The pieces were in place for the Boston Celtics to make an NBA Finals run this past season, or so we thought.
The Celtics entered the 2018-19 campaign with arguably the strongest roster in the league from top to bottom. With a healthy Kyrie Irving leading the way, Boston was poised to become the new king of the Eastern Conference and maybe even dethrone the Golden State Warriors as NBA champs. But the C’s failed to meet these high expectations, and they didn’t really come all that close.
Boston labored its way to the fourth seed in the East after a roller coaster of a regular season. After dispatching the hobbled Indiana Pacers in the first round of the playoffs, the Celtics had their doors blown off by the Milwaukee Bucks in the conference semifinals. The wildly disappointing season will go down as one of the most infamous in franchise history.
So, where did it all go wrong? While all of Boston’s shortcomings can’t be pinned on a singular issue, head coach Brad Stevens seems to believe the multitude of problems fall under an overarching point.
“The bottom line is that we had seven perimeter guys who were all very good players, and all of them brought something different and unique to the table,” Stevens told ESPN’s Jackie MacMullan. “If you ask any one of them, I’m sure they’ll tell you it was hard to find all that they wanted this season.
“I don’t lose any sleep over that. They were all extremely competitive, well-intentioned guys. The pieces just didn’t fit.”
Luckily for the Celtics, they’re in position to turn a new leaf without having to go through any sort of rebuilding period. While Irving, Al Horford, Marcus Morris and Terry Rozier all are bound for new homes in the coming weeks, it appears Boston will fill the star-power void with Kemba Walker, who reportedly could commit to the team as soon as Sunday night. Walker will provide a strong veteran presence to the Celtics as they turn the keys of the franchise over to budding stars Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown.
So while Celtics fans recently have bewailed over what could have been, the dispiriting 2018-19 season soon could be firmly in the rearview.
