The Boston Celtics had extremely high expectations heading into the 2023-24 campaign, and they managed to live up to those expectations by going out and winning the 2024 NBA Finals. The C's dominated in the regular season and in the playoffs, and it all culminated in plans for the raising of Banner 18 getting underway.
While there's work for the team to do over the offseason, fans of the team are rightfully going to bask in the glory of winning a championship. This was Boston's first title victory in 16 years, and it ended a six-year championship drought in the New England region, which was somehow the longest period between titles among the major New England/Boston area sports teams since the turn of the decade (how spoiled are we?)
Naturally, though, everyone's attention is going to turn to the 2024-25 campaign at some point in the future, and when that does happen, the big question we all will have is whether a repeat is in the cards for the Celtics, especially after what figures to be a relatively quiet offseason of work. Even with that note, though, it's clear that this C's squad is going to be incredibly tough to beat once again next year.
Why the Celtics are more than capable of repeating as champions
The Celtics as constructed this past season were a juggernaut. They had the deepest top six rotation in the league, with Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown, Kristaps Porzingis, Derrick White, and Jrue Holiday making up their lineup, and Al Horford being their first guy off the bench. Even guys deeper down the bench, such as Payton Pritchard, Sam Hauser, Luke Kornet, and Xavier Tillman Sr., made their mark throughout the year.
Fans obviously like to see big moves get made during the offseason, but for the most part, Boston is going to stand pat and focus on locking up this current group for the long-term future. Even though free agency just opened, they've already succeeded in this quest, as they have managed to extend both Tatum and White, while also re-signing Kornet and Neemias Queta in free agency.
Entering the offseason, Boston's top eight players were all already under contract to return for at least the upcoming season, with extensions for Tatum and White being their biggest priorities. With that already done, the biggest question remaining is really whether or not the team is going to find a way to reach a long-term extension with Hauser. That's a pretty good situation to find yourself in as a team.
The thing is, the 2024-25 campaign is going to be very different for the C's. For pretty much the entire Tatum-Brown era of this team, they have been scrapping and clawing their way to a title. But for the first time in their careers, they were successful in that quest. They will be starting off the upcoming campaign at the top of the mountain, and there will be 29 other teams eager to knock them off their pedestal.
We've already seen that early on this offseason. The New York Knicks pulled off a blockbuster trade with the Brooklyn Nets for Mikal Bridges that was geared towards allowing them to compete against the Celtics in a potential playoff series. The Philadelphia 76ers have been spending like crazy in free agency too, as they have formed their own big three by signing Paul George to team up with Joel Embiid and Tyrese Maxey.
Repeating as a champion is one of the hardest things to do in all of sports, but it's certainly not impossible, especially when you have a team that's as good as the C's are. They are incredibly deep, they are comfortable playing alongside each other, and they now know what it takes to win a title. That makes them incredibly dangerous, even with the massive target they now have on their back.
Taking things a step further, it's fair to believe that Boston can actually take things to another level on the court, which is kind of mind-boggling to think about considering they just went 64-18 in the regular season and 16-3 in the playoffs. Sure, the Celtics got dealt some luck with their playoff opponents and the injuries they suffered, but it's also worth remembering Porzingis missed the majority of the postseason with injuries of his own too.
This was also the C's first season playing with Porzingis and Holiday. Looking at Holiday as an example, he sometimes seemed to struggle to find his fit (12.5 PPG, 5.4 RPG, 4.8 APG, 48 FG%). In the playoffs, he found his footing a bit more (13.2 PPG, 6.1 RPG, 4.4 APG, 50.3 FG%), delivering a number of big plays (his game-clinching steal against Andrew Nembhard in Game 3 against the Indiana Pacers) and big performances (26 points on 11-14 shooting in Game 2 against the Dallas Mavericks) along the way.
It takes awhile for guys to figure out how to play alongside each other, and it's fair to expect this team to get better as they play more minutes alongside each other. Having Porzingis for a full playoff run would obviously help, but it's also worth noting that Tatum wasn't always at his best this postseason, which is something his numbers reflect (25 PPG, 9.1 RPG, 6.7 APG, 42.7 FG%).
Tatum still scored a lot, but his efficiency plummeted in the postseason, and it still didn't really matter. The difference between past seasons for Tatum was that he still found a way to impact the game in different ways, as he emerged as Boston's best rebounder, and at times, their best playmaker. That was the final step Tatum had to take in his game to truly become a superstar.
With a championship in his back pocket now, Tatum can stake his claim to that title, as can Brown, who won ECF and Finals MVPs along the way. It's going to be tough, but a repeat is undoubtedly a possibility with this team given the carryover they have. And while every team is trying to catch them, if Boston can play their best basketball on a nightly basis like they just did this past season, it's going to remain incredibly tough for anyone to beat them in a best-of-seven series.
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