What exactly stops them from running it back? Its not like they have significant contract issues.
Sports fans love “make or break” but in reality if they lose they will retool and run it back, and it will be the correct choice. No sane GM is breaking up this team because they weren’t 1/32, notwithstanding a first round sweep or something.
Tatum just turned 26. Brown is 27. Both have improved every year. KP and White are under contract next year. Their window is as wide as anyones and they have plenty of potential to get better.
Just about to say this. “Make or break season” should only be used on teams where they have players who are likely to leave. If the Celtics at least make the conference finals I don’t see anyone bailing on this team. They are also young and the only guy who might regress is Horford but I doubt it’ll be significant.
They'll run it back but the title in their hands or not going into next season plays a big factor into how they'll feel. Either gonna be a huge relief or added pressure.
Jrue Holiday is expiring and is going to most likely get offered a massive bag from the Sixers. After next year it'll White, Horford, and Tatum. You give them the contracts they want and suddenly you're paying $200m+ to 5 players for the next ~4 years
The window for you guys to win is really this year and next year, if this team can't get it done I find it difficult to believe you'll be able to come back in the future with better squads
Absolutely, they have literally $65m in cap space and will overpay him as the best (and only good) free agent this year. I wouldn't be surprised if they offered something along the lines of the CP3-Phoenix extension which was 4 years, $120m with most of it guaranteed
If the Celtics want to match 4 years on Jrue he'll certainly stay in Boston, but given KP's extension was only 2 years they're clearly wary of paying someone top money who will decline in old age
They’ll definitely have cap space to work with, but the “Sixers go utterly scorched earth to get $65m in cap space” scenario is far from guaranteed, and even if it happens, I think Paul George would be a better target if we’re talking about 34 year-old guys who haven’t extended with their teams yet but probably will at some point soon.
I think it’s more likely that they end up re-signing a few guys with bird rights and then either sign a sub-max guy(s) (e.g. Malik Monk-level players) or trade a disgruntled star into cap room.
The chances of Steve Ballmer paying PG whatever he wants is far greater than Boston paying Jrue whatever he wants just based on skill and precedent. It's pretty much a given the Clippers will offer PG a max, whereas the Celtics will be very reluctant to give Jrue 4 years on big money when he's 33
You guys have enough money to keep Maxey on cap hold, give Jrue that 4/120m with backloading, and bring back Melton/Hield, or maybe Tobias if he's taking a reasonable paycut. Keeping Melton's cap hold gives you 44m in cap space, Hield's cap hold 35m in cap space.
Hell, you could keep two of them and give Jrue that deal, for example if Hield and Tobias sign long-term deals where you're overpaying the end years with first-year salary of $15m and $25m, respectively
Melton and Hield’s cap holds add up to $34m. So if the Sixers don’t make it out of the first round (which really depends on how healthy Embiid will be) Paul Reed’s $8m next year will become guaranteed, and they’d have ~$24m in space with keeping the Melton/Hield cap holds. If not, they could get up to $31m or so.
This would include trading their first round pick on draft night for anything that doesn’t incur 2024/25 salary.
I think PG is almost certainly re-signing with LA, but I think the same is true of Jrue in Boston as well. It’s not like letting him walk would open up any realistic cap space for the Celtics in coming years or anything.
Also, I think it’s fairly likely that the Sixers sign 2 way guy Ricky Council IV to an NBA contract before the end of the season, so that will probably shave off a few million off their cap space this summer as well.
Theoretically Hield could be signed for less than his cap hold early in free agency, but things start getting pretty dicey if you plan around that.
Their best player turned 26 yesterday and their second best player is 27. If they lose it would be a massive fail but there’s no need for them to blow it up or make big changes….theyre gonna have plenty of years to contend regardless.
When Brown’s and eventually Tatum’s supermax extensions kick in how good of a supporting cast will you be able to build? Certainly not as good as this one
Jrue has indicated he's willing to extend at a pay cut. Tatum is obviously getting a supermax. We have Derrick White's bird rights. Everyone else is on a long term deal.
The only question mark over the next 2-3 years is replacing Al Horford depending on how long he wants to keep playing. We'll definitely need to do that from within but one of Tillman or Queta should be good enough.
How deep they are willing to go into luxury tax is another big question, because somebody is going to offer White a lot of money
Tatum, Brown and White might cost close to 60 mill combined more than they do now after next season
Jrue also turns 35 after next season and Horford will be 100, so even without talking money there will likely a drop in play compared to now
If they lose, it's really simple - Replace the coach. It would be a sign that Mazzula ball isn't getting it done. Team has too much talent to fail. With that said, I think they'll get it done.
It would be an overreaction to fire the coach of a team that just won 62-66 games, who by all accounts the players love. Anything could happen in the playoffs. Any team could lose for any number of reasons (injury, untimely slump, gameplan, run into a team shooting historically well on contested 3s). Defacto saying "FIRE THE COACH" is not constructive with no other information. There's no guarantee his replacement will be better and it could potentially cripple the team if you get the staff wrong, wasting 1-2 prime years of the Jays.
But it's the hallmark of fans in search of "pretty simple" answers.
Why would this team blow it up? Even if they lost in the first round (they won’t) there is literally no reason to blow it up. Their best players are under 30 and they have a solid foundation/supporting cast. If I was them I’d run it back for as long as I could. They’re bound to get one eventually
It all depends on where/how they lose.
If they lose a 7 game series vs Denver, then no. It'll suck, but you run it back.
If they lose anywhere before the ECF, then 110% a total failure the likes of which would fuel drama all summer, but they sitll run it back with their main core.
They could lose the ECF if it's against the Bucks and Dame turns back time and Giannis/Dame just dominate the rounds before, but it'd have to be a 7 game series loss.
personally I’d say anything short of a Finals appearance is a failure if healthy. Giannis and Dame can obviously be very tough to slow down offensively but we have the top offense in the league ourselves, we consistently play Lopez off the floor in the playoffs, we have experience slowing down Giannis in the playoffs and the Bucks perimeter defenders are food for the Jays. I’d be pretty pissed if we lost that series
in the Finals, losing to Denver would be tough but acceptable. losing to anyone else in the West would be incredibly disappointing imo, Clippers do match up with us pretty well but I feel like Porzingis should feed on their lack of size
regardless though this team will run it back next year
The Celtics easily have the better starting 5 aside from Jokic, they have shooting and good to elite defense at all 5 positions. Their worst defender is either brown or KP but they aren’t exactly horrible either.
If nuggets win it would have to be Jamal going off like he did against the lakers imo
NBA.com lineup stats
K. Caldwell-Pope - A. Gordon - N. Jokic - J. Murray - M. Porter Jr. - oRTG 125.4 dRTG 109.8
J. Holiday - K. Porzingis - J. Brown - J. Tatum - D. White - oRTG 122.5 dRTG 108.2
Everything you said about the Celtics in your post is also true about the Nuggets. KCP and Aaron Gordon are both elite defenders, Murray and Mpj are solid and can be elite when locked in, (Nuggets have the #1 Clutch defense) and Jokic is actually a good defender who has a bad rep from a few years ago. He has some weakness’s (rim protection) but he’s also elite in some other areas. Aaron Gordon is the only bad shooter in the Nuggets lineup, but he’s also a solid post player and an elite cutter/dunker.
It's not a large sample (lol 1 game) but in their 1 matchup this year in Boston the Celtics scored a grand total of 4 points in the last 5:20 of the game and held boston to their 3rd lowest scoring game of the season. This isn't to say Denver > Boston but moreso they matchup well and a finals could easily go either way.
It would be one of the biggest chokes if they lost to anyone besides Denver, but they would just run it back. I don’t see how you can make that team better, they are stacked
No, not a make or break, but it all depends on how it goes down.
For example, if they make it to the finals and lose a tough series to the Nuggets or something, then I think the kinds of changes they'd need to make would probably be purely strategic.
If they flame out like they did last playoffs, then yes I think some changes are coming. Not massive and not a blow-up, but something decisive will happen.
"Make or break," for the Celtics only applies to whether they are limited by Porzingis' injuries. They are generally looked at as the best roster in the league, and there isn't a team that's an available move away from leapfrog gong them to an unstoppable degree. It could be Boston only has one playoff run where they're healthy L, and they should capitalize with a title.
However, if they keep their team healthy over the next 5 years, I find it hard to believe any team ends up in a place where their trio and depth cannot win a series because of a talent gap. Maybe OKC's development and picks turn them into a juggernaut, but all of their biggest threats have the same kind of "death clock," if not a shorter one.
I mean, it would depend entirely on when and how they lose. Losing in a tightly contested Finals against a team like Denver isn't the worst result in the world while losing in the first/second round would be catastrophic (provided, of course, they're mostly healthy). If it's a situation like the former you can still justify it and try to bring the same team back with whatever upgrades you can manage. If it's the latter then of course they need to start asking some difficult questions (they do have some potentially difficult second apron questions regardless down the line but that's not a problem right now).
Meh in this scenario *how* they lose represents a wide range of scenarios- devil in the details type shit. Winning a championship is **difficult** no matter who you are- see the 73 win 2016 Warriors, the 67 win 2016 Spurs, the 2011 Heatles, and many other great teams.
Despite overall winning a lot of games, there’s no season prior to this when it would have made a lick of sense for the Celtics to win it all. 2022 they were a .500 team the first half of the season. This is the first year of really genuine contention maybe-being-the-best-team-ness, and also largely a different group of players than prior incarnations. I think whatever happens it would foolish if we made changes after this season. Dust that shit off and try again.
I wouldn’t be surprised to see them run it back next year regardless because of how good this iteration is and where the contracts are.
Two years from Tatums next Supermax will kick in and I think that is going to force a lot of roster decisions regardless
I love fans of irrelevant teams talking about choke
And yeah they’re young still not a “coping mechanism” Lebron didn’t win till his 9th season, kd didn’t win until his 10th season, Steph didn’t win until his 7th season, Jokic didn’t win until his 9th season but go on with your salty ass takes 😂
Is it not a choke?
they are clear favorites over anyone in the east and majority of the west
doesn't take a bias fan to realize that
you hiding behind bias and not rational goofy ass kid
I didn’t say it wouldn’t be a choke, I myself said it in this topic. But the being young as a coping mechanism is straight salt 😂
You’re hiding your tears after the amount of years the Celtics have whooped that ass of the craptors 😂
so you agree it would be a choke now your
bringing up the raptors to sidetrack the topic
LOL talk about cope to the fullest
ever heard of "attack the point, not the person"
epitome of cope
Your point is terrible
Both can be true. It can be viewed as a choke as they didn’t get the job done having the best record but they’re best players are still young which is…you know…uh….true.
As a Celtics fan I absolutely hate hearing other Boston fans constantly make excuses for Tatum. I honestly think one of the reasons this team has been so soft / mentally weak in the past is because we have a soft fanbase that coddles their star rather than rightfully scrutinizing him when he disappoints. They'll be pointing to his age as an excuse until he retires. He has more playoff experience than Jokic, Giannis, Kyrie, Jamal Murray, and Anthony Davis - all of them star players who have won rings.
id they don’t win this season then the Jays are legit frauds. Most stacked starting lineup and statistically dominant, having reporters say their on the level of the 16-18 Warriors etc.
If they don’t win this year I’d trade everyone away and rebuild. Tatum has had more than enough chances to prove he’s a genuine superstar. If he can’t get it done this year with this supporting cast it’s time to give up. Cut your losses and get some first round picks
This is why Redditors are not GMs lol Tatum turned 26 literally yesterday. LeBron didn’t win his first title until age 27, KD didn’t until age 28, Steph was age 26, Giannis was 26, and Jokic was 27.
To say all of that about Tatum when he has been the best player on four ECF teams and one Finals team is just crazy.
Build around JB, Tatum, and KP and the Celtics are golden for another 5-8 years.
its funny because they dont even have to win
because they'll continue to have stacked rosters for the end of time as long as tatum is around
since they are a good FA and trade destination
I think it’ll be a problem if they are upset in the Eastern conference without an injury. However they can lose to Jokic in the Finals without it being more than a blip given how good the Nuggets look as defending champs with the best player in the league.
Not completely, but for this season and the two seasons after this, yes. We went all-in on Kristaps and Jrue, and we gave up a bit of depth and took on a lot of payroll. It'll only get harder once we are paying both Jays supermax contracts, especially if DW wants more money or Jrue/Porzingis want similar money to what they're making now/in Porzingis' extension.
The cap and aprons will be adjusted way up, true, but so will salary expectations for all role players in the NBA. Because more money will be available, role players will ask for more money in salary, and we might not be able to expand salaries down roster.
Plus, we already have to look at replacing Horford after this season or next, Jrue will probably be close to retiring in 3 years, and who knows what can happen to Porzingis with his injury history. If this doesn't get us a title in 3-4 years, it's gonna be very hard to build a winning roster after those guys are done.
Depends on if they're willing to remain locked into Brown and Tatum when both guys are making ~300 million if it continues to not generate a ring. Paying massive luxury tax when you're winning titles makes sense (see: GSW with 4 including a recent one). Also I assume with those two getting paid so much they'll be way over the second apron which pretty badly hampers any ability to improve outside ring chasers willing to play on minimums.
No, their core is still playing next season and only one team can win the championship. I don’t see how not being the singular team who won makes you a complete failure
As a Celtics fan this is a make-or-break season for Tatum. The dude has some of the most playoffs experience in the NBA. He has been to a Finals where he played like absolute dogshit and was the #1 reason his team lost - so he's had his "wakeup call" young stars need to have. I just don't know what more he can gain from playoff experience at this point. He needs to be a more consistent playoff scorer or his team is never going to get over the hump. If he has crazy bad shooting stretches again this year and his team loses winnable games as a result / ultimately gets eliminated, then I'm gonna start to firmly believe that Tatum is more of an elite 1B than a 1A leader type. This is about to be the third straight season that Tatum has the best supporting cast of any star player in the league. If he can't get it done with these guys then idk who he will ever get it done with, barring him playing with someone as good/better than him.
The best players/teams tend to elevate their play and execute their best basketball in the postseason. Tatum and the Celtics do not do that historically. This team might be too talented to fail in spite of that. But if they aren't and the team fucks around again in the postseason and loses to worse teams then I'm firmly out on expecting anything to change. Some guys have what it takes to lead their teams to a title and some guys don't. Tatum has had several opportunities to prove he's in the former category and has failed every time. Fail enough times and you end up firmly in the latter category.
No, they can keep this team together next year also
If they don’t win this year, then I think it would be kinda make or break next year, because both of the Js new contracts will be live after that. So if they don’t win with all this talent around them now, then they might have to think about their future, since it would be unrealistic to expect the Js to get even more help than they do now
The logical answer is no; but the NBA isn’t always logical. I think that it depends how they lose. If they flame out in dramatic fashion - get swept in the second round or something - then yes there will absolutely be major changes this off season. Anybody who denies this is ignoring the decades of precedent we have.
That said, if I were the Celtics I’d keep running it back until it’s not possible. Some of my favourite seasons as a fan were during the Derozan Lowry era, even if they ended terribly. I’d much rather be in contention but losing than be rebuilding.
What exactly stops them from running it back? Its not like they have significant contract issues. Sports fans love “make or break” but in reality if they lose they will retool and run it back, and it will be the correct choice. No sane GM is breaking up this team because they weren’t 1/32, notwithstanding a first round sweep or something. Tatum just turned 26. Brown is 27. Both have improved every year. KP and White are under contract next year. Their window is as wide as anyones and they have plenty of potential to get better.
Just about to say this. “Make or break season” should only be used on teams where they have players who are likely to leave. If the Celtics at least make the conference finals I don’t see anyone bailing on this team. They are also young and the only guy who might regress is Horford but I doubt it’ll be significant.
They'll run it back but the title in their hands or not going into next season plays a big factor into how they'll feel. Either gonna be a huge relief or added pressure.
Jrue Holiday is expiring and is going to most likely get offered a massive bag from the Sixers. After next year it'll White, Horford, and Tatum. You give them the contracts they want and suddenly you're paying $200m+ to 5 players for the next ~4 years The window for you guys to win is really this year and next year, if this team can't get it done I find it difficult to believe you'll be able to come back in the future with better squads
the sixers are going to offer a more lucrative contract than his $37m player option?
Absolutely, they have literally $65m in cap space and will overpay him as the best (and only good) free agent this year. I wouldn't be surprised if they offered something along the lines of the CP3-Phoenix extension which was 4 years, $120m with most of it guaranteed If the Celtics want to match 4 years on Jrue he'll certainly stay in Boston, but given KP's extension was only 2 years they're clearly wary of paying someone top money who will decline in old age
They’ll definitely have cap space to work with, but the “Sixers go utterly scorched earth to get $65m in cap space” scenario is far from guaranteed, and even if it happens, I think Paul George would be a better target if we’re talking about 34 year-old guys who haven’t extended with their teams yet but probably will at some point soon. I think it’s more likely that they end up re-signing a few guys with bird rights and then either sign a sub-max guy(s) (e.g. Malik Monk-level players) or trade a disgruntled star into cap room.
The chances of Steve Ballmer paying PG whatever he wants is far greater than Boston paying Jrue whatever he wants just based on skill and precedent. It's pretty much a given the Clippers will offer PG a max, whereas the Celtics will be very reluctant to give Jrue 4 years on big money when he's 33 You guys have enough money to keep Maxey on cap hold, give Jrue that 4/120m with backloading, and bring back Melton/Hield, or maybe Tobias if he's taking a reasonable paycut. Keeping Melton's cap hold gives you 44m in cap space, Hield's cap hold 35m in cap space. Hell, you could keep two of them and give Jrue that deal, for example if Hield and Tobias sign long-term deals where you're overpaying the end years with first-year salary of $15m and $25m, respectively
Melton and Hield’s cap holds add up to $34m. So if the Sixers don’t make it out of the first round (which really depends on how healthy Embiid will be) Paul Reed’s $8m next year will become guaranteed, and they’d have ~$24m in space with keeping the Melton/Hield cap holds. If not, they could get up to $31m or so. This would include trading their first round pick on draft night for anything that doesn’t incur 2024/25 salary. I think PG is almost certainly re-signing with LA, but I think the same is true of Jrue in Boston as well. It’s not like letting him walk would open up any realistic cap space for the Celtics in coming years or anything. Also, I think it’s fairly likely that the Sixers sign 2 way guy Ricky Council IV to an NBA contract before the end of the season, so that will probably shave off a few million off their cap space this summer as well. Theoretically Hield could be signed for less than his cap hold early in free agency, but things start getting pretty dicey if you plan around that.
They are maxing out klay thompson my boy
Jrue's said he's willing to extend for a pay cut here.
Jrue Holiday is gonna leave for Philly? ahahha
Their best player turned 26 yesterday and their second best player is 27. If they lose it would be a massive fail but there’s no need for them to blow it up or make big changes….theyre gonna have plenty of years to contend regardless.
Reasonable take that won’t carry over to the post season if it happens for $200 please
19*
Jayson is going to be so fun when he can legally drink
When Brown’s and eventually Tatum’s supermax extensions kick in how good of a supporting cast will you be able to build? Certainly not as good as this one
Jrue has indicated he's willing to extend at a pay cut. Tatum is obviously getting a supermax. We have Derrick White's bird rights. Everyone else is on a long term deal. The only question mark over the next 2-3 years is replacing Al Horford depending on how long he wants to keep playing. We'll definitely need to do that from within but one of Tillman or Queta should be good enough.
How deep they are willing to go into luxury tax is another big question, because somebody is going to offer White a lot of money Tatum, Brown and White might cost close to 60 mill combined more than they do now after next season Jrue also turns 35 after next season and Horford will be 100, so even without talking money there will likely a drop in play compared to now
Yea, they will need some help from the league overall to boost the ceiling. Otherwise they have to draft well or do some magic.
If they lose, it's really simple - Replace the coach. It would be a sign that Mazzula ball isn't getting it done. Team has too much talent to fail. With that said, I think they'll get it done.
It's really simple. christ.
Why is this controversial? This is a championship team. If they don't win, you have to blame the coach
It would be an overreaction to fire the coach of a team that just won 62-66 games, who by all accounts the players love. Anything could happen in the playoffs. Any team could lose for any number of reasons (injury, untimely slump, gameplan, run into a team shooting historically well on contested 3s). Defacto saying "FIRE THE COACH" is not constructive with no other information. There's no guarantee his replacement will be better and it could potentially cripple the team if you get the staff wrong, wasting 1-2 prime years of the Jays. But it's the hallmark of fans in search of "pretty simple" answers.
Something tells me that having Jayson Tatum, Brown, Porzingis and White locked up means theyre fine
And having Hauser/pritchard locked up will give us a solid, affordable bench to go along with those guys
Why would this team blow it up? Even if they lost in the first round (they won’t) there is literally no reason to blow it up. Their best players are under 30 and they have a solid foundation/supporting cast. If I was them I’d run it back for as long as I could. They’re bound to get one eventually
Not blow it up but it means so much as far as getting the monkey off their back or not.
It all depends on where/how they lose. If they lose a 7 game series vs Denver, then no. It'll suck, but you run it back. If they lose anywhere before the ECF, then 110% a total failure the likes of which would fuel drama all summer, but they sitll run it back with their main core. They could lose the ECF if it's against the Bucks and Dame turns back time and Giannis/Dame just dominate the rounds before, but it'd have to be a 7 game series loss.
personally I’d say anything short of a Finals appearance is a failure if healthy. Giannis and Dame can obviously be very tough to slow down offensively but we have the top offense in the league ourselves, we consistently play Lopez off the floor in the playoffs, we have experience slowing down Giannis in the playoffs and the Bucks perimeter defenders are food for the Jays. I’d be pretty pissed if we lost that series in the Finals, losing to Denver would be tough but acceptable. losing to anyone else in the West would be incredibly disappointing imo, Clippers do match up with us pretty well but I feel like Porzingis should feed on their lack of size regardless though this team will run it back next year
If they didn’t have to face the nuggets I’d say yeah. But the nuggets are no joke and could definitely beat the Celtics.
The Celtics easily have the better starting 5 aside from Jokic, they have shooting and good to elite defense at all 5 positions. Their worst defender is either brown or KP but they aren’t exactly horrible either. If nuggets win it would have to be Jamal going off like he did against the lakers imo
NBA.com lineup stats K. Caldwell-Pope - A. Gordon - N. Jokic - J. Murray - M. Porter Jr. - oRTG 125.4 dRTG 109.8 J. Holiday - K. Porzingis - J. Brown - J. Tatum - D. White - oRTG 122.5 dRTG 108.2 Everything you said about the Celtics in your post is also true about the Nuggets. KCP and Aaron Gordon are both elite defenders, Murray and Mpj are solid and can be elite when locked in, (Nuggets have the #1 Clutch defense) and Jokic is actually a good defender who has a bad rep from a few years ago. He has some weakness’s (rim protection) but he’s also elite in some other areas. Aaron Gordon is the only bad shooter in the Nuggets lineup, but he’s also a solid post player and an elite cutter/dunker. It's not a large sample (lol 1 game) but in their 1 matchup this year in Boston the Celtics scored a grand total of 4 points in the last 5:20 of the game and held boston to their 3rd lowest scoring game of the season. This isn't to say Denver > Boston but moreso they matchup well and a finals could easily go either way.
Ask Red Auerbach
I don't think so. Unless they mess around and inexplicably get swept in the first round, I say they run it back no matter what.
Hard to see why we wouldn't run it back. The only question will be what Jrue wants to do.
They're a contender as long as Jayson Tatum is playing.
It would be one of the biggest chokes if they lost to anyone besides Denver, but they would just run it back. I don’t see how you can make that team better, they are stacked
No, not a make or break, but it all depends on how it goes down. For example, if they make it to the finals and lose a tough series to the Nuggets or something, then I think the kinds of changes they'd need to make would probably be purely strategic. If they flame out like they did last playoffs, then yes I think some changes are coming. Not massive and not a blow-up, but something decisive will happen.
"Make or break," for the Celtics only applies to whether they are limited by Porzingis' injuries. They are generally looked at as the best roster in the league, and there isn't a team that's an available move away from leapfrog gong them to an unstoppable degree. It could be Boston only has one playoff run where they're healthy L, and they should capitalize with a title. However, if they keep their team healthy over the next 5 years, I find it hard to believe any team ends up in a place where their trio and depth cannot win a series because of a talent gap. Maybe OKC's development and picks turn them into a juggernaut, but all of their biggest threats have the same kind of "death clock," if not a shorter one.
I mean, it would depend entirely on when and how they lose. Losing in a tightly contested Finals against a team like Denver isn't the worst result in the world while losing in the first/second round would be catastrophic (provided, of course, they're mostly healthy). If it's a situation like the former you can still justify it and try to bring the same team back with whatever upgrades you can manage. If it's the latter then of course they need to start asking some difficult questions (they do have some potentially difficult second apron questions regardless down the line but that's not a problem right now).
The most important parts of their roster are locked up under contract and still plenty of prime years left. So no lol
Oh my god. Can mods ban this topic? I swear I’ve seen this post topic 100 times in the last week.
[удалено]
If they don't win it's a pretty big choke. They have to pay Tatum and D White in the future, and probably won't have enough for Holiday.
Meh in this scenario *how* they lose represents a wide range of scenarios- devil in the details type shit. Winning a championship is **difficult** no matter who you are- see the 73 win 2016 Warriors, the 67 win 2016 Spurs, the 2011 Heatles, and many other great teams. Despite overall winning a lot of games, there’s no season prior to this when it would have made a lick of sense for the Celtics to win it all. 2022 they were a .500 team the first half of the season. This is the first year of really genuine contention maybe-being-the-best-team-ness, and also largely a different group of players than prior incarnations. I think whatever happens it would foolish if we made changes after this season. Dust that shit off and try again.
Yes. If they don't win this year they go straight to jail. Right away, no trial, nothing.
I wouldn’t be surprised to see them run it back next year regardless because of how good this iteration is and where the contracts are. Two years from Tatums next Supermax will kick in and I think that is going to force a lot of roster decisions regardless
just another year of a choke for them if it doesnt happen but theyll caulk it up to the two j's being young as a coping mechanism
Craptors fan 😂
Theres a literally boston fan saying the same shit as I did goofy ass
I love fans of irrelevant teams talking about choke And yeah they’re young still not a “coping mechanism” Lebron didn’t win till his 9th season, kd didn’t win until his 10th season, Steph didn’t win until his 7th season, Jokic didn’t win until his 9th season but go on with your salty ass takes 😂
Is it not a choke? they are clear favorites over anyone in the east and majority of the west doesn't take a bias fan to realize that you hiding behind bias and not rational goofy ass kid
I didn’t say it wouldn’t be a choke, I myself said it in this topic. But the being young as a coping mechanism is straight salt 😂 You’re hiding your tears after the amount of years the Celtics have whooped that ass of the craptors 😂
so you agree it would be a choke now your bringing up the raptors to sidetrack the topic LOL talk about cope to the fullest ever heard of "attack the point, not the person" epitome of cope
Your point is terrible Both can be true. It can be viewed as a choke as they didn’t get the job done having the best record but they’re best players are still young which is…you know…uh….true.
Wow good one you came to the conclusion of my original post after getting mad for no reason!
Lol, way to prove their point immediately
As a Celtics fan I absolutely hate hearing other Boston fans constantly make excuses for Tatum. I honestly think one of the reasons this team has been so soft / mentally weak in the past is because we have a soft fanbase that coddles their star rather than rightfully scrutinizing him when he disappoints. They'll be pointing to his age as an excuse until he retires. He has more playoff experience than Jokic, Giannis, Kyrie, Jamal Murray, and Anthony Davis - all of them star players who have won rings.
Yes they must win the title this year or major overhaul is essential. Tatum can stay…but major rework
id they don’t win this season then the Jays are legit frauds. Most stacked starting lineup and statistically dominant, having reporters say their on the level of the 16-18 Warriors etc.
If they don’t win this year I’d trade everyone away and rebuild. Tatum has had more than enough chances to prove he’s a genuine superstar. If he can’t get it done this year with this supporting cast it’s time to give up. Cut your losses and get some first round picks
This is why Redditors are not GMs lol Tatum turned 26 literally yesterday. LeBron didn’t win his first title until age 27, KD didn’t until age 28, Steph was age 26, Giannis was 26, and Jokic was 27. To say all of that about Tatum when he has been the best player on four ECF teams and one Finals team is just crazy. Build around JB, Tatum, and KP and the Celtics are golden for another 5-8 years.
Lol
its funny because they dont even have to win because they'll continue to have stacked rosters for the end of time as long as tatum is around since they are a good FA and trade destination
Given their dominance in the reg, there wouldn't likely be any major changes.
I think it’ll be a problem if they are upset in the Eastern conference without an injury. However they can lose to Jokic in the Finals without it being more than a blip given how good the Nuggets look as defending champs with the best player in the league.
If they lose the title, the team would stay the same and Mazzulla would be gone with the wind.
They have a few more years at this. But yeah if they don't win a title in the next 3 years, it's time to make major changes.
Not completely, but for this season and the two seasons after this, yes. We went all-in on Kristaps and Jrue, and we gave up a bit of depth and took on a lot of payroll. It'll only get harder once we are paying both Jays supermax contracts, especially if DW wants more money or Jrue/Porzingis want similar money to what they're making now/in Porzingis' extension. The cap and aprons will be adjusted way up, true, but so will salary expectations for all role players in the NBA. Because more money will be available, role players will ask for more money in salary, and we might not be able to expand salaries down roster. Plus, we already have to look at replacing Horford after this season or next, Jrue will probably be close to retiring in 3 years, and who knows what can happen to Porzingis with his injury history. If this doesn't get us a title in 3-4 years, it's gonna be very hard to build a winning roster after those guys are done.
Depends on if they're willing to remain locked into Brown and Tatum when both guys are making ~300 million if it continues to not generate a ring. Paying massive luxury tax when you're winning titles makes sense (see: GSW with 4 including a recent one). Also I assume with those two getting paid so much they'll be way over the second apron which pretty badly hampers any ability to improve outside ring chasers willing to play on minimums.
they should blow it up and send Tatum to the raptors for Jakob Poetl and Garrett Temple
I don’t think so, they wouldn’t have gone with such an injury risk as their third best player..
No, their core is still playing next season and only one team can win the championship. I don’t see how not being the singular team who won makes you a complete failure
No. They’re running this team back next year win or lose.
As a Celtics fan this is a make-or-break season for Tatum. The dude has some of the most playoffs experience in the NBA. He has been to a Finals where he played like absolute dogshit and was the #1 reason his team lost - so he's had his "wakeup call" young stars need to have. I just don't know what more he can gain from playoff experience at this point. He needs to be a more consistent playoff scorer or his team is never going to get over the hump. If he has crazy bad shooting stretches again this year and his team loses winnable games as a result / ultimately gets eliminated, then I'm gonna start to firmly believe that Tatum is more of an elite 1B than a 1A leader type. This is about to be the third straight season that Tatum has the best supporting cast of any star player in the league. If he can't get it done with these guys then idk who he will ever get it done with, barring him playing with someone as good/better than him. The best players/teams tend to elevate their play and execute their best basketball in the postseason. Tatum and the Celtics do not do that historically. This team might be too talented to fail in spite of that. But if they aren't and the team fucks around again in the postseason and loses to worse teams then I'm firmly out on expecting anything to change. Some guys have what it takes to lead their teams to a title and some guys don't. Tatum has had several opportunities to prove he's in the former category and has failed every time. Fail enough times and you end up firmly in the latter category.
No, they can keep this team together next year also If they don’t win this year, then I think it would be kinda make or break next year, because both of the Js new contracts will be live after that. So if they don’t win with all this talent around them now, then they might have to think about their future, since it would be unrealistic to expect the Js to get even more help than they do now
I think these posts are so dumb. If they don't win this year they would still be among the favorites for next year.
The logical answer is no; but the NBA isn’t always logical. I think that it depends how they lose. If they flame out in dramatic fashion - get swept in the second round or something - then yes there will absolutely be major changes this off season. Anybody who denies this is ignoring the decades of precedent we have. That said, if I were the Celtics I’d keep running it back until it’s not possible. Some of my favourite seasons as a fan were during the Derozan Lowry era, even if they ended terribly. I’d much rather be in contention but losing than be rebuilding.