The 2024-2025 NBA season is here. We make our annual trip too close to the sun and challenge you to endure the sultry views. These are hot takes that we might actually believe.
Trivia question: Who came close to stopping the Boston Celtics last season?
Answer: Nobody.
The sixth-seeded Indiana Pacers, who were without All-Star point guard Tyrese Haliburton in the second half of the Eastern Conference finals, came closest to giving the Celtics a series. Boston didn’t take the Pacers seriously. And the Celtics still swept Indiana out of the playoffs in four games.
No NBA champion has repeated this since the Golden State Warriors in 2018. And wouldn’t you know it: the Celtics posted the best regular season record (64-18), the best regular season net rating (11.6 ), best playoff record (16-3) and – before a blowout loss in Game 4 of the NBA Finals – best playoff net rating (11.2) since Kevin Durant joined a 73-win roster and formed the greatest collection of talent we have ever seen.
Regardless, the 2023-2024 Boston Celtics were among the most dominant teams in history. You know what dominant teams do in the NBA? They win multiple championships. As Boston’s Jayson Tatum said at media day, “It was never about just trying to win one.” And if they want to win two, this is the season.
The Celtics are up for sale this fall, and next year there will be a unaffordable luxury tax bill, when Tatum, Jaylen Brown, Jrue Holiday, Kristaps Porziņģis and Derrick White – (easily) the league’s best starting five – combine for $200 million be guilty. . There is a good chance that we will see them as a unit again in the 2025-2026 season.
They are doing their Last Dance before a dynasty was born. We can debate the merits of a league designed to destroy continuity, but Boston has common enemies: a collective bargaining agreement that doesn’t believe in their right to exist and a basketball world as a whole that doesn’t believe in them at all.
Sure, the Celtics are the favorites to win the championship again according to BetMGM, but they don’t listen to any sportsbook. They listen to Grant Hill, who did not select Brown for Team USA; they listen to Steve Kerr, who benched Tatum for two of their six games at the Paris Olympics; and they listen to Kendrick Perkins, who publicly stated, “No one in the NBA is afraid of the Boston Celtics right now.”
You may find it ridiculous that both Tatum and Brown are upset that they weren’t considered among the few Americans who could be counted on when the nation’s pride was on the line. On the other hand, you don’t have their counterargument. Tatum is the best player on the defending NBA champions; Brown is the reigning Finals MVP. Turning perceived slights into motivation is what makes them great.
Tatum and Brown are 26 and 27 years old, respectively. They are just entering their prime with All-NBA talent. Did you see the form in which they entered the camp? Brown looks like he was sculpted by a 26-year-old Michelangelo.
Stephen Curry was 29 years old when the Warriors repeated in 2018. LeBron James was 28 years old when his Miami Heat repeated in 2013. And Kobe Bryant was 31 years old when his Los Angeles Lakers repeated in 2010. I don’t think you it understands: This partnership – which has included five Eastern Conference finals appearances, two NBA Finals berths and a championship – is just getting started.
They also have by far the best supporting cast in the league. Do you know who was deeply involved in Team USA’s plans in Paris? Holiday and White, neither of whom cares that he’s a fourth or fifth option. In fact, they seem more interested in being the league’s very best fourth and fifth options.
Their backup, Payton Pritchard, played on the Select Team that prepared the US for the Olympics. He may be the NBA’s best reserve point guard. He and Sam Hauser combined to shoot 48% on three-point attempts in the preseason. Even Jordan Walsh is showing a game. Due to his performance, Lonnie Walker IV was removed from the roster. It’s hard to make this team, let alone the rotation.
And the thing is, everyone on this team seems to like and respect each other. This is not lip service. It’s a belief instilled by a 36-year-old coach, Joe Mazzulla, whose eccentricities seem increasingly genius by any measure of success. Brown’s Olympic complaint, seen by some as a shot in the arm at the White squad, barely caused a ripple. Tatum missed being around a “special” collection of coaches and teammates. For Luke Kornet, they’ve “made it hard to want anything different.” Everyone is doing a repeat. This is real.
But Porziņģis could be out until Christmasyou cry. That’s right, and the Celtics will still be good. A 38-year-old Al Horford, assisted by Kornet and Xavier Tillman, is a nice addition to the centers. They won the championship largely without Porziņģis. They have plenty of time to ease the one-time All-Star into the season and get him in top shape for the playoffs, when they can unlock a five-man unit that outscored opponents by 17.3 points per 100 possessions in their limited time together in the postseason.
But Tatum’s shot is brokenyou think. He missed all four of his three-point attempts in the Olympics and shot 28.3% from distance in the playoffs. A sample size of 142 shots. We have a seven-year career worth of shots (3,453, to be exact) that tells us he is a very good shooter – 38% from beyond the arc, where he often creates on his own. Tatum is shooting 39% on nine three-point attempts per game in the preseason.
Isn’t this bad news for Boston’s opponents? Porziņģis could be ready for the playoffs, where Tatum is even more explosive. They could be better. And no one came close to stopping the Celtics last season.
We should be asking ourselves: Who are the Celtics afraid of? They finished last regular season 14 games better than anyone in the East and seven games better than the entire league. The Philadelphia 76ers and New York Knicks added Paul George and Karl-Anthony Towns, respectively, neither of whom have ever been to a Finals. The same goes for the Oklahoma City Thunder and Minnesota Timberwolves, who have won three playoff series together since 2016. The Dallas Mavericks? Please. Boston just beat them in five games.
The only team the Celtics feared last season was the Denver Nuggets. As Tatum told Gary Washburn of The Boston Globe, “People always ask me, when did you know you were going to win a championship? When Minnesota beat Denver, I felt like Denver was the one team that was the best fit for us.” And the Nuggets only got worse, losing Kentavious Caldwell-Pope on top of Bruce Brown and Jeff Green.
No one in this NBA can stop these Celtics on their way to a second straight championship.
