If the Cs are truly underperforming their talent level - and I think that position should be supported by evidence - what is Udoka doing wrong from a macro standpoint? Are shifting minutes and rotations with the current roster going to meaningfully change this team's ceiling?
The evidence might suggests he's overachieving, depending on your take of the Jaylen and Jayson duo.
-Jayson Tatum having his worst season to date
-Jaylen Brown has missed 14 games
-JRich and TL have missed 7 games each.
-The team is only 7 deep to begin with, with Grant on the fringes.
-The team is 13-14 despite all this.
If the team was healthy and Tatum was having a normal year, an optimist could argue the C's would be closer to 17-19 wins.
The realist would say 15-16.
The pessimist (or even realist )would say they'd have the same record regardless because the Jays have been playing .500 ball for 2 years.
I guess someone could argue they'd be even worse if they were healthy, though I haven't seen anyone.
This year, the C's are 7-7 without Brown, 6-7 with. For the 20/21 season, they were 6-8 without Brown, 30-28 with. So over the last 1 1/3 seasons, the C's are 36-35 with Brown, 13-15 without. It's only 28 games and it probably means nothing (a .500 team is going to have close to a .500 record in most situations), but it's amazing how little impact he had on the C's win/loss record.
Last year, the C's were 2-6 without Jayson Tatum.
I don't buy into the Jays can't play with each other argument but I may buy into the Jaylen Brown doesn't really move the needle enough for a 2nd star argument if someone was pretty convincing about it. Maybe having Jaylen Brown play makes it harder to involve others because he's kind of a black hole. JRich has been playing his best ball off late and it happens to coincide with Brown being injured. DS too, to an extent.
I'm glad more people are starting to come around on the lack of talent being an issue. The next obstacle is to get people to consider that Jaylen Brown might be the issue. Even if dismissed 2 seconds after.
Here's a question I think is fair and avoids all the "Can the Jays play together" debate.
How good would an NBA team be where Jaylen Brown was their best player? mid lottery or top lottery, right? He's an interesting player but how much of a difference maker is he, really? He scores points very efficiently. What else does he do? Maybe the C's would be better off with someone more well rounded at the expense of efficiency. If the team finishes close to .500, and is a 1 and done in the playoffs, they have to at least consider trading Jaylen.
edit: Or add someone better than Brown and push him down to 3rd star.