Boston Celtics: Predicting where Cs will finish in Eastern Conference

With the offseason just about wrapped up after a flurry of moves, the landscape of the NBA seems to have changed in many ways which could greatly affect the Boston Celtics next season.

Many teams in the Eastern Conference specifically made significant moves, which should mean even tougher competition for playoff spots for a Cs team who finished seventh last season.

Taking a look at the Eastern Conference standings from 2020-21, the only team that seems to have definitely gotten worse that made the playoffs is the Wizards after trading Russell Westbrook to the Los Angeles Lakers.

That would seem to indicate that the simple prediction for standings next year would be to take out the Wizards and replace them with a team like the much improved Chicago Bulls, and slide teams down depending on where one sees them finishing.

However, it’s never that simple.

As Boston Celtics fans know all too well from last season, injuries always play a major role in how standings shape up to be which was magnified last season due to the added effects of COVID-19 and a shorter offseason.

On top of injuries, team chemistry can impact how well a squad performs, so just because a team has a talented roster that doesn’t always translate to more wins.

With all that in mind, here is my outlook on the current state of the Cs and where I think they will finish in the Eastern Conference next year.

Taking a look at the roster as it stands today, it’s easy to say that the team is much worse with the losses of both Kemba Walker and Evan Fournier.

However, Fournier was a trade deadline acquisition so he didn’t even play that many games for the Celtics during the regular season (16 games to be exact) and Kemba missed 30 games with his lingering knee issues, so, in reality, the organization didn’t lose as much as fans seem to think they did.

Replacing those guys with some solid veterans like Josh Richardson and Al Horford should help improve the team, especially on the defensive end.

With the recent addition of Dennis Schroder, a Sixth Man of the Year candidate only two years ago, the third scoring option left behind by Kemba has been filled with a guy who, while not as talented, plays better defense, isn’t nearly as injury-prone, and should be hungry to play well after missing out on a ton of money with his last contract offer from the Lakers.

Further improvement from the young players and possibly better coaching from Ime Udoka could also play a factor in how well the team plays.

All in all, I’d say at the very least the team is around the same spot as last year.

The defense should be much improved, but the offense may be worse unless the ball movement dramatically improves under Udoka’s guidance.

The team’s success will be very much reliant on how well the supporting cast can help support Tatum and Brown on both ends of the floor, but especially on the offensive end.

Looking at the rest of the Eastern Conference, the only teams I’d say for sure are better than the Cs are the Bucks and the Nets.

The 76ers are in a bit of disarray with all the Ben Simmons rumors, the Hawks were a bad team before changing coaches so they could come back down to earth again, and the Knicks got better offensively but worse defensively, a big reason they played really well last season.

The Heat got better, but after a porous playoff series from Jimmy Butler and his steadily declining jump shot along with a roster reliant on some players that are getting up there in age, success is not guaranteed next year.

The Bulls are a non-playoff team who got a lot better this offseason but considering all of their changes, it’s hard to say for certain their team will immediately play well together, and their defense may also not be very good given their best players are mostly offensive focused.

After taking everything into consideration, I feel that the Boston Celtics will finish right around all of those teams, which I’d say means a playoff team, but likely not home-court advantage in the first round.

Given I’m optimistic that the players will be more healthy, the young players will get better, and the newly acquired players will fit in nicely, I will go ahead and say that I think they will finish sixth in the conference, one spot higher than last year.

While I do think the Cs are a slightly better team given that they should be healthier and more consistent, the other teams in the east also improved a lot so I feel that a finish in about the same area as last year is a completely fair prediction.

Final standings prediction for potential playoff spots:

1. Brooklyn Nets
2. Milwaukee Bucks
3. Miami Heat
4. Chicago Bulls
5. Philadelphia 76ers
6. Boston Celtics
7. Atlanta Hawks (play-in game)
8. New York Knicks (play-in game)