Boston Celtics: 3 C’s whose futures could be determined in series vs. Nets

Despite enduring a rough start to 2021-22 that saw them sporting a sub-.500 record of 21-20 through the first half of the campaign, the Boston Celtics went on to storm right through the final 41 games of their schedule, as they managed to take part in one of the greatest turnarounds in league history, finishing with a stellar 51-31 overall mark on the season which, in turn, nabbed them the No. 2 seed in the Eastern Conference standings.

Now, the once lottery-bound C’s find themselves gearing up for a promising playoff run, with their first matchup coming this Sunday in a home-tilt against their divisional rivals, the Brooklyn Nets.

Coming into the illustrious second season, many are viewing Ime Udoka’s squad as a legitimate threat to take home the Larry O’Brien trophy come year’s end, and, as a result of these lofty expectations, one could certainly make the argument that anything short of a deep run will be a complete and utter disappointment.

Starting their postseason off with a best-of-seven series against the star-studded Nets definitely has its pros and cons but, above everything, it’s bound to be a hard-fought battle till the bitter end.

In fact, due to their top-notch star power of Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving (possibly even Ben Simmons as well) leading the charge, there’s definitely a possibility that Brooklyn could even wind up pulling off an upset and downing the second-seeded Celtics in their quarterfinals matchup.

Though, at the moment, said possibility doesn’t seem to be all that likely what with the fact that Boston won three out of the four games they played during the regular season and that the Nets have a defensive unit that struggles to stop a runny nose, should this happen, and the shamrocks are trounced in round one, Brad Stevens and co. may react by taking part in some serious offseason shakeups which, in turn, could see a few players sent packing to make way for a new-look rotation.

While we’re rather confident they can pull out the series victory as currently constructed, should the Boston Celtics see their second-straight first-round exit at the hands of the Brooklyn Nets, we at HH believe there are 3 players whose futures in eastern Massachusetts could be in jeopardy:

Boston Celtics player No. 1) Marcus Smart

Over the past several years, Boston Celtics fans have found Marcus Smart‘s name intertwined within the trade rumor mill on numerous occasions, with recent sightings even coming around this year’s trade deadline.

Should this team fall flat on their face in the 2022 playoffs, you better believe that we’ll once again be finding the eighth-year veteran attached to these types of talks during the offseason.

Playing the most important position in basketball, outside of finding overall star power, one of the main objectives for a modern-day basketball squad is to try and find the right kind of talent to run the show at the one and, should the C’s not embark on a deep postseason push, their decision-makers could simply opt to cut their loses with the 28-year-old, try to swap him and his contract out for another complementary piece to add to their rotation, and go to a plug-and-play approach at point guard until they find their long-term answer.

Now listen, before you jump to the comments section and start reaming us out for “disrespecting Marcus Smart and all he’s done this season”, we want to make things abundantly clear: we love all the players listed here today, especially the Swiss Army Man, and do not want to see them donning any other colors but green and white come next season.

Heck, we’ve praised Smart so many times throughout this season this shouldn’t have even had to of been stated.

Having said all that, however, we can’t just ignore the fact that, outside of the Jays and perhaps Robert Williams (a definite maybe on this one), Boston’s defensive stalwart is their most valuable commodity and many other teams view him as such as well.

In turn, what this means is he could potentially be used to bring aboard individuals who, in the eyes of Brad Stevens, would better complement the stars and this team as a whole.

In the past, we’ve seen many talented players being linked as possible swaps in a trade involving this year’s potential Defensive Player of the Year, with names such as Jalen Brunson and, most famously, John Collins seemingly headlining this type of category.

With the fact that they already have combo guard Derrick White under contract for the next several years, if this team heads into the summer with the desire to make some serious shakeups, Marcus Smart would undoubtedly be a player at risk of being moved.