Is Kyrie the Problem for the Celtics?
With all the problems the Celtics have had this season as compared to last season, even with a much more talented and experienced roster, its hard not to look for problems within a team that at the beginning of the season, was projected to be one of the teams to beat in the east, if not THE team to beat. Now sitting at 40-26 and 5th in the east, the team has clearly not lived up to the standards of being one of the top teams beside the Raptors, 76ers, and Bucks.
Given the teams success last year, going 55-27, without stars Gordon Hayward and Kyrie Irving, the team looked incredibly primed to be a team with over 60 wins this season with those two back in the lineup. One could initially look at Gordon Hayward to be the problem, who after signing a 4 year $128 million contract, who after only playing 5 minutes in his debut game due to a leg injury, has come back not looking like the same Gordon Hayward from the Utah Jazz, where he averaged nearly 20 points a game, where now with the Celtics he now averages just about 11 points per game. The lack of production with Gordon Hayward is in fact a problem, especially when you're paying him so much to be a top player, but the lack of production is also caused by the way the offense must be run through Kyrie Irving.
This isn't to say that Kyrie is a bad player, but the way Boston's offense has been run this season, it has to be run through him as the key player. It makes sense that you would want to run the offense through Kyrie, he is your star player and one of the top scores in the league. However, when Kyrie is on the court and you run it straight through him, the production of all your other players drops a major degree. Jaylen Brown has seen his production drop from 14.5 PPG to 12.3 PPG. A factor could be due to his lack of starts and drop in minutes from last season, as you now need more minutes for both Kyrie and Hayward, but even then he struggles to get the same production he did without those two. The team as a whole actually averages more points without Kyrie playing in games by about 2 points. The team just looks disconnected when Kyrie plays and without him the team just seems much more productive. If you're the Celtics, you have to seriously take into consideration not signing Kyrie back and letting the team play again without him, despite how much of a superstar Kyrie really is.
Given the teams success last year, going 55-27, without stars Gordon Hayward and Kyrie Irving, the team looked incredibly primed to be a team with over 60 wins this season with those two back in the lineup. One could initially look at Gordon Hayward to be the problem, who after signing a 4 year $128 million contract, who after only playing 5 minutes in his debut game due to a leg injury, has come back not looking like the same Gordon Hayward from the Utah Jazz, where he averaged nearly 20 points a game, where now with the Celtics he now averages just about 11 points per game. The lack of production with Gordon Hayward is in fact a problem, especially when you're paying him so much to be a top player, but the lack of production is also caused by the way the offense must be run through Kyrie Irving.
This isn't to say that Kyrie is a bad player, but the way Boston's offense has been run this season, it has to be run through him as the key player. It makes sense that you would want to run the offense through Kyrie, he is your star player and one of the top scores in the league. However, when Kyrie is on the court and you run it straight through him, the production of all your other players drops a major degree. Jaylen Brown has seen his production drop from 14.5 PPG to 12.3 PPG. A factor could be due to his lack of starts and drop in minutes from last season, as you now need more minutes for both Kyrie and Hayward, but even then he struggles to get the same production he did without those two. The team as a whole actually averages more points without Kyrie playing in games by about 2 points. The team just looks disconnected when Kyrie plays and without him the team just seems much more productive. If you're the Celtics, you have to seriously take into consideration not signing Kyrie back and letting the team play again without him, despite how much of a superstar Kyrie really is.
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