Last night the Bucks got (Greek) freaky with Boston’s whore-ific defense, and boy did it look consensual. The Celtics rolled over on their stomachs and let Milwaukee in en route to a 116-91 defeat that ended the series 4-1 in favor of Budenholzer’s crew. None of Boston’s players scored above 15 points as they shot just 31% from the field and an atrocious 17% from beyond the arc. Giannis led what was a balanced scoring attack from the league’s highest scoring team with 20-8-8 and a pair of blocks and steals on the night. Now that the C’s season has ceased (too much, I’m aware), what’s going to happen with Kyrie? Who knows. And who cares! I’m over the free agent frenzy to be quite honest. Yes it was exciting for a while, but all these trades and trade requests and FA fuck fests have done has made me long for the midieval times of the Spurs and Pistons playing suffocating defense and ego-less basketball (oh, Chauncey). I think players have more control over their future now (thank LeBron) - which is great - but we just witnessed the downside of it with Kyrie and the Celtics. I honestly think Boston would be welcome to him leaving for whatever big market-low talent team he’s looking at (NYC baby!), and that’s because it frees up room for them to play within Brad Stevens’ selfless system. We saw how Tatum thrived with the ball in his hands last year. We saw how Rozier fed on the increased playing time and opportunity. Jaylen Brown looks like he’s down for the cause and has no problems throwing 5 on it (I don’t think he smokes, but he plays help defense!). The rest of the guys (Hayward and Horford the other two stars) seem to be team players who buy into their coach’s system, which has proven to work in times where the odds were stacked against them.
Look, I love Kyrie, I’ve always felt he was vastly underrated - and he’s still very young at 26 - but Boston was never the right fit. It never felt right, right? It seems like in Cleveland he got tired of seeing LeBron go to work and be the unquestioned alpha all while thinking he was the guy to carry a franchise. This is supported by his disappointment with Brad Stevens’ play call at the end of the Magic game, where Tatum was left with the last shot and Irving vocally expressed his concerns with how it was drawn up. He wants to be the last shot, just-give-me-the-ball-and-iso guy. And he is. He’s that type of player. But Brad Stevens - at least not 100% of the time - is not that type of coach. It’s what happened with Kawhi in San Antonio. There are some dudes so naturally gifted and mentally hungry that they don’t work in a democratic system. I think the Celtics will be fine. You just won’t see Tatum and Kyrie on the same team for much longer, if ever at all until an All-Star game. The organization has assets out the waz, they’ll just need to ice their glutes for a few days after this loss and before a hectic summer. As for Milwaukee, they have a lot more Buck fucking to do.
Follow me on social @danmancarney and SnapChat @dancarneydan