The NBA’s Sixth Man of the Year Malcolm Brogdon is in his first season in Boston, so he’s really the only player on the roster who has an outside perspective of this Celtics team and what he thought it would be like this year after they made it to the NBA Finals last season.
Brogdon has admitted multiple times during the season that the Celtics haven’t focused in on defense like they did last year, which was a recipe that landed Boston in the NBA Finals a year ago.
“It’s definitely stunning. This is not something that I think anybody would’ve predicted, but that’s just the scenario right now, we have to climb our way back out… It’s definitely concerning. It’s showing because we’re playing a very disciplined, consistent, well coached team.”
“I think it’s mainly on the defensive end. We haven’t been consistently great defensively all year long and that was the team’s identity last year and I think that slipped away.”
In the full video below, you’ll see how Brogdon says the Celtics haven’t been great on defense all year long and that the Celtics were able to get away with a poor level of defense against the Hawks and 76ers, but not a better coached team like the Heat.
Brogdon isn’t wrong and the effort level has also wavered from series to series as well. The Celtics are in some serious trouble in the ECF and are on the edge of being sent home for the summer early.
He’s averaging 10.7 points, 2.7 rebounds, and 1.7 assists in the Eastern Conference Finals.
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Photo Credit: Charles Krupa, AP Photo
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