The 2018–19 Boston Celtics were in excellent form. With a roster full of young, up-and-coming players like Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown and veterans like Gordon Hayward, Al Horford, and Kyrie Irving, the team seemed to have what it needed to be a title contender. However, that was just on paper, as reality unveiled an internal struggle that would throw everything off-balance for the team.

They made it to the Conference semifinals but fell short in the first five games and lost to the Bucks. With 49 wins and 33 losses, they concluded their season in fourth place in the Eastern Conference. Looking back on this season, Gordon Hayward, in a recent episode of the Podcast P with Paul George, revealed the problem that was holding back the team. And former teammate Tatum agrees with the diagnosis.

Jayson Tatum agrees that team chemistry was non-existent

In the podcast, Hayward shared that winning the Championship was not the main goal, as each player had “too many agendas” of their own. Well, according to the Boston Globe, former teammate Tatum admitted that “what Gordon said was kind of right. Guys would come back from injury, guys were trying to prove themselves, like myself. I was trying to be better than I was last year, and it was just kind of a tough year.” However, this does not mean that the team wasn’t aware of their issue.

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Tatum acknowledged that the team was very talented, but things did not work out the way they had hoped. There were no personal issues among the players, but the team chemistry was just not in sync. Even with exceptional talent, a team still needs to collaborate and solve problems as a unit. He said, “Everybody wanted to do more,” and that in turn drove them further away from the collective goal.

Everyone was trying to prove something

The team was dealing with more serious problems than what met the eye. 2017 was a tough year for both Kyrie and Hayward, who suffered career-threatening injuries. Come the 2018-19 season, both were trying to prove themselves in their comeback year. Moreover, the younger players like Tatum and Brown were hesitant to give up the bigger roles they had filled in the previous season.

In this whirlwind of personal agendas, building team chemistry became nearly impossible. And given the circumstances, Tatum admits that, “And like Gordon said, we still made it to the second round. Like, it could have been worse.” After playing in Boston for three seasons, Hayward Gordon, 33, was traded to the Charlotte Hornets, in November 2020, where he will probably play out the twilight years of his career.

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The Celtics are currently leading the Atlantic Division with Tatum as a forerunner for the team in points and rebounds. What are your thoughts on the team chemistry this season? Has there been any improvement from what we saw in 2019? Share your thoughts!

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