bisme37 wrote:NBA.com thinks they are the 12th best team in the East. We had a poll on the Celtics board and at first the most popular answer was 6th, but then I'm pretty sure fans of other teams came in and voted 15th haha.
I think the biggest blind spot for fans is that they approach questions like this from their teams perspective, rather than thinking/knowing about the other teams that have to fit somewhere in the standings.
If I'm pro-Celtics, I can easily argue I like their chances better than the Nets, Wizards, Bulls, Hornets, right? Then I think we get into the Raps, Heat, Sixers, Pacers group, and that's a lot of teams that can go either way, so let's go crazy generous and say the Celtics have a surprise good season and all those teams disappoint. This is sort of my range for the Celtics, btw, anywhere from 7th to 15th. I think they'd need a TON of luck, and a ton of bad luck from too many teams, to crack the top 6th. Though after the East's top 4 or 5, no one is a guaranteed juggernaut. Detroit hopes to build on last year's success. Milwaukee is desperate to keep Giannis happy. I can see either of these teams being little disasters, but also feel it's more likely for them to be in the top 6.
The Celtics have a solid group of rotation level guys. Two all-star-level players in Jaylen and D.White. I'm a little more worried about the holes. No one who really touches the paint and playmakes (Brown can touch the paint, White can playmake, but Tatum was the only guy who did both.) It's going to be harder to kick start their ball-movement 3-point bombing machine. The even bigger hole is the frontcourt. I've always liked Queta, and am fond of Garza. It will be cool to see those guys get a chance, but we aren't going into the season with evidence that those guys can do starting center-level stuff. Boucher and Tillman have both been productive role players at time, but they're 4th bigs in a good rotation. We're likely looking at the worst frontcourt in the league, with massive questions on both offense and defense.
The perimeter defense should be okay, but there are some holes there with Simons (awful awful defender). Someone like Pritchard might look worse defensively with less defensive talent around him.
I dunno, I look at this as a bottom 5 offense and a bottom 10 defense. That means a bottom 3 finish, imo. Overachieving on either end could send them sky-rocketing up the standings. The teams I project ahead of them aren't that good, so it wouldn't take much for them to be a fun cinderella. I don't view them as the most likely candidate to overachieve though. I think the Celtics are better served trying to unearth some rotation players from their guys under contract, and play for ping pong balls in a loaded draft.
