The Beginning of a Dynasty?

[litangel]

We will win the next 2 out of 4 and to win 3 in a 5 season span would be a Dynasty.

Aside from the factual evidence that since JB has been on this team, we?ve made the Eastern Conference Finals in 6 out of 8 seasons.

This team has is anchored by Tatum, who is one of, if not, the most durable superstar in the NBA; everyone else averages over 80% of the games except for KP (who only played in 5 of the 19 playoff games). This team shares the workload to the point, where no one is being overworked. When KP went down, Jrue and Derrick, immediately stepped in to take his scoring load with Al having 20+ point scoring games.

I?m expecting JT?s best individual season in the NBA. Tatum will find his go to move/spot in the midrange and complete his puzzle. This might not lead to a greater season win total, but it will come in handy when the playoffs roll around.

I?m expecting improvement from the young players. Brad?s roster construction/team building will shine even brighter when Jordan Walsh turns into an above average role player (imagine him subbing at the wing or a jumbo Holiday/White-Brown-Walsh-Tatum-Big lineup). Payton and Sam have gotten progressively better; they?ll get stronger and will find the confidence/balance in their energy to play both ends. Tillman, Queta, Kornet, Brisett, Springer, etc. Brad is just an awesome identifier of role players that fit well with our core and pivots quickly to a better fit if it can be better.

This Season/Championship just the beginning.

Several points I agree with in this post. In general, I think Celts should be favorites, for next year but not presumptive, I would not bet them against the field.
Several posters remarked that the Celtics can only get marginally better next year. Not true. bringing in outside players is only one way to get better. Players get better as a team as they play together. Holiday and KP can still mesh better with everyone else. Growth oriented players will come back every year with a new skill. Look at how Brown and White improved from '23. Tatum, also, and Pritchard, Hauser, and Kornet. The league gets better every year. The Cs will have to be better too. One of the ways that happens is Tatum takes yet another step, and a couple off this list come back with a more complete game. Tillman, Queta, Brissett, Walsh, Davsion, Springer, Hauser. (I think Pritchard, and Kornet may have close to peaked.)The Celtics have become more of a player development team for their non-stars, almost like Miami.
And we have a great GM, maybe best in league, who know what little miracles he will find on others' garbage piles?, And we have a good coach, maybe a great coach. A mini dynasty is far from guaranteed, but it is these factors I think give us a chance.

[Goldstar88]

Maybe when the champagne wears off, we can be more realistic.

Will ask this again. If the C?s are healthy, who is challenging them? There?s a reason they had the 5th best point differential in NBA history this season.

[litangel]

Maybe when the champagne wears off, we can be more realistic.

Will ask this again. If the C?s are healthy, who is challenging them? There?s a reason they had the 5th best point differential in NBA history this season.

Denver if they get some bench pieces or OKC if they get a serious big. OKC has a lot of resources.

[Kernewek]

We will win the next 2 out of 4 and to win 3 in a 5 season span would be a Dynasty.

Aside from the factual evidence that since JB has been on this team, we?ve made the Eastern Conference Finals in 6 out of 8 seasons.

This team has is anchored by Tatum, who is one of, if not, the most durable superstar in the NBA; everyone else averages over 80% of the games except for KP (who only played in 5 of the 19 playoff games). This team shares the workload to the point, where no one is being overworked. When KP went down, Jrue and Derrick, immediately stepped in to take his scoring load with Al having 20+ point scoring games.

I?m expecting JT?s best individual season in the NBA. Tatum will find his go to move/spot in the midrange and complete his puzzle. This might not lead to a greater season win total, but it will come in handy when the playoffs roll around.

I?m expecting improvement from the young players. Brad?s roster construction/team building will shine even brighter when Jordan Walsh turns into an above average role player (imagine him subbing at the wing or a jumbo Holiday/White-Brown-Walsh-Tatum-Big lineup). Payton and Sam have gotten progressively better; they?ll get stronger and will find the confidence/balance in their energy to play both ends. Tillman, Queta, Kornet, Brisett, Springer, etc. Brad is just an awesome identifier of role players that fit well with our core and pivots quickly to a better fit if it can be better.

This Season/Championship just the beginning.

Several points I agree with in this post. In general, I think Celts should be favorites, for next year but not presumptive, I would not bet them against the field.

Several posters remarked that the Celtics can only get marginally better next year. Not true. bringing in outside players is only one way to get better. Players get better as a team as they play together. Holiday and KP can still mesh better with everyone else. Growth oriented players will come back every year with a new skill. Look at how Brown and White improved from '23. Tatum, also, and Pritchard, Hauser, and Kornet. The league gets better every year. The Cs will have to be better too. One of the ways that happens is Tatum takes yet another step, and a couple off this list come back with a more complete game. Tillman, Queta, Brissett, Walsh, Davsion, Springer, Hauser. (I think Pritchard, and Kornet may have close to peaked.)The Celtics have become more of a player development team for their non-stars, almost like Miami.

And we have a great GM, maybe best in league, who know what little miracles he will find on others' garbage piles?, And we have a good coach, maybe a great coach. A mini dynasty is far from guaranteed, but it is these factors I think give us a chance.

I think this is possible, but there's a very real possibility that we've just seen the best seasons from three guys on the roster: KP, Horford, Holiday. The former because of injuries and the latter because of 'veteran status' (less so for Holiday, but he'll be 35 with 14 seasons under his belt this fall).

There's a plausible universe where Horford continues to drop off, Holiday comes back to earth a bit, KP is hit with any kind of serious injury, and the lift from everyone else isn't enough to offset that, especially when you're paying big money to the latter.

How to replace Horford has been the big question for the front office for a couple of seasons now, and they've responded by kicking the can down the road, understandable because he's nearly impossible to replace. So, yes, our player development really needs to kick into overdrive as protection against scenarios like the above.

[cman88]

Don?t want to jinx it by saying yes.

The Pierce/KG/Allen group should?ve won at least three. KG?s injury one year and perks injury. Another really screwed them? Bad luck.

one thing is, pierce/kg/allen were in their 30's there was a limited shelf life with those guys. by 2010 they were already on the downswing when they made their finals push. and by 2011 Miami created the big 3 and the window was pretty shut. although we made a nice push in 2012 going 7 against Lebron and Miami.

Tatum/Brown are 26/27 and just entering their primes. they have a long time of being good. and we have at least 2 more years of this current iteration of the team.

Its OKAY for fans to feel good about our chances to be back here. Lets take a step back and look at our track record. we've missed the playoffs ONCE since 2008 think of that. we've been watching boston in the playoffs since they won their last chip and only missed one season and we were back.

Tatum has been to 5 ECF and Brown 6 ECF since they've been the league, and now 2 finals with 1 finals win.

this isn't the end of their story. I get fans want to be weary and come up with worst possible scenarios. but these 2 have alot of time ahead of them as superstar players and the past history of those guys/this franchise/GM/ownership nothing points to us NOT being back here. or at least in the mix for it.

[tenn_smoothie]

The early 00 Pistons are the most likely comparison. It is hard to win 1 title let alone 2 and the teams that have won multiple titles all had at least 1 top 30 player all time and many of those teams had more than 1 such player (the only exceptions are the Cowens Celtics and Reed Knicks - so both pre-merger and in the parity filled 70's).  As good as Tatum and Brown are, neither is anywhere near that type of player. I'm not even sure they are Cowens or Reed either (well at least Reed in 70, by 73 he tailed off but they did have a host of HOFers).

Let's just enjoy 1 before we put unrealistic expectations of a dynasty on the team.

Cowens and Havlicek are easily top 30 players all time.
Cowens was league MVP and Havlicek was the best or second-best player on 6 title teams.
That 70's group somehow is forgotten and under-rated for years now.

[Roy H.]

Maybe when the champagne wears off, we can be more realistic.

Will ask this again. If the C?s are healthy, who is challenging them? There?s a reason they had the 5th best point differential in NBA history this season.

Challenge?  Plenty of teams.  Denver, Minnesota, maybe Milwaukee, Philly if their cap space turns into something good.  We're good, but I don't think we're "it would be shocking if this team didn't make the Finals" good.

[Moranis]

The early 00 Pistons are the most likely comparison. It is hard to win 1 title let alone 2 and the teams that have won multiple titles all had at least 1 top 30 player all time and many of those teams had more than 1 such player (the only exceptions are the Cowens Celtics and Reed Knicks - so both pre-merger and in the parity filled 70's).  As good as Tatum and Brown are, neither is anywhere near that type of player. I'm not even sure they are Cowens or Reed either (well at least Reed in 70, by 73 he tailed off but they did have a host of HOFers).

Let's just enjoy 1 before we put unrealistic expectations of a dynasty on the team.

Cowens and Havlicek are easily top 30 players all time.
Cowens was league MVP and Havlicek was the best or second-best player on 6 title teams.
That 70's group somehow is forgotten and under-rated for years now.

ESPN had Cowens at 66 and Hondo 33 a fee years back.  That was for the top 76 list and didn't include Jokic among others. They also had Zeke at 31, so I suppose you could include the Bad Boy Pistons in that list as well, though I think a lot of people do have Thomas in the top 30.

[celticinorlando]

The key is getting White resigned. That keeps the starting 5 together past next season.

I think having the core 4 of Holiday, White, JT and JB is what we need to focus on long term.

[SparzWizard]

The last several title defense teams after 2019 were ousted in the second round of the playoffs (minus the Lakers, who were eliminated in the first round in 2021).

It's gonna be hard to get back to the biggest stage. I hope that is not the case with the Celtics. We need to get far, and of course, try to repeat.

[Kuberski33]

I agree with what a lot of posters have said: winning a title is incredibly difficult and we should enjoy what the club has just done. The '76 Celtics felt like they could go for a couple more runs (their best player was at the peak of his powers at 26 years of age, JoJo was in his prime, Havlicek was aging gracefully), but Cowens lost his passion for the game that summer and declined from being a top 3-5 player in the league into a top 10-15 guy, their role players regressed hard and that was more or less it when JoJo had a severe injury in '78 after a disappointing '77 campaign. I'm not saying that both situations are comparable, but anything can happen.

What really did that team in was Paul Silas leaving. He signed with Denver for more money, which paved the way for the Sidney Wicks and Curtis Rowe era. That started a downward spiral that culiminated in John Y Brown buying the team and Red almost leaving to join the Knicks.  On paper, Wicks and Rowe should have upgraded the talent level of the team. But they were a disaster.

Red ended up firing Tommy Heinsohn the following season because he couldn't get those two clowns to play well or hard. Cowens post-sabatical and wasn't the same player. Of course swapping Silas, who was a rebounding machine, for Wicks and Rowe probabably didn't help Cowens attitude much at the time.

[Goldstar88]

Maybe when the champagne wears off, we can be more realistic.

Will ask this again. If the C?s are healthy, who is challenging them? There?s a reason they had the 5th best point differential in NBA history this season.

Denver if they get some bench pieces or OKC if they get a serious big. OKC has a lot of resources.

I feel like Denver is pretty comparable to Dallas. Jokic and Doncic being extremely talented players, but neither is particularly good defensively. Then you have the # 2?s, Kyrie and Murray. Both are outstanding offensive players, but cannot play defense. Not sure who has a better 3rd option between MPJ and Washington. Nuggets did not look great in the playoffs this year. Jokic is turning 30 this coming season. OKC has 1 star player. I don?t think they are close to the C?s in talent.

[Who]

I am expecting a short run with this current group then reloading for another multi-year run around Tatum & Jaylen.

Unless that transition goes surprisingly smoothly it will probably feel more like two separate teams than one dynasty.

[Moranis]

Maybe when the champagne wears off, we can be more realistic.

Will ask this again. If the C?s are healthy, who is challenging them? There?s a reason they had the 5th best point differential in NBA history this season.

Denver if they get some bench pieces or OKC if they get a serious big. OKC has a lot of resources.

I feel like Denver is pretty comparable to Dallas. Jokic and Doncic being extremely talented players, but neither is particularly good defensively. Then you have the # 2?s, Kyrie and Murray. Both are outstanding offensive players, but cannot play defense. Not sure who has a better 3rd option between MPJ and Washington. Nuggets did not look great in the playoffs this year. Jokic is turning 30 this coming season. OKC has 1 star player. I don?t think they are close to the C?s in talent.

Murray was hurt in the playoffs and it showed. They do need more bench depth though.

I think you are underestimating OKC.  SGA is a MVP candidate, Williams is entering his 3rd year and scored 19.1 ppg on TS% of 62.1% while adding over 4 rpg and apg.  Holmgren in his rookie year was awesome.  Dort is a strong wing defender and they have talented players like Giddey and Wallace filling out the bench.  The Thunder need another big man and could use a veteran for leadership, but given just how young they are if they made no major changes, I'd expect another jump and they were already the top seed in the west.

[footey]

The Celtics should focus on the next 2-3 years as their window for more rings.  I fear that the Age of Wemby is coming.