As criticism of Matt Moore's recent article about the Celtics defensive struggles with IT 3ITKH suggested, "Why not try and figure out why we could build an elite defense around IT last year, but not this year?" To me this is a topic worthy of it's own discussion.
Horford replacing Sullinger would be the biggest change as far as personnel, followed closely by the loss of ET. Someone would have to help me with the X's and O's aspect, are they trying to defend differently than they did last year?
Is it as simple as the league has had more time to prepare for the Celtics?
To my untrained eye it seems like a continuity issue (may also be the optimist in me.) Horford needs time in the system so that things become second nature. Probably the same for Brown and Rozier. Injuries have also been a detriment to continuity (I'd be curious where we stand in regards to games missed by starting five.) Seems like there's been a recent uptick, do they just need to continue to gel?
Is it the three guard lineups? Did they not use those as much last year? How are they different this year?
Is it a shift in the team's mindset from a tough defensive team to an elite offensive team?
I'm not asking why we think they are struggling this year. I'm asking why there is such a stark contrast to last year.
Submitted February 01, 2017 at 06:58AM by tmcuthbert