Boston Celtics: 3 biggest challenges facing Ime Udoka as new head coach

Boston Celtics: Find the best combination of veterans and young players

One of the first big moves by Brad Stevens as the front office big man was trading Kemba Walker to the Oklahoma City Thunder for Al Horford and young big man Moses Brown.

He then traded Brown to the Dallas Mavericks for Josh Richardson.  Another priority was to trade Tristan Thompson and that was accomplished in a deal that initially brought Kris Dun and forward Bruno Fernando to Boston.  Dunn was then traded to the Oklahoma City Thunder for Juancho Hermangomez.

Along with the free agent signings of Enes Kanter and Dennis Schröder, the Boston Celtics head coach now has a new mix of veterans and young players to add to the core lead by Tatum, Brown and Smart.

At the same time, each of those acquisitions should help the further growth of players like Robert Williams, Payton Prichard, Romeo Langford, Grant Williams and Aaron Nesmith.

It is the progression of those four players that could have the biggest impact on the upcoming season, and it will be up to Udoka to find the right mixes that helps those players grow, while at the same time creating chemistry with the players added.

Horford will help that process when he does return to the floor after being placed on Covid-19 protocol.  He will be that veteran leader the team has been missing since he left two seasons ago.  No knock on Kemba Walker, but Horford’s vocal leadership and the example he sets on the court through his play should benefit a young player like Robert Williams and also Grant Williams who models his game off of Horford.

In all, it is a nice mixture for Udoka to work with.  Without injuries or Covid-19 getting in the way, his challenge will be to find the right groupings at the right time.  This of course leads to his biggest challenge.