Your Official ’23-’24 Celtics Season Preview (by a Guy Who’s Paid to Draw)

Yup, that’s right, the Graphic Designer with Hot Takes is back to occasionally blog doom and gloom about the Celtics! Get amped! 

Look, I’m a pessimist by nature. I also view myself as a realist and relatively objective with my favorite teams. As the playoffs wore on, I needed to counterbalance Greenie’s optimism about the team’s flaws. Unfortunately, I was more right than not about my roster assessment.

So, more of the same for the new season? Au contraire.

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Maddie Malhotra. Getty Images.

A funny thing happened on the way to me being disenchanted and pessimistic about the Finals hopes of my favorite team. Brad dropped his nuts on the table and made major changes many rational minds in the fan base had been clamoring for. 

Out was Celtics lifer and former DPOY Marcus Smart. Out was fan-favorite Rob Williams. Out was 6th Man of the Year Malcolm Brogdon. Out was (I don’t have a positive adjective to say before his name) Grant Williams.

In was Kristaps Porzingis. In was Jrue Holliday. In were expanded roles for Sam Hauser and Payton Pritchard.

It was a wild off-season and a significant shake-up to the team’s foundation.

So, let’s run down the roster compared to last season and see how it all shakes out.

(Important note: these assessments are based on PLAYOFF GAMES. IDGAF about the regular season record. It’s nice to win ‘em, but anyone who watches this sport knows the playoffs are a different game. How you look in May and June matters infinitely more than how the ball zips around on a January night in Indianapolis. Just get into a top 4 spot in the East, and I’m good with it.)

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PG

Brian Babineau. Getty Images.

Last year - Marcus Smart

This year - Derrick White

Look, what Marcus gave us for nine years was great. Plenty of ups. Plenty of downs. But he gave a shit, busted his ass, was great in the community, and was a leader on the floor for the franchise. But that last line is part of the problem. If you want to win a title, Marcus Smart couldn’t be the team leader anymore. Jayson Tatum needs to be the team’s heartbeat, which could never happen with Marcus in the locker room. And I don’t mean that in a bad way; by all accounts, he’s a great teammate. But his status in the locker room was oversized and honestly too big for his production on the floor. It was time. It’s sad. We’ll all cheer like crazy when Memphis comes to town. The video montage is gonna be tear-inducing. But it needed to happen. 

And that’s not even the actual playing basketball part of it. Smart was verging on a liability defensively on the perimeter last year. Maybe he was hurt, but he was not the same guy who won DPOY the previous season. Sure, fans would cum themselves when he got a bigger guy in a switch and held his ground, but he was getting cooked by guards on the perimeter way more than ever before. Plain and simple, Derrick White was a better perimeter defender last season.

Offensively, we all remember the Marcus Smart experience. It wasn’t fun. Way too often, opposing teams would allow the ball to end up in his hands late in the shot clock of playoff games and live with the results. There was a reason that was encouraged/allowed by opponents. White is an upgrade offensively and someone we will trust more in end-of-game situations. By default, more significant minutes and an expanded role for White is a good thing. Plus, he finally shaved his head. Shows great decision-making.

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Advantage: This year, majorly. 

SG

Last year - Jaylen Brown

This year - Jaylen Brown

The playoffs in the last two seasons have exposed Juice a little bit. Crowd him, get physical with him, force him left, dive at the ball when he puts it on the deck, make him a passer when he does drive, and expect good things to happen for the defense. 

But that diminishes how good he was last regular season and his growth as a player on the whole into a Top 20ish guy in the league. He has become a midrange assassin. The moment doesn’t seem too big for him, and he’s had many a game where he’s carried the team offensively when JT didn’t have it. 

Defensively, he’s slipped from where he once was, especially off-ball. But his athleticism hasn’t dipped. With more focus on that end, he can be a plus defender again. 

The (playoff) book is out on Juice. It’s on him to make that book wrong. I have faith he spent the offseason tightening the handle, especially with his left, and we’ve seen the Nader of his woes. 

Advantage: Push to slightly this year. It has to be marginally better, right?

Jaylen Brown vs his left hand will be a battle to watch all season
pic.twitter.com/f9lQEfdzYS

— Barstool Sports (@barstoolsports) October 4, 2023

SF

Last year - Jayson Tatum

This year - Jayson Tatum

Much like Jaylen, Tatum is a known commodity. He is a stud. He can do it all on the basketball court and has shown improvements and added to his game every season. I’d imagine this year is no different. His ceiling is a Top 5 player in the league, and he’s damn close already. 

However. the playoff bugaboo is still hovering over him, and until he fully shakes it, it’s deserved. Sure, 50 points vs. Philly was incredible. But the Heat series also happened. Again. Everyone is entitled to an off-game in the playoffs. But the best players on championship teams don’t have many of them. Be a dawg, put the team on your back, and win us the tough games. It’s the last step in the Tatum evolution. He hasn’t pissed me off yet this year, so I have hope it’ll happen. (Check back with me in May, though.)

Also, can we cut the shit with the no-pass, above-the-break threes in the half-court offense? K, gr8, thx.

Advantage: Push to Slightly this year.

Big

Last year - Al Horford

This year - Al Horford

The year we got out of Al last year was remarkable. The dude is late 30s and was incredible on both ends of the floor. He just ran out of gas in May, and I’d be disingenuous if I didn’t admit I’m concerned about this year’s run. 

It’s impossible to expect 40% 3P shooting again - with the same great defense - while he has over 34K minutes on the odometer. Put him on ice, play him 20 minutes a night, and keep the legs as fresh as they can be for the playoffs. Please, Joe, I’m begging you.

Quick side tangent. While it makes my Year vs. Year comparison cleaner, I HATE that they are using Jrue off the bench. And practically, we know it’ll be match-up dependent, and he’ll close most games, but why dick around? The starting five should be White, Jrue, JB, JT, and Porzingis. Al should have his minutes limited and used as a Break Glass in Case of Emergency until the end of April. Rant over.

Advantage: Last year. Father Time is undefeated.

Big

Brian Babineau. Getty Images.

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Last year - Rob Williams

This year - Kristaps Porzingis

Another fan favorite was shown the door as Rob Will was ushered out in the Jrue Holiday trade. TBH, good riddance. I couldn’t do another season of holding my breath and worrying about an injury every time he jumped. I’m sure I won’t worry about that with (checks notes) Kristaps Porzingis. Shit.

Jokes aside, Rob was a limited offensive player, a good rebounder, and an excellent rim defender who started to get exposed by competent teams that didn’t allow him to hide on non-shooters and help at the rim. Kristaps is a far superior offensive player, an actual weapon at all three levels that opens up spacing and many more options in the half-court. Rob is a better rebounder, especially offensively, but much of that is because of where they are positioned on the floor. KP is better defensively on the wing but not nearly as good in the post. Neither is durable, but KP has played 20 more games over the last two years than Rob. 

The Smart-KP trade was made for the offense. Plain and simple. Brad was sick of watching playoff possessions stall, leading to settle threes by Tatum or Smart. (So was I.) The offense was stale, predictable, and one-dimensional. When healthy, KP allows us to vary the attack in ways we haven’t seen in years. It’s exciting. We are giving up something defensively, but I think it’s a little overblown. Rob was match-up specific. When the match-up suited him, he was a menace. But when there was a ton of shooting out there, he bordered on liability. KP can pretty much stay on the floor regardless of match-up.

I am concerned about rebounding. Al hasn’t been good at it in years, and KP is a clear step down from Rob. But again, Rob was out there so infrequently due to injury/match-ups that we might not even notice the difference.

Advantage: This year. Majorly.

6th Man

Maddie Meyer. Getty Images.

Last year - Malcolm Brogdon

This year - Jrue Holiday

It’s so dumb that Jrue is coming off the bench, but whatever. He gives you the perimeter defense that Marcus was supposed to provide you with last year, is a better creator in the half-court than Marcus, is a better shooter than Marcus, and won’t have the same outsized status in the locker room as Marcus. A true win across the board if you take emotions out of the equation. 

Compared to Malcolm, we know the differences. Malcolm won 6th Man of the Year. He was an excellent scoring role player off the bench, in a different role than what we will ask of Jrue. We will miss the scoring punch off the bench, but he was a turnstile on the perimeter. And the durability questions that plagued him his whole career reared their head at the worst possible time in the playoffs. We maximized what we got from him; he was mad about the initial KP trade attempt, and it was time for him to go.

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Advantage: This year (though unfair because Jrue is much more of a Smart role upgrade, but whatever. Really, I should be comparing Pritchard to Brogdon, but this is Greenie-level long at this point.)

Depth

The biggest question mark - besides health - is the depth, especially in the front court. I am NOT a Grant Williams Stan. I low-key despised him by the end of last year, more so for the vibes than the play, though that, too, was flawed. But he was important. He was a stocky big who could passably defend 3s through 5s in a pinch and could hit perimeter shots. How they fill that role is a huge question. Add the fact that KP isn’t exactly a beacon of health, and Al is 37… the front court gets dicey. Luke Kornet? Oshae Brissett? Lamar Stevens? I’m skeptical. Sam Houser and Payton Pritchard will step into more prominent roles, and I think they are ready. But we won’t know for sure until the bullets are flying. There’s hope for the young’ns, especially Charlie Villanueva Jordan Walsh, but expecting a 2nd round rookie to contribute, especially in the late playoff rounds, is unrealistic. 

Also, no Blake sucks for vibes. Major loss.

Advantage: Last year. If you factor in Blake Vibes, it is a massive advantage for last year.

Ronald Martinez. Getty Images.

Coaching

Joe Mazzulla was as polarizing a Head Coach as they come. A large swatch of the fanbase loathed him - the disdain my father had (has) for him, you’d think he committed war crimes or something. I was of the mind that he was “fine.” I don’t think he was a top-10 coach in the league or anything, but he was placed last minute into a tough spot with mountains of expectations, a scarce support staff next to him, and thrown to the wolves. He obviously had flaws, but given the circumstances, I gave him a pass and didn’t place him as high up the blame list as others.

That’s gone this year. They built a bench around him, bringing in Charles Lee, Sam Cassell, and Phil Pressey to help with coaching duties. He’s been given an offensive weapon at the 4/5 to alleviate the half-court issues. They shipped out Smart and Grant Williams’ outsized voices to give Joe more of a presence. And now he’s been through an 82-game season, plus 20 playoff games. Inexperience is no longer an issue.

He has no excuses now. Coach ‘em up.

Advantage: TBD 

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If you’ve read this far, you deserve a present. I don’t even want to re-read it all before I click submit.

This roster has all the makings of a title team. They have corrected most of the issues I had with the squad. I am thrilled with the job Brad has done. Yes, there are still major questions. Depth, rebounding, durability. Can Tatum take The Leap? Did Jaylen figure out how to use his left hand? Does KP have another healthy 75 games in him? Can Al come close to replicating last year while also being fresher for the playoffs? Can Pritchard be a third guard for a title team? All VERY valid concerns. But Brad has shown a willingness to make uncomfortable moves and to trade future assets - and he still has moveable draft picks to use to answer any of those questions. I’m sure this team will be a player in the Buy-Out market, and ownership is saying the right things about willingness to foot the substantial tax bill. 

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The window is now. Sustained success and being competitive year after year is cool and all. But at some point, you gotta win one. The old core of the Celtics plateaued. I don’t think they could take that final step as constructed. 

The ceiling of this year’s team? I believe they can. 

The ’23-’24 Celtics are all in. And I’m here for it. Go C’s

@TrigDraws