The Celtics Just PROVED It Was All Worth It…

The Celtics Just PROVED It Was All Worth It…

I know it’s still pretty early in the year but the Boston Celtics to me appear to be the championship favorite like there are other teams certainly In Contention obviously you have to pay attention to Denver and to Milwaukee and Philadelphia and all these other teams but the Boston Celtics look like the top

Tier Contender the number one team in the league to me right now in terms of Championship status and it’s really interesting how they got there now with the Celtics of course you can talk about the Drew holiday and Chris porzingis trades from this offseason and we’re going to talk about those but it’s

Important to go even further back than that because arguably the most impactful move that they made was way before that arguably this team is currently constructed with Jaylen Brown and Jason Tatum on the same team wouldn’t have existed without this move when you go back to the year that the Celtics made

The finals about halfway through the year not too long before the trade deadline they were a pretty average team they had started to win some games in a row but they were still right around 500 and they made this trade that I honestly didn’t understand at the time and that

Was Derrick White they brought in Derrick White they gave up their first that year protected future first and some contracts and I was like okay they definitely needed another guard but I’m not really seeing what’s happening here with the drik white situation and he joins the team they’re the best team in

The league by far in the second half of the year they make the finals they almost win the title and if they don’t make that Derek white trade there’s no guarantee that the improvements that they had made prior to the trade the handful of games prior of the trade

Would have continued and at that point in time when they made the Dereck white trade there were real conversations being had about the possibility of splitting up Jason Tatum and Jaylen Brown and moving Jaylen Brown to a new team he was going to need new contract

And it just felt like that whole era had kind of run its course and then like four months later the Celtics were two wins away from winning the title and that move sets up everything else that happens after it and of course in this off season they they make some changes

After a very weird postseason run last year they move on for Marcus Smart which feels like this uh this this foundational piece to this a of Celtics basketball they move on from him they bring in Chris abs porzingis and then shockingly have an opportunity to bring

In Drew holiday and this is where I’m at right now with Boston if they’re healthy which is obviously a big if because both Drew holiday as well as Chris porzingis Al Horford a lot of the different pieces on the roster at times have had injury issues throughout their careers

Especially recently if they’re healthy if they’re good to go I don’t really see a team that competes with them at full strength Boston’s A+ game Denver’s close a handful of other teams are close but if they’re making shots and they’re playing well and they’re healthy that’s the team and obviously part of the

Reason that they’re there when they weren’t like that last year is because of the moves they made bringing in Drew holid bringing in christs porzingis and they’ve both been unbelievably impactful I mean porzingis health is always going to be the issue and the concern for him

But the size that he provides them in the front Court along with the spacing ability the defense all that stuff is a perfect fit for the way the Celtics play and he has gotten better like one of the issues with KP uh towards the end of his

Tenure in New York when he was in Dallas was he was basically just a perimeter player he never punish mismatches and he got better at that in Washington but one of the risks that Boston took when they traded for him was if that was going to continue if his post T Improvement was

Going to continue and he’s been a really good post player this year which is important for them because the only real way you can guard Boston is to switch everything because the amount of shots that they get up from the three-point line and then all of a sudden you’re

Left with christs porzingis in the middle of the floor against a smaller player and he’s been able to punish that and then Drew holiday is the upgrade that they never should have been able to make like Drew holiday is the guy that they never should have been able to

Bring in this offseason the only reason it was possible was because Milwaukee made the relatively surprise move for Dam Lillard and to me that’s something that could potentially shift the championship Chase like Milwaukee traded for Dame thinking it was going to improve their championship chances and it might have actually helped Boston

More Than it helped Milwaukee and basically the point of this video is 35 games through the season like obviously there there’s still a long way to go and there’s still a lot of things to be decided but from a competitive standpoint if Boston’s right if they’re healthy if they play their A+ game

They’re the number one team and it’s it’s kind of close close but it’s way further away than honestly I thought it would be coming into the year and the thing that really sets them apart is there’s a lot of like redundancy built into what their like a or a minus game

Could look like because there are plenty of games where Jaylen Brown just doesn’t play well and he turns the ball over he takes questionable shots and they still find a way to win because they’re just like okay well today’s going to be the Derrick White game then Derrick White’s

Going to get to run all the ball screen stuff and then we’re going to score that way if Derrick White’s having an off game if he’s not healthy then okay we’re just going to post up Jason Tatum that’s what they did against Detroit when they almost blew that game they started the

Second half and they just posted up Tatum six possessions in a row and cut the lead from 18 or 19 or whatever down to one in like a span of seven minutes if they’re missing shots that’s obviously the the the concern for them is they’re so heavily relying on the

Three-point shot that it introduces variant which is how you end up down 19 against Detroit at halftime it’s also how you end up cutting that lead uh you know so quickly and ending up winning that game that’s going to be the thing that people are going to continue to

Point to is one the coaching it’s still something that a lot of Celtics fans are concerned learned about in terms of timeout usage and all this stuff although it’s been a little better this year not the timeout stuff but the general coaching stuff um and then the the Reliance on the three-point shot

Those are the two limiting factors in addition to injuries uh to Boston’s championship chances but I I I firmly like truly believe that if they can kind of check all those boxes it’s their title to win and the path that they took to get there really is incredible I mean

It’s so easy to see now why the Derrick White move made sense and why the Drew holiday and the Chris poring moves made sense but like this is a team that 2 and a half years ago was on the verge of of collapse they were in their first year

With M udoka as their head coach there was a lot of stuff being said publicly around the team about how they weren’t Tough Enough and and all these different issues that were happening within the team and I’m not kidding like I mean I was making videos I was talking about

You know Jaylen Brown to the Kings could they do this could they could they do that um and weirdly you could kind of argue that they’re they’re almost better at times without Jaylen Brown and obviously the contract but that’s you know that’s a whole different conversation to get to where they are

Now is is nothing short of incredible and honestly the number one thing that kind of separates them and differentiates them is all the other good teams around the league there there’s a matchup thing that you could foresee them them having issues with right Denver obviously winning the title

Last year they’re going to get the benefit it out the entire season but sometimes they struggle with some of these quicker guards in the back court um as well as obviously like jic isn’t some kind of outstanding Defender at the five so some of the ball screen combinations they can really struggle

With and against a certain matchup where team shooting the ball really well that can be a concern for them Philadelphia is really really good but extremely extremely reliant on drol and beid offensively we saw that in the games in which he didn’t play they played well

And scored well in some of them but other times their offense just completely bogged down that’s a concern for them Milwaukee their perimeter defense is amongst the worst in the league right now I’m not kidding like they don’t have per Defenders on the roster they don’t if they were in a

Playoff series tomorrow against Boston I don’t know who they would put on anybody to guard anybody I know that they’re waiting on some guys to come back and get healthy but even fully healthy I just don’t see their perimeter defense being on the level that it needs to be

And then there’s a handful of other teams around the league you know Minnesota’s really good but all of these teams have issues with a certain kind of matchup because of the way their rosters are constructed but Boston’s the only team that I see that can play in all

These different ways they can play bigger they can play smaller they can prioritize three-point shooting they can post you up the only issue I’m going to be honest like we talked about injuries and coaching and all this other stuff let’s just say let’s just hypothetically say it’s game six of the finals they’re

Up 3-2 they’re at home they’re up four with 3 minutes left is is that going to be a spot where someone like Jason Tatum or Jaylen Brown delivers they’ve been good at times in the postseason they’ve had a ton of postseason success but at some point if you’re going to win the

Title you have to get to that that top top tier level you’re best player does I should say joic did it Giannis did it Steph of course uh has done it at times as well as that whole team um at times for Golden State we need to see that

From Tatum because as good as their roster is as good as they are defensively versatility three-point shooting all that stuff that’s still is definitely a question mark but for me I know this has been kind of like a ranty video but like this is how I feel about

Boston as I just think about them and I think they almost feel inevitable as the representative in the Eastern Conference in the NBA finals and that’s a really rare feeling to have about a team you know before the halfway point of the Season things could always change other

Teams could make moves at the deadline to kind of close the gap Boston obviously could have issues during the season but based strictly off the Derrick White trade the Drew Holiday trade the Chris porzingis trade a relative overhaul of this roster around Jason Tatum and Jaylen Brown I feel extremely confident about Boston’s

Championship chances right now

The Boston Celtics have taken years to build a championship contender, and now with Jayson Tatum, Kristaps Porzingis, and Jrue Holiday… they are unquestionably the best team in the NBA.

#celtics #bostonceltics #nba