The Boston Celtics have had four seasons in the top 10 defensive rating in the Brad Stevens coaching eraBrad Stevens coaching era; the Boston Celtics have had four seasons in the top 10 defensive rating. Last season they ranked 14th overall, but for the better part of the season, they were a sub-top-20 defense.
Marcus Smart nearly tearing his Achilles and Jayson Tatum contracting a deadly disease, did not help.
Still, the C’s roster never had any chance to succeed defensively looking at its personnel. Their best rim protector, Robert Williams, rode the bench for most of the first half of the season, and Stevens started two below-average rim protectors together in Tristan Thompson and Daniel Theis.
In Stevens’ switch-heavy scheme, Thompson got exposed on the perimeter, and Theis beat the rim. Having a solid defensive big is essential to maintaining an overall elite defense, and the Boston Celtics weren’t playing the one they had.
Aside from their insufficient rim deterrence, their perimeter defense was nothing notable. So instead, the Celtics relied on their young players to switch on to and defend high-level perimeter creators, which worked out how you think it would have worked out.
Instead, Aaron Nesmith, Grant Williams, Romeo Langford, and even Carsen Edwards were thrown into the fire and couldn’t sustain the level of defense Stevens was hoping they would.
Even when Evan Fournier came in and phased most of these young players out of the rotation, Boston was still playing with two or three perimeter liabilities on the floor in Kemba Walker, Fournier, and Tristan Thompson.
Ideally, the Celtics should only have one or two defensive liabilities in their rotation and none in their starting lineup.
With Fournier likely coming back, they will have to stomach having one in their starting lineup, but they can try and optimize their bench, so Fournier remains the only negative on defense.
Here are a few names that the Boston Celtics should look to acquire to bolster their defense: