The Boston Celtics just had one of their most enjoyable seasons of the 21st century, but that doesn't mean they had a perfect season. Actually, the flip side of that is because everything went about as fantastically as anyone could have expected, it's easy to forget the very few things that went wrong.
If we're being fair, not many teams get to say they had the perfect season. That goes for the Celtics themselves. The closest one in recent memory has to be the 2016-17 Warriors, but only one team gets to do that.
And before we start, note that there's full acknowledgement that the following disappoinments didn't really hurt Boston in the long run, if at all.
4. The Anfernee Simons & Luka Garza eras started off pretty rocky
Hopefully, this should set the tone, as something like this simultaneously proves that everything went about as smoothly as possible for Boston this season, that we had to reference someone who's not even on the team anymore.
But yes, it's true: their individual starts in Boston were both a little bumpy, which, by extension, is how the season itself started. Simons looked lost on both sides of the floor despite his rep as a scorer, while Garza was routinely exploited on defense to the point that he was put in the doghouse for a few weeks.
It's no coincidence that once they started figuring themselves out around December, the team really took off. However, that doesn't erase the fact that a month or so into the season, there were a lot of questions about them, and by extension, the Celtics themselves.
3. Chris Boucher
Know what's weird? Coming into this season, the most proven Celtics big on the roster, and by a pretty fair margin at that, was Chris Boucher. There were questions about whether Neemias Queta could handle the job as starting center - Narrator: He could - while very little was known about Garza or Amari Williams.
It's why there was some belief that Boucher could have been the starting center if everything went right. He was an NBA Champion who was a decent floor-spacer and shot-blocker. In fact, pre-season returns on Boucher looked promising, as he not only looked good, but Mazzulla even trotted out a lineup featuring him and Queta.
He got the nod at first, but Joe Mazzulla gave up on him pretty quickly. Before November was even over, Boucher was firmly planted on the bench. When it was all said and done, this was the most notable thing he did as a Celtic when it counted.
In fact, even after Garza's play got him in the doghouse, Boucher didn't get the chance to be re-inserted. That's how quickly Mazzulla lost faith in him. To put a cherry on top of such a strange development, after the Celtics dumped him on Utah, who then waived him, he never caught on anywhere.
Wishing Boucher all the best, but it's fair to say he was the Celtics' most disappointing player.
2. Josh Minott got dumped simply because Boston was too loaded
This was disappointing only because it's a shame how it turned out because Minott had all the makings of a great story in Boston. He was the first player to make himself stand out among the Celtics' plethora of unknown players.
But fate stood in the way. First, Minott suffered an ankle injury, which paved the way for other Celtics like Jordan Walsh and Hugo Gonzalez to start asserting themselves (Baylor Scheierman was right behind them). Then, Boston desperately tried to adjust him as more of a back-up small-ball center, but it had become clear by then that Garza was the better option.
It all culminated in Minott being put in the doghouse for the exact opposite reason Boucher was: Boston's roster had too many good players to let him play. Surprisingly, he didn't have much of a market, so he was dumped on the Nets, where he has since resumed his fantastic play.
Having an excellent roster from top to bottom is a good thing through and through, but Minott's fate shows its one true downside.
1. Derrick White's decline as a floor-spacer
Okay, so this is something that should not be swept under the rug. White's floor-spacing nosediving a bit wasn't the biggest surprise, as Jayson Tatum's absence meant more attention was on him, but it proved to be a legitimate problem that no one truly noticed because Boston withstood it.
But something has happened to White's three-point shot. From Opening Night to the game before Tatum came back, White shot 33% from distance. But once Tatum came back, less attention was on White, so surely, he was going to get better. It didn't. Once Tatum returned, White's three-point shot dropped even further, shooting 31.1% from distance.
To be hair, Sam Hauser has also been a little inconsistent with his three-point shot, but that's been part of the Hauser experience. He has always had his bad stretches, and with Tatum back, the best could very well be yet to come from him.
But White's floor-spacing has been a problem all season long. If that continues in the postseason, that's something Boston may have to work through.