Boston's Troubles

“We’re not as good as we think we are. That’s what it comes down to,” lamented Kyrie Irving in a recent interview. The Celtics were the fan favorites prior to the season to take over the east, considering Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown’s breakout season & LeBron James’ departure for the west coast. They have more than enough fire power with an amazing starting 5 that includes Kyrie Irving and Al Horford, and one of the league’s best benches which includes Terry Rozier and Marcus Morris Sr. who both had breakout seasons. In addition, last offseason they added what Boston thought would be the final piece to the puzzle in Gordon Hayward. However, he suffered a gruesome injury 5 minutes into his career in Boston which put him on the pine for the season.

Hayward’s absence throughout the regular season and Irving’s absence in the post season allowed for so many other players  to broadcast what they could do (primarily Jaylen Brown), and now that Hayward and Irving are back and playing, the Celtics are having trouble fitting all of this talent into the rotation.

Irving’s supporting cast numbers are suffering because Irving’s tendency to dribble the leather off the basketball is taking Boston away from the well balanced offense that the franchise helped develop to carry them to the Eastern Conference Finals last year, despite all of the injuries. On top of that, Hayward just isn’t playing like a max contract player. Whether that can be attributed to his minute restrictions because of his injury, or his nerves setting in when trying to bounce back on his feet from that horrific injury, the bottom line is he’s not showing up.

I believe a trade that could make both franchise’s better is if Boston sent Hayward back to Utah.