Gordon Hayward recently made headlines when he talked about the 2018-19 version of the Celtics. While the C’s were extremely talented that season, things never meshed as they bowed out in the second round. There were some title hopes that year, but the C’s never meshed to the sum of their parts.
Hayward said the Celtics back then didn’t fit because there were different guys at different points in their careers. Hayward and Kyrie Irving were trying to establish themselves as the team’s stars coming off injury. But the C’s went to the East Finals partly because of guys like Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown, among other young players who were looking to make their mark on the league.
Ultimately, the Celtics were a disappointment that season all things considered, and the vibes weren’t always right. Tatum said he agreed with Hayward that season just didn’t fit together by the end of it all.
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“That (expletive) was terrible,” Tatum said, per the Boston Globe’s Adam Himmelsbach. “You guys saw it. We’ve all talked about it. It didn’t work out how we wanted it to, and we were a very talented team but it just didn’t mesh the way we wanted it to. And that’s all right. Guys learned and everybody’s moved on from it.
“But what Gordon said was kind of right. Guys would come back from injury, guys were trying to prove themselves, like myself. I was trying to be better than I was last year, and it was just kind of a tough year.”
The Celtics eventually saw some changes from that team as different players got the roles they wanted. The C’s in present day are the opposite of that 2018-19 squad in a sense. They’ve been all about sacrifice and have backed it up with their play instead of just talking about it. So while Tatum didn’t enjoy playing on that squad, it appeared to be at least a learning lesson.
“Everybody wanted to do more,” Tatum said. “And we didn’t quite understand how we all could coexist with each other. And you just learn from that. No matter how talented a team is, it still has to work together and figure it out. And like Gordon said, we still made it to the second round. Like, it could have been worse.”
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