The perpetually evolving Celtics

Taking a closer look at the next pivot for the ever-evolving Boston Celtics heading into the 2019-20 NBA season

The ability of the Boston Celtics to regenerate and evolve the team is almost unparalleled by any other organization in the NBA. The only close comparison would be the San Antonio Spurs, and maybe a couple of other fairly consistent teams.

Even then though, these consistent teams are simply that, and they generally don’t transcend beyond the first or second rounds of the playoffs. Boston does consistency different, in terms of successfulness anyway. They’re consistently thought of as a perennial contender in the East, not necessarily having been picked to beat LeBron’s team, but is one of those to give it a good shot.

Whether we’re talking about the most well-known version of the team in the last decade, the Garnett, Pierce, Rondo, Allen teams, or even the most recent iteration involving a coalition of young assets, intuitive veterans, and Kyrie Irving. The same team that almost beat the Cavs in the Conference Finals was the same one we looked at as rebuilding almost a few years prior. They only truly had one down year in 2013, and 2014 if you consider 40 wins to be that terrible.

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The thing that remains constant throughout all of this is having great coaching, and of course, Danny Ainge. Good asset management is what enables you to decide to pick up a guy like Isaiah Thomas, and underutilized and underappreciated point guard that could give some life to a revamping team.

Great coaching and intuition are what allows you to foresee that you can strap your offense to this little scoring machine and actually win games doing it, rallying an entire fan base in the process and giving IT’s career new life.

These recent years weren’t all about Isaiah of course, they enjoyed the likes of Avery Bradley, Crowder, Olynyk, Smart, Terry Rozier, and even Sullinger. Most of these guys are simply role players or maybe even less, but the ability of Ainge and Brad Stevens to package it all together into a cohesive unit that was fun to watch and won games has been impeccable.

Most of this was facilitated via means of competent trades being made by Danny Ainge, per usual. By taking advantage of lesser teams or teams on the verge of competing, they’ve consistently positioned themselves to have the upper hand in negotiations.

Most recently we can look at the acquisition of Kyrie Irving, Many would and have said that this was an all-time cold move to do to Isaiah Thomas, and they’d be absolutely correct. Especially when we consider the injury he played through to help push that team into the playoffs and run as deep as they could, to trade him off like that was certainly not very diplomatic.

Regardless though, the NBA is a business and both sides understand this. It’s unfortunate that the last couple of seasons have gone the way that they have for IT, but he obviously hasn’t given up and I look forward to seeing him fill in for John Wall. Aside from the relational issues, the trade itself was simply a good one. Ainge knew that Thomas was an inflated asset at the time, and Kyrie wanting out of Cleveland as well just happened to align properly.

The Cavs would need to replace Irving, and what better way to try to do this than with another elite offensive point guard? The problem was…we all knew what IT was. As amazing as a scorer and as talented as he is, you’re still limited in certain things when you’re 5-foot-9. A lot of NBA players can put up numbers when given a heavy usage rate. This doesn’t diminish what Isaiah did, because keep in mind most players given that responsibility would rack up some atrocious shooting lines. IT is one of the most talented scorers we’ve seen for a small guard, but that doesn’t make you as good as Kyrie.

The Uncle Drew experiment didn’t exactly go…great? Did it really go badly, though? I think his time in Boston was up and down, and ultimately the team chemistry just never aligned. They still remained competitive and a threat in the East regardless, ultimately accomplishing the majority of what they had set out to do.

Even though this didn’t work out for a longer-term relationship, they still managed to stay afloat. If you’re going to need to replace Kyrie Irving, I can’t think of many better places to start than with Kemba Walker. You lose one generational scoring talent and bring in another. Kemba isn’t as good as Ky or as efficient, but you take what you can get and he just may be an even better fit for this starting five anyway.

In light of this positive addition, we can’t ignore losing Horford. Though I think they truly wanted to keep him around, Ainge is probably one of the best if not the definitive best GM in the game, and he knows when Al’s birthday is. Pay him about $100m to play for us ages 33-37? That reminds me a lot of the Chris Paul contract, and Horford ain’t even CP3 at all. I still question the 76ers signing him. It’s definitely a loss, but one that could be mitigated.

Though I’m a bit concerned that his replacement, for now, is um Enes Kanter…you go from one of the best defensive fives in the league to the worst, how does that work? I suppose we’ll find out.

There are of course other questions about the roster as well. Will Hayward ever return to himself? Will Tatum ever take the next step to become the scoring forward we all crowned him with early on? If Gordon can return to being close to what he was before the injury, and Jayson can manage to bust that 20 points per game threshold, you might have something serious.

I’m not worried about Jaylen Brown in the slightest, because last season was simply unfair to him. Being taken in and out of the starting lineup, injuries, rumors, etc. basically derailed his season. He reminded us what he was capable of on numerous occasions, and I think if this offense becomes a bit decentralized and more team-centric that he’ll be unlocked again.

Kemba obviously is Kemba, it’s safe to assume he will provide you with at least 23 a night, about six dimes, and just a reliable source of offense. Slide him into that starting 5 with two great off-ball players and a scoring 4 who can also catch and shoot? I think that seems pretty automatic. Nothing is known of course and hindsight is always 20/20, but as for now, the immediate future seems fairly bright for this organization.

The Bucks obviously have a bit of a monopoly over the East at this moment, but I see the Celtics as likely having the best chance at unseating them. Unlikely this season, but within the next three years, we could very reasonably expect to see an NBA Finals appearance.