New York Times – After the 2002-03 season, Carter, then 27, was planning to exercise a $4.1 million player option to remain in Miami. Picking up the option was a no-brainer. Carter was coming off a disappointing season in which he averaged 4.1 points on .356 shooting in 49 games. For a player with that stat line, $4.1 million was a fortune.
Except Carter’s agent, Bill Duffy, failed to notify the Heat by the June 30 deadline that Carter was coming back. Instead of locking in another season in Miami, Carter accidentally became a free agent.
The mistake cost him at least $3 million. Carter had to settle for a minimum contract with the San Antonio Spurs — roughly $750,000 — the next season, rather than the $4.1 million he would have locked in by exercising his option.
The fact that Bill Duffy is still a licensed NBA agent, let alone Luka Doncic’s agent, after losing Anthony Carter $3 MILLION dollars because he forgot to file some paperwork is legitimately unbelievable.
Not only that, he’s still Anthony Carter’s agent! (Or at least still “looks over” Carter’s contracts) That is a ride or die friend, folks. If Carter gets pinched and needs a fall guy, Duffy better be first in line to take the bid. Carter must have had Duffy on speed dial as his gopher for anything and everything like Sean Boswell in Tokyo Drift.
To be fair he did pay Carter back for the lost wages over the last 17 years, which is not to be minimized because that is some honorable stuff right there. But my god, imagine being the agent and realizing what you’ve done? Must have felt like the mom from Home Alone except instead of committing a light bit of child abuse, you just punted on $3 MILLION dollars.
In an old ESPN article from Marc Stein, Duffy blames an unnamed staffer for a “clerical error,” which is the least believable thing I’ve ever read. You don’t entrust a $4.1 million contract to a paper pushing intern, you make sure that shit gets signed, sealed, and delivered. If that really is the case though and that is a true story, I hope Duffy walked into the guy’s office and fired him Ari Gold style.
If nothing else, I suppose this is a feel good story that should remind us that money isn’t everything. Duffy screwed up, paid Carter back, Carter went on to make $17 million in the NBA during his career and is now an assistant coach for the Miami Heat. Duffy for his part got some goodwill for doing the right thing and landed the next great NBA mega star in Doncic as his top client. See? Everything works out in the end.
In a weird, pandemic interrupted season that stretched 11 months and 27 days the Celtics went from an unmitigated disaster last summer watching two max contract players leave for nothing to landing Kemba Walker and going on a run to the Eastern Conference Finals. Despite all the missed opportunities that arose once the NBA season resumed, the Celtics accomplished what so few teams ever can; rebuilding on the fly. As Kemba said in his post-game press conference last night, “This is our first year together, we are going to have some time to grow.” He’s not wrong.
Now that the back patting is over, lets take a look at the epic choke job the Celtics completed last night. For whatever reason this team struggled mightily when it came to neck stepping time. Whether they’re too young, lack a killer instinct, or just don’t have a defined closer on the team, whatever it was, this team struggled to finish games. We saw it in the Raptors series that they were lucky to escape in 7 and it carried over to the Eastern Conference Finals where the Celtics blew late leads in Games 1 and 2. The latter of which led to an all-time dysfunctional locker room blowout before winning Game 3, dropping Game 4, and winning Game 5 to force a 6th and decisive game. It looked like Boston’s talent was going to do what it had in the previous round, overwhelm their gritty opponent. They even forced the Heat to go away from their vaunted zone defense as the Celtics finally figured out a consistent way to penetrate and disrupt.
However, when it came to crunch time the Celtics once again WITHERED. The Celtics defense imploded as the Heat scored at will.
The Celtics closed out Game 6 with a 159.1 defensive rating over the final nine minutes, allowing the Heat to score on 10(!) consecutive possessions in one stretch. On one last crunch-time collapse: https://t.co/SltOwilYtp
BRobb also tweeted out the Celtics’ clutch stats (idk ask BRobb for the definition of that one) and they’re just as bad as you’d expect.
Celtics final clutch stats against Heat over five games (19 minutes of clutch play) Offensive rating: 85.3 Defensive rating: 150 Net rating -64.7 https://t.co/SltOwilYtp
With 9 minutes to go in the game and Boston up by six, the Heat went on a 26-6 run to officially stomp them out. Even worse was their absolutely moronic, panic stricken shot selection down the stretch.
Jayson Tatum makes a two point shot to make it 102-103 with 5:40 left. Next possessions
Kemba missed three Tatum turnover Kemba missed three Tatum missed three Smart missed three Tatum missed tech FT Jaylen missed three Smart missed layup Kemba turnover
Where the hell is Brad Stevens during all that? The Heat went on something like a 19-6 run before he decided to call a timeout with 4:30 remaining. By that point though it was too late and too big of a hole and then the C’s really were forced to start jacking up 3’s.
One of my biggest complaints, but it’s probably more about the league in general than the Celtics specifically, is there insistence on chucking threes even when they’re clearly not falling. Boston went 15-46 (32.6%) from 3 for the game, 4-22 from 3 in the 2nd half, and an atrocious 2-14 in the 4th. In the 4th the Celtics shot 37% from the field including 14.3% from 3. Meanwhile the Heat shot 66.7% from the field while only taking 3 three pointers in the 4th and nailing them all. For the game the Heat went 13-27 from 3 for a 48.1% clip, nearly 16% better than the C’s.
The Celtics never had an answer for Bam Adebayo all night. Daniel Theis fouled out again while getting worked by the “point center” and rookie Grant Williams probably did the best job covering the big man, but Bam was just on another level dropping 32 and 14.
I also want to point out that while I respect Jimmy Butler’s MJ-esque toxic competitive streak, I also would have been fully on board with Jaylen Brown getting ejected for knocking him out after that dirty play under the hoop.
No foul was called because the NBA officiating is hilariously inconsistent, but don’t let that fool you. This was a dirty, dangerous play and could have seriously injured Brown. Don’t be surprised if these two get into a scuffle down the line because I guarantee Brown will not forget about that play.
So where do the Celtics go from here? This is definitely a team at a crossroads with no clear path to improvement. Bench scoring is obviously a need, they need more defined roles, but more than anything the Celtics need to add some veteran grit and balls. Every great team has veteran players and character guys that can consistently get buckets and/or act as a mentor to younger teammates. Think Eddie House, James Posey, Sam Cassell, and PJ Brown on the ’08 Celtics. They need to add some grit to their bench rather than filling it with all their mediocre draft picks from the last 3 years who can’t create offense. Danny Ainge has created the greatest G League team ever assembled with all those draft picks, but that has not translated to consistent productive NBA players outside of Smart, Tatum, and Brown. Three core players no doubt, but the C’s have failed to develop much in the way of bench talent. That is only made more glaring when the C’s are getting lit up by rookies like Tyler Herro in Miami, who the C’s apparently loved pre-draft.
Grit seems to be the main thing they lacked this postseason as the Celtics routinely blew late leads only to get bailed out by the skin of their teeth on talent alone. Well that string of luck came to a swift end last night as the Heat showed them what a team with a lead is supposed to do. It steps on your neck and closes it out.
So do the Celtics looks to reconfigure their roster or just hope the deep playoff run provides valuable experience? Felger and Mazz producer Jimmy Stewart was floating rumors of a potential Marcus Smart trade last week if the C’s got bounced.
"I get the feeling that Marcus Smart might not be here next year." – @IAmJamesStewart after hearing from his mysterious sources.
Getting a W on Saturday night would help with a lot of this, but it sounds like a #Celtics power struggle is occurring between Smart, Brown, & Tatum. pic.twitter.com/UMpgsxpRFq
I think Tatum is completely untouchable at this point as he should be. He definitely needs some more seasoning to his game (stop routinely settling for fadeaway threes) and generally has some maturing to do, but you don’t trade elite talent for no reason.
Other than that they could move Jaylen Brown but I just cannot get on board with trading him or Smart. That would be a MASSIVE “addition by subtraction” gamble that I would not be willing to take and I dont think Danny Ainge would either.
There was speculation that the team lacked clearly defined roles and too many guys thought it was their team. Theres only one basketball and if everyone wants to play hero ball and take the last shot then you’re going to run into trouble.
It’s not a hot take but I think their best bet is to hope yet another brutal postseason exit helps their young core build the testicular fortitude required to make the jump next year. I keep thinking of that scene from “The Last Dance” documentary where Michael Jordan details how he got his brains beat in by the Celtics and Pistons for years before finally getting over the hump. Even with 6 rings on his fingers, Jordan admitted those early struggles were necessary to give him the experience and the drive to finally break through.
The most unfortunate part though is this was the easiest path to the Finals the Celtics were going to have any time soon with a depleted/dysfunctional Philly team, Giannis getting knocked out early, no Kawhi or LeBron in the East, oh ya and the Nets will be rolling out Kyrie and Kevin Fucking Durant next season. So while I want to preach patience, I can understand if Celtics brass doesn’t feel the same way.
We don’t even know when the next NBA season will begin thanks to the COVID interruption. Training camps for next season would have normally started around now, but Adam Silver has hinted at a Christmas or even January start for the 2020-21 season. Until then we’ll have plenty of missed opportunities to regret as we watch LeBron James inevitably win another title. Hopefully this Celtics team uses that as motivation and comes back ready to take over the East and finally, legitimately threaten for the Larry O’Brien trophy next year.
And just like that the Boston Celtics are one game away from elimination in the Eastern Conference Finals. One more underwhelming performance and the Celtics will be on the wrong end of a gentleman’s sweep. It’s infuriating to watch because before Game 4 the Celtics led for the large majority of minutes played only to blow leads late. Game 4 itself was just a sloppy game for Boston all around despite the near miracle comeback in the closing seconds.
Jayson Tatum was AWFUL in the first half going 0-6 including four three pointers to go into the half with zero points, which was the first time he’s done that all season. He must have found a bottle of Michael Jordan’s Secret Stuff from Space Jam in the locker room though as he dropped 28 points in the final 24 minutes of the game.
His explosion in the second half just made Tatum’s first half struggles look even worse by comparison though. He is arguably the most talented player in this series and he was constantly dribbling out the shot clock and settling for shitty fadeaway threes. So much so that the studio analysts at halftime wondered aloud if he was injured. Why is a 6’8″ career 83% free throw shooter not attacking the rim if his shot isn’t falling? That is something that Tatum needs to understand better if he is going to take the next jump to superstardom.
This team still struggles mightily against the zone defense that my high school team used to play. Marcus Smart seemed to be the only player capable of driving and effectively kicking the ball out to shooters. It was something that Van Gundy pointed out during the game as Smart was the only player that was looking at the rim as he drives before kicking it out. Otherwise the defenders are just waiting for the outlet pass. The Celtics have been rendered completely helpless against the most basic defense for long stretches of this series. The broadcast team even suggested this may be the longest a team has ever stuck with a zone defense in any playoff series ever. Ay caramba.
If not for Gordon Hayward this team would have already been en route to their offseason vacations. While he didn’t light up the stat sheet in Game 3 he was a tangible force moving the ball and making a couple clutch shots. In Game 4 he was much more comfortable shooting the ball as he finished with 14 points. Hayward is the only player the Celtics can bring off the bench to consistently get buckets at this point, which is killing them. The rest of the bench had 8 combined points on Wednesday night. In Game 3 the bench scored a combined 11 points outside of Hayward, a respectable 16 (9 from Kanter) in Game 2, and 18 in Game 1 with 11 from Brad Wanamaker.
Tyler Herro is a goddamn baller, plain and simple. To be honest, we probably should have expected this dude to become an assassin based solely on his Draft Night fit.
Allegedly Danny Ainge was set to take the Kentucky shooter at No. 14 in last year’s draft before Pat Riley snatched him up right before the Celtics at No. 13 overall. I don’t know if I believe that as Danny tends to draft project athletes with high ceilings more than shooters, but goddamnit has Herro made it hurt to watch what could have been. He absolutely crushed the Celtics in Game 4 with a cool 37 points and was generally unstoppable with a clean look.
Marcus Smart continues to be the ultimate enigma making incredible and boneheaded plays within seconds of each other. Like when he laid out onto the floor to knock a loose ball to Jaylen Brown, who was then fouled. The Celtics then inbounds the ball at half court and Smart gets the ball only to immediately lose his handle and turn the ball over.
The No. 1 most hated play of the night goes to the C’s doubling the ball handler late in the 4th and leaving Goran Dragic wide fucking open for a 3 on a night where he scored 22 points. And you could see on the replay that Smart thought Jaylen Brown was going to rotate and cover the shooter as he was visibly upset and clapping at the young forward.
The officiating was generally awful both ways, but hey Tony Brothers was on the court so did we expect anything less? I also don’t get the Hayward foul call on this three pointer from Goran. I know he is technically “in the shooter’s space” but jesus christ what’s he supposed to do there?
The final play of the game was also a disaster. Down 3 with 1 second remaining the Celtics were out of timeouts so it was kind of a fire drill hail mary play, but I still hated what they came up with. Needing a TB12-esque picture perfect throw the Celtics opt for center Daniel Theis to make the inbounds pass. I understand Theis isn’t really a 3 point threat there, but he’s also the worst passer on the floor being asked to make a pinpoint cross court pass with 1 second remaining. Not surprisingly he heaved one into traffic that never had a chance.
Is Bam Adebayo hurt? He was holding his wrist constantly in the last few minutes of the game after a collision with I believe Jaylen Brown under the hoop. He stayed in the game, but even the broadcast made note of how he was constantly waiving off the athletic trainers despite being in obvious pain. If Adebayo is injured that would be a huge factor in a do or die Game 5 as the Celtics have had no answers for the big man.
So the Celtics have an off night before Game 5 on Friday night to consider whether they have the fortitude required to push this series to the brink. They’ll need to win three straight against a Heat team that has been tough to beat when it comes to neck stepping time in the 4th quarter. If the Celtics bow out in five it would be a huge letdown, especially in a season where the path was seemingly cleared for them to reach the Finals. No Giannis, no Kawhi or LeBron in the East, just a scrappy Heat team led by a guy in Jimmy Butler that is on his fourth team in four years. After some serious collapses down the stretch and the much publicized blowout in the locker room after Game 2, if this team doesn’t make a series out of this I would not be surprised to see Danny make some tough decisions with the construction of this roster.
Until the final buzzer sounds though I’ll hold out hope just because we’ve seen crazier things happen. In times like this I like to think back to that infamous Kevin Millar quote back in 2004. “Don’t let us win today.”
NBCSports – LeBron James joined Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh in Miami promising multiple championships. But the Heat lost in the 2011 NBA Finals then lost three straight to trail the Celtics 3-2 in the 2012 Eastern Conference finals. LeBron was labeled a choker who didn’t deliver in the clutch.
Then, he turned in a performance for the ages – 45 points, 15 rebounds and five assists in a victory in Boston.
How did LeBron summon that level of focus and execution?
LeBron on Instagram Live:
My mentality was, if we lose, Pat Riley may break us all up. And I didn’t want that. It might be the quickest breakup in basketball history.And not only might they break it all up, my legacy is going to take a huge, huge hit if I don’t go out here and perform at an all-time high. Win, lose or draw, I had to be focused. I had to lock in and lead us to victory. Didn’t know if it was going to happen that way, but that was my mindset.
Despite an unprecedented run of dominance in Boston across multiple sports over the past 20 years, it’s the bitter defeats that stick with me most. I vividly remember sitting at my future father-in-law’s house in 2012 watching LeBron James rip my heart out as he went God Mode for 45 and 15 in Game 6. Just an absolutely unbelievable, singlehanded display of dominance. And it knocked out the already exhausted legs of the aging, proud, veteran laden 2012 Celtics. I’ve written about how that Celtics squads was one of my all-time favorite Boston teams many times.
Led by three Hall of Famers in Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce, and Ray Allen, but all three were well past their primes. This was a full four years after the Celtics won Banner 17. This wasn’t the 2008 Celtics, this was the Grit and Balls Celtics.
KG was 36, Ray was 36, and Pierce was 34-years-old at this point so this was going to be their last run at a chip and everybody knew it. It’s impressive they even got that far after winning just 39 games in the regular season that year.
People forget the C’s actually went down 0-2 in this series before ripping off 3 straight wins and putting LeBron on the ropes, which was oh so sweet at the time. KG and the Celtics broke LeBron two years before and legitimately bullied him so bad he left Cleveland to team up with his super friends. After the most ridiculous display in pro sports history (AKA the pre-season dynasty predicting rock concert)
LeBron and co. proceeded to get worked by Dirk and the Mavs in the 2011 Finals.
0 for 1.
So if the Heat lost yet again in Year 2, with LeBron, D-Wade, and Chris Bosh all on massive contracts, I very easily could have seen Pat Riley saying F this whole operation. Would that have been an overreaction? Yea sure, but this is Pat Riley we’re talking about not Brad Stevens.
To think we were THIS close to imploding that mini-dynasty less than 24 months into its inception like a cheap folding chair. That Game 6 literally gave birth to the LeBron James we know today. It essentially washed away the choker tag as LeBron evolved into the most dominant player in the world that night.
Yes, LeBron swung the sword that decapitated the end of the Celtics’ run and won his first NBA title in the process. But lets not forget the following season, if not for Ray Allen’s dagger 3 in Game 6 of the Finals the Heat lose to the Spurs in 2012.
I remember watching this game at T’s Pub on that crappy projector screen, turning to Big Z and saying “Well Ray just won the Finals for LeBron.” They still had to go to OT just to win Game 6 and then win Game 7 on top of that, but the hardest job was already done by Jesus Shuttlesworth.
The Heat then lost to the Spurs in 2013 too. That would have made the Heat 1/4 in the Finals with the Super Team, which would have made LeBron an ugly 1/5 in his career up to that point. Add that with losing 3 out of 4 to the Warriors in Cleveland and LeBron could easily be 2/9 in the Finals. So a couple of butterfly wing flaps one way or the other and LeBron could have left Miami with just one or even zero championships. Imagine that?
Now I love watching LeBron play, I understand I am witnessing one of the greatest to ever play the game, but goddamn was it fun to root against LeBron with KG and Pierce wanting to bury the guy more than anybody every single night.
The 300s 