This is what happens when you don’t take care of business.
For two straight postseasons, the Celtics, as Jayson Tatum admitted, played soft and loose with their opponents. They took leads and wins for granted, setting themselves up for games they shouldn’t have played and losses they shouldn’t have suffered.
They blew opportunities in nearly every series they played over the past two seasons, with only an opening round sweep of Brooklyn in 2022 as a badge of honor on their resume. After that, each opponent was given slivers of opportunity, and the Celtics made their runs harder than necessary.
It cost them in the Finals against Golden State. Their inability to close out Game 4, partly due to their energy being drained from the added unnecessary games, cost them a title.
It cost them in the Eastern Conference Finals against Miami, going down 3-0 after both series against Atlanta and Philadelphia went longer than expected. Boston, again, only responded when they had to, but they couldn't finish the job.
After the game, they talked about opportunities.
“We all got to go back and look at the film, see what we need to improve and go out there and do it,” Marcus Smart said. “We've been doing this for a long time, a lot of us have, and that's the beauty of it, we get another chance.”
Not everyone.
NBA teams never return the following season untouched. And while few people expected a massive overhaul, the risk of two ‘close but not close enough’ runs was too high to assume everyone was coming back.
Each season is a journey, and just like piling into the car for a long road trip, there is always an unseen risk from the other people on the road. While the players make assumptions about running it back, other teams make decisions that can change a front office’s options.
Washington fired their front office and brought in a new group to take the team in a new direction. Suddenly, the Wizards were in sell-off mode, and they weren’t exactly asking for massive packages.
A deal for Kristaps Porzingis was suddenly feasible.
Every assumption was that Malcolm Brogdon would be the guy going away, which was acceptable to the core.
‘Welcome to Boston, thanks for your efforts, we’ll make sure we say hi during warmups when we see you on your next team.’
But no one could see a scenario where the Clippers backed out because they didn’t have time to give Brogdon a physical.
And certainly, no one could envision Ja Morant waving guns on two separate Instagram Live posts, leading to a massive suspension and the Memphis Grizzlies feeling the need to give up two first round picks in pursuit of a point guard with a good head on his shoulders and an attitude to help bring a fractured locker room together.
Three teams, three separate paths, all of which converged at the right place and the right time to push Smart out the door in a deal instead of Brogdon. Suddenly, that next chance isn’t coming in Boston.
Smart is reportedly floored by the news. No one else on the team has posted anything about it on social media. The core of the Celtics has forever changed, and it’s their own fault.
“Smart is, like, my favorite person to play with,” Tatum said in an ESPN segment with Doris Burke. “Super high IQ basketball player, great passer. A lot of things we don’t even have to say … I know he’s capable of making that pass.”
A move like this could anger Tatum and Brown, but they might as well have been the ones who made the calls. By playing the way they did over the past two playoff runs, they set these wheels into motion. By not finishing jobs in front of them, all of the players who contributed to the losses are culpable for how this roster is being reshaped.
That goes for Smart as well. No one is innocent here.
Tatum and Brown remain, and this summer is teaching them a harsh lesson. There is always a price to pay for blowing opportunities. You don’t get to make two straight runs like Boston did and fall short without consequence.
The toughest player on a soft team has now been traded, leaving the rest of the roster to look inward before they hit the floor again. Smart’s summer was supposed to involve getting healthy and getting married, and now it also includes looking for a home in Memphis because this team didn't finish a job that was right there for the taking.
They blew it. They put themselves in this position. Brad Stevens simply pulled the trigger on the best deal he could find because these guys proved they couldn't do the job themselves.
This is what happens when you don’t take care of business.