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As packed on paper as any team outside Oakland, the Celtics are theoretically built to contend both now and later. But as this head-scratching season draws nearer to its conclusion, it's getting harder to envision this group doing either.

The current forecast calls for the doom and gloom of unpredictability. Any time you try to trust this team, it gives you a new reason not to do so. It has five double-digit losses since the All-Star break, including one to the Chicago Bulls and another to the Brooklyn Nets. Those are damaging enough for a group fighting to host a first-round series, but they're evidence of fatal flaws for a club hoping to contend.

"This time of year, it's not as much about winning games as it is about winning with a style of play that's universally accepted by all the players on a team," NBC Sports Boston's A. Sherrod Blakely wrote. "And far too often, this Celtics team looks disjointed on the floor, showing a lack of connectivity that again, a team with this level of talent this deep into the season, shouldn’t be experiencing."

The Shamrocks appear considerably worse than the sum of their parts, and fixing that might be impossible this close to the finish line.

So, if this core can't win now, when might that change? Maybe never, honestly.

Kyrie Irving's future is up in the air. Jayson Tatum has been constantly connected to Anthony Davis trade talks, and the former No. 3 pick may not mind that. Free agency looms as a possible poacher of Al Horford (player option), Terry Rozier (restricted) and/or Marcus Morris (unrestricted). Jaylen Brown is stagnating and frustrated about it. Gordon Hayward is fighting against time to prevent his contract from becoming an albatross.

Perhaps Boston takes this information and sees it as motivation to reform its nucleus. It might have the strongest AD trade offer of anyone, and the single-browed superstar could put a title (or more) within reach. Or if the front office gets a bad feeling about Irving's future, it could keep its draft capital and build a long-term blueprint around some combination of the newcomers, Tatum, Brown and/or Rozier.

But none of that moves the needle for the current core, which was supposed to be the surest thing in the Eastern Conference but looks nowhere close to its potential.