Here’s my preview for anyone whose attention span has been decimated by social media and smart devices: The Celtics were really good last year, everyone is back, and they look better this year. They should win a lot of games and, probably, a championship.
Unfortunately for me, 44 words does not a preview make. And, in all honesty, it casually dismisses a lot of what’s gone on in the NBA, much of which is aimed at derailing the Celtics’ championship express.
The Celtics do face serious threats in the East, mostly from New York and Philadelphia, and possibly from Milwaukee if they can get things together. The Indiana Pacers stand out as a tough matchup and a team we’d all probably like to avoid (and on a personal level, I need a break from Indianapolis in April or May. I’m over it.).
At the same time, the Celtics hold obvious advantages over these threats. Each has obvious weak points that the Celtics can attack while Boston has decidedly few. Even if Karl-Anthony Towns is a revelation for the Knicks, the Celtics coaching staff can put together a game plan to force New York into adjustments. Even if the Knicks like a matchup, the Celtics will likely trust in what they do rather than break from the plan and put themselves into rotation.
So, at least as of this writing, there's a real basketball reason for some dismissiveness (or, if you’re a fan of the other team, it probably comes off as arrogance). The Celtics own most of the matchups in any East playoff series, and those that they might not aren’t bad enough to warrant an overreaction.
Which brings us to Boston’s biggest opponent this season: Themselves.
October has been generally bright and warm outside, and that doesn’t even begin to touch the vibes on the Celtics’ practice court. The confidence oozes inside the Auerbach Center, fed by the familiarity of a championship group, but tempered by Joe Mazzulla’s pragmatism. The Celtics are both aware of their championship and their ability to win another one, but they also understand this iteration has done nothing of consequence.
“This team, 2024-2025, is not great yet. That's it,” Mazzulla said. “Key word is yet. It's very important. Do we have great talent? Yes. Do we have great players? Yes. Do we have a great foundation? Yes. So is this 24-25 (team) great yet? No, because we haven't been in a game yet.”
And to be fair to Mazzulla’s point, preseasons are generally pretty confident times. Everyone feels their best and the theoretical promise of what’s to come has everyone’s noses tilted upward as they strut through the door. It’s not until the official minutes are played that the confidence is verified or negated. No one has done anything this season to prove or disprove anything. All we have is the collective expectations, which can be dangerous.
Mazzulla and Brad Stevens have both talked about the pitfalls that come with winning. Every result has consequences and challenges associated with them. Praise is intoxicating and distracting. It can be disorienting when everyone wants a piece of your time and every whisper in your ear is about how great you are. Believing in that is just as bad, maybe worse, than believing people during the down times who scream about how much you suck. Negativity can be motivating. Praise fosters a sense of accomplishment; that the work of the journey is over because you have arrived at your destination.
“They're motivated,” Mazzulla said. “I'm not trying to find new ways to do it. I think it's making sure we stay open-minded to we have to get better. And I think that's the challenge. It's not they're not motivated. We compete at a high level every day. The guys have done that. It's open-minded to just because something worked once doesn't mean it's going to work again … it's going to look different, and we have to be able to be ready for that.”
This is what makes them already look so impressive. Preseason is notoriously misleading, but the execution and effort has been there throughout. They didn’t give in to any letdown against a Philadelphia team throwing G Leaguers at their regulars. They didn’t let jet lag be an excuse after a jaunt to Abu Dhabi. Other than a tough shooting night in Toronto, this team has shown itself to be mentally present and ready.
“I feel like we all understand that this is a new year,” Al Horford said. “We have to prove ourselves again. We have to start building this thing back up. We have to figure things out again. The league continues to change. There's different things. So I feel like our mindset, even though that we have a lot of the same guys, we're ready to get after it and ready to figure it out and get this together as a team.”
So if their mental health is good, then the Celtics' biggest concern for this upcoming season is their physical health.
Again, the preseason was pretty encouraging in this regard. We’ve seen the depth at center working the way it’s supposed to. It worked last season and the autumnal equinox has done nothing to cool the effectiveness of Luke Kornet, Xavier Tillman, or Neemias Queta. In fact, they seem to be getting better.
And from where I stand, I can say that about the whole team. I’ll repeat myself and say I haven't seen a single sign of regression anywhere. Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown have clearly worked on themselves and their games, which only serves to push their teammates. The Celtics will take advantage of this by throwing some of Brown’s added bulk around down low. Tatum will continue to grow as a playmaker, and his more compact jump shot should allow him to better capitalize on brief openings. If they're more dangerous, the team will become exponentially so.
A championship was always going to affect the Celtics one of two ways: Either it was going to swell egos so big that the locker room was going to be overcrowded, or it was going to lift the weight of expectations off their shoulders so they played even more freely moving forward.
The league was hoping for the former, but instead, it seems to have gotten the latter. The vindication of the Celtics seems to have only emboldened them. And their coach, in his incredibly unique way, is doing his level best to make sure it stays this way.
“We're all going to be dead soon, and it really doesn't matter anymore, so there's zero pressure,” he said. “You're either going to win or you're not. And when you win, you try to forget about it a week later, and when you lose, you try to forget about it a forget about it a week later. And so it's not pressure, it's an opportunity.”
The Celtics have an incredible opportunity in front of them. There is no reason to expect anything less than a championship from them at this point. Any questions or shreds of doubt, at least today, are manufactured talking points that only serve to fill time on television or podcasts or space on the internet and newspapers.
They aren’t great yet, but they should be. They haven't accomplished anything yet, but they probably will. Last year’s best team by a mile looks even better right now. The expectations are high, but even those seem pedestrian for this group.
Yes, they still have to go out there and do it, and we cannot predict the future. Things can change drastically in either an instant or slowly over time. We think we know how things will go, but even the best meteorologists miss a forecast or two.
The only thing I see ahead for this group is clear skies and smooth sailing. Keep the duckboats idling in the alley, because they are probably going to head right back out. Boston sports is about championships, and the Celtics look like they're going to hold things down until the rest of the teams figure themselves out.