After years of playoff disappoints, heartbreak, and questions about if this core could ever get it done, the Boston Celtics are once again, NBA Champions. This year marks the Celtics' first championship since 2008 and breaks the tie with their rival Los Angeles Lakers for the most titles in NBA history with Banner 18 coming to Boston.
Although some will argue that Celtics' road to the title was not the most difficult path, especially their three series in the Eastern Conference, it has not been smooth sailing for Boston over the last eight years of the Brown & Tatum era of Celtics basketball.
The C's have been one of the top-tier contenders in the association for a very long time now and have been so close to championship seasons in past year's.
Boston has appeared in the Eastern Conference Finals six of the last eight seasons but only has a 2-4 record in those series and before this championship season, in the team's only other finals appearance with this core, the Celtics and their stars were embarrassed over the last three games of the 2022 NBA Finals against the Golden State where they lost in six games.
In 2023, the Celtics seemed poised once again to return to the NBA Finals after the eight-seeded Miami Heat knocked off the number one seed Milwaukee Bucks in the first round of the post-season, which lined up the pathway for the team to avenge their short-comings the year before.
Unfortunately for the Celtics, the Heat never cooled off. Despite getting themselves out of a 3-0 hole by forcing a game 7 on their home floor in the Eastern Conference Finals against a scrappy Heat team led by Jimmy Butler, Jayson Tatum turned his ankle on the first possession of the game which sucked the life out of the team and arena which meant it curtains for the Celtics in 2023.
Despite Tatum's injury, the fact remained that the Celtics should not have been down 3-0 in that series to begin with. After that game, Team President Brad Stevens had tough decisions to make.
Stevens knew he couldn't bring this exact roster back for the 2023-24 season in the fall. After years of falling short, the proof was in the pudding, Boston needed to shake up it's roster in a significant way.
Stevens had only made one major roster move up to that point since his switch from the bench to the executive office after the 2021 season. In that move, Stevens set the tone for his Celtics GM tenure and by letting the league know the type of personal he was looking to bring to Beantown. In that first trade that helped set up this championship team, Boston acquired guard Derrick White from the San Antonio Spurs in a deal at the 2022 trade deadline.
In 2023 and at a cross roads, it wasn't a question of if he would change up the team, it was just a matter of how far would Stevens go. Would he bring in a third coach in three years by firing Joe Mazzulla after one year? Was it time to finally break up the J's? Do they try to get even younger by trading veteran Al Horford?
Well, his first move was by deciding to retain coach Mazzulla for another year. With Stevens being a former coach himself, he knew he had to bring in more support for his young bench boss. The Celtics brought in long-time NBA assistant coaches Sam Cassell and Charles Lee to help show Mazzulla the ropes of being an NBA coach, which played a key role in Mazzulla's dramatic improvement as a coach in his second year on the sidelines.
Once Boston had its revamped coaching staff in place, it was to make roster changes. On draft night the Celtics sent out the heart and the soul of the team in former defensive player of the year Marcus Smart who had been with the team in since 2014, to the Memphis Grizzlies in a deal that landed them All-Star forward, Kristaps Porzingis.
This was the first sign that Boston was going to fully embrace Mazzulla's 5-out philosophy by acquiring the Unicorn. With KP shipping his bags up to Boston, the Celtics had finally gotten that third scorer they had never had to go with Tatum & Brown.
Speaking of Brown, instead of breaking his two-stars up, Stevens decided to double down in his star tandem by signing Brown to a 5-year 304 million dollar contract, the largest deal in NBA history. Despite the criticism of the contract and never knowing if he was on the trade block or not, Brown stepped up and repaid the team in a big way by being the driving force in this Finals victory by taking home the Finals MVP award.
With their new trio in place, the Celtics were already going to be considered the favourites in the East going into the 2023-24 season but the front office was not yet satisfied with the team, luckily one of their biggest threats in the conference, helped set up Boston to bring in the final piece they needed.
After a disappointing playoff exit themselves, the Milwaukee Bucks were starting to feel the heat from their superstar Giannis Antetokounmpo. Milwaukee went out and landed the biggest piece on the trade in former Portland Trailblazers All-NBA Point Guard, Damian Lillard.
To bring in Lillard, the Bucks had to part ways with one of the most important players on their roster, 2021 NBA Champion, Jrue Holiday.
Holiday, who was sent to Portland in that Lillard deal, where he was then quickly sent to Boston by the Trail Blazers in exchange for Robert Williams, Malcolm Brogdon, and draft picks.
At last, the Celtics were able to replace Smart's defensive prowess while also raising the team's floor significantly on offence. With that, the Celtics summer makeover was complete in what was the final major move by Stevens to set up Banner 18 coming to Boston in 2024.
Bringing in Holiday solidified the Celtics having the best starting five in the NBA as Holiday, White, Brown, Tatum, and Porzingis all in their own right could make an All-NBA defense team any year while all also having the ability to score or get good-to-great shots every time down the floor.
With their new roster in place, the Celtics went wire-to-wire as the best team in basketball with a historically great regular season. Boston finished the regular season 64-18 but the fact remained, that nobody cared, we had to see it in the playoffs.
Undoubtedly, the Celtics finally aced that test this spring. Did they catch some breaks along the way to winning this championship? Of course, but what NBA Champion hasn't needed some luck to sit atop the mountain, being at the right place at the right time is what makes sports great. Not to mention, the team did have to overcome adversity in their own right when Kristaps Porzingis was forced to miss the majority of the playoffs with lower-body injuries.
Finishing the post-season with a mind-boggling record of 16-3, the Celtics cruised to an NBA title in the 2024 playoffs never even having a series needing to go six games throughout their championship run.
This title puts a stamp on the Stevens, Brown & Tatum era in Boston and after years of playoff misery and shortcomings, the Celtics finally sit atop the NBA throne once again. Because of Steven's bold moves, and a bit of luck of the Irish finally going back in their direction, the Larry O'Brien Trophy is back in a city that is very familiar with summering in.
They will celebrate over the next few days but as well as know, the Celtic Way will not have them staying standstill as they shift to bringing Banner 19 to Boston this time next year.
Congratulations to the Boston Celtics!
Comentários