NBA training camps open in the final week of September, and between now and then, we’ll be trying to answer 20 questions about the Boston Celtics as we head into the new season. Today we look at what exactly this team is trying to accomplish this season.
I’ll stop you before you even start.
Yes, the Celtics would like to win a championship this season. No, suggesting any other path for them is not “loser talk” any other such pejorative sports talk radio cliché you want to throw in the comments. The business of the NBA presents paths to improvement and smaller than ever windows to raise a banner.
Title hunting is difficult. Shoot too early and you risk missing and wasting valuable bullets. Wait too long and someone else might swoop in and claim your prize.
The timing has to be just right, and it doesn’t feel right at the moment.
Ask the Celtics directly and they’ll tell you a championship is always the goal, which is exactly what they should say. The players on a good team like the Celtics should internalize questions about how far they could go and set out to prove people wrong. Players should want to win every game and dream of raising banners.
Brad Stevens also wants to win a title, but as President of Basketball Operations, he has an obligation to be realistic about this team’s chances. He needs to make moves that match the franchise’s actual timeline, not the hopeful one.
So where does he see his team? What does he believe the timeline to be?
What are this team’s motivations this season?
We all understand a few givens this year. Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown are going to play the most minutes and take the most shots. Marcus Smart, Dennis Schröder, Robert Williams, and Al Horford will also get a significant share of minutes at their respective positions.
The rest?
Well, that depends.
Boston might want to preserve a puncher’s chance at a title, which might mean more Josh Richardson and less of some of the younger guys. Richardson may have been disappointing in Philadelphia and Dallas, but he still has a strong reputation as a defender and some hope as an offensive player who can operate in Tatum and Brown’s wake.
It doesn’t rule out the younger players, but what it would do is give some of the more proven players a chance to find their best selves. It could mean more experimentation with Schröder alongside Smart to see if those lineups can thrive. It might mean more minutes for Tatum and Brown. It could change how long Ime Udoka lets certain runs happen on the floor, or how much he allows guys who are cold to stay in the game.
If Stevens’ motivation is to find help by the trade deadline, or at least be a player, he might ask Udoka to do as much as he can to push Richardson and Schröder during games in an effort to showcase them a little more than usual. That could result in hanging with Richardson if he starts cold in hopes of him finding a groove. It could mean Schröder being the primary ball-handler whenever he’s on the floor, or longer stretches for him and a temporary reduction in Smart’s minutes (which the team would hope is handled well since he’s already signed his extension).
It might also mean more of certain young players even if they’re struggling a bit just so they can catch a little fire. The need to maintain value could be a motivator for how minutes are distributed.
Maybe the team is in full-on evaluation mode, which could lead to some wild lineup experimentation. Who they keep and who they let go may not be determined for a while, meaning we could be in for months of things looking different every couple of weeks.
Or perhaps there will be an emphasis on development. I’ve already wondered out loud about where Payton Pritchard’s minutes will come from. He’s certainly made a case for a fair amount, and maybe the Celtics will make getting him 25-30 minutes a night a priority. Maybe they’ll decide to push Aaron Nesmith into a starting role, not only to get some shooting on the floor, but to get him on the floor with Smart so he can learn defensively on the fly.
There are a lot of ways this can all go. Motivations can change on the fly, with things like the team’s record or injury situation nudging them closer to certain paths as the season progresses. They could decide to go for it this season if the competition is staggered at the trade deadline. They could go the opposite direction if they’re the ones staggered.
This team’s motivations this season are kind of fascinating. We may never know exactly what they’re thinking, but we can guess along the way and look for signs of where they see themselves, and how far they think they’re going.
The 20 questions series: