Celtics media day is at the end of the month, which means practices and preseason games are coming up quickly. With that in mind, and with the Celtics entering the season with the highest expectations, we’re spending the rest of the month looking at 10 big questions for this team heading into training camp.
Question Number 1: How will they handle championship expectations?
The last time any of these guys were on a team that entered the season with championship expectations, Kyrie Irving was leading the charge.
That didn’t go well.
Of course, there are a lot of reasons why that went down the tubes. Irving struggled as a leader and then played with a foot out the door over the final months of the season. Gordon Hayward was trying to get back to playing with two good feet on the floor but the resentment about the team allowing him to essentially treat the regular season as rehab caused some lingering in-house issues.
So it’s not entirely fair to say that the 2019 Celtics simply caved under the weight of expectations. It is fair, though, to say the expectations didn’t help at all, and they added a layer of ill-timed scrutiny to a team still trying to figure itself out.
The holdovers from that team, Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown, Marcus Smart, and in a roundabout way, Al Horford are different players now. The younger Celtics have grown significantly. They made a shocking run to the Finals, turning around what was looking like another season lost to mediocrity. They are veterans now, and they carry with them the sting and lessons of a Finals loss.
It’s tempting to say this team’s will has been forged by the fires of a deep playoff run that left them on the cusp of a championship. It’s very easy to say this is a group that will take those hard lessons and use it to focus their powers on rectifying the wrongs of this past spring.
However, despite their recent success, this team still has to prove itself worthy of the buzz and capable of proper focus despite it.
Last year’s Celtics found success when they put themselves aside, bought into Ime Udoka’s system, and, with a fully healthy squad, focused on the important elements of winning basketball. They defended with ferocity and shared the ball, fueling a run no one expected.
This year’s Celtics enter as the betting favorite to win it all. They will be on national TV nearly half the time, and the subjects of glowing features almost immediately. There will be an added element of celebrity and scrutiny that could threaten to be a distraction from the get go.
Brad Stevens has said that he thinks the over-the-top praise of athletes is as big a problem as some of the over-the-top criticism they get. Getting gassed up and buying into the hype is an easy way for a player to stop putting in all of the necessary work all of the time. There can be a natural inclination to ease up if the task feels accomplished. Think of it as a wide receiver celebrating a long touchdown at the 15 yard line and getting tackled at the 2.
The other pitfall of the championship expectations is pressure. The Celtics can certainly be aware of the praise aspect and fight through that element only to be faced with quick criticism if they hit any turbulence during takeoff.
If anyone starts slow and the team suffers, there could be some pressing to make shots, or take shots when the right play is a pass. Good intentions could give way to bad habits, especially for some of those on the team with some added individual goals tied to this season’s success.
Being the underdog is easy. When no one expects anything from a player or a team, success is a welcome surprise. A 45-win season for the Sacramento Kings would be cause for real celebration. A 45-win season in Boston, though, would be quite the opposite. The expectations for Boston are different, and so long as they're enjoying relatively good health, the Celtics bench can be expected to finish a fair amount of fourth quarters.
It’s up to the leaders on the team, Tatum, Brown, Smart, and Horford, along with Ime Udoka, to navigate the pitfalls of expectations. This is still new territory for this particular squad, even though they’ve made deep runs before. On the surface, it seems easy enough to get past some of what’s coming, but the pressure of expectations hits everyone a little differently, and we don’t know exactly how that will go until the season opens.
