The first winners of the 2022-23 NBA season: the Boston Celtics. Months removed from a Finals loss, the Celtics are back and searching for a return to the Promised Land. Except, they want a win this time. The Celtics have a bright outlook for this season, and the first game of their season showed that.
Let’s start with the obvious — Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown are special. At 24 and 25 years old, these two are not going away. They’re both tough shot makers who can just get hot at any point. They both had 35 points, and while 35 points won’t be sustainable, high 20s -- maybe breaking 30 -- for Tatum and mid 20s for Brown aren’t out of this world. Tatum could even walk away with MVP.
The guard room is just so good. Having Marcus Smart, Derrick White, and Malcolm Brogdon is almost unfair. Smart and White got the starting nod on Tuesday night, and we all remember how good those two were for the C’s in their playoff run (especially White, who really exceeded expectations). Brogdon should receive legitimate 6th Man of the Year attention this season because he is just so effective as an all-around player.
Rounding out the C’s starting five was Al Horford. Horford was more important than anybody not named Jayson or Jaylen for the Celtics in the postseason. His defensive versatility and impact along with his shooting outburst made him so good for Boston. It wouldn’t be surprising to see his minutes ticked down in the regular season in order to preserve him for the postseason.
Something undeniably noticeable, however, was the lack of big man depth. With Robert Williams’ injury, the first big off of the bench was Noah Vonley. With all due respect to Vonleh -- who actually played solid and was serviceable --, he should not be a contender’s first big man off the bench. Grant Williams is a good option off of the bench and may be considered a big, but he isn’t somebody who can play the five super effectively. Look for him to take another step to possibly make teams respect him off of the bounce.
Unlike most teams who lose in the Finals in the prior year, the Celtics’ main storyline coming into the season was not how they would respond to the loss. Rather, it was the Ime Udoka predicament and if the Celtics would have the same buy-in and attitude without Udoka at the helm. This didn’t seem to be the case; the Celtics had the same scrappy, hard-nosed attitude that led their mid-season turnaround last year.
Just like last season, it seems like defense is going to be the team’s identity. Despite letting up 117 to the 76ers, the personnel of this team screams top 1 defense: Marcus Smart, Derrick White, Malcolm Brogdon, Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown, Grant Williams, Al Horford. There’s no reason that they can’t finish as the best defense in the league with their talent and scheme versatility.
The Celtics are absolutely contenders once again, and it isn’t even absurd to say that they’re the favorite to come out of the East this season. They’re tough.
* - NBA Analyst*