It’s happening again.
The Celtics won a couple of games, one against an intimidating, newly refurbished Philadelphia 76ers team, and now the “Do the Celtics need Kyrie Irving?” question has shown its face again.
Looks like everyone has moved on from that frustrating Game 7 in the Eastern Conference Finals last season, where the Celtics might’ve made the NBA Finals if only they had their superstar.
Well, not everyone moved on. Or least, Celtics President of Basketball Operations Danny Ainge knows that specific game is a prime example of why Boston needs Irving.
When Ainge made his weekly appearance on 98.5 The Sports Hub‘s “Toucher & Rich,” he explained why the Celtics aren’t better without Irving:
I do not, no. It’s completely illogical and it makes no sense. If you just look at the data over the last two years our team has … it wasn’t but a month ago that we were trying to figure out, ‘How in the world are we going to score without Kyrie on the court?’ And everybody was struggling and going through their challenges. I mean, now, we’re getting a lot of good play out of a lot of good guys. the last couple night Jayson Tatum and Gordon Hayward and Al Horford are, you know, they’re playing great basketball. And Jaylen Brown has really stepped up his game over the last couple months even and really bought into his role off the bench. I feel like we just need to all play well, but Kyrie is by far the most efficient offensive player without question. And our team, when Kyrie is on the court, over the last two years is far more efficient when Kyrie playing than when he is not. And so, no, I think it’s ridiculous to think.
Ainge continued, citing his days on the Celtics’ roster, to explain why some players are posting better numbers in Irving’s absence:
Now, having said that, do players like a bigger role when you have a guy that is your best scorer (out)? Yeah. Heck, when I used to play with Larry Bird, I never didn’t want Larry Bird on my team but I got very excited when Larry or Kevin (McHale) weren’t going to play in a game that night because that meant more shot and more opportunities and that was fun. But I knew that to win the big thing and to win it all you can’t be without those great players and that’s how I feel about Kyrie.
