It’s crazy how people seemingly flip the narrative all the time on the Celtics role players. First they were all amazing, superstars in the making Tatum and Brown, borderline all-star Rozier, Marcus intangibles King Smart, Hayward was going to come back healthy and playing well.

Then as the season went on and it became obvious they were wildly overestimated, suddenly it’s now Kyrie that somehow makes them all play like garbage, as if it’s his fault that these guys are not playing at the obviously unsustainable level they reached for like 2 playoff series, or that Tatum decided he has to be the next Kobe, or that Rozier was never good in the first place, etc. The actual one guy in the team who reached 3 straight finals and won one is the problem. The Celtics played like the mediocre team with one star and a couple of potentially good guys that they are, they only disappointed the people who wanted to believe this narrative of a super team.

Additionally, all of the worst 5 man line ups for Boston this year included Gordon Hayward. If Stephens plays him less minutes throughout the season maybe Boston wins more games, avoids the Bucks in the second round and gets back to the ecf. Yet Kyrie is to blame for their “problems” this year and not Hayward. I wonder why…

Also last year’s Cleveland team was the weakest Lebron led team of the last Lebron Cleveland era. Taking them to 7 games wasn’t really that much of a feat considering the Cavs no longer had…Kyrie.

. Yeah, they have the titles and all, but they haven’t beaten anything close to a great team in their entire run.

That Houston team they beat last year is one of the best teams to not win a title in NBA history. It’s probably better than any team Jordan’s Bulls ever beat.

If we had to literally trade away or cut every single player on the current roster except Mitch to get real stars, it’s certainly worth it, because there’s not a single player besides him that deserves starter minutes in the NBA or even rotation minutes for that matter. The Bucks spent like 5 million total on Lopez and Connaughton and traded a 2021 pick plus seconds and garbage contracts for Mirotic and Hill, and here’s your depth.

Build the real core, then we’ll worry about filling the gaps.