I am a huge Knicks hater, but I love Mike Brown’s offensive system,

They still shoot a lot of threes – not compared to us– but there is also a lot of off-ball movements and cutting. Even Brunson is willing to play off-ball, make it harder for the defense to always key on him.

When teams focus on Tatum and Brown (two top-10 players), that should give us a lot of cutting to the basket opportunities. And yet, I just don’t see it.

The finals show 1 thing, Bigs are important and no Celtics center is close to these guys,
So stop the JB hate

In most of the games we lost in Sixers series we also shot like fucking shit from 2-point range. Remember how many times JB went to the paint and turned it over or how many easy layups Queta and Derrick missed. On top of that the terrible defense and leaving shooters open. I’m sorry but it wasn’t just the Celtics 3-point attempts that was the problem like it was in 2025. The entire fucking approach to offense and defense needs a shakeup. Btw I’m not saying the 3pointers aren’t a problem (it is) but it’s not the only issue when I watched them suck ass when they went to the paint and rim as well

I think the biggest difference with these teams minus the center position is they play very fast.

They get the ball and push it up the floor right away.

Celtics don’t do this enough

While I certainly hear the criticisms, I do think there is a personnel issue as well. Thinking about matchups, not sure how our team could drive and kick the same way Knicks have in their playoff run.

Starters: This is where I am bummed about not being able to face the Knicks; it would have been great to see how they would have matched, which makes me mad/sad the 76ers basically no showed. I do think the Knicks have superior defense when comparing the teams.

Brunson/Hart v White/Brown — close
Bridges/OG v Hauser/Tatum — close
KAT v Queta — loved Queta this season, but he is definite ways from KAT’s level

Bench: I think the Knicks have a superior bench, and would win minutes here between defense, shooting, and rebounding
Robinson/Shamet/Alvarado/McBride vs Pritchard/Scheierman/Vucevic/ some combination of Walsh, Gonzalez, Harper Jr, and Garza

All this to say that not having a dynamic enough center (yet) and a weaker/less experienced bench, makes our offensive sets look worse/poor. There is another level to Brown’s game that we are hoping for where he doesn’t force plays once pressure is turned up. I also think Brown drives less once there is a good defensive center, which flattens our offense further (example of Embiid blocking Brown in game 7, then Brown stopped driving). Tatum’s health was a big factor this go around. However, I think similar issues plagued the Celtics in the 2025 matchup (KAT/Robinson outplayed Al/Kornet and weaker bench; we dominated in the 2025 regular season when KP was healthy).

I love Tatum but he slows the offense down noticably. Then he slowly tries to go iso and it drives me nuts.

It’s frustrating watching how much off ball movement there is between both of these teams and how the Celtics showed flashes of that during the regular season but completely abandoned it in the playoffs.

I’m never going to be mad at good looks that don’t fall. It was the settling for bad 3s that made the 3 point shooting such a headache. The iso ball where everyone just stands around the perimeter waiting for the kickout. The only off ball movement we had was the big setting a screen for matchup hunting.

As a Celtics fan I think the Celtics have become one of my least favorite teams to watch. Do they even have an offensive strategy beyond just jack up the 3 ball?

I think having a successfull championship level 3 point heavy offense relies on a lot of strong off ball movent and passing. 

the thing that makes our reliance on 3s easier to counter than the teams we see in the finals is that we don’t have an inside scoring threat as good as those teams

Spurs have Wemby Knicks got Kat OKC got their freethrows baits and probably 2 top 10 centers on their rosters 76ers when they won against us had Embiid

it has become common sense that threes alone without elite inside scoring can basically spell your doom if you have multiple off nights which is so common

the only team in the last 20 years who could pull off the 3s playstyle dominantly were the Warriors and they were the ones who popularized it to begin with because they have Curry

currently to my limited knowledge, cuz i don’t follow news that much, Giaanis is the only available elite inside scorer who is available for trade, and i am 100% sure Brad Stevens will try to get a favrouable trade for him, but if that trade doesn’t happen then you should know that he just couldn’t pull it off not because he didn’t want to

i think Mazulla at least will try to instruct JB and JT to drive more, but with JT coming off an achillias and Brown not being as dominant as a driver as Giannis i do not think they can be as elite from the inside in a play offs series

Our offense is a gimmick regular season, soft, predictable, offense. We rarely try to run off misses to get layups, we don’t post up, and guys just stand around the 3 point line watching one guy dribble the air out the ball. In the playoffs teams don’t leave our outside shooters, play physical one on one defense and force our guys to take tough shots. Our guys have been terrible through the years understanding that the playoffs is a way more physical game. So you’d have Tatum and White, and in the last playoffs Brown, constantly whining to the refs for foul calls and not running back on defense.

Have better players and make more of the shots

This new line that goes “yeah we won in 2024, but our roster was stacked!” drives me crazy.

Stack the roster. That’s one of the requirements

Both teams are playing 5 guys who can all shoot 3s as well as multiple shooters of the bench (at least on the Knicks) who are excellent shooters.

Knicks have more 3 point shooting than the Celtics especially at Center. It’s very hard to win in the playoffs with a big who can’t shoot

The Celtics lose because their office is static, predictable, and dumb. When they occasionally play differently, they are unbeatable. But they often lapse back to this “system” and no one on the current coaching stuff seems to know what to do about it (or even to take a time out when it happens).

The problem isn’t that they shoot too many 3’s. The problem is they that it’s THE ONLY THING THEY DO when they are in high pressure situations. The amount of times I watched Jaylen Brown fuck over the team because he decided to snag the ball, drive to the line and blast a shot off without even trying anything else while he was ice cold and only taking 6 seconds off the clock when they just needed to maintain a lead or got back into a game and just needed to develop and build opening is insane.

I can never get behind that type of play. It’s just dumbed down basketball.

“Teams don’t try on defense during the regular season” is such a tired narrative.

Yes, intensity ramps up in the playoffs. But that doesn’t discount regular season success. The Celtics favor for the 3-ball was not their undoing. It was their inability to guard an elite big man.

In 2024, very few folks were upset with the offensive system on their 16-3 run to a banner.

No. If you’re a team that relies on shooting 3s a game. No. Teams have figured it out, but mainly, the Celtics don’t have the nerves to not blow leads and to shoot 20% from 3. They’ve proven this over and over in the playoffs. Keep trying because it will even put, thinks Joe

There’s zero evidence Mazzulla will change

Their addiction to 3 ball disgusts me. Turns me off from watching.

I think your analysis of why the 3point shot works during the regular season is spot on, it’s just a different game until playoff time and Stevens admitted as much when he said we lost to a better team. They are a beast when they are hitting their 3s but have the talent for an inside game……I thought coaches like options like that but not Mazzulla getting away from 3s gonna be tough with the Coach of the yr around.

No. They need to change strategies

It still comes down to one issue: JB is all heart but not top 10 talent. JT is top 10 talent but lacks heart. I think you gotta move one of them. 

Mazzulla won’t change unless the team makes him under threat of termination. He has his the three point attempt is the most important stat in basketball. He’s a tool and shouldn’t be coaching. Yet he won a championship with a stacked team and then won a coach of the year because JB willed the team with young guys to follow him.

We don’t have a big. The 3pt reliance is definitely a problem at times, but it’s not why we can’t win. The Knicks and Sixers last year were able to bully us inside when they wanted. The year Boston won, they had sets for KP in the post. Being able to dump it down low makes it less likely the team will keep settling for 3s. They also had a true pg that could play defense and run the offense. Thats not really the case this year. I love Pritchard, but he has his limitations

no.

I don’t even give a fuck who comes in, mazzulla has to go.

To answer your question, can the Celtics ever win another championship? Yes, and they will definitely will soon.

Fire joe

When they get behind, their over reliance on 3s is so maddening and only works like 25% of the time seemingly. I just don’t understand why they can’t switch to a more in the paint offense when their 3s aren’t falling

I used to roll my eyes at the constant complaints about Mazzula ball but I have changed my tune on it.

They actually make it easier for other teams to come back even when they’re outclassed physically.

It’s too excessive I mean it’s one thing to have the highest three-point rate in the game. It’s by such a wide margin that it just feels like a wild outlier.

And it’s not conducive to winning in the playoffs for four rounds most of the time. This team has squandered winnable series that they were heavily favored in three out of the last four years.

I know the championship in mazzula coach of the year buys him some credibility but I really hope this is the last year they let him get away with the playoff exit like that

Whether or not they rely too much on the three (they do), it’s still probably the best way for them to play to keep turnovers and transition opportunities low. On top of that, a huge reason why the knicks have won 13 in a row is they’re vastly outshooting opponents from deep from an efficiency standpoint. Their opponents are shooting 31-32% over this span which is borderline impossible and they’re at 40 as a team. Sometimes you just need everyone to get hot from deep to go on a run just like what happened with Indy last year. The question is do the Cs have those types of guys or does shooting so many difficult above the break threes limit their efficiency? Having any post counter would be massive for this team though.

I hate it. Big time Celtics fan for 40 plus years and I don’t enjoy watching them play this way. It’s definitely the coach that bears the brunt of the fault in this situation. He’s not a very good game manager and relies too much on statistics to determine how to proceed. He completely eliminates the human element.

I’m not convinced Joe will ever stray away from the high volume 3 point shooting and I don’t really have a big issue with that tbh. As long as we have the personnel on the roster to execute that game plan I think it makes sense. I just wanna see us create more pressure at the rim, JB especially was great at that this season when his jumper wasn’t falling. Tatum is also at his best when he’s attacking the basket consistently. I’d like to see us add another slashing type player that can add consistent rim pressure and give us another option on offense when the 3s aren’t falling

Yes, they did it two years ago. Shut the fuck up. 

The Celtics have lost the last two playoff series because they haven’t taken enough 3s in their losses. Settling for bad contested mid range shots because the jays are convinced they are good at those terrible shots.

Also the Celtics 2024 team was not stacked, it was kind of mid. Don’t let the narrative distract from the truth. They were massively boosted by the system.

The jays do need to cut the early shot clock 3s from their game, but that’s the result of dumb players, not the offensive system