Less than five hours before the Boston Celtics were set to take the floor in South Beach with their season on the line, an eye-catching report hinted at a potential offseason break up.
The Ringer’s Kevin O’Connor, while appearing on “Beyond the Arc” on FanDuel TV, indicated how he’s heard from a Celtics source that the locker room is not as tight as it might seem.
“This is a Celtics team that has chemistry issues in the past,” O’Connor said. “They got through it, they got better. But I’ve had a source tell me in the past week that this Celtics team feels like a group that is tired of fake liking each other. They’ve been around each other forever, they’ve been through it before, but I think it’s at a point now, especially given the way that they’ve lost this series, or will lose this series against the Heat, that they got to shake things up. They got to shake it up on different levels.”
O’Connor proceeded to express how Celtics All-NBA First Team selection Jayson Tatum has been “too passive” in the postseason, reflecting on Tatum’s fourth-quarter inconsistencies. He also acknowledged that All-NBA second-teamer Jaylen Brown isn’t a sufficient ballhandler.
“How he’s not taking these shots in the fourth quarter blows my mind,” O’Connor said of Tatum.
O’Connor isn’t the only to share sentiments of major changes this offseason, of course.
ESPN’s Brian Windhorst expressed how the Celtics have a “significant decision” about the Brown-Tatum pairing while colleague Kendrick Perkins said after Game 3 how he believes the Green should break up the core. Additionally, Colin Cowherd made the case for why the Celtics should fire first-year head coach Joe Mazzulla, who some believe the group already has quit on.
Those storylines aren’t going anywhere, especially if the Celtics have their season end against the Miami Heat in Game 4 of the Eastern Conference finals on Tuesday night. If the Celtics win Game 4, well, then they’ll have to do so three more times. Perhaps that will cause those sentiments taper off. But anything short of the long-awaited Banner 18 would make that no sure thing.
