Dwyane Wade breaks down the reasons why the Boston Celtics have been struggling this season; says they have no identity as a team.
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Despite the Boston Celtics making it to 3 of the last 4 Eastern Conference Finals, they seem to be in no man’s land. It has become clear now that the Celtics have most probably been overachieving for the past 4 seasons, minus the one where Kyrie Irving and the Celts got gentlemen swept in the second round by Giannis and the Bucks.
Since the start of the season, these 2020-21 Boston Celtics have been criticized for having poor body language when on the court, and showing little to no effort on defense or when out in transition. The blame for their lackluster play has been all over the place with most of it, falling on Brad Stevens.
Dwyane Wade seems to be fed up with how the Celtics’ season has panned out so far as he pointed out several flaws in how they have approached the game this year.
Dwyane Wade says the Celtics need to find an identity for themselves
An intriguing season from the Celtics, to say the least, as they are currently one game over .500 following a win over the New York Knicks, giving them a 26-25 record. The Celts seem deadset on wanting to claim the last homecourt advantage spot for themselves, but D-Wade lists the reasons as to why this may not happen.
“What is the Celtics’ identity? It’s not defense. They’re not great in transition. They’re not exceptionally great in the half-court when it comes to execution of the game, even though they have an amazing coach and players. You gotta have an identity as a team. This team doesn’t have one.”
A multitude of teams throughout the history of the league have had a certain identity that they stuck to till the end. Some of these identities led to championships, while others led to postseason flam-outs.
The 60s Celtics were built around solid defensive rebounding which leads to a fast break, while the Michael Jordan Bulls were subjected to the triangle offense. These were of course very successful as these teams won several championships. On the other hand, you also have teams like the Houston Rockets who used to hand the ball off to James Harden to iso on the perimeter.
What is Boston’s identity?
If you were to pick and choose, the Celtics rely on Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown to generate buckets for the team. Whether it’s through drive-and-dish opportunities, or more frequently, isolation possessions on the wing.
An underrate pickup for the Celts has been Evan Fournier, who is essentially a Norman Powell type scorer, but has a knack for playmaking. Though he got off to a rough start, going 0-10 from the field in his first game, he has shown that he can generate good looks for teammates by having the defense collapse onto him on drives to the basket.
