Boston Celtics' Biggest Red Flags Entering 2014-15 Season

The Boston Celtics have quite a few red flags that are holding up any sort of positive predictions about their 2014-15 NBA season.

With major turnover the past two offseasons, this is a rather unfamiliar team to fans and players. That certainly means some growing pains, but Boston's problems may extend beyond that. There are holes in their depth chart and skill sets, along with a few other glaring issues.

Until head coach Brad Stevens and his crew can lower these red flags to replace them with green ones, the message should be to swim with extreme caution around this season.

Lack of Interior Defense

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A major issue with the 2013-14 Boston Celtics was a dearth of legitimate size in the paint. The team was forced to give the majority of its frontcourt minutes to undersized bigs like Jared Sullinger, Brandon Bass and Kris Humphries. 

The upgrade Boston is hoping took place was a trade for 7-footer Tyler Zeller. With Kris Humphries signing elsewhere as a free agent, his spot opens up for Zeller to fill. While the younger newcomer is certainly a taller player, an argument can certainly be made that this is a lateral move at best. Humphries played well for the Celtics last year and Zeller hasn't proved much in his two NBA seasons.

Even with the addition of Zeller, Boston will have to lean toward starting Kelly Olynyk at center alongside the grounded 6'9" Jared Sullinger. That duo is Boston's most talented option, and also the one it has the most riding on with first-round draft picks being used.

While Olynyk does stand at 7'0" as well, he is hardly the defensive presence that a team looks for to play in the middle. He is more of a creative and finesse offensive option.

Year 2 of his career will likely bring forth some improvements. We've seen Olynyk be a little more sure-footed in the preseason, willing to take charges and generally being in the way on the defensive end. Still, that won't be nearly enough against the league's top offenses.

Zeller is a bit more of a sturdy and strong player in the paint, but he is just as inexperienced and is learning a new system with his new team. As a group, the Celtics frontcourt will do little to cause concern among their opponents. They don't necessarily have to be game-planned for at this point, and that is a major red flag.

Lack of Perimeter Shooting

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The Boston Celtics' three-point shooting woes have been pretty well-chronicled thus far. This issue would appear to continue into the 2014-15 season as well.

As a team, Boston shot a 27th-best 33.3 percent from beyond the arc last year, a fairly ghastly number considering its 21.1 attempts per game put them 18th in the league.

Of substance returning, Avery Bradley is really the only player who had an above-average year from downtown, shooting 39.5 percent on 3.3 attempts per game. Kelly Olynyk shot a respectable 35.1 percent, but on just 1.6 attempts per game. Elsewhere, Jeff Green was a decent 34.1 percent, but shot an enormous 4.8 threes a night.

Perhaps ignoring this issue, the Celtics have added Marcus Smart—a career 29.5 percent three-point shooter in college—through the draft. They signed free agent Evan Turner, a career 32.6 percent three-point shooter. They will also presumably continue to back Jared Sullinger's three-point crusade (26.9 percent on 2.8 attempts per game).

Now, according to The Boston Globe's Frank Dell'Apa, Brandon Bass (2-of-21 on threes in his nine-year career) is likely joining in on the gunning fun.

Together with a point guard in Rajon Rondo who shot three threes per game last season, hitting a measly 28.9 percent of them, this could balloon into a major issue. Clanked threes mean long rebounds and easy transition situations for opponents. Taking and missing a lot of long-range shots is the easiest way to get behind quickly.

The additions of Marcus Thornton (career 36.1 percent) and James Young (82-of-235 on threes as a freshman at Kentucky) will definitely help, but it is still unclear how many minutes those two guys will get.

Youth

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Youth is generally a necessary byproduct of a rebuilding situation, and the Boston Celtics are no different.

On their predicted 15-man roster, the Celtics should have seven players—Jared Sullinger, Kelly Olynyk, Tyler Zeller, Phil Pressey, Vitor Faverani, Marcus Smart and James Young—who have two or less years experience in the NBA.

Avery Bradley is the second-longest tenured Boston Celtics player, behind Rajon Rondo, and he has just 205 regular-season games to his credit. Even Evan Turner, playing on his third NBA team, was drafted the same year as Bradley.

Boston's young team is going to be more exciting to watch than an aging team on their last legs, but it is still a red flag that not many members of this squad have much NBA experience. Rajon Rondo and Brandon Bass are really the only ones to ever experience any major level of success in the league. 

That inexperience could lead to any multitude of things, including locker room problems, which could be a real concern for Boston this season. There are a lot of individuals with a lot on the line, and if youthful immaturity starts making waves, the season and rebuild could go belly-up before it ever gets a chance to really get going.

As of Oct. 22, 2014, the 14 Boston players expected to make the team (leaving out newly acquired Will Bynum) have an average age of 24.92 years old. Not to mention the team's second-year head coach, Brad Stevens, has just 82 games of NBA experience and is still just six years older than Gerald Wallace (38 years old).

Trade Rumors

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Trade rumors are something that can be both a cause and a result of red flags.

Consider the red flag that Rajon Rondo may not necessarily want to go through a rebuild as his 29th birthday rapidly approaches and he makes his way back from an ACL injury and broken hand. Despite everything he has said publicly to the contrary, losing eats at him—and these Boston Celtics could stand to do a lot of losing in 2014-15.

This will only fuel more trade rumors, both from legitimate sources and not so legitimate ones. In turn, those rumors feed more distractions to a young team that needs to focus on their jobs and getting better while learning to play with and off of one another. The trade rumors become a distraction, which hoists up another red flag to the rafters, right next to all of those championship banners and retired numbers.

This isn't to pick on Rondo or call him a distraction by any means. These trade rumor red flags could be raised for a variety of Boston's roster. Jeff Green could be on an expiring contract and hasn't lived up to expectations. Brandon Bass is a similar veteran on an expiring deal. Even some of Boston's younger guys shouldn't be exempt if the right package comes along.

Trade rumors are a necessary evil in the NBA world. With a general manager like Danny Ainge, who isn't shy about wheeling and dealing, they are an even bigger part of that world than many would prefer. 

Health

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A major red flag for nearly every team in the NBA is health. Once again, the Boston Celtics will not be exempt from these concerns. In fact, they likely have more cause for worry than most other franchises.

Boston's best player, Rajon Rondo, is currently working to mend a broken hand suffered earlier this preseason. While slipping in the shower is a freak accident, Rondo hasn't really played a full season since 2009-10, and that has to be a concern.

An ACL injury halved his 2012-13 and 2013-14 seasons, but before that he was sidelined for 13 games in the lockout-shortened 2011-12 season and missed 14 games the year before that. With Rondo's availability still up in the air for Boston's opener, can the team really expect 75-plus games from him anymore?

Then there is his backcourt mate Avery Bradley, who couldn't play in 22 games last year and 32 the year before. In 2011-12, he played 64-of-66 regular-season games, but then was missing in the postseason with an injury when Boston needed him most.

Jared Sullinger missed half of his rookie year with a back problem that was flagged predraft and caused him to fall deep enough that Boston could draft him. Rookie James Young missed all of summer league and has played in just one of a possible seven preseason games.

Reserve big man Vitor Faverani is out for eight weeks following knee surgery on Oct. 13, reports The Boston Globe's Gary Washburn. Gerald Wallace, another possibly important backup, had knee surgery and missed 24 games last season. He is now 32 years old and not the same athlete.

The list of concerns is lengthy, and that usually means that one spot is bound to break. In the cases of Faverani's knee and Rondo's hand, it has already begun.

Backcourt Continuity

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We just talked about the injury worries surrounding the Boston Celtics, especially with backcourt starters Rajon Rondo and Avery Bradley.

However, a separate red flag should be raised concerning their ability to play together.

Obviously two talented players should be able to make it work, especially with Brad Stevens clearly defining roles where Doc Rivers may have let them blur a bit. Also, we've seen Bradley improve his offensive game, particularly as a shooter, immensely. This is presumably so he can better play alongside Rondo as the team's starting shooting guard.

There is still cause for concern, though, as the duo is incredibly inexperienced in terms of logging actual minutes together. Both players have been under the Celtics' employ since Bradley was drafted in 2009. However, in terms of actual games played in the same jersey, that number is a measly 63. That is 63 out of a possible 312 regular-season contests. Ben Rohrbach of WEEI did the leg work on these numbers for part of his Asset Management series.

Of those 68 games, 33 came three years ago in the lockout-shortened season. The duo have played just 26 games together over the past two years, during which time they were supposed to be becoming Boston's backcourt of the future and leaders of a new era of Celtics basketball.

In reality, while there may be a bunch of awesome highlights floating around YouTube of Bradley and Rondo utilizing each other in fun ways, these two don't have the necessary experience together to ease concerns. This red flag is at the forefront of Boston's 2014-15 season. If these two can lower it together, then a lot more will feel right about the upcoming year. If not, the horizon is going to be a bumpy one.