The Boston Celtics may be finally ready to get over the NBA Championship hump.
The 2022 NBA season was quite interesting for the Boston Celtics. During the regular season, they were the best team in the league, winning a league-best 57 games and beating opponents by an average margin of 6.52 points per game. They were dominant on both sides of the ball, sporting a top-three offense and top-three defense, and they were one of three teams to rank top 10 in both offensive and defensive rating.
Historically speaking, championship-winning teams often sport top-10 units on both ends of the floor. In fact, it’s extremely rare to see a team win the championship if they don’t. Examples of teams who won the championship despite not having a top-ten offense or defense include the 1995 Houston Rockets, the 2011 Dallas Mavericks, and this year’s Denver Nuggets.
Considering this, it was extremely shocking when the Boston Celtics didn’t dominate their opponents in the playoffs and instead got eliminated in the Eastern Conference Finals after losing to the Eighth seed Miami Heat.
Are the Boston Celtics in a better spot to make an NBA Finals run this season?
After making the NBA Finals in 2021, this was a disappointing result of what had been an incredible season leading up to the playoffs. Now, the Celtics are left going back to the drawing board to see how and if they can finally reach the promised land. Let’s dive in and see whether or not they are ready to get over the hump and finally accomplish their goal of winning a championship.
Kristaps Porzingis changes the Celtics offensively and defensively
The Boston Celtics didn’t make a ton of moves this offseason, but they did make one huge transaction, sending Marcus Smart to the Memphis Grizzlies in a three-team trade, which got them Kristaps Porzingis and a couple of picks in return.
The fact that theCeltics traded a fan-favorite Marcus Smart is surprising, and it shows how far they are willing to go to improve their roster. Although Smart was beloved in the city of Boston, and his departure angered Celtics fans, this move was a no-brainer.
Kristaps Porzingis has had an up-and-down career up to this point, and he is an extremely polarizing player. However, the Celtics are getting an incredible big man who is coming off the best season of his career.
Last season, Porzingis averaged around 23 points, eight rebounds, three assists, and two blocks per game on 62.7% true shooting. He played for the Wizards, who were one of the worst teams in the league, so he didn’t get much attention for his high-level play. However, he had a fantastic season and was awesome on both ends of the floor.
Offensively, he is a skilled big man with many valuable skills, and one of his best qualities is his three-point shooting. Last season, he shot 38.5% from three on around six attempts per game. He was super effective on catch-and-shoot threes, and his combination of volume and efficiency allowed him to rank in the 93rd percentile in BBall Index’s perimeter shooting metric.
This is very important because the Celtics are likely going to start two big men, and at least one of them must be able to space the floor as a three-point shooter.
Porzingis is also a strong offensive rebounder and a decent playmaker. Last season, he had an offensive rebound rate of 6.2%, and 68.4% of his offensive rebounds were contested. He isn’t one of the best offensive rebounders in the NBA, mainly because he plays on the perimeter so often, but this is definitely one of his strengths, and this is a highly valuable skill.
Another great quality he has is his ability to create shots for his teammates. Porzingis is not an elite passer by any means, and his assist numbers have never been great. However, his scoring gravity is fantastic, and he is a good enough passer to punish defenses consistently when they overplay him on catch-and-shoot opportunities. This is a big reason why he created an estimated 5.8 shots per 100 possessions last season, a pretty good mark for a center.
Kristaps Porzingis is a phenomenal offensive player, and although he isn’t a superstar on that end of the floor, he’s a great secondary option who will fit perfectly next to Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown.
Porzingis is a tremendous offensive player, but he doesn’t play in just one direction. In fact, he provides a ton of value as a two-way player, as he is one of the best rim protectors in the league. Last season, he put up ridiculous numbers as a rim protector, thanks to his unique combination of size and mobility. At 7-foot-3, Porzingis is extremely mobile, and he can make quick rotations and erase shots as a weakside rim protector.
He’s remarkably effective as a post defender, too, and this will make him extremely valuable for the Celtics this season, as they’ll likely have to take down the Philadelphia 76ers, led by an elite low post scorer in Joel Embiid, to make it to the NBA Finals.
The addition of Porzingis to the Celtics’ roster gives them a big man with a more diverse offensive skillset than Al Horford and Robert Williams, and it makes their frontcourt insanely good. They can throw out different lineups than they could before, and their frontcourt depth will give them an advantage in the playoffs.
The Kristaps Porzingis trade will help out the Celtics a lot, but it’s not enough to push them over the top and make them championship favorites. For that to happen, they’ll need to see some growth from their stars.
Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown must improve offensively
While Kristaps Porzingis makes the Celtics better, they will struggle to win a championship unless their pair of young wings, Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown, take a step forward and improve, especially on the offensive end of the floor.
Tatum has developed into one of the best wings in the NBA, and now he is a fantastic scorer and an elite wing defender. Last season, he was incredible, averaging 30 points, nine rebounds, and five assists per game on 60.7% true shooting as he finished top five in MVP voting.
It was probably the best season of his career, but he still has room to improve before he truly becomes one of the best players in the league. For starters, he needs to improve his shotmaking from all three areas of the floor. He generates a ton of shots at the rim and from behind the arc, but his shooting percentages could be better.
He also needs to reach another level as a passer. He is a good ball handler who displays incredible flashes as a passer. However, he is inconsistent in this area, and his passing numbers are not what you would expect from a superstar. For Tatum to reach a point where he can be the best player on a championship team, he needs to grow as a playmaker.
Jaylen Brown, who just signed a massive five-year supermax extension worth up to $303.7 million, is somewhat similar to Jayson Tatum in many ways. That doesn’t mean he is as good as Tatum, but the two players have similar strengths.
Over the last three seasons, Brown has become a strong three-level scorer as well as a good three-point shooter. He has also become a really good on-ball defender, and this gives him a valuable skill set. However, like Tatum, he has his flaws, but his shortcomings are a lot more serious.
His biggest weaknesses by far are his ball-handling and passing. Brown’s inability to dribble with his left hand has become a meme at this point, and this issue shows up pretty often in the playoffs.
When opposing teams can gameplan during a seven-game series, they can force Brown to go to his left, and when he does, he has a tendency to lose the ball because he struggles to control his dribble when using his left hand. This is a serious problem because it limits his effectiveness as an on-ball creator.
While this problem is significant, Brown’s underwhelming passing ability is probably even more damaging. He has enough scoring gravity to create shots for his teammates without being a great passer, but he isn’t a high-volume passer, and he turns the ball over a lot, considering he doesn’t rack up assists at a high rate.
Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown are awesome, and it would be unfair to act like they aren’t strong two-way wings. However, they aren’t quite elite offensive players, and their weaknesses as on-ball creators make it hard for them to be the best players on championship-winning teams. They have a strong foundation to reach that point eventually, but they have to grow as passers and ball handlers before we can expect them to lead the Celtics to a championship.
Now that we’ve talked about the Kristaps Porzingis trade and how Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown need to improve, let’s discuss what we should expect from the Celtics this upcoming season.
The Boston Celtics are set to be an elite team once again
The Boston Celtics should be great next season, and there’s no reason why they can’t be one of the best teams in the NBA once again. They have one of the best wings in the world in Jayson Tatum, they have some great supporting players like Jaylen Brown, Kristaps Porzingis, and Derrick White, and they have a strong rotation of about seven or eight guys who can play in the playoffs.
The biggest issue with this team is that its wing depth is pretty weak. Sam Hauser and Oshae Brissett are listed as their backup wings, and ideally, they would have someone better so Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown don’t have to play 45+ minutes a night in the playoffs like Wilt Chamberlain.
This isn’t the end of the world, but Joe Mazulla will have to do a good job of adjusting his rotation so the Celtics’ don’t have to play without Tatum or Brown on the floor for an extended period of time. Perhaps they will consider trading one of their big men to improve their wing depth.
Other than that, this team doesn’t have many issues. They’re one of the best three-point shooting teams in the league, they have plus-defenders all over their roster, and they have two strong on-ball creators in Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown. This is a recipe for success, and it wouldn’t be surprising at all if the Celtics made it to the Finals this season.
Can they actually win it all, though? Of course, but it won’t be easy because the Milwaukee Bucks should continue to be elite, and the Denver Nuggets appear to be ready to take over the league. Still, this is clearly one of the best teams in the league, and if the players on this roster continue to get better, they can get over the hump and finally win a championship sooner rather than later.