FanPost

Why the Boston Celtics are Going to the Finals

The NBA is going to be awesome this year. This is a momentous era in basketball history. Of course there are the playoff mainstays: you have the reigning world champion Cleveland Cavaliers (Saying that still sounds weird), and the new most-hated-team-in-the-league, Golden State Warriors. I think that anyone that knows basketball and knows the NBA, knows that those are the two teams that are far and away the favorites this season.

And rightfully so, they were the the number one seeds in their respective conferences last year, and have ridiculously stacked rosters again this year. In fact, both teams will, in all likelihood, be better this season than they were last year, which is a very scary thought for the rest of the NBA, since we’re talking about the defending champs, and the greatest regular season team of all time.

Not only does the NBA have two all-time great teams, but we’re also going through a transition between eras. The last of the stars from the 2000s are retiring, Tim Duncan, Kevin Garnett, and Kobe Bryant retired this year, and Paul Pierce, Dirk Nowitzki, and Vince Carter are probably leaving the league soon as well. And while we live in the era of LeBron James, Steph Curry, Kevin Durant, and Kawhi Leonard you can also see the next wave of great players who are ready to take the league by storm: Karl Anthony-Towns, Ben Simmons, Giannis Antetokounmpo, and Kristaps Porzingis are just a few of those future all-stars.

I truly believe that the saturation of star power throughout the league, top to bottom, is unmatched in the history of basketball. The league is stronger than it’s ever been, and that makes for better basketball.

All of these young stars in the league have their young upstart teams who are ready to try and make the jump from the lottery, into the playoffs, or from the playoffs into championship contention. There’s the Timberwolves, Jazz, Raptors, Pacers, and more. The list could go on and on. And that makes the league interesting this year too. I love the fact that you have this declining old guard battling it out on the court with these rising young guns.

But it seems like it’s almost predetermined that the NBA Finals is going to end up being a rematch of the last two: Cavs and Warriors. And as exciting as it would be to see, a tie breaker series between these perennial superpowers, I don’t think it’s as much of a guarantee as a lot of people think.

And I want to focus on one team in particular, who I honestly believe has a pretty good shot of beating both the Cavs and the Warriors. And that team is the Boston Celtics.

I know, I know. I can feel your eye rolls through the internet. I hear you saying, "Here comes another know-it-all journalist with their ridiculous hot take just to get more clicks." And what you’re saying is only partially wrong, it is a hot take (Sizzling, if I do say so myself), and I do appreciate your clicks, but I actually, truly, honestly, really really do believe this. Just hear me out, and if you’re still not convinced that I have a point by the end of this article, then you can stop reading and I won’t mind at all.

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First of all, Boston had an awesome offseason. They added the second best free agent available in Al Horford, who also just happens to fit into the Celtics’ system perfectly. They also were strong contenders to sign the top free agent on the market, Kevin Durant. And while Durant took the easy way out and went to Golden State, just the fact that the Celtics were right there with some of the best teams in the league when it came to intriguing offers, is a good sign for where the team stands going into the future.

Boston also added the #3 pick in the draft, Jaylen Brown, to their roster. I think this kid is a stud. I can see him contributing right away with his size, athleticism and defense on the wing and then developing into a star player down the road. And for good measure, Boston also signed uber-athletic, 3-and-D wing, Gerald Green (Who is also now officially the oldest player on the Celtics’ roster at an ancient 30 years and eight months old), and re-signed center, Tyler Zeller, both off which add key depth to the team.

The only losses Boston had this offseason were them letting Jared Sullinger go to Toronto and Evan Turner being signed by the Trailblazers for an absurd amount of money, I think it was about $10.79 billion, or something in that ballpark. Losing Turner and his playmaking ability off the bench stings a bit, but the Celtics can replace his minutes with a combination of Brown and other players already on the roster. And Horford can take Sullinger’s spot in the rotation, and do the job about 100% better than Sullinger did.

If it weren’t for the Warriors’ offseason where they added Kevin Durant, to a starting lineup that already had 3 all-stars in it, people would be talking about the Celtics a whole lot more. But because the Warriors cast such a big shadow over the rest of the NBA this offseason, people almost didn’t even realize other moves that happened around the league.

But it is time to take notice, Boston was a 48-win team last year, and it probably would’ve been over 50 if not for injuries to Jae Crowder and Kelly Olynyk at the end of the season. So I think it’s not too far-fetched to think that this team can win at least 55 games this year.

It is literally unprecedented for a team to win as many games as the Celtics did last year, keep their main core of players, add the 3rd pick in the draft (along with the 16th, 23rd, 45th, 51st, and 58th), and add a perennial all-star. And on top of all that, they still managed to maintain salary cap flexibility, and retain all of their most important assets (They actually gained another future first rounder for 2019 from the Grizzlies for two second rounders in this year’s draft).

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Along with all these major additions that the team made in the offseason, the players that were and are already on the roster are just as important:

5’9" point guard, Isaiah Thomas, will look to improve his game even more after making his first all-star team last year, and will team up with Horford and the other Celtics bigs to form one of the most dynamic and diverse pick-and-roll attacks in the league.

Shooting guard, Avery Bradley, made the NBA’s All-Defensive 1st Team for the first time last season, and has his eyes set on becoming the first guard to win Defensive Player of the Year since the great Gary Payton won the award in the 1995-96 season.

Small Forward, Jae Crowder, might be the most valuable player on the squad due to his ability to play very well on both ends of the floor, his versatility to play the 2,3, or 4, and because he is the heart and soul of the team.

The Celtics’ big men are a very interesting group. Amir Johnson and Tyler Zeller are more traditional bigs, who play gritty defense and can be the screener in an effective pick-and-roll game. Their only problem is they don’t really score from beyond 15 feet. But luckily Kelly Olynyk and Jonas Jerebko are unique in the sense that they are 7’ and 6’10" tall, respectively, but they are both very effective from 3-point range, shooting 40% from that distance last season, which creates an option to space the floor while not giving up size that not many other teams have.

And the backup guards, Marcus Smart and Terry Rozier, are an extremely exciting duo. They are going into their 3rd and 2nd seasons in the league, respectively, and they are both extremely athletic and gifted defenders. Smart is much more proven than Rozier, but they both have the same aggressive mentality on defense. They’ll both look to improve their shooting after having difficulty knocking down shots last season (Through 4 games in the preseason they’re both shooting around 50% from the field, and while Smart has continued to struggle from behind the arc, Rozier has shot 55.6% from deep, continuing his hot shooting from the Summer League where he shot 45% from that distance). Rozier will be a regular in the rotation for the first time in his young career after Evan Turner’s departure for Portland.

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So after breaking down the Celtics’ rotation position-by-position, you can see how the team has quality players with varying skill-sets at each spot. But the most important aspect of the Celtic’s rotation is its versatility. Aside from Thomas and Zeller, every player on the roster has the ability to play and defend at least two positions, and in a lot of cases, even three or more.

And this is huge in today’s NBA, where there are pick-and-rolls and pops aplenty and there are more versatile offensive players than ever before. Defensive versatility is how you beat the superteams in the league (The Warriors and Cavs. Sorry Knicks fans, good try). For example, we all saw it in last year’s playoffs: The Warriors’ vaunted lineup of death of Curry, Klay Thompson, Harrison Barnes, Andre Iguodala, and Draymond Green that was so effective throughout the regular season and had led them to a record 73 wins, stalled often late in the postseason.

This is because when Golden State would run the pick-and-roll/pop against most teams, it would force help defense to come from the weakside, which in turn would lead the ball handler to kick it out to whoever’s man was helping for a wide open three. Or the other team wouldn’t help, leaving the ball handler’s man to try and fight over or under the screen, leaving the ball handler wide open for either a three or an open drive to the hoop, which is basically how Curry won last year’s MVP and hit a ridiculous 402 three-pointers. But against the Thunder and Cavs in the playoffs, Those offensive opportunities weren’t there, because OKC and Cleveland were versatile enough to simply switch on almost every screen that the Warrior’s set. Cleveland’s offense stalled the same way with this defense, without quite as severe of a dropoff because of LeBron and Kyrie Irving’s elite ability to take their man one-on-one to the basket.

This kind of switching defense is exactly what the Celtics can do at the highest level this year after replacing the plodding Sullinger with the spry and agile Horford. The Celtics can put pressure on ball handlers and big men alike, and nobody can match their level of constant defensive tenacity.

And that is what makes this team so fun to root for. That unrelenting, constantly-so-far-up-in-your-grill-that-it’ll-make-you-want-to-just-give-them-the-ball-so-that- they-will-leave-you-alone kind of defense. This is a tight knit group. The type of team that doesn’t come around too much anymore in our hot stove league. The core group is entering their 3rd season together and the newcomers have fit right in, with Gerald Green being called a "Zen-master", Horford being lauded for his on-court sense and knowledge along with his off-court connection with fellow Dominican Boston sports icon: David Ortiz, and Brown being a downright killer on the court.

I think the rookie Brown said it best back in June right after he was drafted, "I’m happy to be here and I’m gonna go to war for this city. I’m going to play with a lot of passion and leave it all on the floor every night... It's all about getting better and adding fuel to the flame. So now I'm here in Boston. Now I'm ready to rip somebody's head off."

And the entire team embodies that mentality; everybody has a chip on their shoulder, nobody has a ring, and they’re all trying to get one. That’s the kind of team who we should all want to see succeed. A team who sacrifices themselves for the greater good of the team. A team who brings the same insane energy night in, and night out, regardless of playing time, regardless of whether or not their threes are falling, and regardless of whether they’re up by 10 or down by 20.

Head coach, Brad Stevens, is the same way. Roaming the sideline solemnly, scanning the floor for an tactical advantage for his team. Even though it is only his 4th season coaching in the NBA, he is already one of the best coaches in the league. But in his mind, he’s still just a mid-major college coach trying to get his underdogs to the promised land.

It doesn’t matter if the other team has more talent, this team plays with the same fire in every single game. And that’s why they have a good chance to topple the best teams in the NBA, because while the other teams are playing soft, whining to referees, and dreaming of their legacies; the Celtics will be right there, up in their grill, scrapping and clawing away, putting it all out there, playing for the love of the game, playing for the wins, and playing for eachother.

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