Robert Parish drops some truth serum on what's ailing the Celtics

If you've been lucky enough to watch championship teams of the Celtics past you are realistic enough to realize that this group of Celtics doesn't have that make-up and it goes to the core. Celtics championship teams have always been very unselfish and solid passing teams. Often great passing teams.

The Celtics of the past two seasons have two high scoring All-Stars that you can count on to get their points. Problem is you can only really count on them to win about half their games, since winning in the NBA takes more than a collection of scorers. Many an NBA team have been built with solid scorers, but championship teams have top notch playmakers.

Both Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown have made some strides as playmakers, but often times there is a limit to how much you can improve at a skill once you made the NBA. Tatum also grew up idolizing Kobe Bryant, not play making forwards like Larry Bird, Scottie Pippen, or LeBron James.

Tatum leads the NBA in shot attempts this season. That is his thing. He's a scorer, a shot taker. A great one at that, but wanting him to become a lead playmaker at this point is looking like a futile effort.

Jalyen Brown came into the NBA extremely athletic, but much rawer than Tatum. His growth has been extraordinary. Jaylen improved his shaky handles to a point of strength now. But not sure asking him to become a playmaker would bring success. Sometimes you either have it or you don't.

I always feel like former All-Stars from championship teams do a solid job being objective about current teams. Bob Cousy remains the best, but Robert Parish in this interview isn't wrong with his blunt observations.

Since Brown and Tatum are the team's stars, they are going to get talked about the most, both positively and negatively. That's the business. LeBron has always gotten the same treatment. Durant too. And of course Tatum's idol Kobe Bryant. So let's not worry about some constructive criticism being too hard for the Celtics' stars to take.

Parish touches on more than just the Jay's in this interview. It's worth the listen.

“Brown and Tatum don’t have the ability to make their teammates better."

“One of the reasons we were so successful going back to the 80s was because of Larry [Bird’s] ability to make people around him better.”

Brad Stevens will either need to work some magic to add a top notch playmaker to orchestrate the offense for the Celtics to play alongside the Jay's, or eventually he will need to split them up. Not because either aren't very good to great players, but because he will have no choice. The team's asset collection for trades has been depleted quite a bit in the past few years.
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