Getting overlooked amidst an excellent regular season campaign by the Boston Celtics is the fact that they have positioned themselves well in free agency this summer. Getting under the luxury tax puts them in a position to add someone with the non-tapayer MLE, which will be worth $15.1 million, and/or do a sign-and-trade.
Okay, so they won't hand someone a max contract this summer, but they can add another impact player to an already impressive team. It's likely that they will because Joe Mazzulla's development of the entire roster without Jayson Tatum for most of the season will appeal to free agents.
If one or two players improved well enough to put Boston in their current position is one thing. The fact of the matter is that their accomplishments have come from improvements across the board. Many believed the Celtics would be mediocre at best without Tatum, but because pretty much everyone on the roster has made a contribution, they weren't too far behind last year's team before Tatum got back.
That is Mazzulla and the coaching staff's handiwork. The Celtics surprised everyone because of how impactful their players were. Players want to play for a system like that because it brings out the best in them and translates into wins. The Celtics know this because that's how they brought star players to Boston starting a decade ago.
Brad Stevens doing the same thing lured marquee free agents
While many are currently in awe of Brad Stevens for continuing to exert his basketball genius as an executive, what many forget is that assembling a team of underdogs that overachieved is exactly what lured stars in their prime to come join Boston.
Turning Isaiah Thomas into a star, developing Jae Crowder and Evan Turner into dependable role players, and reviving Jonas Jerebko's career turned Boston into one of the NBA's most fun teams, and them playing well above what many thought they were capable of demonstrated that Stevens was a master chef working with microwave dinners.
Three out of four summers, the Celtics lured some of the market's biggest names to the team, like Al Horford (2016), Gordon Hayward (2017), and Kemba Walker (2019). Plus, many remember Kevin Durant gave some good thought about joining Boston the same year Horford joined the team.
Yes, the latter two didn't work out too great in the end, but no one frowned on those decisions back when they happened for good reason. With the exception of Hayward (who had tied to Stevens), Horford and Walker joined Boston because of Stevens' pedigree.
Mazzulla has proven he has the same pedigree, and now Boston has cap flexibility to add an established player in free agency for the first time since Walker. It's possible they may use their flexibility to keep Nikola Vucevic. With any luck, they can keep Vuc and use the MLE on someone else, but who knows?
But because of what Boston has accomplished, they have even more appeal to free agents now. Oh yeah, and they have one of the league's best duos back with a clean bill of health.
That helps too.