The Boston Celtics are NBA Champions and undoubtedly the best team in the NBA. At this stage, it doesn’t even seem close. But how have they built such a dominant lineup whereby the competition, at least in the Eastern Conference, seems helpless?
Consistency
It’s hard to come by in modern sports. The NBA is perhaps the most fluid landscape in which a player’s life expectancy on a team rarely exceeds a few years. Teams no longer have the chance to ‘figure it out’ and are expected to click instantly. If they don’t, scapegoats are singled out, trades are made, and the cycle restarts.
Boston Celtics has played it differently. Whilst President of Basketball Operations Brad Stevens has made significant changes to the supporting cast over the last few seasons, he has allowed the core of Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown, and Al Horford to develop and learn together.
He did not panic after they lost to the Golden State Warriors in the 2022 finals. Nor did he flinch having lost to the eight seeded Miami Heat in seven games. The team trusted the core to come back stronger, knowing they could use continuity to their advantage.
‘I can’t believe Tatum is still 19’ is a joke which, although ridiculous as he is now 26, serves to illustrate the rarity of consistency in the NBA. Fans are so accustomed to a lack of change that one player staying at a franchise for half a decade is incomprehensible.
Boston Celtics: Mastering the trade market
Brad Stevens has been a revelation as the Celtics GM.
In the years prior, the Boston Celtics had struggled to develop a team worthy of being a contender. They had attempted the superstar route by bringing in Kyrie Irving for Isaiah Thomas, but that failed quite spectacularly. Lebron James had concluded his reign of terror by moving out West but Giannis Antetekounmpo looked to be taking up the mantle of Eastern Conference king.
To move the needle and finally make the most of their young stars, they had to make decisive moves.
Enter Stevens in 2021, succeeding Danny Ainge.
You might consider his first season in charge of the roster fairly unassuming – the biggest trade was the deadline acquisition of Derrick White – but consider the importance. They managed to secure a young, elite defender, and high-level spot-up shooter for a protected pick and a couple of non-rotation players. White is now a fringe all-star and Olympian, arguably the best role player in the league and integral in their championship run last season.
Stevens’ masterclass came in the off-season of 2023. Letting go of a franchise stalwart like Marcus Smart required audacity but conviction. And it paid off handsomely. Kristaps Porzingis, when healthy, is an all-star. His height and skill set continue to justify being labelled a unicorn. The trade solved Boston’s interior defensive shortcomings whilst providing a vertical offensive threat.
His next move sealed their fate.
Portland Trailblazers GM Joe Cronin was determined to deny Damian Lillard’s request to be traded to Miami. He was willing to move him for a smaller return just to spite Pat Riley and company.
The Milwaukee Bucks were desperately trying to prove to Giannis that they were being active in their attempts to improve their team and put him in a position to win again: A player of Giannis’ calibre does not sign to a small market like Milwaukee in free agency and so keeping him happy is of paramount importance. Therefore they made the catastrophic error of allowing Jrue Holiday, probably the league’s premier perimeter defender, to be traded to Portland to acquire Dame.
This was careless because it destroyed the Bucks’ defensive identity, and Jrue was never going to stay on Cronin’s tanking team. As a result, the likelihood of them strengthening a rival like Boston was high.
Stevens capitalised, buying Jrue for the price of Robert Williams and Malcolm Brogdon – hardly a pretty penny.
With that, he had constructed the most balanced two-way lineup in the NBA.
Boston Celtics: Offensive identity
You could argue one area in which Boston has lacked consistency is in coaching. Joe Mazulla was made head coach only two years ago after the scandal of Ime Udoka. Udoka himself was the coach for only two years too.
But Mazulla was Udoka’s assistant and has been hands-on with the Celtics team for five years. This allowed him to build a rapport and understanding with Boston’s stars that only an assistant coach’s constant personal access can create.
Now, with this relationship with Tatum and Brown, and a shrewdly constructed roster, Mazulla, aided by the advice of Pep Guardiola, has built a balanced offensive scheme capable of scoring from every angle.
In this past season, the Boston Celtics broke the record for the highest offensive rating in NBA history at 124.23. Whilst this record seems to get broken every year, the significance cannot be understated. They were blowing teams out relentlessly.
They ranked second in the league in three-point percentage at 38.8 whilst leading the league by some way with 42.5 attempts per game. Drive, kick, move the ball, shoot if you’re open. It seems simple enough but it requires an entire roster capable and willing to shoot from deep and competent at moving within a highly fluid offence.
Stifling defence
With Porzingis and Holiday added to the roster Boston had created one of the best defensive starting fives in NBA history. In each position, they had a player highly proficient in one-on-one situations.
Holiday and White are two of the best perimeter defenders in the league and are proving it now in the Olympics. They provide relentless point-of-attack pressure making it difficult for offence-minded guards to find joy in isolation possessions.
Porzingis not only gives them elite interior defence aided by his 7ft 5” wingspan but has solved their defensive rebounding issues. Often an underlooked component of team defence, defensive rebounding is integral, and Porzingis’s height and activity on the boards propelled Boston to the number one ranked team with 35.6 per game.
The Celtics ended up with a 112.51 defensive rating in the regular season – the third highest in the league and an impressive number considering the prolific nature of scoring in the modern game.
