Boston Celtics 2024-25 season preview: The champions will be tested to repeat

The 2024-2025 NBA season is here! We analyze the biggest questions, best- and worst-case scenarios, and fantasy prospects for all 30 teams. Enjoy!

BOSTON CELTICS

End 2023-24

Off-season moves

• Additions: Lonnie Walker IV, Baylor Scheierman

• Deductions: Oshae Brissett, Svi Mychailiuk

• Complete roster

The big question: Are the Celtics as motivated to repeat?

The Celtics posted the highest net rating of any team in five years, winning 64 games and never playing more than five games in a playoff series, en route to last season’s championship. And they returned the entire deepest playoff rotation in the league. There should be no doubt about this season’s title favorite.

The NBA hasn’t produced a returning champion since 2018 — and for good reason. It is rich in talent. Players feel freer to change uniforms, and even like everyone else want to To stay, the new collective bargaining agreement makes it stricter to keep them. The basketball landscape is changing as quickly as the rest of the world, and the Celtics ownership group’s intention to sell the team brings with it another level of financial uncertainty.

Again, everyone got paid. Al Horford, a 38-year-old who has earned nearly $300 million in his career, is the only one in the rotation who is unsigned until next season. Jrue Holiday and Derrick White have both inked long-term extensions, and both appear comfortable giving up touches. There are no contracts to bicker about.

But beware of human nature. Championships bring many potential distractions from the game. Everyone on the team sacrificed themselves last season to collectively achieve an ultimate goal; how motivated are they to achieve the same goal this season? Are their goals individualized? Is Jayson Tatum Driven to Win an MVP Award? Does that affect his collaboration with Jaylen Brown? The chemistry is fraying in many ways.

Neither Celtics general manager Brad Stevens nor head coach Joe Mazzulla expressed any reservations at media day about how their team would respond to the challenge of chasing a second straight title.

“They understand the target they have (on their back),” Stevens said. “They understand how human nature is going to play a role against you. They understand that it’s going to be very difficult to win the first game, win the second game, play 82 and then see where you end up after that. They are Been through it.”

Meanwhile, a trio of elite Eastern Conference opponents improved their rosters. The Philadelphia 76ers, New York Knicks and Milwaukee Bucks all signed wings this season in their quest to counter Tatum and Brown. New York’s additional acquisition of Karl-Anthony Towns may have further narrowed the 14-game gap between the Celtics and the second-place Knicks last season, and any erosion of Boston’s championship status could close the gap entirely.

To which Brown said at media day, “I don’t care what happens in the league.”

It doesn’t help that Kristaps Porziņģis is sidelined to start the season. The Celtics are optimistic about his accelerated progress after a rare ankle injury, but they must be cautious with an oft-injured 7-foot-1 unicorn. Is too much to ask of Horford? Do Luke Kornet and Xavier Tillman play more heavily in the middle mix? Boston won the title largely without Porziņģis in last season’s playoffs, but the margins are smaller.

In theory, the Celtics have all the answers, and they have embraced them during their reintroduction to the media. But there are no theoretical titles. They are tangibly sewn into the banner that Boston will hoist on opening night. Time to chase another one. Time to see if those answers were just lip service.

At best

It doesn’t take a genius. Porziņģis returns healthy and stays that way, raising Boston’s ceiling to unimaginable heights. Everyone on the roster is better because of their championship experience and plays with a confidence that sharpens a great rotation. Mazzulla makes sure that his selection breaks away completely from the last title and only attaches itself to the idea of ​​another. And they’re doing what the past five champions couldn’t: repeat and cement themselves as a budding dynasty and one of the greatest teams in history.

When everything falls apart

Porziņģis’ health problems continue for a season. Tatum’s shooting woes continue, and his stubbornness to shoot through them is disrupting the atmosphere of the NBA’s top starting five. Brown’s rising star overshadows Tatum, and the chemistry crumbles from top to bottom. They can’t fix it in time to avoid an earlier playoff exit, and the new ownership group isn’t willing to pay for the current roster next season. What made the Celtics great, their depth, is gone, and so is their championship window.

Fantasy twist

Fantasy managers are getting on board with the uncertainty surrounding Porzingis’ health and are becoming just as concerned. Porzingis’ ADP fell to the ninth round this past week – down 10 places to 98th overall. That said, if he makes it past the mid-to-late ninth round, you should take him. A true draft-and-stash, KP offers too much upside even if he needs a ramp-up program after his projected return date in December.

In the meantime, Tatum, White, Brown and Holiday will hold up for fantasy managers as top 70 players. Another player to keep an eye on is Payton Pritchard. Thanks to Jaylen Brown’s honesty and trolling, we learned that the Celtics could make plans to get more opportunities for their key rotation players against lower-level opponents. As the presumed sixth man, Pritchard has proven to be an efficient and effective fantasy asset when given at least 20 minutes of action. — Then Titus

(Create or join a Yahoo Fantasy Hoops League for the 2024-2025 NBA season)

Schedule 2024-25

Boston could win 60 games in his sleep, with or without Porziņģis. Take the upper hand.