That Sixers game was a team that was completely going through the motions. Particularly on defense, but also on the offensive end.
And the Cavaliers game, and the 30 point loss to the Knicks, and the Pelicans games, and the Pistons games and on and on and on....
We can talk about whether or not Brad has lost the locker room, or if guys are no longer listening, and what have you, but I really don't think we need to look even that deep.
This team's defense is an abomination, given the players they have who have all shown in the past the ability to defend. Marcus Smart, Tatum, Brown and even TL are plus defenders. Tristan is good defensively in the right matchups, Semi was a good defender, Grant was certainly better last year, etc. But it's the team defense that has fallen off a cliff. It's not all on Kemba. They are completely lost out there and yet, Brad just keeps switching everything, rarely switches to zone to shake things up, runs his same rotations that he came up with the night before and nothing changes.
I can't even get started again on the offense. If anyone stayed up late last night and watched the Golden State/Milwaukee game last night, watching those offenses is like watching a different sport compared to the C's (everyone run to their corners, let's run a PnR with our big at the top of the key, offense that the C's run on 85% of their possessions). Steph Curry is constantly seeing double and sometimes triple teams, he is their offense, and yet, somehow, someway, through ball movement, off ball movement, off ball screens, they get him open looks constantly (granted he doesn't need to be open very long). Watching Utah, who also doesn't have a top 10 player (like the C's) is a breath of fresh air every night.
In his last 10 games, Jaylen Brown is shooting 45% from deep, on 8.9 attempts per game. Yesterday, he starts the game 4/5 from the field and 2/3 from deep. He finishes the game 6/10 from the field and 3/7 from deep with 4 of his shots coming after the game was out of reach. Meanwhile, Tatum and Kemba combined to go 4/15 and 1/7 from deep in the 1st half, while Jaylen spent most of his time twiddling his thumbs in the corner waiting for Marcus or Tatum or Kemba to get him the ball, because that's their offense. Stand around and wait. Maybe it'll be your turn this possession, but maybe it won't be your turn for the next 10 minutes either. It's no wonder why at times, these guys feel the need to do something when they touch the ball, or why we see a "your turn, my turn" offense.
That's all on Brad too, IMO. As we've said countless times around here when it comes to Bill Belichick (and yes, I know football is different than basketball), a great coach puts his guys in positions to succeed. I need someone to show me what positions Brad is putting his guys in to succeed this season? I need to know why Kemba Walker played 36 minutes last night, while Payton Pritchard, who buried 2 3's early to keep the team in it, played 9 minutes, and only 1:31 in the 2nd half (none in the 4th quarter). Is Brad worried about upsetting Kemba because he's getting a day off today?
There are plenty of things Brad could be doing to change things up on the court, and he's not. I'm not even going to get into the "working the refs" discussion too much except to post this:
In the last 15 games, the Boston Celtics have attempted 208 free throws. Their opponents have attempted 363. That's an average of 10.33 FTA's per game advantage for our opponents. But there's Brad, doing, well...nothing.