Blame who you want for the Celtics slide last season, but it all goes back to October 17, 2017 when Gordon Hayward went down with a severe ankle injury. Very little has gone right since then.
Gordon missed the rest of the 2017-18 season while recovering from the injury. In the following 2018-19 campaign, we saw glimpses of his former self, but generally he never looked like he was fully recovered, either physically or mentally. And even though Brad Stevens played Gordon only 25.9 minutes per game, his lowest figure since his rookie year in Utah, the perception (or reality - if you wish) by the Celtics youngsters was that Brad was "force feeding" Hayward minutes he didn't deserve (per NBC Sports' Michael Deprisco):
Everyone has their take on what really gave the Celtics the most problems during the 2018-19 season, and Jackie MacMullan shared her thoughts on Arbella Early Edition Tuesday night.