It has become cliche that NBA championship teams are led by one or two guys who take over their team, especially in game 7's. Havlicek in the 70's. Bird and Magic in the 80's (with a cameo apperance by Cedric Maxwell game 6 in the 1981 championship series). Jordan in the 90's. Kobe, D Wade and LeBron now. The very element that made us a very successful regular season team, Ubuntu, is now seemingly at odds with the formula for a winning Celtic play-off team. This was in fact one of the major assertions in Bill Simmons' recent article in his ESPN blog.
Can we reconcile these competing philosophies? I think so. And it starts with Doc.
While he is right to emphasis staying within the team framework, he needs to choose his words more carefully. Instead of saying, "we don't need hero shots", he should say that we need all you guys to play like heros, and it starts with sticking with your roles. Perk, no more 10 foot jump shots from the baseline. Paul, stop trying to play point guard. Everyone, let's do this to get Ray Allen open for some open jump shots (insert game plan here).
Ultimately, we can find a game 7 hero through the team framework. If KG continues with the hot hand, keep feeding it. Ditto Pierce, Allen and Rondo. Let the game dicate who our hero will be.
