For months, we’ve all known the Boston Celtics were in a bit of salary cap purgatory heading into the offseason.
There are clear and undeniable needs (additional scorer; interior big man) that they want to address, without a clear path - or much money - to do so.
But just as we saw Brad Stevens seemingly do his best work as a coach when he had the least amount of resources to work with, we’re seeing similar results from him in his new role as the Celtics’ President of Basketball operations.
Free agency won’t begin until Monday, and we’re already seeing Stevens assemble a team with options.
While it’s likely that Stevens will continue to tinker with the roster in the coming weeks and months, if very little changes you can already tell this team will have a very different but clear identity as a defense-first group.
They added Al Horford to help solidify the team’s interior defense. They just traded for former Providence star Kris Dunn who has been among the better perimeter defenders in the NBA the past couple of seasons, as well as Josh Richardson who is another above-average defender.
Pair those two up with Marcus Smart, a first team all-NBA defender just a couple years ago, along with Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown … you have a group that doesn’t let up much if at all defensively when teams run pick-and-roll to create mismatches.
Think about this.
Kyrie Irving is initially guarded by Smart, then a switch has him matched with Jaylen Brown, and another switch has him trying to attack Richardson.
Irving is one of the best one-on-one players in the league, but each of those individuals will make him work for his shot.
However, the clear downside to the team’s current construction is the potential for a lot of empty possessions. This group would have to play great defense because of how offensively challenged they are.
Dunn’s availability to be acquired via trade is in part because of his struggles, both to stay healthy and to make shots when the opportunity is there. It was telling during the playoffs that when Trae Young went down with an injury, Dunn, the only other point guard on the roster, was not immediately inserted in the starting lineup.
And when he did play in Game 4, he had just as many turnovers (2) as assists in just under 11 minutes of court time. So if his time in Boston ends before it even gets started, that would come as a surprise to no one.
But what has been surprising for Celtics fans, has been the decisive nature in which Stevens has gone about his new job.
He wasted no time in trading Kemba Walker, a move many had anticipated being a necessary one for the franchise to have any shot at a significant roster upgrade in the offseason. Boston included its first-round pick from this year’s draft, a not-so-subtle clue that there are no plans to get any younger with this team.
Boston has since added Richardson, Dunn, Bruno Fernando all while creating more Traded Player Exceptions (TPEs).
So as it stands, Boston has strengthened its roster without having to take on significant salary besides Richardson, whose deal takes up the remainder of the TPE Boston had from the Gordon Hayward deal with Charlotte.
It’s still early in Stevens’ reign as the basketball operations’ shot-caller, with plenty of time for him to make moves that Celtics fans will surely second-guess.
But to his credit, he’s off to the kind of start that gives fans hope that better days for this franchise will come, sooner rather than later.
TATUM SPARKLES IN TEAM USA WIN
The breakout performance that so many have been anticipating from Jayson Tatum finally arrived in Team USA’s dominant 118-84 win against the Czech Republic.
Tatum, who came in averaging 11.5 points in Team USA’s first two games, erupted for a game-high 27 against the Czech Republic.
It was vintage Tatum, getting points from all points on the floor which for a change, brought a smile to the face of Team USA head coach Gregg Popovich.
When asked about Tatum’s performance against the Czech Republic, Popovich told reporters, “I just told Jayson to act like he’s playing the Spurs. Every time he plays us he scores 90.”
In seven games against Popovich and the San Antonio Spurs, Tatum has averaged 22.4 points per game. There are only three teams (Portland, New Orleans and the Los Angeles Clippers) that Tatum has a higher career scoring average against.
KYRIE IRVING BLASTS NIKE, FIRES AGENCY
It has been a busy couple of weeks for the former Boston Celtic, for sure. First there were the leaked images of his new sneaker with Nike, sneakers that Irving does not like.
At all.
“In my opinion, these are trash!” Irving posted on Instagram.
Irving wasn’t done making news.
Since then, he has reportedly fired Roc Nation as his agency. This will be the second agency Irving has gone through in the three years since he left Boston.
And it comes at a time when the Brooklyn Nets are expected to seek an extension for the seven-time All-Star as well as teammates Kevin Durant and James Harden.
Irving has always operated in a way that doesn’t always make sense to the masses. So while the criticism of Nike and the firing of Roc Nation may have been unexpected, it’s actually par for the course when it comes to Irving.
SECOND ROUND MYSTERY MAN
A year ago, Celtics fans were scrambling to find out all they could about the team’s second-round pick, Yam Madar. A similar scene is playing out now with Boston adding yet another relatively unknown talent to the mix via the second round when they picked French guard Juhann Begarin
Selected in the second round with the 45th overall selection, the 18-year-old will likely spend at least another year playing overseas. However, there is a chance that he may be added to Boston’s summer league roster which begins play in Las Vegas next week.
“It’s a possibility,” said Stevens when asked if he would play overseas next season rather than join the Celtics. “We’ll continue to evaluate our team throughout the summer. I say that’s the likely avenue.”
Stevens added, “We really like Juhann. He’s a guy that's a big strong versatile guard that can guard up with his strength and athleticism. We’ve been paying attention to him for a long time. He’s a guy we think at his age and his body and his physical abilities and the way that he works and the time he’s put in thus far, is going to have a really long career ahead of him. We’re excited we were able to draft him at 45.”
As Stevens mentioned, Begann has the kind of physical tools that allows him to fit in with a team like Boston which emphasizes positionless basketball. And the 6-foot-5 guard certainly showed promise in the 33 games he played with Paris Basket of the Pro B League.
But if there’s one thing that Stevens has been pretty clear about when you look at the moves he has made as the Celtics’ top decision-maker, is that experience will become more of a priority when assembling the roster for the 2021-2022 season.
However, that doesn’t mean the team is ditching the development of young talent, which is why drafting an international player with clear upside who is just 18 years old, makes a lot of sense for the Celtics.
ONE MORE THING …
There’s no right way or best way to say this, so I’ll just spit it out.
This will be my last column for Boston Sports Journal.
And the reason is really simple.
I’m going to be in graduate school full-time, beginning this fall.
When I evaluated the time commitment that will involve along with all the other things I have on my plate, it became pretty clear to me that I just won’t have the bandwidth to devote the kind of time that BSJ AND YOU deserve!
I can’t say enough good things about Greg Bedard, John Karalis and the entire BSJ family who welcomed me with open arms from Day One.
And while I won’t be in this space, I won’t be going too far away.
You will still find me doing work with CLNS Media’s Garden Report, the A-List Podcast with Kwani A. Lunis as well as league coverage with Bleacher Report.
Again, thank you for your time and continued support of myself, as well as Boston Sports Journal.