It should come as no surprise that the Boston Celtics are the team to beat in the Eastern Conference this year. It’s how they got there that is so astonishing.
Acquisitions
It started with a trade orchestrated by the trade guru himself, Danny Ainge, in 2014. He sent two aging superstars in Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett, along with Jason Terry and D.J. White, to the Brooklyn Nets for their 2014, 2016, and 2018 first round draft picks. The Celtics also received the option to swap first round draft positions in 2017.
Who did the Celtics get with those draft picks? The 2014 1st round pick was a young shooting guard from the University of Kentucky, James Young. He didn’t quite pan out in the NBA, and has served on the Celtics G League team for some time.
The 2016 first round pick was Jaylen Brown, who has shown dashes of success, but will mainly be used as a role or bench player due to the extraordinary depth that the Celtics have.
The Celtics opted to swap their pick in 2017 with the Nets. This gave the Celtics the first overall pick in the draft, but they traded it to the Philadelphia 76ers, picking up the third overall pick in the draft to take Jayson Tatum, who starred at Duke.
The last pick from the trade with the Nets was the 2018 first round pick, which they traded away to the Cleveland Cavaliers for NBA All Star Kyrie Irving.
Free Agency
That same offseason, the Celtics made a move that would cement themselves as the team to beat when they signed former Jazz superstar, Gordon Hayward. In what looked like a title run in 2018, the Celtics were plagued with injuries. It took Hayward all of eight minutes to break his leg on 2018’s opening night, ending his season. Rookie Jayson Tatum stepped in as his replacement, and did an absolute masterful job. At times, Tatum looked like the leader of the team on the offensive end.
Plagued with Injuries
The Celtics had their other All Star, Irving, have his second knee surgery in April, and would miss the rest of the season. Marcus Smart was sidelined for the postseason as well with a thumb injury.
The depth of the team showed come playoff time though. The injury-ridden Celtics weren’t even favored in their first round match-up against the Milwaukee Bucks. They won a thrilling series that went to a Game 7, beat the favored 76ers in the second round, and were leading the heavily favored LeBron James-led Cavaliers 3-2, then the Celtics fell apart and lost a Game 7 at home, effectively ending their 2018 campaign.
The 2018-19 Season So Far
The Celtics didn’t make any major moves in the offseason, but Irving and Hayward were healthy enough to start on opening night against the 76ers. This team has enough young talent to be a tremendously good team for a tremendously long time. At this point in the season, they are 6-4, and need room for improvement, especially on the offensive side.
Tatum looks to be the leader of this offense, even when Hayward and Irving are on the floor with him. Irving is yet to find his groove from beyond the arc. Meanwhile, it doesn’t look like Hayward wants to step into a more prominent role.
The Celtics have flourished on defense through the first ten games of the regular season. They have become the only team to hold their opponent to under a hundred points per game. However, they have struggled against other top teams, losing to the Denver Nuggets, an amazing Toronto Raptors squad, and an improving Indiana Pacers team. They also have an embarrassing three point loss to the underwhelming Orlando Magic.
This team has the depth to hang with anybody in the league when they are playing to their full potential.
Hopefully, these are just some early season jitters, and they can overcome them once it gets to playoff time. Otherwise, they will be packing their bags early this postseason with some serious team issues.