Boston Celtics: All of C’s big-4 make B/R’s ‘Top 100’ list

Though they may be down one key cog from last season’s lineup, the Boston Celtics still find themselves with four players listed in B/R’s ‘Top 100’ list.

T-minus two days till we get to see Boston Celtics basketball in action once more.

Though it’s been just over two months since we last saw the green boys take to the hardwood, with the year that 2020 has been, any chance to escape is greatly appreciated and, during this hiatus, it has given us one less form of entertainment to sink our heads into.

But now, we’re almost back.

For Cs fans, 2020-21 is expected to be another long campaign, as many media outlets are projecting a top-5 finish come the end of the regular season, thus bestowing them their seventh straight postseason berth and their 13th in a span of 14 years.

These lofty expectations, of course, are in large due to their impressive band of ballers, specifically their big-4 of Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown, Kemba Walker, and Marcus Smart.

Though they lost a key cog to their core in Gordon Hayward this offseason, what Boston is left with is certainly nothing to scoff at.

In fact, this quartet is so good, that each one of them found themselves ranked on one of Bleacher Report’s most recent publications, where they predict the top-100 players in the NBA for the 2020-21 season.

Their placement and a snippet of writer Dan Favale’s reasoning reads as follows:

75. Marcus Smart

"He defends like a typhoon that can think for itself, selectively determining just how much hell to unleash, and his 6’3″ frame knows no bounds. If the NBA has its first guard win Defensive Player of the Year since Gary Payton in 1995-96 anytime soon, the most likely recipient is no mystery. Smart alone is capable of ending the drought."

42. Kemba Walker

"He is stardom to scale. Lineups can treat him like the kitchen sink thanks to his off-the-dribble three and ability to get around defenders from above the break, with or without a screen, but he’s also fit to play nice with others. He cuts backdoor, slips screens and flies around picks. Boston upped his spot-up three-point-attempt rate last season, and he responded by shooting 42 percent on those looks.Fully healthy, Walker is a top-10-to-12 guard and overall top-25 player. His peak is not in question. The chances of him returning to it aren’t even necessarily up for debate. The amount of time he’ll actually spend on the floor this season is a different story."

32. Jaylen Brown

"Jaylen Brown is coming off a monster season in which his offense found its happy medium. He averaged a career-high 20.3 points per game while hitting 38.2 percent of his threes and taking his free-throw clip from the mid-60s to 72.4.The manner in which he scores is team-friendly. He feasts in transition and spot-ups, and over 88 percent of his made threes came off assists. At the same time, he can put pressure on defenses going downhill, and while secondary playmaking very much remains a work in progress, he saw his pick-and-roll frequency more than double from 2018-19."

11. Jayson Tatum

"Last year’s quantum leap is not the end of his road. Nor the middle. This is his fourth season of being 19. He doesn’t turn 23 until March. This is the beginning of his upswing.More than that, the heights at which he played last season reflect the league’s most desired genre of stardom. Every team wants a 6’8″ (maybe 6’10”) off-the-dribble flamethrower who can initiate the offense and ranks among the most disruptive defenders away from the ball. Tatum typified that criteria in 2019-20, all while emerging as, perhaps, the league’s most dangerous on-the-bounce shooter."

With this core group fully intact, the Boston Celtics are a lethal group that can hang with the best of them. B/R certainly acknowledged this fact in their rankings list.