The Impact of Ime Udoka's Season-Long Suspension In the Celtics' Summer Of Setbacks

The once bright future of the Boston Celtics is looking pretty hazy now with Ime Udoka's season-long suspension for violations of "team policies." It's the Green Team's latest turn for the worst.

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Since Ime Udoka came to Boston, he has never been one to shy away from making an impact.

But this is not what he or the Celtics had in mind.

Udoka, who led the Celtics within two games of an NBA title in his first year on the job last season, has been suspended for all of the 2022-2023 season.

Udoka's violation of "team policies" is reportedly related to a consensual relationship he had with a female employee of the Celtics.

Regardless of who folks want to blame for this happening, the bigger concern in Celtics Nation has more to do with how this is yet another blow to Boston's chances at hoisting the Larry O'Brien trophy at the end of this season.

Let's see...

Prized offseason pickup Danilo Gallinari suffered a torn ACL left knee injury and is expected to miss most of this season.

It was recently announced that Boston's most athletic and versatile big man, Robert Williams III, will undergo arthroscopic surgery on his left knee - the same knee he had operated on in March - and is expected to miss 4-6 weeks which likely means he'll miss a few early season games.

And now you have Udoka, whose motivational brand of basketball was a major key to the team's run to the NBA Finals, who will be out all season.

As much as Udoka's absence will impact Boston for this upcoming season, the Celtics need to be just as concerned with the long-term impact of him not leading the team.

Specifically, how is Udoka's departure this season going to impact Boston's two biggest stars, Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown?

Their experience around Udoka during Team USA Basketball was very much a factor in Boston hiring Udoka.

With Tatum and Brown potentially hitting free agency in the near future, Udoka's absence may lead to them greater consideration to taking their talents elsewhere when it's their turn in free agency.

And as we've seen with the Celtics, their best path towards basketball greatness is developing their own talent through the draft.

But the hub of that growth is Brown and Tatum.

The Celtics players must also brace for what will surely be a season filled with questions daily about Udoka and his absence and its impact on the team and the locker room.

And the crazy thing is, assuming he comes back next season to coach the team, it'll be a repeat of this upcoming season with many of the questions from the media on a regular basis, centered around Udoka's return and whatever sordid details emerge in the coming days and weeks.

That's why the suspension for the year doesn't make a ton of sense from a basketball standpoint.

If he violated team rules to the point where he's being suspended for the entire year, why not just go ahead and fire him?

There's the cost of paying him and the cost of paying a replacement to consider, for sure.

But is that price worth paying if it can limit or certainly shift the focus somewhat away from the organizational transgressions and avoid back-to-back years addressing this issue?

That's why a year-long suspension didn't make a lot of sense for the short and long-term future of the program.