5 reasons the Boston Celtics will be worse next season

2. Chemistry is thrown off

The Boston Celtics were an emotional, scrappy team. They played with tenacity and they may not have been confrontational, but they were the next closest thing. What made last season’s team so successful was the personnel. The entire team played like a well-oiled machine, even in losses.

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Their defense was undersized, but played with a certain hostility that made them a feared opponent. They won together, lost together and played like a team that enjoyed sharing the court. Al Horford was never considered a trash talker in Atlanta, but this past season, he jawed at opponents and seemed to enjoy it.

Every Celtic had his role on the team and it got them to a first seed, regardless of the Cavaliers’ regular season efforts. In the playoffs though, the Cavs dominated the Celtics. That is not being debated.

What is up for debate is whether the Celtics’ core could have been supported, rather than revamped for a superstar. The team played in-sync and that chemistry is now in jeopardy. Bradley, Kelly Olynyk, Amir Johnson, Jonas Jerebko and Tyler Zeller are gone. Not all those players were important, but Olynyk and Jerebko brought length and toughness of the bench, even if their defense tended to revolve around fouls.

The Celtics will need some time to get used to each other and this next season might focus on this new team playing together, rather than immediate results. Hayward is a young player with a high ceiling, along with Morrs, Smart and especially incoming rookie Jayson Tatum.

Tatum is going to a project that should get plenty of exposure this season, but Summer League isn’t the best indicator of how a player will perform at the next level. Brown and Tatum have bright futures, but assuming they have an forceful impact this season is highly unlikely.