Once the final buzzer sounded following the ending of Game 5 against the Brooklyn Nets, the 2020-21 season from hell (Boston fans’ words – not mine) finally came to a close with a 123-109 loss, and the Celtics were bounced in the first round of the playoffs for the first time since the 2015 season. From that point, the off-season began, and pontification and opinions over what needed to happen to the Celtics’ roster in this off-season to put them on the same hierarchy as rivals Brooklyn, Milwaukee, and Philadelphia.
And then not even a full 24 hours later, perhaps the most groundbreaking news shook the Celtics fandom to its rattled core: Danny Ainge, the President of Basketball Operations Boston Celtics formally announced his retirement on Wednesday morning, and in his place would be Celtics Head Coach Brad Stevens, who would leave his role as the coach and oversee all operations as the team’s new authoritative figure.
This comes as a shock to Celtics fans and NBA infrastructure and officially is recognized as the first major managerial shake-up of the off-season. Boston’s suboptimal season, deterred by injuries, COVID-19, and just pure, bad luck, concluded Tuesday night at the hands of the 2nd-seed Brooklyn Nets, led by self-departed Celtics guard Kyrie Irving, but regardless of their success in their first-ever Play-In tournament and qualification in the postseason for the sixth time in seven years, it’s rather logical to say that their 36-36 record to finish off their 2020-21 campaign signaled a murky future for a team that’s suddenly in a rebuild, even if they were just in the Conference Finals last year.
Cap situation aside, Boston will be tasked with finding someone else to call the shots and engineer a new offense with Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown, and (should Boston decide to sign him to a new deal this off-season) Kemba Walker.
Which, sounds like an opportunity many would chomp at the bit to jump at, but the main difficulty is in clearing the hazy culture and outward portrayal of the Celtics’ organization right now, which has been heavily impacted due to Kyrie Irving’s actions of stomping on the Celtics’ logo after Game 4 and the public lamenting of the organization’s possibly perceived “xenophobic” atmosphere from its fans and interior.
Ainge, 74, was one of the league’s longest-serving basketball operations executives, completing his 18th season as president. He helped bring in the Celtics’ 17th title in 2008, and was responsible for bringing in Doc Rivers and devising a championship roster composed of Rajon Rondo, Paul Pierce, Ray Allen and Kevin Garnett,and got the Celtics to appear in two NBA Finals in the last two decades.
And while the Celtics fielded great, 50-to-60-win teams teams in the East, they were in the way of LeBron James’ teams in their path to get back to the NBA Finals with such solid rosters that got them to three Conference Finals in the past four years. But now, the Celtics will have to arrange a coaching search as well as craft a form of an executive stronghold that resembled the same success that Ainge produced, which starts with building a foundation of a solid core of veterans and two-way scorers (Celtics ranked 17th in perimeter defensive efficiency during the 2020-21 season and were in the bottom quadrant in bench points) to accompany their three stars and help them get on the same level as their Eastern competitors.
Photo Cred: Christopher Evans/Boston Herald
