As NBA scrambled to catch up, Celtics put faith in championship core
The Celtics are confident they are even better than last season, even after running it back with same group.
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As NBA scrambled to catch up, Celtics put faith in championship core originally appeared on NBC Sports Boston
While many of the Celtics’ primary rivals spent the past year making roster tweaks seemingly designed to counteract what the defending champions do best, Boston’s president of basketball operations Brad Stevens elected to do something even bolder in the modern NBA: He decided to simply run it back with his championship core.
As the Celtics prep for their next postseason adventure, their roster looks almost identical to a season ago. Svi Mykhailiuk, Oshae Brissett, and Jaden Springer have departed; Baylor Scheierman and Torrey Craig are the new faces. In a league that’s constantly changing, the Celtics were content to keep their top nine intact and challenge everyone else to catch up.
What gave Stevens the confidence to lean into this core?
“At the end of the day, you have to assess your team at the end of every year,” said Stevens. “And there are all kinds of factors, right? There are factors where you are in the aprons, now there are factors, certainly, of where you are in repeater taxes, and all of those things that come into play later on. But if you can look at your team and you’re able to bring back a team that is highly successful, with as elite of character, on and off the court as I’ve been around, [the decision to stay intact is a] no brainer.”
Celtics front office staffers have repeatedly marveled at Boston’s blend of not only elite basketball talent, but elite off-the-court character. Chemistry is off the charts and players embrace each other’s successes. The camaraderie of this group has kept everyone sane over the past 200 days, particularly when its loftiest goals can’t be achieved for another two months.
The Celtics will finish the season slightly below last year’s 64-win total. A year after finishing 14 games clear of their closest rival, Boston will almost certainly be the No. 2 seed looking up at the Cleveland Cavaliers. The Celtics’ scoring differential isn’t as glitzy as a season ago when it posted a top-five number all time, and the Oklahoma City Thunder might just bump Boston from that group with a historic mark of their own this season.
Still, Jaylen Brown has repeatedly suggested that these Celtics are better than a year ago when they steamrolled all their competition en route to Banner 18. Does Stevens believe this year’s team is better, too?
“I think the way we played at our best is [better] and that’s not a surprise because we’re all back, right?” said Stevens. “We haven’t had a full complement of guys for very many games this year … but I believe in where we can go and I think we can consistently get there fast. I do think the competition is better, all around the league, East and West. And, ultimately, we’re going to have to play really well to do what we did last year.”
Undeniably, it feels like Boston’s bench has improved. Payton Pritchard should be the Sixth Man of the Year after thriving in an elevated role. Luke Kornet, who rushed to re-sign with Boston on what now feels like a criminally low minimum-salary contract, has been one of the most efficient big men in the entire league. Sam Hauser, when not hindered by back woes, continues to be a 3-point shooting menace. Al Horford refuses to look like a player that will turn 39 during the NBA postseason.
Boston’s preferred starting five of Brown, Jayson Tatum, Derrick White, Kristaps Porzingis, and Jrue Holiday has played only 23 games together. More concerning: That group has a minus-0.4 net rating in 343 minutes together — a far cry from the plus-11 net rating that group carried in 623 regular-season minutes together last season. Stevens and the Celtics seem to believe that group can find its mojo quickly when the lights get bright.
The Celtics are further emboldened by the way they’ve thrived whenever they are shorthanded. Boston has leaned heavy into different play styles, like utilizing multiple double-big lineups that have produced some of the team’s best basketball. The Celtics seemingly have ways to counteract whatever its opposition does best.
The question is whether those rivals did enough to take away Boston’s strengths. Teams scrambled to add wing defenders that could help defend the likes of Tatum and Brown. The Knicks kicked off last summer with the big-swing addition of Mikal Bridges; the Cavaliers added De’Andre Hunter at the trade deadline.
Stevens believes this isn’t unusual and that teams routinely make changes based on the strengths of the NBA’s most successful squads.
“I don’t think this is specific to us. I don’t think we should make that bigger than what it is,” said Stevens. “Every team is always watching the last four teams play in late May and into June, and they’re deciding how they want to build their roster to combat those teams. I mean, that’s every year.
“And so last year was probably no exception than the other years that we’ve had success, other than we were the last one standing. So we’re used to that. We’re used to the standpoint of, everybody in this very competitive league is trying to get better all the time. And you do pay attention to who the last teams are standing to try to improve your own team.
“You’re also doing it from our standpoint with who you think the up-and-coming teams are. Who are some of the younger guys that look like they’re going to mesh and mold into those championship teams? As you think, not only the next couple of years, but down the line.”
But it’s telling that the Celtics didn’t need to make any tweaks of their own. The Celtics were downright dominant in their postseason run and they weren’t going to mess with a successful formula.
The Celtics are banking that another year of chemistry and cohesion will again differentiate this team on a big stage. The rest of the league may be better, but Boston feels like it is, too.
