After years of coming up short when it mattered most, the Boston Celtics have run out of excuses. The team now sports the best roster it's had since the Jayson Tatum era began, and there's no more room left for failure.
Golden State Warriors forward and part-time basketball pundit Draymond Green has no sympathy for the club if it doesn't hoist the Larry O'Brien trophy this summer, via the Draymond Green Show.
“(ESPN analyst) Tim Legler says the Celtics season will be a failure without a championship,” Green said. “I normally disagree with sh*t like that. It be like hot take-ish, and like ahh. Tim Legler is absolutely correct on this one. Because you got Jaylen Brown making $300-plus million. Soon to be Jayson Tatum making $300-plus million. It's a failure.”
Tatum and Brown have had another successful season as the Batman and Robin of the Celtics. Tatum averaged 26.9 points on 47.1% shooting, with 8.1 rebounds and 4.9 assists per game this year. The three-time All-NBA selection's scoring average ranked seventh in the league this year.
Brown wasn't too far behind, averaging 23 points on 49.9% shooting, with 5.5 rebounds and 3.5 assists. The duo led Boston to another successful regular season, finishing with the league's best record at 64-18, seven games ahead of the next closest teams (Denver and Minnesota).
However, Tatum and Brown have been excelling together since 2018. What separates this Celtics team from past years is the depth of the rest of the roster.
“Like, you won won 60-plus games, you've built your team. You go out and get Jrue Holiday, you go out and get (Kristaps) Porzingis, and the season went exactly how you thought you wanted it to go when you made those moves,” Green continued. “Because the season went that way, you extend Jrue Holiday, because he's proven all that he needs to prove that you want to continue forward with him. So guess what? It's time to win, and it's time now. Yeah, we don't care how many Conference Finals anymore. A Finals appearance ain't good enough. You got to go win it all.”
Is Green right, or is this an overreaction?
If the Celtics don't win a ring this year, they might never do it with this core
Green is known to do and say wild things that make headlines for the wrong reasons, but this isn't one of those times. The four-time champion couldn't have been more on point with this take.
Top to bottom, Boston has the league's best roster on paper. Tatum is the head of the snake, a top-10 player, and a perennial All-Star. Brown is a fringe All-Star type, while Porzingis, Derrick White, and Holiday are excellent supporting pieces. Porzingis averaged 20.1 points on 51.6% shooting while posting a stingy 108.6 defensive rating manning the paint. White and Holiday are also two of the best perimeter two-way players in the league.
Payton Pritchard, Sam Hauser, and Al Horford are all reliable bench pieces, the latter of whom has filled in admirably for an injured Porzingis recently. Horford scored 22 points to go with 15 rebounds, five assists, three blocks, and one steal against the Cleveland Cavaliers on Wednesday.
While Porzingis may be hurt for a majority of the Eastern Conference Finals, the Celtics are lucky to not have any major injuries. If they don't win it all this year, they have no one but themselves to blame.
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