Was this the most embarrassing Celtics season of all time?

That’s and easy one.

The Celtics came into 2018-19 with expectations set high and they have no one to blame but themselves. Of course, if you go all the way to the Eastern Conference Finals and lose in a closely contested game-seven to Lebron James, all on the back of Terry Rozier, expectations are going to be sky-high considering the return of two All-Stars in Kyrie Irving and Gordon Hayward.

Sure, the East got a little bit tougher with the Raptors adding Kawhi Leonard, the Sixers adding Jimmy Butler and Ben Simmons entering his third year in the NBA, and Giannis Antetokounmpo becoming a top-5 NBA player. But taking away the superstar of each team, you can’t tell me a supporting cast of Patrick Connaughton and George Hill is better than Gordon Hayward and Al Horford, at least on paper.

So when the Celtics get absolutely embarrassed on national TV for four straight games by a team who’s best player can barely make a shot more than 10 feet from the basket, the question arises, is this Celtics team the most embarrassing Celtic team of all-time?

Nevermind the fact that past players took to Twitter to roast the current team’s effort.

Nevermind that 2019 was a tough year for Celtic greats off the court with Paul Pierce being ripped apart for his preposterous takes.

Nevermind the rumors that Kyrie is teaming up with either Kevin Durant in New York, or Lebron in LA this summer.

No. Let’s look at what the Celtics were able to do, solely on the court.

Let’s look at the fact that, despite playing poorly for much of the season, Kyrie was convinced that once the playoffs came around he would be the one to lead Boston to the ultimate goal. After all, isn’t that what he wanted when he left Cleveland? To be the leader of a team. To be ‘the man?’ As it turns out, when you want to be a good team leader, Kobe Bryant probably isn’t the guy you go looking to for advice, because apparently, Kyrie’s form of “leadership” is ripping your young players to the media, criticizing everyone within the organization, sending subliminal messages about your intentions after the season is over, and then blaming the media for everything. But don’t blame him, he hates cameras and attention and it definitely wasn’t him who spent an entire summer filming a movie, Uncle Drew. (Terrible movie by the way). Oh, and when it was time for Kyrie, the savior of Boston basketball, to step up and lead the Celtics past the Bucks, he turned heads with his incredible shooting performances of 4-18, 8-22, 7-22 and 6-21. Kyrie was in full Cancun mode in Game Five, finishing with 15 points on 29% shooting with one rebound and one assist. But go ahead, let him convince you it was all, somehow, Jaylen Brown’s fault.

Perhaps I’m being too harsh on Kyrie. To be fair, the Celtics’ lacked a gameplan on offense for pretty much every game of their series against Milwaukee, and that can either come down to the on-court leader (Kyrie Irving) or it can be the fault of Head Coach Brad Stevens. Stevens, unlike Irving, has already shouldered much of the blame in his post-game comments where he admitted that he did a bad job. Bad is one thing, but when your team consistently gives up mid-game, walks around lackadaisically for large stretches and shows little-to-no heart (both Marcuses are exempt from this part) then I would call that a pretty pathetic job. I’ve long been a big supporter of Stevens. I even defended my opinion that Stevens should have been the 2018 NBA Coach of the Year to Brian Scalabrine (subtle name drop) and anyone else who would listen. But these playoffs were tough to watch and it had to be tough to coach. Stevens is a good coach who just did a bad job.

Let’s talk about Boston’s other ‘star,’ Gordon Hayward. Those of you who knew me when Hayward became a free agent in 2017 know that I have never been high on Hayward as a player who could lead to title contention. At best he’s a solid second or third option on a championship roster. But the Celtics went out and signed him for $30+ million a year. No one can blame Ainge or the Celtics as Hayward was regarded as a premier free agent, albeit in a down year for free agency. And then the injury happened. Again, you can’t blame Hayward or the Celtics when a guy breaks his leg like that. But since coming back Hayward has been a non-factor. Not just a below average player, I’m talking the type of player that opposing teams aren’t concerned about one bit. I didn’t expect Hayward to come back from injury and immediately go back to scoring 25 points a game, but I did expect him to do more for Boston than come off the bench and score 7 points every night. At this point, the Celtics are paying $30+ million for Thomas Bryant but with less rebounding.

And finally, we can’t wrap up a Celtics blog without touching on the guy who carried Boston in the playoffs last season, especially not after his comments coming out this morning.

Tough talk for a guy who scored nine points per game on 39% shooting and a BPM of -0.7. But at the same time, I agree with him. If Rozier had gone into free agency last season, after his performance in the playoffs, he would have commanded starter money from every team in need of a point guard. Now, he’d be lucky to get a deal for $10-million a year. So in a sense, Rozier is right, coming off the bench behind Kyrie Irving, playing limited minutes and not fully being able to show what he’s got like he did last season when Kyrie missed the playoffs with an injury, hurt Rozier as he approaches free agency this summer. But you know what else hurt scary Terry? Playing terribly whenever he did get on the floor this season.

Danny Ainge has quite the summer coming up. Does he try and re-sign Kyrie? Does he try and make a trade for Anthony Davis? Does he try and get Rozier to re-up with a team that he doesn’t seem too happy with at the moment? Or does he let Irving walk and continue to let the draft picks pile up. Either way, it’s safe to say Celtic fans are going to see a much different team when Boston takes the court next season, and I for one am glad to see this team go.