FanPost

The Boston Celtics have a chance to compete with the Golden State Warriors… as soon as now

I know what you are thinking. Call me a Green Teamer. Call me a blind optimist. I believe I’m seeing things a little more clearly than others, who appear to only be able to look through a narrow lens. With the rise of the Miami Heat, followed by the Cleveland Cavaliers and Golden State Warriors, I’ve heard many clichés coined to describe how to succeed as an NBA franchise. "You now need 4 or maybe 5 superstars to compete" is one I hear over and over again that drives me NUTS. It assumes that in a vacuum, you could put any handful of the league’s best players on the floor and they will beat any team that has less superstars on their side. While this can be mostly true, and teams with a bunch of superstars will certainly find a great deal of success, it is foolish to believe it as a full truth.

It is easy to forget a lot the recent successes of well-balanced teams in the past, say, 10-15 years. The mid-2000’s Detroit Pistons arguably had no ‘superstar,’ yet they made it to six straight ECF and two NBA championships, winning it all against a superstar Shaq-and-Kobe Lakers team in 2004. They won due to grit and hustle, and most importantly everyone knowing their role within Larry Brown’s system.

The Dallas Mavericks were a great team for many years, always having a great regular season record seemingly year-in and year-out. The year they finally won the NBA Championship (2011 against year one of the Big 3 Heat era), they sported a completely balanced team. Sure, Dirk was a superstar, but the rest of their lineup was filled perfectly by players that fit what head coach Rick Carlisle wanted to do. Jason Kidd was 38, but was the gritty distributor that team needed. Tyson Chandler was a defensive anchor, although never an offensive force. Shawn Marion was a do it all swingman/defender that was always underrated. They filled the roster with tons of useful players filling important roles - Jason Terry, JJ Barea, even Brian Cardinal! That team operated flawlessly and despite being short of the Heat in talent and/or superstars, they won the series.

The best example of team basketball, possibly ever, is the run that the San Antonio Spurs have sustained over the past 20 years. Yes, Tim Duncan was a "superstar", although an old-fashioned one when you consider today’s NBA. Manu Ginobili and Tony Parker were very good for a very long time, but never were considered max-level superstars. They filled out their successful teams with smart trades, free agent transactions, and draft selections. Kawhi was on the rise when the Spurs last competed in an NBA finals. They won with, you guessed it, excellent coaching and players to fill important roles.

I believe the Celtics have lined themselves up to be the next one of those teams, as soon as this season. They’ve created a great culture around this specific team. They have the coach in place to come up with game-plans to take on teams that have more raw talent. They have a GM that has now given that coach a deep belt of tools to work with, a belt that I believe has been shorthanded until this year. They have found players that aren’t world-beating superstars, they aren’t MVP candidates, but they are NBA All-Stars that fit Brad Stevens’ system to a tee. No, they don’t have the superstar/MVP talent that Cleveland or Golden State has. They don’t have a top-10 player. What they have is a plan, and that is exactly how teams like the Pistons, Spurs, and Mavericks found ways to succeed.

The Warriors are an extremely tough team. So are the Cavaliers. I’m not here to say that on paper the Celtics are better. I’m not here to say that I think they are any kind of favorite to win anything. A lot has to go right for this team to take it over the top, and they can’t afford for much to go wrong. What people seem to forget is that you can say that about every other team in the NBA, superstars or not. What if Steph Curry suffers a season-ending ankle injury in late April? What if Lebron’s looming free agency and chemistry issues with Kevin Love lead to a mini implosion in Cleveland? Danny has realistically set this team up to give a true run at this thing, and set it up so that the run has a chance to last for a very long time.

What bothers me is that people are content with writing this season off. "Well, I guess they are better this year, but they still aren’t touching the Cavaliers, and even if they can beat them they have no shot against the Warriors." I hear people like Jim Murray getting pissy on Sports Hub that this season will be a waste of time because the Warriors will just win it anyways. They think the answer is mortgaging their depth and future to acquire Anthony Davis (I can’t stand Gary Tanguay) to try and match star-power with Golden State. My argument is that this team has the potential to gel together in a way that can beat ANYBODY on any given night, and yes, that includes four times in a seven game span. They have a chance to make a serious run this year, then return mostly the same team next year for another run at it. This is a team that has hardly any issue with age, and will vastly improve from this year to next year just by keeping the same roster. With the new CBA in effect until 2023, the Warriors can keep their big 4 together for as long as they are willing to pay for it. They aren’t going anywhere. In my opinion trying to replicate what they’ve done isn’t just the wrong answer, it’s impossible. They were impeccably lucky with their timing to form the team they have today. The answer is to form a perfectly functioning unit, and out-prepare and out-coach the more talented team when the day comes. I believe this Celtics team has every chance to do that, and I’m not scared to admit that with pride.



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