- Joined
- Dec 5, 2008
- Messages
- 35,973
- Reaction score
- 101,647
- Points
- 148
I'll say though -- if the Celtics had Kyrie Irving they win this going away. It's still the case that we badly need to upgrade this squad if we want to repeat this next year.
I actually dont necessarily agree with this.
I actually think that since Hayward was already out, Boston's only hope was as a super grit-n-grind squad that won with defensive pressure and physicality. Kyrie obviously gives them a huge amount of crunch time ability and he gives them really good individual offense....but Kyrie also takes more control of the ball and offense and besides a couple weeks early in the season he still managed to be a complete sieve on defense. Like in the 20 point beatdown post trade...Kyrie couldn't even stop Clarkson. We killed him. And we hunted him out the entire game.
I actually think Kyrie's presence would have unlocked our offense to the point where Boston simply couldn't keep up. Also, important to remember that game 7 was pretty much the only game that wasn't a pretty solidly "comfortable win" for either team.
Like even last year...Boston was a much tougher out for us when they relied on their grit-n-grind squad that relied on Marcus Smart hero ball.....team wasnt gonna beat us in a series but they were better off against us with that team sans IT and trying to ugly the game up versus having IT out there and completely unlocking our offense.
TL;DR- I don't think Kyrie guarantees a different outcome at all in this series and it's just as likely we would have beat them in 5-6 instead of barely hanging on in 7. Or maybe we do lose...not saying it's impossible just saying I don't think it's that simple.
Agree with you we need to upgrade the squad. I think we need to get the singular, best 1 piece that we can get with the pick PLUS Kevin Love. It would be awesome if we can use that package and get a really super nice "Pippen" for LeBron. Kawhi is the dream, and I'd include Cedi and unprotected 2023and beyond picks if I had to to get him.