Why the Boston Celtics should be considered the clear second best team in the east

The Boston Celtics are a step below the top of the Eastern Conference. That said, besides the Milwaukee Bucks, there isn’t a truer contender in the east than the C’s.

Let’s do a quick exercise. Name a team better set up to win than the Boston Celtics.

Unless you named the Milwaukee Bucks, you are sorely mistaken.

At 41-17, the Celtics sit nine games back of the Bucks and–given their historic pace–are unlikely to catch them in the standings. The home-court advantage will likely lie with Cream City throughout the entire Eastern Conference playoff gauntlet.

The C’s also sit behind the defending champion Toronto Raptors in the standings. Sure, the North is up a game in the loss column. But with Jayson Tatum ascending even higher after being named an All-Star, Boston now has two reliable stars.

See, Tatum’s rise is sustainable for a few reasons. First, he is getting to the rim more than ever. Second, an increased amount of 3-pointers shot is inevitably leading to more points generated beyond the arc (and often difficult step back or pull-up situations). With his offensive game morphing into efficient and even heroic at times, the Boston Celtics have two players (Kemba Walker being the other) defenses will have to hone in on in the playoffs.

Then there is the intangible factors that Tatum has picked up on this season:

"“I think he’s really doing a great job of recognizing situations,” Brad Stevens said. “He’s getting more thrown at him every game and, as you can tell, there’s a hunger to continue to improve. So, I think the best part about this story is he’s had a year worthy of being named an All-Star and he’s gotten better since he was named an All-Star. So, those are usually good signs.”"

Stevens sees the improvements in his second man. With Jaylen Brown, Gordon Hayward and Marcus Smart all capable of figuring out where else points come from outside of the team’s All-Star duo, there are no starting lineups with as immediate of upside as the C’s outside of Milwaukee.

As for the league’s best team, well, it is hard to deny their greatness. Chris Herring of fivethirtyeight.com put their dominance in a historical perspective. Their defense ranks as a top 10 unit of all time.

Side-note, six of the top ten are Boston Celtics teams.

The 2019-20 Celtics are objectively not as good as that Bucks team.

They are better than everyone else, though.

Boston holds a 2-1 lead over the only other team ahead of them in Toronto for the season. The C’s have the second ranked offensive rating, and while they have trailed the Raptors in defensive rating for the season, Boston is still good for the third best defensive rating in the league.

So to recap, the Celtics have a top five offense and defense, two superstars, two fringe stars and is even getting inspired play from Daniel Theis in a season where the center position is supposedly the weak spot.

No longer are the Boston Celtics flying under the radar this year. They are the clear #2 team in the Eastern Conference, and the seeding at the end of the season is most likely going to reflect that.