2018 NBA Season Preview Series: Boston Celtics

OK I’ve done a ton of these leading up to today. Hopefully you’ve enjoyed them as they take me a good amount of time and I know they can get long but you know what there are a lot of teams in the NBA that don’t get enough love on this website and it’s my responsibility to make sure those fanbases have something. But I need to be honest with you. I didn’t give a shit about any of those teams. As is tradition, I save the best for last and we have finally reached the point where we can talk about the only team that matters. The Boston Celtics. OK take a second and compose yourself, you’re going to be here awhile so before we get into it just rub one out real quick so you can have a clear mind. Worked for me. If you need a little visual help, that’s fine, let’s relive the best of last season to get the juices flowing.

2017-18 Season Highlights

Everyone all set? Good. As we enter the 2018-19 season, I think it’s fair to say there hasn’t been a level of hype surrounding a Celtics team since the 2007-08 season. And this is coming from someone who hyped the shit out of those years when this team only won 24 games. It’s an admitted sickness of mine, but I’m being serious about this team. Last year had hype sure, but there was a ton of unknown. Now we know just how awesome this team can be, and we’re adding two All NBA players to a team that had they not gone 0-10000 in Game 7 probably beat the Warriors in 6 games. Sorry maybe that’s the Kool Aid talking, they beat those chumps in 5. Anyway, what we have ourselves as fans of this team is the deepest roster in the East and arguably the entire NBA. Depth matters in the regular season and it’s one of the biggest strengths of this team. See for yourself

I’m not really sure what the league is doing with Jabari Bird, but let’s pretend that money will eventually off the books. At a total of $126,751,886 as it stands today, the Celts are owners of the 8th most expensive roster in the league, and frankly when you’re shelling out that kind of gelt you need to be a contender. Good news is not only is this roster filled with top end talent, but with an average age of just 25.3, they are going to be good for a verrrrrrrrry long time. You look up and down this roster you can see the strategy that Brad and Danny have been trying to build when this rebuild first started. Tons of lineup flexibility, tons of guys who can guard multiple positions and various players who you can run the offense through. They don’t conform to opponents, opponents are going to have to conform to them. How to do you prepare when you have no idea what wacky awesome lineup Brad is going to throw out? Beats me, and I don’t think the NBA has any idea either. You have guys like Daniel Theis who could probably start on at least half the teams in this league, and he’s like their 9th man. Just an embarrassment of riches that will be very important as we navigate our way through the grueling regular season. Now the haters, of which there are many, are going to try and cause shit by saying there’s no way Brad finds minutes for everyone. I have just one thing to say. Shut up. Don’t you worry about that. This team is all on the same page, sacrifices will be made and minutes will vary, that’s life. You know what cures all those issues? Winning. You know what this team is going to do? Win. End of discussion. I’m not talking about minutes or shots or any of that bullshit. It’s a non-issue.

But let me make myself CRYSTAL CLEAR to anyone reading this blog. This season is NOT going to be easy. In fact, it may be the hardest season we’ve seen this team play in a decade. This is not a team like GS that does not have flaws. The Celtics have a TON of them, and it’s just going to be a situation where they finally have enough talent to help make up for them. We have no idea how this team will respond to having a target on their back, and their preseason performance certainly didn’t give us anything positive. For example, I do not expect their second quarter issues to all of the sudden go away. It’s important we still remember who this team is. The Celts were 28th in second quarter scoring last year and shot 42.7% which was 29th. They are still going to be relying on guys like Terry/Marcus/Morris who are going to go on inefficient runs. There are going to be scoring droughts, that’s just how they play. Yes, having Hayward and Kyrie back will help because Brad will be able to stagger rotations to hopefully make those shifts less painful, but they are not going away completely. Do NOT expect this team to go all GS bukkake every night and never sweat it out. It’s just not who they are. Some of the most important rules you need to remember when it comes to this team are

A) This team is allergic to double digit leads

B) They refuse to make things easy. Ever.

I don’t care what the roster looks like. Please go into this season with those expectations. Take it from someone who watches a lottttttttttttttttttttttt of Celtics basketball. I may not know about many things in this world, but I know this team. This was still an offense that ranked 18th in the league last year. The Theory exists for a reason folks. As awesome as Gordon Hayward is, he’s going to be rusty for a few months. Again, just try and have the right expectations.

So why have a positive outlook? Because at the end of the day, in this league, when you combine a handful of top tier talent with elite coaching, good things happen. Yabu is still here. Everyone is healthy and motivated as shit given the epic collapse we all went through last May. Our own personal Boogie Man is out West, the door is wide open for a Celtics reign for the next decade. They are positioned well for the present and the future. These are all things other franchises in the East want to say but can’t. So let’s look at some positive signs shall we?

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Now that Kyrie is back and they have another playmaker available to them, you bet your ass we’re going to see some high level isolation basketball. While I may not love it, I can accept that the Celtics are really good at it and it’s become part of who they are. Last year they ran it 8.3% of the time (6th in NBA) and had the 5th best points per iso possession. They finished in the 83rd percentile and I expect this to be even better. Think of it like this, you have 5 shooters on the floor at all times. Legit, how many teams in the NBA can say they have the ability to throw 5 shooters out on the floor that average at least 39% from three? I feel like that’s a very, very short list. Why is this important? Because with no cowards in this lineup, defenses have to be honest. When that happens it creates driving lanes. That’s important because guess why? The Celtics shot 46% on drives last year and have some of the best finishers at the rim the league offers (as long as they dunk and don’t try layups cuz….well…you know). I’ll take my chances with open lanes for Kyrie/Tatum/Jaylen to slash and dunk on people’s faces and you should too. But here’s the thing, I need the Celtics to get back to moving the ball now that they have all these scoring weapons. Isolation is great, but in moderation. Celts were just 20th in assists last year and 13th in passes made a game with just 304. I need better ball movement guys and it’s sort of non-negotiable. Only 3 secondary assists a night is not going to cut it.

The beauty of this roster is they have so many players they can run an offense through. You want to play Kyrie off ball? OK great let’s just jump it to Horford and let him make the right play which he always does. Remember he catches the ball, you stop what you are doing immediately and you cut your ass to the rim. Celts were 25th in cutting frequency, and they have too good of athletes for this to be the case. Just watch Avery Bradley tape and get Jaylen those same looks. We saw it in the preseason and it was basically the only thing that worked. You want to run Hayward out of the P&R, I’m down because anyone + Horford in the P&R = basketball magic. He can pick and pop, he can set you a beautiful screen and if someone helps, RIP them.

The hard part will be making sure this team does not settle. You know what kills momentum? Long twos. This team cannot make those a regular part of their offense because like I mentioned, they are prone to go on cold streaks and then it fucks with them mentally on the defensive end. Too much talent and offensive firepower to settle for that bullshit. Get good looks, move the ball, and there’s literally nothing a defense can do.

The other reason I’m excited for this team is what happens on the defensive end. For years all Brad has cared about is being the best defensive team on the planet. He doesn’t care if you miss as long as you take a good shot, but you do NOT fuck around on the defensive end. He’ll pull you so quick it’ll make your head spin if you don’t get your shit together and it’s why I will take a bullet for him if I need to. Owners of the league’s best defense last year, this is possible because outside of GS, you will not find a team that switches everything as flawlessly as the Celtics do. The length, the understanding of the system, the intensity, it’s why the Celtics are the Celtics.

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I mean look at that! It brings me so much joy and there’s a reason it’s the backbone of this team’s success. You defend at a high level and combine it with this type of offensive talent, that’s how you play in June.

Even still, all this greatness does not mean there aren’t still questions. Just like we didn’t know how Tatum would respond to be thrown in as a starter, we do not know how he’ll respond to teams now making a real effort to stop him. The tape it out there and it’s up to him how he adjusts. I don’t care if his numbers are the exact same, we’ll be able to tell by watching if he’s getting better because of how he is able to counter defenses that are going to be more physical with him. Will Jaylen be the playmaker that we need him to be? How does his passing look, how do his handles look, are those two negatives that I now don’t have to worry about? I hope so. Again, it’s a different ballgame when every team treats you like GS of the East. When this is the biggest game on every opponents schedule, they come at you with a different mindset. Also, there’s real pressure on Brad too. At what point during this rebuild has he A) had this level of talent and B) this sort of expectations? People are penciling them into the Finals and we haven’t even tipped off yet. He’s gotten better every year, so that’s reassuring, but for the first time he’s going to face the classic negative Boston media if this team doesn’t show up and meet expectations. We haven’t had to see that yet.

But it’s a long year, plenty of time to worry about all that. For now, let’s just focus on the task at hand tonight. Reminding Philly that their Process is a joke and they are still one million miles away from being as good as their Twitter wants them to be. That we OWN them whether they want to accept that reality or not. After a brutal wait, Celtics basketball is officially back in our lives for the next 8 months. We did the hard part, we made it through the fake games and we can officially stop watching the same YouTube highlights over and over. This team is going to be good, maybe the best we’ve seen since that incredible 66 win year, and we ALL know what that led to.

LETS. FUCKING. GO.

Official Greenie Prediction: 62 wins