By now, most people have come to terms with the Celtics’ transformational trade, which sent Jaylen Brown to Philadelphia. Processing has happened, and the general consensus remains that Boston should be a very good team in the regular season. But there also seems to be an overwhelming sentiment that the team is built to crank out wins, but won’t be a real title threat come playoff time.
That was exactly the case in ESPN’s 2026-27 NBA preview by Zach Kram, which put all 30 teams into tiers. The Celtics were lumped into a tier called “Regular-season win machines” along with the Pistons and Cavaliers.
Kram wrote that they should be able to win 50+ games, but questioned their playoff upside and suggested they lost championship equity by trading the 2024 Finals MVP. Elsewhere in the Eastern Conference, Kram had the Knicks in the “Championship favorites” tier and the Pacers, Heat, 76ers, and Raptors in “High-upside Finals contenders”.
Crazy to say 5 East teams have more Finals upside than Celtics
And this is where I have to draw the line and object. I know the Cs choked last season in round one against the Sixers, but this narrative that their style doesn’t work in the playoffs has become completely overblown. Call me crazy, but I’m more inclined to buy into the 82-game sample size from last season and the first five games of that series, when it seemed like Boston was on a collision course with the Knicks.
Yes, they lost to New York the previous season, but that series was certifiably insane with two absurd comebacks/collapses, a Jayson Tatum Achilles injury, Kristaps Porzingis dealing with a mystery illness, and Boston running on fumes while trying to repeat as champions (we’ve seen how difficult that is in recent years).
Before that, the Celtics won the Finals in 2024, made it to Game 7 of the East Finals in 2023, and made the NBA Finals in 2022. This idea that their system can’t win in the playoffs is absurd. There are a lot of new faces in town from the ‘24 title team, but they still have Jayson Tatum, Derrick White, Payton Pritchard, and Sam Hauser in the mix from that rotation.
Celtics going to be back with a vengeance this season
They also have a proven veteran in Paul George, a freshly minted champion in Mitchell Robinson, and a dearth of players who earned their stripes last season. That’s not to mention the reigning Coach of the Year, Joe Mazzulla.
These guys know the optics from what has happened in the last 18 months. They are proud players and champions with a massive chip on their shoulders. They’ve heard all the noise, and they are motivated to change this false narrative. The fact that so many people think they can cruise to 50 or 60 regular-season wins but won’t be able to hang in the playoffs is nuts.
Why teams like the Heat, Pacers, Sixers, and Raptors would be considered contenders over the Celtics is beyond me as well. I’m not saying they should be the favorites, or anything like that. But the way they are being slept on as even having a chance makes no sense at all in the modern NBA.
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