Robb: Celtics' path towards contention may be ahead of schedule

In the wake of the Celtics’ 108-95 blowout win over the Nuggets on Friday night, Brad Stevens spoke about a modest goal he had for this group entering the 2019-20 season.

“It’s a special city to coach in, it’s a special city to play in,” Stevens said after thumping a 15-7 Denver team. “We said from Day 1 with this group, our No. 1 objective was to be a team that Boston liked. That’s it. So we’ll hopefully be that.”

Stevens can safely check off that item on that goal list since it's been achieved for a few weeks now. Even with the team’s best player through nine games sidelined (Gordon Hayward), the Celtics have remained likable and impressive in a highly competitive top half of the Eastern Conference. They cruised to their third straight win over the No. 1 defense in the league on Friday night with their lone All-Star (Kemba Walker) playing third fiddle (in a good way) to Jayson Tatum (team-high 26 points, 7 rebounds) and Jaylen Brown (21 points, 7 rebounds).

After improving to 16-5 overall and 8-4 with Hayward sidelined, the Celtics have not just held down the ship in his absence, they’ve continued to thrive. That stretch looks even better when you consider those four losses without Hayward came by a combined total of 13 points.

Friday’s victory also gave the Celtics a 9-0 home record, which is the best start for this team at the TD Garden since the 2007-08 championship season. Five of those wins have also come against five of the best seven teams in the NBA (Bucks, Raptors, Heat, Nuggets, Mavericks).

That kind of performance has even taken Stevens a bit off guard.

“I don’t know what we are now, but we’re way ahead of where I thought we would be results-wise,” he admitted. “Because the first part of the schedule, we played three more road games and those trips are really hard. But there’s a long way to go, so we’ll see how that all ends itself up, but our guys have done a good job thus far during that stretch. That’s what good teams do. When guys are out, Kemba was out the one night, Marcus was out the other night against a good team, you just find a way to win. Gordon’s out, other guys have to step up.”

While it’s important to note that the C’s are a clear tier below the top contenders in the NBA right now (Bucks, Lakers, Clippers), it’s safe to squarely put them now into the next level of teams fighting for a chance at the crown. Hot starts don’t last 21 games if a team is not legitimately good and that's what they are. The Celtics have their holes but the best pieces on the roster (Tatum, Brown, Walker, Marcus Smart) are playing some of the best basketball of their career. Brown and Tatum, in particular, were unstoppable at times against the Nuggets on Friday and have reached a tremendous level of consistency this year given their youth.

Brown's playing like an All-Star, averaging 26.7 points with 54 percent shooting in his last three games. Meanwhile, Tatum has scored 15 points in nine straight games, while playing some vastly improved defense compared to last year.

“Those guys are still getting better,” Stevens explained of the duo. “Clearly, improving in a lot of areas. I think that they are really enjoying playing together and figuring it out with the rest of our team. It’s more fun to be kind of a central player that we’re going to and all those occasions and they are taking advantage of, doing a really good job of it. As I said many times this year, our five best players are really quick. And everything we do has got to be around complementing them and maximizing them. Those two guys, in particular, have done a really good job in this early part of the season, just focusing on making the right plays. But we’re still, as a team, and those two guys, we still have a lot of room to improve.”

Stevens knew he had something good with the top five pieces on this roster but there were still all sorts of uncertainty within the bench unit as the year began. Slowly but surely, some role definition has come into play in the past few weeks, aided by Hayward’s absence. Brad Wanamaker has emerged as a top guard reserve who will pair nicely with Smart when he returns to the bench. Semi Ojeleye has taken hold of the reserve power forward spot thanks to his defense. The center spot has been matchup dependent but everyone (especially Daniel Theis and Enes Kanter) has been solid more often than not. The rookies remain an offensive weak spot but there have been enough contributions in other areas (particularly with Grant Williams) for the C's to get by. Unlike last season, guys not only know their roles, but they are embracing them, which is leading to wins. Stevens will be able to tighten things up even more from a rotation standpoint once Hayward gets his usual 30 minutes again but the head coach clearly has found a winnable formula with this group.

“I have a lot of confidence in any number of guys,” Stevens said. “We'll continue rotating the center spot, including Grant playing some 5 and VP when his time comes. Brad and Semi obviously have had a really good stretch here and I think that helps solidify some of our bench, which is good. Javonte (Green) played well tonight, Carsen's (Edwards) had his moments, I feel good about all of those guys. We need to get Romeo (Langford) healthy. Hopefully, he will be soon.”

Unlike last year, mixing Hayward back into this group shouldn’t be an issue at all in terms of fit, The wings have been thriving together with Hayward in their limited minutes (four games) before he went down and the C’s success (7-1) was even greater this year with an unselfish Hayward on the court.

“I think you're always getting used to each other again, but it hasn’t been that long,” Stevens said of Hayward’s pending return to the lineup. “So I’m not really worried about it. At the end of the day, the best version of ourselves includes all those guys, and we all know it, and our chance against the very very best to go as late as you want to go includes all those guys. So we got a long way to the end of the season. When he does get back, we’ll reintegrate him and we’ll just keep trying to get everybody to play their best basketball and make the right play. That’s been the theme the whole year, just make the right play. Everything will take care of itself.”

“We've done pretty good, held our own,” Tatum said of life without Hayward. “But can't wait for him to be back.”

For now, this group is becoming more than just a fun story and a likable team. They have put themselves in position to hold onto the No. 2 seed in the East over the long haul despite Hayward’s absence. For all of the uncertainty the roster overhaul this summer brought, every crucial piece on this team has taken a big step forward with their play. Assuming Hayward is able to find his groove once more with this group, this is a team that should have legitimate aspirations to get to the NBA Finals if they maintain this pace.

There are holes that need to be filled and/or improved upon by Danny Ainge and the front office in the coming months to increase the odds of upsetting the Bucks. However, there are resources available (i.e. two late first-round picks this year) to add a bench upgrade or two while keeping the top-5 core in place. Given the wide-open nature of the league this year, there will be no need to sit on those picks as assets for the next big trade. It simply isn’t coming for this team as composed this season.

Smart, Hayward, Tatum, Brown, and Walker aren’t going anywhere this year and they collectively might all be staying put here for the long haul if this group keeps ascending. The biggest question before the season started is whether this core had the makings of a championship contender and that answer is trending towards the yes column. It’s time to adjust expectations accordingly.