Boston veteran Al Horford turned the clock back this season to play a key role in propelling the Celtics to the Finals. Photo: Getty Images.
The Boston Celtics’ season was a rollercoaster.
They lost their long-time GM Danny Ainge, replacing him with former head coach Brad Stevens – a rookie GM who, himself, was replaced by a rookie coach in Ime Udoka.
What looked like a season of transition was seemingly confirmed when the Celtics sat at 18-21 just after Christmas.
From there, though, the team made a remarkable turnaround.
Behind a devastating defines led by eventual Defensive Player of the Year Marcus Smart (though his campaigning would have impressed even the most cynical politician), the Celtics shot to second position in the Eastern Conference standings with a 51-win season.
The Celtics made the NBA Finals, losing to Golden State, and they did it the hard way: beating Brooklyn, Milwaukee and Miami – all extremely difficult opponents.
There is a feeling of missed opportunity to the Cs’ season, though stepping back it’s clear to see that this has been a year where the team has far exceeded expectations.
How can it build upon this brilliant campaign?
The roster
As one might expect from an NBA finalist, this roster is in rude health.
‘Official wise old head’ Al Horford aside, the team’s top 10 players by minutes played were all under 30, with only back-up big Daniel Theis knocking on that particular door.
Ainge’s fingerprints are all over this side, with only Theis and Horford (both favourites of Stevens the coach) and Derrick White brought in by the new regime.
The Celtics are led by their dynamic young wing pairing of Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown, selected with back-to-back No.3 picks in 2017 and 2016 respectively.
Between them, they’re good for about 50 points a night along with a swathe of other counting stats, all whilst providing stellar defence.
When playing alongside the rest of Boston’s starting five – Horford, Smart and Robert Williams – the Celtics enjoyed a league best 95.5 defensive rating.
Smart was wonderful this season. You can debate the merits of his Defensive Player of the Year award, but that shouldn’t take away from the fact that he is probably the best defensive guard in basketball and unlike the Kris Dunns and Gary Payton IIs of the world, Smart is a decent offensive player as well.
He’s still an average shooter, but that is still a stark improvement on what he was even 24 months ago.
Williams is the key to Boston’s defensive scheme. His ability to guard inside, switch onto perimeter players and act as a roaming deterrent allows the rest of Boston’s players to focus on their singular assignments. He put up career-high numbers across the board.
Williams was mentored by the cerebral Horford, who enjoyed a renaissance of sorts in his 15th season and thrived in a complementary role at both ends of the floor, as opposed to his past few seasons in OKC and Philly, where he was asked to do too much.
Behind that fantastic five is a solid bench led by Grant Williams, Payton Pritchard and White, who impressed after coming over from San Antonio mid-season.
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Team needs
Clearly, this Celtics line-up is impressive, though the white light of the playoffs – in particular the Finals – poked some holes in the Celtics fabric.
Their starting five is perhaps the best in the NBA, but behind them there are some issues. Put bluntly, the Celtics need to improve their depth pieces.
Robert Williams’ game-to-game effectiveness seemed to rest solely on the pain in his knee, and when he was hobbled, the Celtics struggled mightily.
Horford turned 36 through the Finals and can’t really be relied upon to step into a larger role at this point of his career.
Theis is a nice player who is capable in spot minutes, but there was a reason that he wasn’t sighted in the Finals, though.
Grant Williams is tough as nails and a capable shooter but he’s not all that multiskilled and despite his raw strength is undersized at the four.
The Celtics desperately need frontcourt depth.
They could do with some auxiliary scoring from the wing, as well. Aaron Nesmith didn’t impress this writer collegiately and has done nothing in his short time as a pro to suggest he’s anything more than a situational player.
Backing up Smart, Pritchard is a fine shooter but where he’s found wanting is staying in front of quicker point guards and in running an NBA offence.
That second issue is perhaps mitigated by always having one of Tatum or Brown on the floor, but Pritchard would want to develop his playmaking, all the same.
The cap sheet
As things stand, Boston will pay a little over $151 million for 13 players, though that’s on the assumption that the team options on five players are picked up.
Sam Hauser and Juwan Morgan are nothing more than replacement-level depth pieces but may be kept around if they agree to minimum deals.
Nesmith and Pritchard will be on the third year of their rookie deals and with team options for both 2023 and 2024, the Celtics can afford to be patient when assessing both players.
Grant Williams is a different matter because he’s a potential restricted free agent after next season. Whilst he’s slowly but surely established himself as an important member of Boston’s rotation, there are still varying opinions on how much he’s worth in the open market.
The bellwether could be Williams’ outside shooting. As a rookie he shot just 25 per cent from beyond the arc, increasing that to 37.2 last season and a scorching 41.1 this time around.
Those are three very divergent figures and whichever one proves to be indicative will go a long way to dictating how much Williams gets paid on his next deal.
If this writer was running the Celtics, well they would probably be a laughingstock so thank your lucky stars Cs faithful. But if this writer was deciding on Williams’ extension, the Celtics would wait and sign him after next season when his value would be clearer, knowing that you have matching rights to any external offers he may court.
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