How the Celtics can return to championship form

The Boston Celtics won the 2024 NBA championship on the back of a team-first mentality. Sacrifice was a buzzword in almost every news conference or interview. The team consistently hunted the best shot available, regardless of who would be taking the shot. 

That version of the Celtics was unstoppable. The approach maximized the elite talent within the rotation. It unlocked the role players and empowered everyone to bring their "A-Game" on both sides of the floor. 

Things haven't been as rosy this season. During their championship run, the Celtics were fourth in the NBA in isolation possessions per game, with 9.9. This time around, they're second with 11.4. Not even the heliocentric Dallas Mavericks have that many isolations per game. 

Being so dependent on one-on-one basketball is the antithesis of what made the Celtics so dominant en route to a championship. Payton Pritchard has grown in confidence and now frequently calls his own number. Jayson Tatum isn't distributing the ball as much. And Jaylen Brown has become increasingly ball-dominant over the past two months. 

According to Bill Simmons, speaking on a recent episode of "The Bill Simmons Podcast," the Celtics lack the togetherness we saw from them last season.

“The camaraderie/connection with the guys doesn’t seem the same right now,” Simmons said. “It might just be like ‘Oh they’re an older married couple, they’ve done this, they’ve been together, they don’t need to do it.' But there’s a lot of plays where there is just five guys on the court who just seem like they’re not connected in any way...Year after year, at least one contender fell short for reasons that had little or nothing to do with basketball. And year after year, the championship team prevailed because it got along and everyone committed themselves to their roles.”