2026 Celtics Playoff Discussion

[smicker16]

As far as the center rotation, don't rule out Tatum at 5 stints. There's a few matchups where that will make some sense.

Yeah I agree. I think there will be some times where teams are hurting us in the pick and roll and trying to switch everything will be our way to give a different look.

[Neurotic Guy]

Not sure where to post this question, but who gets your vote for the biggest surprise this year:
Queta
Garza
Shiereman
Walsh
Hugo
JB
JT

[Phantom255x]

Not sure where to post this question, but who gets your vote for the biggest surprise this year:
Queta
Garza
Shiereman
Walsh
Hugo
JB
JT

I would go Baylor.

Queta is very very close, and he has probably been the most improved overall and is a legit starting center. But Baylor has shocked me, he's ended up looking even better than Hauser already and is capable of starting on this team. That's a crazy turnaround from how it looked before December. Plus in the past month, he's had some big games against teams like OKC and NY. That's incredible, and a good sign going forward.

[Goldstar88]

Not sure where to post this question, but who gets your vote for the biggest surprise this year:
Queta
Garza
Shiereman
Walsh
Hugo
JB
JT

Queta. He turned into a legitimate starting caliber center. I always liked him, but thought he?d be more of a backup. Then I?d probably go with JB. Turned into a top 10 player in the NBA.

I noticed you didn?t list Joe as an option. 

[Phantom255x]

Posted it in the NBA Season thread as well, but Celtics open up Game 1 next Sunday at 1 PM

Kind of surprised the C's get an ABC primetime game to start

[Vermont Green]

Not sure where to post this question, but who gets your vote for the biggest surprise this year:
Queta
Garza
Shiereman
Walsh
Hugo
JB
JT

I had a very similar thought; I was thinking of starting a poll, but never got around to it.  My question was a little different but similar.  My question was who made the biggest impact to the unexpected success, which is a little different than who individually was the biggest surprise.

It is tough question and I don't have a solid answer.  Queta clearly was a big surprise, at least to me.  He went from 3rd string bench guy to indispensable starter.  So he is both a big surprise but also a big contributor to success.  Then a look at Brown, to me, he was the biggest contributor to the success but maybe not as much of a surprise.  He was better than I expected, but not like he came out of nowhere.

Then I group Scheierman, Walsh, and Gonzalez all together.  I am very surprised at how well all of them played.  I was not expecting anything from any of them.  So they are big surprises but their contribution to winning is not at the same level as Queta or Brown.  Maybe collectively you could say they contributed as much as Queta, but even that may be a stretch.  Scheierman may have a bigger impact in the playoffs, the way he is going lately.

[Redz]

Not sure where to post this question, but who gets your vote for the biggest surprise this year:
Queta
Garza
Shiereman
Walsh
Hugo
JB
JT

Queta. He turned into a legitimate starting caliber center. I always liked him, but thought he?d be more of a backup. Then I?d probably go with JB. Turned into a top 10 player in the NBA.

I noticed you didn?t list Joe as an option. 

Yeh.  I?d go with Queta, Baylor, JB in that order. 

[celticinorlando]

I think I would prefer the Magic. They are not very good from three and I feel the sixers guards could give Boston some trouble. Embiid and his status is big.

[Celtics4ever]

Queta deserves a lot of votes for most improved player.  I doubt he wins it, but he deserves it.

[Donoghus]

Posted it in the NBA Season thread as well, but Celtics open up Game 1 next Sunday at 1 PM

Kind of surprised the C's get an ABC primetime game to start

Apparently, there is a Florence & the Machine show at the Garden Sunday night. Hence, the early start.

[Phantom255x]

Posted it in the NBA Season thread as well, but Celtics open up Game 1 next Sunday at 1 PM

Kind of surprised the C's get an ABC primetime game to start

Apparently, there is a Florence & the Machine show at the Garden Sunday night. Hence, the early start.

Yeah I saw, but I meant more like they'd be put on Prime during the day/early evening Saturday, or something that's not ABC or NBC primetime. Although I guess you can technically say they are all primetime since it's ESPN/ABC/NBC and Prime 

The concert thing is interesting too. Makes me wonder if the Jacobs' (Bruins owners) and others didn't think the C's would be in the playoffs at this time so they didn't mind having an evening concert booked at TD Garden 

[SparzWizard]

Queta definitely the surprise and big improvement. Didn't he break Robert Parish's record the other night?

How we went from Timelord to Horford/Porzingis to Queta. Nasty work.

[jpotter33]

Magic versus an Embiid-less Sixers - who do we want?

Even without Embiid, I?m leaning towards Orlando. They just look completely broken, and Maxey and a rested George worry me more than Banchero and an injured Frank, let alone the chance of Embiid coming back late in the series. I only worry about them injuring our guys with their physical style of play.

[Celtics2021]

Posted it in the NBA Season thread as well, but Celtics open up Game 1 next Sunday at 1 PM

Kind of surprised the C's get an ABC primetime game to start

Apparently, there is a Florence & the Machine show at the Garden Sunday night. Hence, the early start.

Yeah I saw, but I meant more like they'd be put on Prime during the day/early evening Saturday, or something that's not ABC or NBC primetime. Although I guess you can technically say they are all primetime since it's ESPN/ABC/NBC and Prime 

The concert thing is interesting too. Makes me wonder if the Jacobs' (Bruins owners) and others didn't think the C's would be in the playoffs at this time so they didn't mind having an evening concert booked at TD Garden 

The 1 and 2 seeds are all on Sunday, which is why the Celtics are not playing on Saturday.  This happened last year too, I think for the benefit of the play-in teams.

My guess is they scheduled the concert in the evening because typically East Coast teams play earlier in the day.  This is the Celtics fourth year in a row of being a top-2 seed, and all their Game 1s have been at 1 or 3:30 on Sunday.

[Donoghus]

Sadly, the Sunday game means that it takes the possibility of a Red Sox/Marathon/Celtics tripleheader out of the equation this year.  Accomplished by yours truly in 2009 (took several days to recover).