...the reason both franchises had pursued Antetokounmpo so doggedly in the first place: They simply weren't championship contenders, or even close.
Both team presidents had said as much after their seasons ended in disappointment.
"I am not going to tank. We are not going to lose. We are not going into the lottery and do that insanity because I will quit -- if I ever get ordered to go down that road. I am always thinking of ways to win," Heat president Pat Riley said after his team lost in the play-in tournament. "Now, all I can give you is a bunch of excuses. And I don't want to do that. We are just not good enough. ..."
The Celtics had lost in the first round to the Philadelphia 76ers, sparking a series of organizational discussions that led to the conclusion that the current roster simply "wasn't good enough," as one Celtics source put it.
"If you would have told me last summer that we would have won 56 games in the regular season, that the young guys would all become contributors, that people would have great impact all up and down our roster, that we would get [Jayson] Tatum back for 20 games or whatever it was, I would have been thrilled with those results," Celtics president Brad Stevens said.
"But the reality is, we came up short. And so now, the job is to do an honest assessment."--Boston prez Brad Stevens.
Ramona Shelburne, Jamal Collier ESPN
You would think it's Boston who had gone an average 44-38 for the last twelve seasons. Stevens did not say the "Celtics" Roster "wasn't good enough." A "Celtics source" did. But Stevens did say they had come up short and that the org. was going to do "an honest assessment." And Stevens acted as if he too believed his roster wasn't good enough, trying to trade Jaylen Brown to Beer.
I parse this so because Boston is just two seasons removed from their last NBA title, in a Finals series in which Brown won MVP, coming off a 56-win season that Jason Tatum missed three-quarters of, a season in which head coach Joe Mazzulla won COTY, in which Brown finished sixth in league MVP voting. If Beans had gotten Giannis, Joe Mazzulla would have had to change the way he likes his team to play. Stevens failed to get Giannis but Mazzulla still has to change his team's style of play entirely...because Stevens has now estranged Brown from the "Celtics". I parse this so because, in short: Stevens, why the fuck did you do that?