Did We Really Have The Best Talent In Eastern Conference?

[CelticsVJ]

Hello all,
Looking at this comparison below, do you think Boston really had the most talent in the conference? Rankings below are my opinion, of course. We all feel that the season was a huge disappointment based on how it ended but an argument can be made that we probably had only the 3rd or 4th best talent in the Eastern Conference. Granted, this comparison only looks at the top 7 players on each team but they do play the majority of the minutes. I do believe for players 8 onwards, we do have the best players by far - Baynes, Rozier, Theis. Also, our expectations were for a healthy and near all star level Gordon Hayward but he was not fully healthy so our expectations should have been lowered a little as far as our position in the Conference. Philly is very top heavy as we know.


Rank Boston
1 Kyrie
2 Hoford
3 Tatum
4 Brown
5 Morris
6 Smart
7 Hayward

Rank Milwaukee
1 Giannis
2 Middleton
3 Bledsoe
4 Brogdon
5 Lopez
6 Mirotic
7 G. Hill

Rank Toronto
1 Leonard
2 Lowry
3 Siakam
4 M. Gasol
5 VanVleet
6 D. Green
7 Ibaka

Rank Philadelphia
1 Embiid
2 Butler
3 Simmons
4 T. Harris
5 Reddick
6 Ennis
7 McConnell

Rank Top 2 from all 4 Teams at each Rank Level
1 Giannis, Leonard
2 Butler, Middleton/Hoford
3 Simmons, Blesoe/Siakam
4 T. Harris, Brogdon
5 Lopez, Morris/VanVleet
6 Mirotic, Smart
7 Hayward, Ibaka

[captain green]

No we were deep but not top heavy. Irving was the wild card and played flat as super star could so no he is basically an all star not super star.
So I put us at 4th. Other gm's went for it ours stayed pat. This year nets and knicks are going all in too so we won't stand pat.

[hondobird]

"on paper" I still don't see how Bucks beats C's
something was missing, for sure - or C's were way overrated . Example - Hill outplayed Kyrie. Game is not played on paper.

great post

[Dave_From_NB]

Best talent and dead last in character. A few great guys, and a bunch of spoiled brats.

[floyd]

No one on our team is as good as Giannis, Embiid, or Kawhi.

[celticfan42487]

lol

That was preseason ****.

They thought Tatum was being hidden last year as a rookie and would make a huge jump. He made 0 progress and the only thing that was hidden was his horrible handle, horrible ability to drive, and 0 playmaking skills.

They thought Brown and/or Rozier would take the next leap

They thought Hayward would come back 100%

They thought Irving would act how he did in his first season and be not a team player, but not a horrible horrible leader and Carmelo Anthony on the court

There were a lot of thoughts in the preseason and every single bet went against this Celtic team.

Hell Siakam is as good as any player on our team. Obviously better than Irving. There is a debate between him and Horford as a better player right now.

[JR Hawks]

Our talent was WAY overrated. Kyrie is a star. Al is a former star nearing the end. Everyone else was average or below average NBA players.

[sully00]

It was all about Gordon Hayward. If he plays to his ability then this is a different season. I think going into the season Rozier appeared to be at a totally different level than he played at this season. I would have penciled those two guys in to combine for 32-34 point PPG and Boston got 20.

That said I thought this team was always flawed up front and weak on the glass and that ended up being true as they were in the bottom 3rd of the league across the board in rebounding.

[LuckyLeprechaun]

Nope. We had no MVP level player. Other teams did. It is very rare in the NBA for a team without one to beat a team with one in the playoffs. "The rest of the team" only matters when both teams have 1.

[ddb]

Talent wise, yes. Without question the most talented team in the east. Chemistry wise, right at the bottom. They had too many guys that needed a bigger, more consistent role. Too many guys who wanted to be an alpha. Not a good mix of timelines either in terms of where players were in their careers.

Major changes coming.

Sent from my SM-G960U using RealGM mobile app

[Triple7]

"on paper" I still don't see how Bucks beats C's
something was missing, for sure - or C's were way overrated . Example - Hill outplayed Kyrie. Game is not played on paper.

great post

We lack rim protection. We can’t defend giannis like the way the raps did with siakam, kawhi, ibaka, green and gasol. When small guards like george hill and bledsoe can attack and make layups against us, what more for the likes of giannis and kawhi.

[Leprechaun18]

Last season Horford was pretty dominate in the playoffs. This season he his production was not nearly as consistent. It appeared to me that he aged a little and could not handle all the minutes he got.

[Triple7]

Last season Horford was pretty dominate in the playoffs. This season he his production was not nearly as consistent. It appeared to me that he aged a little and could not handle all the minutes he got.

We can also expect a little drop off in performance next season for AL. He can’t be our number 5 next year. Baynes should just be a back up C. We need a shotblocking center who’s not a liability offensively.

[ThumbsUpBaby]

The Celtics neither had the top talent nor a steady locker room. The Celtics were what many thought they were... just a fraud.

[Andrew McCeltic]

I thought we were overhyped based on bad assumptions about how we’d build on last year’s playoffs, but.. no one really thought Milwaukee would be as good as they turned out to be - 60 wins? Some deft trades and a new coach did a ton for them. And Kawhi was kind of a wild card - it was easy to assume he’d make Toronto better, but he’s going to be Finals MVP if the Raps can win one more.

[Gomes3PC]

No. This is why we needed to pursue another piece. Kyrie is great, a true All-NBA guy, but titles are won with MVP-caliber lead dogs and not All-NBA lead dogs. When we got to the 2nd round he was one of the worst best players left in the playoffs.

[Kalela]

In theory, yes. If everyone performed like they were expected to then yes the Celtics had the best team.

[brackdan70]

If Hayward never got injured you could say the Cs had the best talent, but he did...so no.

[Fantaxp7]

If you take what we saw in the last post season and sprinkle in what we thought Irving and Hayward could be then yes.

Any one player can be better than the Celtics best but the cumulative talent should have overcome most.

[OldCeltics]

No, not even close