Analytics high on the Boston Celtics for the 2019-20 season

This offseason, the Boston Celtics saw their fair share of ups and downs. However, despite some misfortunes, the franchise is still seen as one of the powerhouses out East according to ESPN.

To say the least, the Boston Celtics had themselves quite an eventful summer. They saw two of their main contributors jump ship for conference rivals and saw numerous key role players switch jerseys.

However, the team did manage to do their best in patching up these newly formed holes in the roster by signing marquee free agent Kemba Walker and veteran big man Enes Kanter, as well as bringing in a plethora of young talents via the draft.

Now, while some may view Boston’s offseason as depleting for the franchise’s hopes of contending in 2019-20, according to ESPN they’re still on on track to compete. In fact, it appears their season projections are not much different than that from 2018-19.

Recently, Kevin Pelton of ESPN came out with a piece that projects the W-L records and standings for every NBA team in 2019 (subscription required to view article). He wrote this article using projections based on ESPN’s Real Plus-Minus (RPM) numbers. With this, it appears analytics are high on the Celtics during this upcoming season.

Pelton projects Boston to 47.4 games in 2019-20 and sees them finishing as the East’s No. 2 seed, trailing only the Milwaukee Bucks with a projected 50 wins and directly leading the Philadelphia 76ers with 47.0 wins.

As previously stated, the Boston Celtics went through a boat-load of roster changes this offseason. Because of this, fans became weary of how their beloved team will fair in 2019 with what may have penciled in as a “less-talented” unit than from the season prior.

Though Pelton’s word is by no means “definite” — overall success rate of 57.5% since using this projection method — these predictions should put a smile on all fans of the franchise.

We still have Jaylen Brown, Jayson Tatum and Marcus Smart in tow. We added an All-Star point guard in Walker and a very talented offensive big in Kanter. We bolstered our rotation depth with great young talents such as Romeo Langford, Grant Williams and, possible steal of the draft, Carsen Edwards. Not to mention we still have one of the league’s best Head Coaches in Brad Stevens.

While some may not want to believe it, with the current makeup of the Boston Celtics, these projections are very realistic.

No Kyrie Irving? No Al Horford?

According to Kevin Pelton, No problem!