Don't get me wrong, I really loved Bradley, and Crowder, and I do love Horford.
But the reality is, for much of last season, our offense ran solely on Isaiah's scoring. It become a thing where the Celtics heavily relied on Isaiah needing to score at least 25 daily (or more like 30+) just to have a chance to win games, and whenever Isaiah struggled, so did the team (usually leading to some bad, blowout losses).
And again, I say this with due respect to Bradley, Crowder and Horford, but they aren't the most consistent scoring threats either. Yes, Bradley could score 20-25 some nights, but then it seemed like every few games he'd have a bad game on offense and it would affect the team. Same with Crowder, and Horford.
Many times, whenever Isaiah was struggling, this team really had no go-to guy to go to in terms of scoring. They just lacked a legit #2 scorer. AB occasionally stepped up, so did Crowder and Horford, but not consistently.
It took a HERCULEAN effort just to escape Cleveland with a Game 3 win without Isaiah, and as great as that win was, you saw in the next 2 games, when everything averaged out again, the team had a horrid 2nd half in Game 4 (poor shooting w/o Isaiah) and lost, then got blown out of the waters in Game 5 (another game where the guys who needed to step up just couldn't on offense, without Isaiah of course).
But NOW, the Celtics have Kyrie Irving AND Gordon Hayward, Irving capable of scoring 25-30 PPG daily, AND Hayward who can score 20-25 PPG daily. Add to that, Morris who is capable of scoring 15 PPG and Tatum who is a LEGIT scorer (where we had/have doubts about the shooting ability of Smart and Brown, NOT with Tatum. He is a GIFTED scorer), and this team finally has multiple, consistent scoring threats and when one guy struggles, this team may not miss much of a beat with multiple guys who are capable.
And the difference is, Kyrie is taller and it will be hard to double just Kyrie, since now it will be "pick your poison" with Hayward and Tatum as well. And as much as I hate seeing IT go, when teams clamped on IT, his size was unfortunately a hindrance in that regard and that basically took him out of games (look at the Cleveland series). It will be hard to do that vs. Kyrie.