‘Future is bright’ for Boston after loss
BOSTON — The Celtics were blunt: Losing in the NBA Finals was going to hurt for a while.
Celtics coach Ime Udoka said “that stuff never goes away” as he remembers his Finals loss when he was an assistant on the Spurs. While it’ll be a shorter offseason because of a deep playoff run, the Celtics will feel the sting of defeat for the next few months.
When the Celtics took the podium postgame after their Game 6 loss to the Warriors, it was too early to reflect on their deep run. Their season had come to a close just minutes before, two wins away from the goal of banner No. 18. Boston led Golden State 2-1 in the series, but dropped its final three games, including two at home.
But there are plenty of reasons to be optimistic about the Celtics’ future. That’s why Udoka said the message was clear going into the offseason.
“The biggest message was: learn from this, grow from it, take this experience and see there is another level to get to,” Udoka said. “A team like Golden State who has been there, done that. It was evident in a lot of ways. Just don’t come back the same as players, coaching staff. Let this fuel you throughout the offseason into next year.”
The offseason should be an interesting one for the Celtics. The team’s core is locked up for the foreseeable future, which should be a luxury for Boston president Brad Stevens. But the Celtics need some added depth as fatigue and the lack of a strong bench ultimately buried them against the Warriors. Udoka only went seven or eight deep in the playoffs as his options were limited
beyond the normal rotation players.
There’s still some improvement that needs to be made from the starters, though. The Celtics were careless with the ball all series, piling up turnovers. Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown are the team’s best players, but they put up five turnovers each in Game 6. Tatum, especially, should learn from his Finals experience as he struggled throughout the series.
“We know what it feels like to get to this point,” Tatum said. “Getting here and not accomplishing it — it’s tough. You don’t want to feel like this again, but you want to get back here. It’s going to fuel us.”
Of course, there’s no guarantee the Celtics make it back to the Finals. A similarly young team in the Thunder made it all the way to the Finals in 2012, but that core never made it back to the final stage of the playoffs. There are other uncontrollable factors that go into, whether it’s luck or injuries.
But all the Celtics can do is control what they can, which is where the offseason of improvement comes in. Brown can get in a healthy offseason after he missed out on that last year because of wrist surgery. Tatum will continue to improve his game as he’s only 24. Robert Williams III will get healthy, and the Celtics hope he’ll stay that way. Marcus Smart learned what it was like to be a full-time point guard. Derrick White will have an offseason to get comfortable after being a trade deadline acquisition. Grant Williams emerged as a versatile defender and solid shooter.
“As much as we made growth, turned our season around, still got a lot to learn about the game of basketball,” Brown said. “I learned so much during this playoff run. Coming from not playing last year after wrist surgery, coming into this year’s playoffs just being grateful for the opportunity. Stings to come up short, but there’s a lot to learn and the
future is bright.”
How the Celtics navigate Al Horford going forward will also be intriguing. The 36-year-old big man had a resurgent season, helping the Celtics as he made his first career Finals appearance. Horford’s a huge part of why the Celtics were effectively defensively. But he’s not getting any younger and the deep playoff run is a huge difference compared to shutting it down early with the Thunder last season.
Horford has one year left on his contract, which is a team option. That season was partially guaranteed at $14.5 million coming into the season, but the number jumped up to $19.5 million because the Celtics made the Finals. If the Celtics did win it all, Horford would’ve gotten his entire 2022-23 salary guaranteed at $26.5 million. But the Celtics will likely bring back the veteran for another run next season as he earned his payday.