring Udoka — in fact, we, too, are rather high on the decision by Stevens to bring him in as his successor.
That said, we absolutely think it’s a realistic scenario that the rookie coach will go through some sort of growing pains early on in the year that could negatively impact for the team for some time.
What we wish to know is, should this happen, how long will it take for him to get completely acclimated?