When the Celtics blew a 3-1 lead and lost to the 76ers in round one of the playoffs, it was easy to point to the roster and say the team didn’t have enough talent. But that was silly at the time for a team that just won 56 games, largely without Jayson Tatum, and it looks even sillier now, watching elite-level play in the NBA Finals between the Spurs and Knicks.
For one thing, Victor Wembanyama, Jalen Brunson, and Karl-Anthony Towns are great players, but neither team, and perhaps no team in the league, has the superstar punch of Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown.
But this goes much deeper than that. The Knicks have been getting huge contributions in this series from guys like Josh Hart, Landry Shamet, Jose Alvarado, and even Jordan Clarkson. Meanwhile, the Spurs’ second-best player may be a rookie, and they are getting major minutes from Keldon Johnson, Julian Champagnie, and Devin Vassell. This isn’t meant to be a knock on those players at all. In fact, quite the opposite.
The point is that the Celtics have just as much talent and depth as either of these teams. Sure, Boston could make some moves on the margins and could use some upgrades here and there, but the Celtics have at least 11 players coming back who could credibly hold up in these types of games.
The Celtics are not that far away from title contention
As bad as things feel right now in Boston, the reality of the situation is that the Celtics really aren’t that far away from competing. They lost fair and square this season, but it wasn’t because they weren’t good enough.Â
Guys playing with physicality and intensity are thriving in this setting, and the Celtics can bring that in spades. They have a plethora of perfectly crafted role players in Baylor Scheierman, Ron Harper Jr., Jordan Walsh, and Hugo Gonzalez who can impact the game on both ends of the court.Â
Going forward, the Celtics need to cycle these players into the game in waves around their core of Tatum, Brown, Derrick White, and Payton Pritchard. In the playoffs, Joe Mazzulla was hesitant to go deep into his bench or shake things up, but Mike Brown is proving that you can go 10-deep in a Finals game.
There’s no doubt that the Celtics have a lot of self-reflection to do this summer. They are far from a perfect team, and the players and coaches need to make improvements. But the foundation is there. The talent is there. And watching the first three games of this epic NBA Finals has only driven that point home.
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