You're focusing on something different than what I am here.
We aren't talking about a title contender with the Celtics in 2020-2021. The Celtics aren't having trouble "getting by" the top teams in the East. They aren't even playing the same sport as those teams. They are having trouble beating the Detroit Pistons and the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Thunder, and this isn't a new development, they've been having those problems since literally the Sunday, January 17th game that they lost by 30 to the Knicks. Going into that game, the Knicks were 5-8 and on a 5 game losing streak. Since that time, they are 33-23. Going into that game, the C's were on a 5 game winning streak, and sitting at 8-3. The C's are 27-32 since that game.
We're talking about a team that is barely a playoff contender right now. My point isn't that Giannis won a league MVP when he was young, or that Curry and the Warriors were winning Championships. My point is you're either getting better or you're not. This "team" that we root for, is literally getting worse before our eyes, night in and night out. I say team, because obviously Tatum has done some things better offensively this year, so has Brown, and TL is a stud when he's healthy, but as a team, they are way, way worse than they have been the previous 4-5 years.
The point isn't that the C's should be where the Warriors are, or that Giannis won an MVP and a finals MVP at a young age, the point is we're excusing the performance this year because of age/inexperience, but then in the same breath talking about how much they've accomplished as young players. Those teams, and many others like them, didn't win immediately either (and some like OKC never won it all), but there are almost zero teams that actually played as well as the C's did in prior years, then turned into a steaming hot pile of shit that is regularly losing to teams that haven't won in a month, subsequently turning it around the following year and getting back to where they were.
We're literally blaming age and inexperience for this season, while pining for the days where our stars were even younger and less experienced. It's a bit counter-intuitive, no? If this team was the 4 seed right now, nobody, including myself would be shitting on them as underachieving. Or even the 5 seed. But I fully expected this team, even with injuries or COVID or whatever, to be able to beat the Cleveland Fucking Cavaliers and the Thunder, or the Pistons, some of whom were literally trying to lose those games. I don't think I'm being overly critical expecting that much? And if we had just beaten those dregs throughout the season, we wouldn't be talking about whether or not we'll get the 7 or 8 seed.