The Boston Celtics have been one of the teams that have underwhelmed this season. They are the 7th seed in the Eastern Conference and look headed to the play-in. After making the Eastern Conference Finals last season, they haven’t reached the championship contender status that was expected of them ahead of the season.
There are a lot of factors to blame for how the Celtics’ season has gone. Part of is just throwing away winnable games. However, it is clear that the roster construction is part of the issue. Charles Barkley has recently called out Danny Ainge and has suggested that he played a hand in the Celtics’ struggles. Mark Nilon of Hardwood Houdini has relayed Barkley’s criticism of Ainge, which pointed at the signings of Kemba Walker and Kyrie Irving.
Danny Ainge is a good friend of mine, but he’s not done a good job with all those draft picks he had. He hasn’t done a good job because he made a mistake with Kyrie Irving, I think he made a mistake with Kemba Walker, and, um, that team is not very good at all.
Think about it — Boston had a hundred number one draft picks and they haven’t done anything with them. Now they’re irrelevant because there’s nobody in their right mind thinking, like, Boston is even close to being a contender so, like I say, you have to blame the guys. Brad Stevens got to get some blame for it too because when they were winning we were patting him on the back, now we got to kick him in the ass. That’s not personal, that’s just how this business works now.
It is true that Kyrie Irving and Kemba Walker haven’t really moved the needle for the Boston Celtics. It is also true that the Boston Celtics have had a lot of tradeable draft picks in the past, some of which could have surely been packaged to give the Boston Celtics another piece for their roster.
While Evan Fournier was a good addition to the team at the deadline, he doesn’t make the Celtics contenders. Not all the blame can be put on Danny Ainge: Barkley mentions that coach Brad Stevens deserves some of the blame as well. Despite Barkley’s criticism, Danny Ainge remains one of the best GMs in the game. Perhaps he can conjure up some moves that could help fix the Boston Celtics’ woes during the offseason.
