The Boston Celtics will be able to physically dominate teams with their wings
The Boston Celtics are going into next season with one of the most dynamic lineups in the NBA. They will be able to attack in enough ways to overwhelm any defense, and will always be able to find a strength to take advantage of.
Their most physically overwhelming advantage, however, will be with their wings. With Gordon Hayward joining Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum, the Celtics will have the best collection of wings in the NBA, and no team will have the tools to stop them on a consistent basis.
The Celtics have three options that can dominate any individual matchup. Both Tatum and Brown have to polish some things off, and avoid some smaller mistakes. Brown can get out of control and force things in bad situations.
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Tatum also has a tendency to lose his handle while driving, and that can be detrimental to a player that is so effective at navigating through contact, and using his length to finish over players.
Neither of them are finished products, but they are getting quite close, and it is easy to see how deadly their talent is going to be.
Then you have Hayward, who has all the similar physical advantages, with one of the most polished offensive games in the NBA. Hayward is the kind of finished product on the wing that the Celtics want Brown and Tatum to start to approach this season, and they will break down anything a defense tries to do.
Teams simply do not have the athletes that are ale to stay with these players, especially ones that are so skilled. They have the speed, the strength and the size, and even if you have one or two options that can contain them, there will always be a weakness for them to exploit.
Last year in the playoffs, the 76ers were a great example of what happens why you try to use wings like JJ Redick and Marco Belinelli against these elite athletes, because they ran all over them any time they could.
The 76ers are an extreme example, but adding Hayward to those two will make it around that difficult for most of the teams in the NBA.
The Celtics will have to make sure they can keep them all on the court with so little size in the front court. If they are able to do that, teams will not be able to handle any of them. These wings are how the Celtics can dictate the pace of the game and make sure any opponent is uncomfortable at all times.
The best part might be that these wings are also going to be key on defense. They are all going to be able to switch between three of four positions on defense, while maintaining everything they want to do on that end.
If they can hold things together on defense, and make sure their ability to switch will be able to stop any kind of size that might attack them, then they will be running wild on offense, abusing a mismatch every single time they go up the court.