The Celtics have a chance to silence everyone
With the Boston Celtics having a full week off before their playoff run starts the hot takes have been flying surrounding the team. With some of the narratives being tossed around you would think the Celtics were led by 35 year old veterans that continually failed at every step of the way, not a young core with multiple superstars that’s seemingly heading into it’s prime. The hot takes have been what you would expect if you’ve followed the Celtics at all the last few years.
- Tatum isn’t clutch (look up any clutch stat possible and Tatum is near or at the top of the list in every metric)
- Joe Mazzula isn’t ready for the moment
- Jaylen Brown’s turnover struggles will rear their ugly head again.
- The Celtics don’t have a killer instinct or a closer.
None of these claims come as a surprise when there’s a week layoff before the playoffs start and everyone’s looking to make headlines. However this Celtics team is different than last years and had one of the most dominant regular seasons in Celtics history. Brad Stevens saw the weaknesses in the Celtics roster that had plagued them in the playoffs numerous times and he adjusted. Adding Kristaps Porzingis and Jrue Holiday to their already loaded core of Tatum and Brown propelled the Celtics to the #1 seed in the NBA.
For Celtics skeptics nothing will stop their narrative that the Celtics are underachievers and shrink in the big moments, while the likes of Jimmy Butler (1 NBA Finals appearance at age 34), Damian Lillard and Jalen Brunson are being touted as the guys to watch out for in the Eastern Conference. For me these are just crazy narratives that have formed, Tatum, Brown and the Celtics have been as good as any player and team in the league the last few seasons. Yes I’m fully aware they haven’t won a title but superstars in the NBA don’t win titles until they’re in their late twenties. Lebron James mentioned it himself earlier in the season that NBA superstars come into their prime around 28 and looking at history that’s when most start to win their titles. For Boston though they almost seem to be prisoners of their own success because people are so used to how good they’ve been the past few years anything short of a title is a failure. While I agree for this season anything other than a Finals run is a failure, thinking that if they don’t win it all it’s all over for this group is ludicrous to me. If they do fail the noise will only get louder and the Celtics will have to finally claim banner 18 to silence all of the critics.
