The Boston Celtics face off with the Toronto Raptors in a nationally-televised showdown on Wednesday evening. While the game will carry some buzz by nature of two top-tier teams squaring off, the Celtics enter having lost three straight games and in something of a strange place as mid-January arrives.
Following their most recent loss, it was clear that cracks were showing in Boston and, on Tuesday, backup point guard Terry Rozier had some interesting comments as a result. The former Louisville standout told Vincent Goodwill of Yahoo Sports that teammate Kyrie Irving “said a lot after” the team’s loss to Orlando “and it was probably stuff that people didn’t want to hear.” From there, Rozier provided his own theory as to what’s transpiring, it is certainly an interesting one.
“I don’t think we’ve all been on a team like this,” Rozier told Yahoo. “Young guys who can play, guys who did things in their career, the group that was together last year, then you bring Kyrie and Hayward back, it’s a lot with it.”
When asked if the roster was too talented, Rozier didn’t back down.
“Too talented, yeah. Too talented.”
Rozier’s assertion that Boston is “too talented” may seem preposterous on its face but, in some ways, it might be true. The Celtics played at a high level last season, even without Irving and Gordon Hayward, and a lot of the burden was carried by young players in the postseason. As a result, Boston has strong depth but the team’s structure seems to be shaky at the moment with a few key cogs struggling.
To be fair, Rozier is among the players not playing particularly well this season, with a 48.4 percent true shooting clip and muted impact when compared to what he was able to accomplish in the previous year. He certainly isn’t alone, though, and the Celtics are clearly still trying to figure out what works, even with players like Irving and Marcus Morris operating at career-best levels.
It makes sense that there will be some pointing and laughing about a team struggling because they are “too talented” but, in the end, the Celtics have a strong roster and simply aren’t living up to their talent level in the moment. All things considered, there is plenty of time for Boston to right the ship but things aren’t going particularly well.
