The injury bug will always be around the NBA, but this season, it's gotten bad. It has completely decimated the Oklahoma City Thunder, the consensus title pick, to the point that it's almost comical. They aren't the only team affected by it, as a lot of teams have been. And you know who hasn't been? The Boston Celtics.
Yeah, Devin Carter has been out with mono, but that's an illness, not an injury, and he's not exactly high on the pecking order. There's also Ron Harper Jr., who has proven himself solid, with his problematic shoulder, but Boston hasn't really turned to him yet. Besides them, the Celtics have been unscathed to start this season.
However, with how bad things have been to start, it does feel inevitable that the Celtics will also deal with their injuries at this point. For what it's worth, trading for Paul George and signing Mitchell Robinson brings in two players who are for sure going to miss some time because of their reps.
Boston knew the deal when they added them. It's not like anyone is rooting for them to get hurt by any means, but it's hard to be optimistic they'll be healthy for the entire season when the data suggests that won't happen.
But luckily, the Celtics are built to survive this when it happens.
Celtics are deep enough to withstand injuries
Boston has built itself so that they can withstand it if and when they are depleted by injuries. There is no better example of this than when they handled themselves without Jayson Tatum last year. Many will say it's because of how amazing Jaylen Brown was. That was part of it, but it wasn't entirely why.
The Celtics thrived as a group without Tatum because their roster as a collective stepped up. Brown put up gaudy numbers, but Paul Pierce did the same thing 20 years prior with a much worse roster, and the Celtics were, surprise, surprise, a pretty bad team.
With that, it's why, if and when the injury bug pops up again, the Celtics should be ready for the challenge. They have had the "next man up" mentality dating back to when Joe Mazzulla first took over. Yes, the preference would be for the team to have a clean bill of health from start to finish, but that never happens, which is why injuries are coming one way or the other.
But because Boston has a rock-solid history of enduring it when that happens, there should be nothing to worry about once they cross that bridge.
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