The one problem no one anticipated would be a huge issue this season for the Celtics

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Jaylen Brown acknowledged on Friday what most of us who have followed his NBA progression already knew.

Something wasn’t right.

While he may be back physically after missing time after a positive Covid test earlier this month, his body is still adjusting.

We saw the same thing with Jayson Tatum when he returned to action after his positive Covid-19 test last season.

So we have a better idea of what’s up with Jaylen.

But that doesn’t help explain why the rest of the team has been so widely inconsistent when it comes to effort, the one thing first-year coach Ime Udoka spent much of the preseason harping on.

In the home opener against Toronto, the Raptors crushed Boston 115-83.

After the loss, the team’s pitiful effort was an unavoidable topic of discussion which included Udoka talking about how the Raptors, “came out and punked us, outplayed us, played harder than us.”

And mind you, this is a Toronto team that’s likely to be among the worst in the NBA this season.

It is way, way too early to be talking as much about effort as we have had little choice to do, thus far.

There are times when conversations about a team’s effort may seem like nitpicking.

This ain’t one of those times!

Boston players, coaches, fans, everyone is talking about this team’s effort because more than anything else, it is that lack of consistent effort that's losing them games.

And if it continues, it’ll become the identity that will define who this team is which means changes are likely on the horizon.

Brad Stevens, now the team’s President of Basketball Operations, wasn’t one to panic when he was the team’s head coach when things didn't go as planned.

That isn’t likely to change in his new, more powerful role.

But there’s no doubt that Stevens has to find what he has seen thus far this season disturbing when you consider he saw a lot of this up and down effort stuff last season when he coached most of these players.

But there’s no doubt that Stevens has to find what he has seen thus far this season disturbing when you consider he saw a lot of this inconsistent effort stuff last season when he coached most of these players.

You would want to just shrug it off as one of a handful of things that need to be improved upon.

But this is a bigger, more problematic issue.

Not only because it has been an issue in the past, but because it has elevated to being a central issue that's significantly impacting the bottom line: winning games.

After having been around this team for more than a decade, I can’t recall there ever being a season that began with Celtics players being serenaded by a chorus of boos in the first two games of the season.

Celtics Nation can accept a team that doesn’t have the talent to compete for a championship right now.

They've seen plenty of those.

They can even deal with a team that underachieves.

But poor effort?

Not happening.

We know effort more than anything else, is what’s problematic with this Celtics team.

And if this team continues to commit the same basketball sins from a year ago, like last season, this season will be yet another one that will fall short because of their own undoing and ability to provide the one thing they can control night-in, night-out - effort.