One thing I observed was that Gil himself had an out-of-character number of turnovers; he was dispossessed too many times, a number of times poached from behind. And then, most times he never tried to pursue, instead standing still with arms in the air (that gesture for me evokes our old friend Lekic to an extent, haha) >> To me, it very much looks like he's still finding form after being away from game-speed for months. Gil losing possession on his own significantly amplifies some of the intrinsic problems with this team - inability to string together cohesive multi-pass possessions and the (resulting(?)) difficulties in finishing chances and tendency to give up counters. His ability to hold and possess and find space and shield while waiting for teammates to move/present often dampened the problems; when he's not at his best and his calming affect is removed from the equation, the problems are exacerbated.
Thanks for noting this. I had thought during the match that a few were just physical errors, but more Gil's missed passes fell into two categories: 1) The "cute" slip through pass right at the top of the box (lots of our playmakers do this, and our opponents have taken to lining up a more than usual number of defenders at the 18 to stop these plays). 2) Passes to teammates who weren't where he expected them to be -- not bad passes, necessarily, but a bad read on where the recipient was or was going. There was one I remember in particular in the 2nd half where he touched the ball nicely to an open left wing -- unfortunately, totally open, as Buttner wasn't there. If teammates aren't where Gil expects them, by default, I give the fault to the teammates (sort of like when Tom Brady throws to a spot where a receiver should have been).
I agree on your first point, but have to disagree with your characterization of the Tommy Heinsohn NBA color analyst era as disastrous. On the contrary, I think he revolutionized that role by being audacious and entertaining. I loved watching games he was doing.
Just to clarify, I was speaking of his national work for CBS in the 1980's (and in re-reading, I realize that I didn't make that clear), not his work as a Celtics color announcer. He was the same guy on national broadcasts as he was on local, and that didn't play well with the rest of the country. Also, really poor timing on my part to use him as an example (I learned of his passing a couple of hours later and was past time to edit my post).