And now the All-Star festivities are pretty much over. Time for the stretch run + playoffs.
I'm feeling really excited about what we can do. I'm just praying we can stay healthy. This is probably the first time where I truly think we can reach the Finals or even win it all. I didn't think this a few years ago during the All-Star Break (though that team surprised us and was just a game away from the Finals) and didn't feel this way last season either. I was hopeful, but not as confident. This time around, I'm feeling confident. We can beat anyone, just so long as we're healthy.
Celtics can win it all if they get a solid bench center/shooting guard from the buyout market.
They could also win it by just being healthy playing really, really good team basketball with the players they have. I just don't think the Celtics can win simply by adding a buy out body. If the Celtics are going to win it all this year, it has everything to do with the players currently on the team and nothing to do with players not currently on the team
I agree. But I do believe that everybody is right that our bench needs improvement.
Our 'Big Four' (Walker, Brown, Tatum, Hayward) is fine as a 4-headed-offensive monster. No superstar (yet) in there to lead the gang on a nightly basis (like Antetokounmpo, Leonard or James), but weapons enough to frighten any opponent. And we don't really need a bench scorer with how Stevens (rightfully) spreads minutes for our starters, so there are always one or two stars on the court.
So I'm not worried that we get so few bench points every night. What is a problem though is that the common bench guys (Wanamaker, Ojeleye, G.Williams) don't provide enough defense and shooting to sustain the playing level when some starters get substituted at the end of quarters. They're all not long enough to contain their worst match-ups on defense and aren't reliable enough from distance to keep the paint open for drives as teams will recognize that overhelping on rim protection is better.
(also I find that Celtics fans have a blind spot for Grant Williams and don't hold him accountable for his liabilities and are far too pleased with his performances just because he has much better defensive positional awareness than Kanter, which isn't difficult by the way)Smart is fine. Theis is pretty good defensively. Unfortunately we are very dependent on him, since Kanter is a very nice back-up center but not known for his defense and injury-prone (so it seems). If Theis is injured or in foul trouble we have serious problems. Robert Williams is the wildcard, but as much as I like his potential I wouldn't bet on him to be trusted this upcoming playoffs.
Apparently Ainge really tried to get Bertans from the Wizards to fix the bench, but they have future plans with him so I'm not that surprised it didn't work out. I really wanted to make a trade with Sacramento, who always overlook the value of their vets. Bjelica (shooter) and Holmes (rim protection), both NBA starters, would have been the perfect pieces to add to our bench (for at most Poirier, Edwards, Green, G.Williams + 2 (late) picks).
While the general idea is that the strength of your bench becomes less important during the playoffs I actually think it will be our downfall, because it lacks the required length on defense, shooting and cover for injuries.