Boston Celtics
“Some days the 3-point shooting contest gets a little bit much for me and I do some head shaking,” McHale said.
Hall of Famer Kevin McHale won three championships with the Celtics. Jonathan Wiggs/Globe Staff
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Kevin McHale told the Boston Globe’s Adam Himmelsbach that he would like to see Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown win another title together with the Celtics.
But, after a string of early playoff exits in recent years, there have been certain aspects of the Celtics’ play-style that have left the Hall-of-Famer scratching his head.
“Some days the 3-point shooting contest gets a little bit much for me and I do some head shaking,” McHale said. “Basketball has changed in a lot of ways.”
“So, the Celtics — I like them and I think [coach] Joe Mazzulla has done a good job. But I just think there comes a time when the ball has got to touch the paint. You’ve got to attack, you’ve got to put people on their heels, and you’ve got to collapse a defense.”
The Celtics led the league in 3-point attempts during the regular-season and postseason. They struggled to generate points in the paint and free-throw attempts. They shot 22.9 percent from beyond the arc in their four losses to the 76ers during these playoffs on their way to becoming the first team in Celtics history to blow a 3-1 series lead.
Brad Stevens touched on the Celtics’ need for better shot variance during his end of the year press conference and said the Celtics may need to add to the team in order to get there. McHale, who had stints coaching the Timberwolves and Rockets after his playing days, also sees a need for the Celtics to find more ways to score.
The three championship teams he played on, led by Larry Bird, weren’t overly reliant on one style of play, he said.
“We were never caught out of rhythm with Larry [Bird], because if Plan A wasn’t working, he went to Plan B,” McHale said. “And if Plan B wasn’t working, he went to Plan C. If C wasn’t working, he went to D. It wasn’t, ‘I’m just going to do what’s not working.”
“If I came out and made my first three 15-footers, I wasn’t going to come out and battle everybody in the paint and get beat up. I was going to shoot my 15-footers and have a good time. If that wasn’t working, I’d say, ‘Here we go.’ And I’d pump fake, drive to the hole, get fouled, and get hammered, because there were no flagrants. I wasn’t going to do what wasn’t working.”
McHale highlighted Tatum and Brown’s abilities to score from the elbows and said he hopes that the duo will stay together. They’ve played together for almost a decade and won a title in 2024.
With Banner 18 hanging in the rafters, McHale hopes Brown and Tatum will both be around long enough to raise Banner 19.
“They got one, and I’d love to see those guys get another one,” McHale said. “But it ain’t easy, I promise you that.”
Khari A. Thompson
Khari Thompson covers professional sports for Boston.com. Before joining the team in 2022, Khari covered college football for The Clarion Ledger in Jackson, Miss.
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