Boston Celtics: 4 keys to dethroning Bucks as ‘Kings of the East’
By Mark Nilon
After Tuesday night’s series-clinching victory for the Milwaukee Bucks, the end of the 2020-21 campaign has officially come upon the entirety of the association, but for a team like the Boston Celtics, they’ve been on summer vacation since early June.
Since their round-one elimination against the Brooklyn Nets, fans have been thinking up ideas for how this Cs squad can bounce back from such a disappointing season and thrust themselves back into the conversation as being one of the Eastern Conference’s elite teams.
Obviously, with their Game Six victory, the Bucks are now NBA Champions, which means all teams looking to contend in 2021-22 will focus on building a core capable of beating them in a hypothetical seven game series.
For a team like the Celtics, their most likely route to a Finals berth will be by means of going through the new Kings of the East.
When it comes to their offseason goals, they should look to find ways in which they can stock themselves up for a real chance at dethroning Giannis and co., and we at HH see 4 keys, in specific, to doing so:
Key for Boston Celtics to dethrone Bucks No. 1) Remain healthy
While there were many teams bitten by the injury bug during this past campaign, the Boston Celtics were without a doubt one of the most ravaged both by COVID-19 related complications and other health ailments.
Their core-four of Kemba Walker, Marcus Smart, Jaylen Brown, and Jayson Tatum only wound up starting 15 games together in 2020-21, which is far from an envious scenario, for the more often a lineup is changed the harder it is for chemistry to be developed/ honed.
Three of these aforementioned players wound up missing well into double-digit outings, while their big mid-season acquisition, Evan Fournier (more on him later), would only play in 16 of a potential total of 27 regular season games due to COVID-19 related issues.
Yes, while it was apparent that this team was somewhat off even when they had their core available, a major reason for their underwhelming season was due to lacking health.
Should they remain healthy (or at the very least healthier) next year, already that gives them a leg-up when it comes to having a better follow-up campaign.