Here we are again, Boston Celtics fans.
After a 2019-20 season spent wondering if the Cs center rotation was adequate enough to anchor the team’s championship aspirations, the 2020 postseason from the Lake Buena Vista bubble on Walt Disney World’s Wide World of Sports complex proved the second-guessing correct.
Bam Adebayo was all over the Cs drivers, and it’s because there wasn’t an offensive threat that could serve as a decoy to distract Adebayo from sending away shots and being generally disruptive in the paint for the Miami Heat.
Obviously, it was the Heat who represented the Eastern Conference in 2020, and the road back to the NBA Finals–which has now not seen Boston represent the east in over a decade–has only grown steeper.
The Brooklyn Nets are the team to beat with the James Harden-Kevin Durant-Kyrie Irving triumvirate of the league’s most lethal offensive weapons. Jrue Holiday’s presence in Milwaukee gives them a trio (alongside Giannis Antetokounmpo and Khris Middleton) that has the potential to meet those Nets at the summit. Philadelphia may have found the formula for success with Doc Rivers now leading the troops and Daryl Morey surrounding his two stars (Ben Simmons, Joel Embiid) with sufficient–if not efficient–shooting.
And all the Boston Celtics have to show for it is the promise that a Kemba Walker return (he’s added a year of wear and tear to his already balky knees), a Tristan Thompson lineup integration (the results are so-so at best early on) or a Robert Williams rise (The Time Lord has yet to stay healthy for even half a season) can be the impetus for a title run.
Newsflash: the Boston Celtics cannot, and will not, win with their current core.
If Danny Ainge keeps this roster the same, this season will end similarly to the last. The best ways of improvement will come via trade and a name that comes to mind that can be traded (assumably easily) into the C’s $28.5 million trade exception is Andre Drummond.
Drummond’s salary is all but an exact fit, making the details of any prospective trade pretty simple to formulate on the Boston Celtics side. The question becomes how many draft picks (second-rounders, of course) are worth adding the burly big man.
I’ve questioned the fit of Drummond in green and white before, but this time around it makes a lot of sense; he is an expiring deal putting up some of the best numbers of his career (18 points, 15 rebounds) and while his post-ups are frustrating for any Cavs fan and former Pistons fan watching him work, he can thrive in the “Tyson Chandler” role Kobe Bryant allegedly asked Dwight Howard to play in LA as a rebounder and finisher at the rim.
What do you think Boston Celtics fans? Should Ainge pursue the 2012 lottery pick?
Let us know in the comments section!