The Boston Celtics will severely struggle against talented big men in 2019

Though the Boston Celtics have been bestowed one of the “easiest” schedules in 2019-20, they’re bound to have a few hiccups as the season progresses. A majority of these should come against talented front courts.

Coming into the 2019-20 NBA season, the Boston Celtics are yet again projected to be one of the top teams in the Eastern Conference. As of this moment, Beantown is projected to win about 47.2 games this year, while Bleacher Report states they have the potential to even surpass 51 wins.

Yes, these expectations have been made in part because of their talented roster. However, these lofty win percentages are that much more attainable thanks in large to the team’s relatively easy schedule this year.

Heading into the season, the Boston Celtics are tied with the Brooklyn Nets and the Detroit Pistons for having the third easiest schedule in 2019.

While wins may be easy to come by for the Celtics this upcoming campaign, when facing off against a talented front court, the team could find themselves struggling to come away victorious.

If you haven’t been living under a rock for the past couple of months you know Boston has gone through a bit of a roster shakeup this offseason. Former “face of the franchise” Kyrie Irving jumped ship and headed to Brooklyn. Terry Rozier was traded to the Hornets. Marcus Morris inked a deal with the Knicks.

However, quite possibly the biggest loss for the Celtics this offseason was veteran big Al Horford. Since signing with the franchise back in 2016, Horford has been Boston’s rock and defensive back bone. His presence down low allowed the coaching staff to focus their attentions elsewhere, as they knew they were going to get consistent positive production from the big man on both offense and defense.

Unfortunately, Horford felt three years was long enough in green and white and opted to sign on with divisional rival, the Philadelphia 76ers.

With the losses of Morris and Aaron Baynes this offseason, the front court depth already looked weakened heading into 2019. Horford’s decision to leave town was just the nail in this very depleted coffin.

While Danny Ainge attempted to patch up his team’s big man shaped hole with the likes of Enes Kanter, Vincent Poirier and — maybe — Tacko Fall, the aforementioned losses could prove to be too much of an impoverishment to overcome this upcoming season. Though they are talented players in their own right, specifically Kanter, they just don’t possess that punch on both ends of the floor that the team had in their most recent years.

Because of this, Boston could really find themselves struggling against opposing bigs. Unfortunately for the franchise, they find themselves playing quite a few talented big men in 2019.

The Boston Celtics will find themselves playing each of the leagues top 10 big men at least once in 2019, with the likes of Nikola Jokić (2), Nikola Vucevic (3), Blake Griffin & Andre Dummond (3) and Al Horford & Joel Embiid (4) being played against on numerous occasions.

The Boston Celtics are penciled in as having one of the easiest schedules in 2019. However, even with this, the team could still find themselves struggling throughout the season. A big reason for this could be due to the abundance of talented big men they’re slated to face throughout the year.