The Celtics are 9-1, and people seem surprised?

Who would’ve thought after the first ten games the season, that the Celtics would be 9-1 on the year? Not me, but I am honestly not surprised they are playing well. When The Celtics made a lot of moves in the offseason, I was iffy, but I knew after watching that first Celtics preseason game, this team could be something special. It was just fun to watch again, no drama, players all contributing well, scoring lots of points, and the whole team getting along. I know it is early in the season, but this team can be threat in the NBA and people should not sleep on them.

Ok, so I’m going to do a hot take on this, because this topic on the Celtics doing so well is shocking a lot of people.

And a tiny debate is between these two players as well in this hot take.

So people are debating on why the Celtics are doing so well in the early season. I saw Max Kellerman and Stephen A Smith debate on First Take on what the differences on from this season compared to last season. Max Kellerman, who normally can say some dumb stuff, actually made great points (facts in my opinion) on why the Celtics are doing well. He explained how the ball is moving now, no drama on and off the court, Kemba being a team player and a better leader than Kyrie was in Boston . Stephen A Smith said that Max was wrong and said this.

He said that the problem was Gordon Hayward, not Kyrie Irving……

Stephen A Smith went on to say that it was Gordon Hayward’s fault that the Celtics didn’t play well last year. He said that he should’ve never started at the beginning of the year (which I kind of agree with him on that), that because of Hayward it messed up the team chemistry, he was the reason why Tatum and Brown didn’t play well last year, that Kyrie didn’t have any help last year, and he messed up the vibe last year.

I think that Stephen A Smith is just a bit off with this last year.

Yes, Gordon Hayward was not the guy from Utah last season, he probably shouldn’t have started at the beginning of the year because of him returning from injury, but last season was NOT his fault. Stephen A Smith needs to realize that Kyrie was about 90% the main reason of the problem. Why?

BECAUSE KYRIE WAS NOT A LEADER

This is how it all started……

REWIND TO THE 2017-18 SEASON

When Kyrie demanded to be traded from Cleveland, because he wanted to THE guy. He was tired of Lebron and wanted to be able to lead his own team without the help of him. Boston was a perfect place to lead a team, we traded away a fan favorite(and injured) Isaiah Thomas, because Danny Ainge believed the Kyrie would make this team a lot better. Things were shaky at the start, Gordon Hayward got hurt, the lost their first two games, but they then went on a 16 game winning streak. (Kinda similar to this current the Celtics streak right now).

He was doing great, leading a team pretty well, wasn’t very dramatic, and the Celtics were at the top of the Eastern Conference. But then Kyrie got injured.

Kyrie had to have season ending knee surgery and was out the rest of the season. People thought the Celtics were for sure done when he was out the rest of the year. But here is the thing, they got better.

The Celtics made the playoffs as the second seed and went all the way to the Eastern Conference Finals in seven games with Lebron James. Guys like Jaylen Brown, Jayson Tatum, Marcus Morris, Al Horford, and Terry Rozier showed unreal potential. And they all did this WITHOUT KYRIE! It was insane! People then started saying how the Celtics didn’t need Kyrie, because they made it this far without him. At the time I thought I thought they were nuts to say that. At the time I thought it was non sense, but those people were right.

FAST FOWARD TO THE 2018-19 SEASON

Things were bright for the Celtics as they had a great vibe heading into last season thinking of winning an NBA Title. Kyrie I personally think was very jealous of the Celtics making it far without him, but he believed that he could still lead this team to the NBA Finals. He said he would re-sign with the Celtics in an open practice, and he never should’ve said that. That would come back around and bite this team in the butt. Kyrie came back and expected everything to be his team again, but it really wasn’t.

The Celtics weren’t winning many games at the start, and it started to make Kyrie very frustrated.

This was after a game vs the Magic were Kyrie got mad at Gordon Hayward passed the ball to Jayson Tatum for the last shot. Kyrie was starting to become a. little drama queen, like he needed to be taking the shots, because this was HIS team. That was where the start of the down fall last year. Kyrie was calling out his teammates in the press and locker room, called Lebron James to apologize for the way he behaved, and was starting to spread some possible rumors that he was wanting to leave Boston in the off season to the media.

You could see him convincing Kevin Durant to sign with a New York team in the offseason during the All-Star break and you could just see the writing on the wall. Kyrie did not care anymore and you could see it when he went out on the floor.

Kyrie ball-hogged big time, never ran the offense, and never looked to give the ball to any of his teammates. In the playoffs, he shot terrible from the field, especially the Milwaukee Bucks series. Here is how he shot in the playoff series vs the Bucks

Game 1- 26 points, 12-21 shooting, 57% from the field, Won

Game 2- 9 points, 4-18 shooting, 22% from the field, Lost

Game 3- 29 points, 8-22 shooting, 36% from the field, Lost

Game 4- 23 points, 7-22 shooting, 31% from the field, Lost

Game 5- 15 points, 6-21 shooting, 28% from the field, Lost

Total- 102 points, 37-104 shooting, 35% from the field, 1-4 lost series.

The funny thing is he believed that he should’ve shot the ball more……..LOL. Kyrie did not care at all during the Celtics run in the playoffs, and you could definitely see it. If Kyrie maybe ran the offense, took less shots, and let some of his teammates score the ball. Maybe the Celtics could’ve won the series, but oh well.

So this was about 90% of the reason why the Celtics had a terrible season. And the other 10% was Terry Rozier, because he did not like being “thrown in the back seat” when Hayward and Kyrie came back in the lineup, which was a sign of selfishness by him. Then after the season, he went on TV and spilled all the gossip about the Celtics. Luckily the Celtics were done with him after that.

So if Stephen A Smith wants to say that Hayward was the problem, he is wrong.

Kyrie Irving was a terrible leader for the Celtics., because of his jealousy. It all makes sense to me now on why Tatum, Brown, and Hayward had down years. BECAUSE KYRIE NEVER RAN THE OFFENSE! Tatum, Brown, and Hayward are all averaging near to about 20 points a game so far this year. And that is because their point guard Kemba Walker runs the offense.

Kemba runs the offense, he encourages guys to shoot the ball, makes good plays, and brings a positive attitude. That first game when they played the Sixers, you can seesaw much of an impact Kemba was to the team. He was encouraging Jayson Tatum to shoot the ball, and cheering the guys on. You never saw that from Kyrie. If another player shot the ball, Kyrie would be get mad at the person.

Kemba is NOT a better than Kyrie, but he is a MUCH better fit in Boston that Kyrie was. Kemba’s leadership is one of the many reasons why this team is successful and he isn’t a selfish player at all.

As we see right now, the Nets aren’t off to the hottest start as Kyrie seems to still take a lot of shots and try to lead a team.

But I do think when Kevin Durant. comes back next year, and if Kyrie decides to put his selfishness away, they could be a serious team in the East.

But for right now the Celtics are at the top of the Eastern Conference with a 9-1 record, and I am hoping that we will see more of this going forward.

BTW, did we see this at all last year on the Celtics. bench last season?

Go Celtics!