Can the Boston Celtics truly overcome the Cleveland Cavaliers in the East? Think again
The most awaited time of the NBA offseason is by far the annual free agency where players chose where to play. From LeBron James choosing to move to South Beach to coming back home again and then on to Kevin Durant moving from the OKC Thunder to the Golden State Warriors last season, free agency is drama galore.
With just under a week to go till free agency, rumors have started that the Boston Celtics may be the leading contenders for the service of All-Star forward Gordon Hayward and have the financial space to do so whilst also bringing in Paul George who recently expressed his desire to leave the Indiana Pacers when his contract runs out next year. So for now let’s assume that the Celtics do trade and sign these two forwards, the question in everyone’s mind would be: Do these moves make the Celtics the favourites to win the East?
The Celtics had a great 2016-17 campaign where they finished atop the Eastern Conference over LeBron and the Cleveland Cavaliers. They were led by Isaiah Thomas, who had an MVP calibre season averaging about 29 ppg under the tutelage of Brad Stevens. and rookie Jaylen Brown proving to be a valuable asset in the future with his dynamic skillset.
However, unfortunately for the Celtics, they ran into the most dominant, skilled player arguably in the history of the game: LeBron James, in the playoffs. So the most sensible thing to do was to go get a forward who could guard LeBron but also make him work defensively and now they plan to go get two of that kind.
On paper, if all goes well for the C’s, the Celtics would look menacing and have enough depth to challenge the Warriors in terms of raw power but look beneath the covers and you will find a whole cloud of problems. This comes from the fact that the potential BIG 3 in Boston (Thomas, Hayward, George) are all ball dominant players in the sense that they thrive and maximise efficiency when they have the ball in their hands.
Unfortunately for the C’s, there’s only one ball on the court at a time so instead of complimenting each other’s game, they’ll likely diminish their maximum efficiencies. This is not to say that the Celtics won’t be a good team next season but it’s just that they might not meet their ‘on-paper’ value unless two of them change their games to compliment rather than abate the others.
This is what hurts many teams when two or more stars join forces. Take the Miami Heat seven years ago – often players find themselves reducing their game in order to fit in other, more dominant players’ games and in the long run, win.
Chris Bosh would be a great example, look at his days with the Raptors and then compare the numbers to those when he played for the Heat (20.2 ppg with the Raptors, 18.0 ppg with the Heat – 9.4 rpg with the Raptors, 7.3 rpg with the Heat).
It’s really a simple equation and so when and if the Celtics join the stars of Hayward, George and Thomas, we will be likely seeing a diminish in at least one of their games in order for them to maximize their overall effect and that is why I simply do not see the Celtics overtaking the Cavaliers, at least in the playoffs.
Will the Celtics make the playoffs? Of course, that shouldn’t be a question. Will the Celtics make the finals? Again, the Cavaliers. Will the Celtics get the first seed? Maybe, again depends on how the players gel.
So I guess, we’ll have to wait and see whether the Celtics actually make the moves and acquire these players in the first place moreover whether they can gel together and succeed. Till then all we can do is speculate.