Boston Celtics: Early-season inconsistency could be troubling sign

The Boston Celtics’ early-season inconsistency has to be a troubling sign for the team. 

Entering this season, there were heavy expectations placed on this Boston Celtics team. In fact, many wondered what the transition of Brad Stevens going from the coaching bench to the front office would have. Though, at least on paper, there was a lot to like about the Celtics heading into the season.

With a dynamic duo as talented as Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown are, you’d imagine that the Celtics would be penciled in as a playoff team and that they could only improve after that.

Five games into the season, however, they’ve struggled to flash that consistent potential. Boston has lost three games this season – to the New York Knicks, Toronto Raptors, and Washington Wizards. Their two wins were against the Houston Rockets and Charlotte Hornets (in overtime).

For the most part, Boston has been especially inconsistent across the board. And there’s been no player that has echoed that more than Brown’s play. In four games this season, he’s been either hit or miss.

The good news is that his hits are HITS. But his misses are also air-balls.

You might take a quick glance at his counting stats and see that he’s technically averaging 25 points per game on 46 percent shooting from the field and 38 percent from 3-point range. However, he’s essentially had two outstanding games and then two terrible ones.

In two games against the Knicks and Hornets, Brown averaged 38 points, nine rebounds, and 4.5 assists per game on 56 percent shooting from the field and 52 percent shooting from 3-point range.

In his other two games against the Raptors and Wizards, Brown averaged 11 points, four rebounds, and 0.5 assists on 27 percent shooting from the field and nine percent shooting from 3-point range.

It’s a tale of two Browns for the Celtics so far this season and that has also been the case for the team overall. Boston has been hit or miss on most nights, especially offensively.

What’s perhaps most concerning is that their one area of consistency falls under how bad they’ve been defensively. They’re ranked 22nd in defensive rating and no team is going to win many games paying that uncharacteristic on that end of the floor.

With the amount of talent that the Celtics have on its roster, this is an extremely confusing start. In fairness, perhaps this is some sort of transition period. Growing pains, if you will. It’s only fair to give new head coach Ime Udoka some time to assert his philosophy on the team, and time for the team to completely buy in.

Boston is too talented to be this inconsistent this early in the year. It’s absolutely a concerning sign, but also something that could be corrected. But the root of the inconsistency has to be identified quickly and adjustments must be made.