The Boston Celtics began the season with plenty of questions about their ability to compete with the best teams. The Jayson Tatum injury and the resultant fire-sale of players meant that the Celtics were not seen by many as even playoff contenders.

However, they find themselves 2nd in the Eastern Conference thus far with a 36-19 record, and have only improved with the addition of Nikola Vucevic. Their commanding run has even led to some high praise from an unlikely source, with Blake Griffin naming Boston when asked about the team with the fewest weaknesses in the East.

“That might be the team with the least amount of questions,” Griffin said on Amazon Prime, with the rest of the crew also naming the Celtics in the segment, according to a post on X by insider Taylor Snow.

“To me, the Boston Celtics have the best habits of any team in the NBA,” Udonis Haslem claimed, before Rudy Gay pointed out how Vucevic has singlehandedly solved their ‘problems.’

Article Continues Below

And even that praise is well-deserved. Despite having played just three games thus far, the Montenegrin big man has averaged 15.7 points, 9.7 rebounds and 2.3 assists, with the Celtics immediately relying on his interior scoring and floor spacing.

Of course, much of the credit also goes to Joe Mazzulla. Despite the wholesale changes to personnel, the Celtics have employed the same high-velocity playing style that continues to reap results.

With Jaylen Brown (29.3 ppg) leading the offense and still a possibility of Tatum playing a role in the business end of the season, the Celtics look capable of emerging as title contenders once again. Both Derrick White and Payton Pritchard are averaging 17.2 points per game, and Vucevic’s addition give this team another offensive outlet and solution in games where they have struggled to score from inside, instead relying too much on distance shooting.

There is little doubt that this new-look Celtics team is still capable of producing some huge results.