Ime Udoka has proven in his debut season as the head coach for the Boston Celtics that he is the right man to lead this team. While they may have made it to the NBA Finals, the team clearly wasn’t ready to face the championship-laden Golden State Warriors. This is a young team that is going to get better with time.
The Celtics weren’t favorites to come out of the East and eliminated some of the biggest teams in the conference in Brooklyn, the 2021 champions in Milwaukee, and the 2020 Finalists in the Miami Heat. However, the Warriors have already built their championship-winning culture as compared to the Celtics who are just embracing that with their core.
Coach Udoka realizes this was the first year of a longer plan to help the Celtics emerge as genuine contenders for the NBA Championship.
"The future is bright and we're just getting started," Ime Udoka says.
— Boston Celtics (@celtics) June 17, 2022
The Boston Celtics have minor questions to address over their roster that would instantly put them in a better position for next season. Their primary goal must be to add a genuine ball-handler that can create offense for others, as the team struggled against the Warriors to score without a genuine playmaker.
Jaylen Brown is fantastic off-ball and was pushed into uncomfortable spots with the ball in his hand. The lack of a true PG is also what allowed the Warriors to force the Celtics wings into turning the ball over. Marcus Smart is serviceable in that role, but the Celtics desperately need to do something about that.
Brown, Jayson Tatum, Grant Williams, Payton Pritchard, and others are still very young and are still developing their skill-sets. With the Udoka system now flowing through the veins of the team, the future has to be extremely exciting considering what they already achieved. But they have to improve their roster, as the teams they beat this season will be working on doing precisely that.
