Boston Celtics: Maine Celtics relaunch crucial for development

After not having G-League representation down in the Lake Buena Vista bubble for what was a shortened season, the Boston Celtics have announced a rebrand for their minor league Maine affiliate.

No longer the Maine Red Claws, the C’s G-League team will now go by the Maine Celtics.

Boston will now join the Knicks, Warriors, Spurs, Bulls, Lakers, Magic, Kings, Nets, and Clippers as teams with G-League teams bearing the same logo.

The Celtics didn’t send their developmental squad down to central Florida for the shortened season and the development of the bottom of the roster likely suffered as a result.

That won’t be the case in 2021-22 and beyond (we hope). Instead, Maine is going green:

The Houdini hopes that with the world returning to normalcy, so will the Boston Celtics organization. 2020-21 has not been a successful season by any measure, and the lack of a developmental franchise to see progress with the recent draftees has hurt the team’s ability to build a capable bench.

Danny Ainge has lucked out getting the contributions he has from Payton Pritchard and Aaron Nesmith in their rookie seasons, but Tremont Waters, Carsen Edwards, Romeo Langford, and Tacko Fall all missed valuable opportunities to improve their games without a G-League season.

The Boston Celtics are returning a crucial cog in their basketball machine.

What we’ve seen from this season is that the Cs have very few keepers. Jayson Tatum is engrained as the headline star, and Jaylen Brown has similarly been confirmed to return by Ainge himself.

Robert Williams is likely to be retained because of Tatum’s affection for his game, and the class of 2020 rookies aren’t going anywhere.

The bottom line needs to be raised in Boston in regards to their bench. The Maine Celtics will hopefully go a long way in making that happen.