As the offseason has progressed and the preseason has begun, the buzz around the Celtics has grown from guarded optimism to oozing with confidence. On the most recent episode of the Hoop Collective podcast, Brian Windhorst of ESPN revealed that the Celtics are “Very confident their trade is going to work for them…and I think they believe that they have a good chance to win the East this year”.
This year. Not down the road. Not once they flip Paul George for another star. Not once they spend back over the luxury tax. This year.
Some of the early justifications for the Jaylen Brown trade were that it was a financial reset, a move to set up a bigger move, a deal to create future flexibility, and so forth. And all of those things are and were true to an extent.
Celtics roster is better than it was last year
But deep down, this trade was simply about making the Celtics a better basketball team. Brad Stevens and his crew believe that, as good as Brown was, his style was holding back Joe Mazzulla’s scheme, and Paul George will be a better fit for the system.
With a fully healthy Jayson Tatum, the addition of Mitchell Robinson, and plenty of internal development, they think they’re as good as any team in the NBA and that while they may be trying to build something sustainable, they can contend for a title as soon as this season.
I may not have been quite as quick as Stevens to see the vision, but after drinking plenty of Kool-Aid this offseason, I’m right there with them. This roster is deep, complete, and extremely versatile. They definitely made some bets on health, advanced stats, and other things, but it’s better to be ahead of the curve than behind it.
Boston can contend for a title this year
The Celtics had gotten stale around their superstar duo. Brad saw all he needed to see to convince him to lean more into his better superstar and enhance Mazzulla’s system around him. As talented as JB was, he was a bit of an awkward fit. Now, there’s no semblance of a square peg in a round hole.
Every piece fits together perfectly, and this puzzle is starting to come together and look like a beautiful landscape masterpiece.
In a lot of ways, the Celtics did clean up their books and generate the ever-important optionality to keep building the team going forward. But at the same time, the deal made this team better immediately as well. I get that it’s still hard for a lot of people to see the picture, but as the season is set to begin, things are about to come into focus in a major way.
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