If you had to use one word to describe the 2018-19 Boston Celtics it would be inconsistent. Or maybe it would be frustrating?
Both are true and Charles Barkley thinks there’s only one way the Green can fully crawl out of its spiral of mediocrity: make a trade.
The TNT NBA analyst watched the Celtics’ disappointing loss to the Miami Heat on Thursday, a game that included a heated altercation between Jaylen Brown and Marcus Morris and ended with Kyrie Irving going through a “therapeutic” shooting session after the loss. To Barkley, the C’s must make a deal for a role player or their hopes of winning the Eastern Conference might be dashed.
“They’re not going to win the way they’re currently constructed,” Barkley said, per Boston.com. “I don’t know what type of team they are. I really don’t. I don’t think they know who their go-to guys are. … If the Celtics are going to win the Eastern Conference, I think they’ve got to make a trade.”
The Hall of Famer believes Boston has too many scorers and not enough guys who do the little things and don’t worry about putting the ball through the hoop.
“They’re not making that transition where they’re like, ‘OK, I’m not going to score tonight, gotta get stops.’ They don’t have guys like that,” Barkley continued. “Jaylen Brown could be an All-Star. Jayson Tatum could be an All-Star. Kyrie’s been an All-Star. Gordon Hayward’s been an All-Star. Al Horford’s been an All-Star, but you don’t look at any of those guys and say, ‘Well, they’re a defensive stopper and they’re content doing that.’
“I had a Mark West, who could go the whole game and not get a shot. Was going to affect the game and not complain and not pout. You have to have guys like that. You look at the Warriors. Draymond (Green) is a great defender. He’s content to play great defense and rebound the ball. Last year, they had David West. They had JaVale McGee, Zaza Pachulia, because those (other) three guys are going to get all the shots. And with the Celtics, those guys, I told you coming into the season. Tatum and Brown wasn’t going to say, ‘Hey, Kyrie and Gordon, y’all take all the shots,’ because they think they’re better players than that.”
Coming into Thursday’s game in Miami, it appeared Boston had things figured out. The Celtics had won seven of their past nine games, including a blowout win over the Indiana Pacers on Wednesday night. But the C’s came back to Earth on Thursday with another frustrating performance and now must decide if they need to shake up their roster prior to the Feb. 7 NBA trade deadline.
