The Milwaukee Bucks made a splash move by acquiring Damian Lillard from the Portland Trail Blazers last summer, but that enabled the Boston Celtics to make a pivotal move as well by acquiring Jrue Holiday after they had already added Kristaps Porzingis. Jayson Tatum was recently on The Old Man & The Three podcast alongside A'ja Wilson, and he had a blunt explanation of his reaction to when the Celtics acquired Jrue Holiday, saying he could not believe the Bucks allowed that to happen.
“At first I was like, ‘I can't believe Milwaukee let this happen,'” Jayson Tatum said on The Old Man & The Three podcast. “So thanks to the Bucks. But yeah, kinda. I knew we had a really good chance. To win a championship a lot of things have to go right. You have to stay healthy, you have to be on the same page. You have to get along. It's a little bit of luck that's involved. But knowing that Jrue had championship DNA and I won a gold medal with him, I knew, you know, that kind of player and person that he was. I knew it was going to make our team better. And we already got KP. And we already had a really good team, so yeah, when we got Jrue I was pretty confident about what we could accomplish.”
The addition of Kristaps Porzingis and Holiday turned the Celtics into a juggernaut. They were already a strong team that had come close to winning an NBA championship in the past, but could not get over the hump. This past year, it all came together, as Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown had a supporting cast that was able to help them get over the hump.
In year one, the Bucks might regret the move for Damian Lillard, but they are hoping that they can put things together in year two. It did not help that Lillard and Giannis Antetokounmpo got hurt in the Bucks' first round series against the Indiana Pacers. Milwaukee lost in six games to the Pacers. This upcoming year, the Bucks will hope to reestablish themselves as a top contender in the Eastern Conference, not only beating out the Celtics, but teams like the New York Knicks, Philadelphia 76ers, Cleveland Cavaliers and even the young Orlando Magic.
Celtics look to build a dynasty
The Celtics have had the centerpieces to their core for a long time in Tatum and Brown, and both are still young and not going anywhere. The supporting pieces are not going anywhere for the most part as well, which leads many to believe that the Celtics could form a dynasty. They will likely enter next season as the favorite to win the championship again.
It is hard to repeat as champions, and the Denver Nuggets were an example of that this past season. They were eliminating in the second round despite still having arguably the best player in the league in Nikola Jokic. Still, the Celtics are deep and have the ability to repeat.
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