Shooting should be able to push the Boston Celtics over the top this season
The Boston Celtics know that their level of talent next season can be truly special. Brad Stevens has never had a team like this at his disposal, and they should be able to do special things on both ends of the court.
Defense has always been the identity of the Celtics under Stevens, and that should not change. The Celtics know that defense is how they play at their highest level, and put together impressive and consistent stretches.
Next season, however, it will be quite difficult for the defense to keep up with the offense. Both the Rockets and the Warriors have put together some of the most special offensive cores in the NBA, most of which is centered around shooting.
Next season, the Celtics will be in a position to have that level of shooting, and truly dominate because of what they do on offense, rather than relying on defense to always put them in a position to win.
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The Celtics will always use great ball movement to generate good looks. The Celtics will have a tremendous amount of space this season, and great matchups to exploit at all times. The Celtics will be as good as anyone at generating those quality looks, and now they finally have the shooters to truly bury teams on that end.
Things get a bit shaky when you look to the bench, but the top five on the Celtics next season all can be elite three point shooters. Kyrie Irving might be the best 50/40/90 candidate in the league next season and Gordon Hayward should be able to finally break the 40 percent from deep barrier with so much great talent around him.
Al Horford is the most efficient shooting big in the NBA, and he will have better opportuntiie to improve his 43 percent from deep from last season. Then you have the two young studs. Jayson Tatum actually lead the league in three point shooting for a portion of last season, and the always improving Jaylen Brown feels like another lock to break 40 percent from deep.
The Celtics have an entire starting lineup with players that should be shooting better than 45 percent overall and 40 percent from three, with other options of the bench. Terry Rozier is a much improved shooter, and Marcus Morris made it clear that he can be an efficient scorer next season.
The Celtics have amazing shooting across the board, with no weaknesses that need to be hidden. They have defenisve speiclaists coming off the bench, but they know that any time they need elite shooting, there are many different options.
Last season, the Cerltics were actually a good overall shooting team. They were one of the best three point shooting teams in the league, but this team is going to be something different. The Celtics were able to shoot that well because of the great looks they generated. Much of the time, the Celtics had to make up for a lot of open misses. Next season, the Celtics will be using their shooting to bail out other issues they might be dealing with.
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They still had awful slumps with very few shooters they could trust on a consistent basis. Now, the Celtics will have the ball movement that gave them overall solid numbers last year, with the individual shooters to mitigate the slumps and make them truly impossible to defend. The Celtics will be able to overwhelm opponents with their shooting, and only the absolute elite of the NBA will be able to keep up with them.