The Boston Celtics might be the most annoying team in the NBA this season — and in the best way possible.
Picture this: You’re a team playing your fifth game in seven days in Boston. Legs are heavy, everything feels like a grind. And when you’re not getting swarmed by Boston’s gaggle of young wings like Hugo Gonzalez and Jordan Walsh, you’ve got to try to figure out how to keep Mitchell Robinson and his 7-foot, 240-pound frame from vacuuming up every available offensive rebound.
Boston’s depth and potential playstyle might be the two biggest reasons the Celtics can remain entrenched at the top of the Eastern Conference, despite beefed-up competition and the departure of Jaylen Brown.
We may very well be overreacting to an incredibly small sample of preseason basketball, but in two games so far the Celtics have showcased a readymade identity that builds off much of what made the team elite last season. Health is vital to Boston’s overall regular-season success, and there’s a lot to figure out to be able to judge how successful this team might be when the playoffs arrive.
But over the course of 82, we’re pretty bullish that Boston is going to be exactly the sort of team that opponents don’t want to see.
Let’s crunch some early numbers:
22
That’s how many deflections Boston registered against Philadelphia. For context: Boston ranked 25th in the NBA generating just 15.2 deflections per game and lagged way behind league-leading Oklahoma City, which generated 20.8 deflections per game last year.
The addition of Paul George ought to kick up both Boston’s total deflections and steal rates on its own. George produced five steals against Philadelphia and has routinely ranked among the best at his position in steal rate. And whenever George wasn’t deflecting an entry pass, it was Baylor Scheierman swatting one on his own, then hurling himself into the front row of the stands to ensure that turnover morphed into points.
With George and Jayson Tatum, the Celtics now have two of the more underrated forward defenders in the league (their offensive prowess often overshadowing their ability on the other end). Mix in All-Defense stalwart Derrick White and Boston’s three core starters set a heavy defensive tone. Regardless of how coach Joe Mazzulla elects to deploy the rest of his depth, the Celtics are going to have the ability to roll in long, active wings like Scheierman, Gonzalez, Walsh, and Ron Harper Jr. to keep the defensive intensity up.
The Celtics have averaged 28.5 points off turnovers through their first two preseason games, this after ranking 25th in points off turnovers in each of the past two seasons (averaging 15.7 points off turnovers per game across those two seasons).
Boston has an opportunity with its personnel this year to take some more risks and cause more chaos on the defensive end. It’s a big reason why one of our bold preseason predictions was for Boston to lead the Eastern Conference in defensive rating this season.
Eddie House and Chris Forsberg join Kayla Burton to offer instant reaction following the Celtics’ 144-106 over the 76ers in the preseason.
44.8 percent
That is Boston’s offensive rebound rate this preseason, the best mark in the league and by more than three percent from the next closest team.
The Celtics were already one of the best offensive rebounding teams in the NBA last season, subsisting largely on the corner crashes of its young wings combined with energetic big man play from Neemias Queta and Luka Garza. Now the team has added the league’s best offensive rebounder in Robinson.
The Celtics have a new luxury of managing the minutes of Queta and Robinson, letting them go full throttle over shorter stints as the two divide up the majority of 48 available minutes. Whatever is left over, Garza will come in and be relentless on the glass in those minutes.
What once felt like the weak spot of Boston’s roster, the center position now feels like a strength. Queta put up some of the best analytics in the NBA last season during his floor time, and Robinson is going to generate so many second-chance opportunities for a team that isn’t bashful about kicking the ball back outside and continuing to launch from the perimeter.
Consider this: Boston posted a 35-18 record (.660 winning percentage) in the games it won the shot margin last season. That’s a 54-win pace over 82 games. And Boston’s new personnel configuration gives it a chance to win the shot margin each night if the team takes care of the basketball.
18.1 percent
That is the offensive rebound rate for Boston’s opponents so far this preseason. It’s the best mark in the NBA this preseason by 5.6 percent.
Sustainable? We’ll need a bigger sample. But Boston ranked 25th last season, giving up second-chance opportunities on 33.6 percent of possessions. Even some minor strides in that category are going to help the hunt to win the margins. And Boston’s ability to finish out possessions this preseason is a big reason for its early success.
The bottom line is that Boston, with its new look, is set up to build off the “hardest-playing team” identity it embraced last season — and got accentuated in the Game 82 win over Orlando.
For a team whose North Star is winning titles, the Celtics have to figure out how to best translate that to the postseason. There is no victory in being a great regular-season team if it ends with a first-round exit.
But the first two preseason games have shown a roadmap to how Boston can stay at the top of a beefed-up Eastern Conference. The Celtics are the last team you want to see on the second night of a back-to-back. The handful of schedule losses that most teams will endure in the dog days of the NBA calendar might be the time when Boston thrives.
