Banner Dreams & 2nd Apron Nightmares - Official 18x NBA Champion Boston Celtics 2025-26 thread

[UpAndComing]

I am 1000% ok with offloading or trading Porzingis and Hauser to another team. They have been net negatives


Jayson and Jaylen deserve better role players

 

[Saysumthinfunnymike]

KP, Hauser can definitely both go. They are meaningless at this point. I'm looking at Joe sideways too. It's hard to get rid of a coach the year after he won a title but he has to be better than this. You can't blow 2 home games where you led by 20+ and just continue to do the same shyt over and over when the 3's aren't falling. It was malpractice.

 

[Saysumthinfunnymike]

But brehs... don't worry. I have a plan. I threw a stack on the Knicks after game 1 (at +280) and I just threw another stack on the Knicks right now (they are still only -120 to win the series)

So either we'll make a big comeback or I'll win some money. I got it figured out.

 

[SchoolboyC]

Never been a believer in Mazzulla, but this is mostly on JT. He plays like himself in these games and we're 2-0. Even with the shooting going cold, JT is the reason we are looking at 0-2 right now

We said the same in 2022 and 2023

The margin is so small, he doesn't even need to dominate, literally just shoot 40% from the field and we win both games comfortably.

I have no words for the bullshyt I've witnessed in back to back games. If the Celtics don't bounce back and win this series, I'm in favor of a complete overhaul of this entire team. This has been a disgusting second-round performance.

There was gonna be an overhaul regardless because of the second apron situation but them going out sad in the 2nd round will make decisions that would've been tougher a lot easier to swallow

KP, Hauser can definitely both go. They are meaningless at this point. I'm looking at Joe sideways too. It's hard to get rid of a coach the year after he won a title but he has to be better than this. You can't blow 2 home games where you led by 20+ and just continue to do the same shyt over and over when the 3's aren't falling. It was malpractice.

Thing is, Mazzulla will naturally get a long leash from Stevens. He's his protege, he's really the first in the NBA from his coaching tree.

I think Tatum deserves the most blame but Mazzulla is 2nd.

 

[William Heavy]

Time for another revamp. Porzingis gone. Hauser gone. I'd like to keep Holiday. Him and Brown are the only physical guys on our club, but with his contract and age who knows. Thank you Joe, but i'd let him go too. Make Sam Cassell the coach and hire Rondo as an assistant. Mazzulla ball is amazing when jumpers are falling. But when your team is missing jumpers, you need to be able to manufacture points. You need to be able to get post ups, layups, mid range shots to stop the bleeding and slow down runs. Mazzulla has been 2023 levels with his rotations, and his inability to call timeouts at the right time. Why hasn't Torrey Craig gotten any minutes? not even a 6-10 minute game.

And Tatum, oh Tatum. For the love of God, please work with someone who can teach you how to use your body to create space. Dude is 230 pounds at least, and he's out here doing the weak ass hesi dribble, in and out dribble crap against small guys instead of putting defenders on his hip and bullying them. Playoffs is physical, and Tatum still does not like physical basketball.

 

[Saysumthinfunnymike]

I think Tatum deserves the most blame but Mazzulla is 2nd.

I'm blaming Tatum too but same with Joe, it's year 1 after the championship. So as bad as it looks right now, Tatum will escape criticism from the front office, coaches, whoever..

The media will come at Tatum but the media is so fractured and reactionary that whatever they say won't mean much either.

 

[UpAndComing]

We said the same in 2022 and 2023

The margin is so small, he doesn't even need to dominate, literally just shoot 40% from the field and we win both games comfortably.



There was gonna be an overhaul regardless because of the second apron situation but them going out sad in the 2nd round will make decisions that would've been tougher a lot easier to swallow



Thing is, Mazzulla will naturally get a long leash from Stevens. He's his protege, he's really the first in the NBA from his coaching tree.

I think Tatum deserves the most blame but Mazzulla is 2nd.

To me is #1 is Joe Mazzulla in that even though the bench is kind of weak, the people that he is empowering and the players he's not playing speaks volumes. He constantly plays Hauser and Kornet.... Why? You got some fans who dikkride both of them because they play the "space and pace" style Mazzulla likes

While you have Queta, Torrey Craig, and Scheierman who's nature is to embrace physicality, hustle, rebounding, causing turnovers and defense. It's year 3, and I don't think Joe TRULY understands that you actually have to stop people on the defensive end to win games. He's getting away with it because the players on the floor are elite defenders individually. But you can tell he can care less about the other side of the ball

2nd point on why I blame Joe is that he is clueless that opposing teams are playing the Celtics differently to adjust to their 3 point volume. And he is literally not even adjusting to that at all. Literally living and dying by his one-trick pony philosophy

 

[Kang Deezy]

Celtics lost both those games, Knicks did not win them. They honestly should have won both games pretty comfortably. I’m not talking about trading anybody but Porzingis has to give us something. Until we lose 4 games this is far from over

 

[SchoolboyC]

Celtics lost both those games, Knicks did not win them. They honestly should have won both games pretty comfortably. I’m not talking about trading anybody but Porzingis has to give us something. Until we lose 4 games this is far from over

I admire your faith

 

[Kang Deezy]

I admire your faith

We had the worst shooting performance in a two game stretch in playoff history and still should have won.

 

[SchoolboyC]

We had the worst shooting performance in a two game stretch in playoff history and still should have won.

There’s no such thing as moral victories in the the playoffs. You either get it done or you don’t

No team in NBA playoff history ever blew 20+ point leads in back to back games, they didn’t just have bad games, they lost in historically bad fashion

Thibs has coached circles around Mazzulla, Tatum & Brown are getting outplayed by Bridges and OG, the only defense we have against KAT is getting him in foul trouble, Hart is beating them to every 50/50 ball, Porzingis isn’t even playable

If you want to see the glass half full then cool. There’s nothing positive I can take away from these two games

Maybe they come out in G3 and are hot from 3 and ride that to a victory. Do I have any faith in it happening? No.

 

[Raquinotj]

Was at the game. Frustrating loss, we’ve dominated 85% of this series. We are due for a big game. They’re halfway there but we are not done. Gotta turn the switch up at MSG.

 

[Marlow Stanfield]

There’s no such thing as moral victories in the the playoffs. You either get it done or you don’t

No team in NBA playoff history ever blew 20+ point leads in back to back games, they didn’t just have bad games, they lost in historically bad fashion

Thibs has coached circles around Mazzulla, Tatum & Brown are getting outplayed by Bridges and OG, the only defense we have against KAT is getting him in foul trouble, Hart is beating them to every 50/50 ball, Porzingis isn’t even playable

If you want to see the glass half full then cool. There’s nothing positive I can take away from these two games

Maybe they come out in G3 and are hot from 3 and ride that to a victory. Do I have any faith in it happening? No.

Stings, but it's the truth. I hope they finally show up in game 3, but it's looking bleak right now. They would have to play night and day different to how they've played the last 2 games.

 

[Turk]

There’s no such thing as moral victories in the the playoffs. You either get it done or you don’t

No team in NBA playoff history ever blew 20+ point leads in back to back games, they didn’t just have bad games, they lost in historically bad fashion

Thibs has coached circles around Mazzulla, Tatum & Brown are getting outplayed by Bridges and OG, the only defense we have against KAT is getting him in foul trouble, Hart is beating them to every 50/50 ball, Porzingis isn’t even playable

If you want to see the glass half full then cool. There’s nothing positive I can take away from these two games

Maybe they come out in G3 and are hot from 3 and ride that to a victory. Do I have any faith in it happening? No.

I get what you're saying but I still have faith in this team. The Knicks are not better than us and I don't care how delusional that might sound right now. We've played AWFUL these first two games but it ain't over till it's over

 

[SchoolboyC]

Stings, but it's the truth. I hope they finally show up in game 3, but it's looking bleak right now. They would have to play night and day different to how they've played the last 2 games.

They didn’t even need to be night and day different to win these games

If any of Tatum/Brown/White/Horford shot 40% from the field in these two games we win comfortably. Both games we won the 1st half, started running away with it to begin the 3rd, then completely melted down the rest of the way

I get what you're saying but I still have faith in this team. The Knicks are not better than us and I don't care how delusional that might sound right now. We've played AWFUL these first two games but it ain't over till it's over

I still to this day don’t think the Heat were better than us in 2020 or 2023

But when your stars don’t show up, it doesn’t matter

Went down 0-2 in both of those series as well, and ultimately lost both.