The Boston Celtics are a much different basketball team now than they were at the beginning of the season, in many ways more than one.
First and foremost, a handful of players who started the campaign on the Celtics’ roster are watching the NBA Finals from home. One of those players is Juancho Hernangomez, who Boston acquired last September but said goodbye to in a three-team trade with the San Antonio Spurs and Denver Nuggets in January.
One might think four months isn’t a long enough tenure to have a very clear opinion of an organization. But that short period of time took a great toll on the 15th overall pick in the 2016 draft.
“It was very hard,” Hernangomez told El Pais’ Daniel Arribas, per Yahoo Sports. “There was no communication. I didn’t know what was expected of me. There were many super selfish players, no team building. I lost my love for basketball a bit.”
In some fairness to Hernangomez, the first few months of the season were very trying for the Celtics. They still were within the learning curve under a first-time head coach and their identity had not yet been formed. Coincidentally, it was a week after the Hernangomez trade when Boston started to figure things out, take off and ultimately never look back.
Hernangomez’s remarks suggest he still maintains some resentment toward the Celtics. As such, he might be pulling for the Warriors on Sunday night when Boston visits Golden State for Game 2 of their best-of-seven series.
