Why the Celtics Need to Be Your NBA Playoffs Bandwagon Team
Come to me, all ye fans of teams eliminated from the 2015 NBA Playoffs that are weary and burdened, and the Celtics shall give you rest.
Ok, maybe not, since you’re understandably livid if you’re a Thunder fan and your team included this year’s NBA scoring title winner (Russell Westbrook), last year’s MVP (Kevin Durant, despite his insistence that his mom deserves the award), a great defender who sounds like his name is from Mortal Kombat (Serge Ibaka), and OKC missed the playoffs due to a tiebreaker that dated back to February 6th, 2015.
Some of you need a hero. Some of you need a bandwagon to jump on. Some of you just need a reason to give a damn about the NBA playoffs in the first place. And some of you need an underdog to stare LeBron James and the Cleveland Please-Don’t-Choke-And-Break-Cleveland’s-Heart-Again squad and snarl “We ain’t scared of you”.
Welcome to your 2014-2015 Boston Celtics.
This is why they are your new favorite team.
The Celtics are the Anti-76ers
So, the 76ers. In a rebuild project that just might outlast the Tennessee Titans rebuild, or the wait for Jack White’s next album, the Philadelphia 76ers bravely march on with Project Tank-A-Palooza. They’ve taken precise, measured steps to actively put the worst possible squad on the floor, in the sense that the team plays fundamentally sound basketball, but fields a roster so bleak that you really could ask “Could the UConn women beat this team?” And after Celtics GM Danny Ainge finally blew up the Big Three squad of Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett, and Ray Allen in a trade to the Brooklyn Nets in 2013, the expectation was that TD Garden would be awfully quiet for a few years, not to mention awfully awful.
Enter Brad Stevens, the Butler wunderkind coach that almost took down Duke in what will undoubtedly go down as one of the best NCAA Championships in recent history, not to mention made two straight NCAA Championship games with freakin’ BUTLER. After his first season with the Celtics was mostly spent watching the C’s face-plant, the team went into full Hulk-smash mode in the second half of this season, finishing by turning their season from 16-30 on February 1st to going 20-10 after the trade deadline to finish 40-42. Sure, it’s still a losing record, but if a team can improve by 17 wins from the year previous the same year they trade Rajon Rondo and Jeff Green, who’s to say this Island of Misfit Toys can’t make the Cleveland Cavaliers sweat a little?
Speaking of Brad Stevens…
Brad Stevens Has Taken Lemons and Made Some Damn Good Lemonade
5 guys play on the basketball court at one time. Over the course of this season, the Celtics have had a total of 41 players on their roster (in other words, 12 less than a full NFL team’s roster), made 11 trades, and played 23 different players on game day. Rajon Rondo got shipped to Dallas as, by my count, the Maverick’s 189th one-year-rental-to-get-Dirk-Nowitzki-another-ring investment, and Jeff Green (the team’s leading scorer at the time) got dealt to the Memphis Grizzlies. Here’s what Brad Stevens got to work with after both those stars, one of whom is expected to get a max deal next season, were traded:
Jae Crowder, Jameer Nelson, Brandan Wright, Tayshaun Prince, 2 protected first-round picks, and a 2016 second-rounder.
If your reaction to that is “I’ve never heard of any of those dudes”, the answer is “Exactly”.
Yet somehow, mad scientist Stevens went to work and, with Game of Thrones dark magic, had the Celtics go 20-10 after the trade deadline, win 22 games after February 3rd, close the season on a 5-game win streak, and lock up a 7-seed instead of a lottery pick. That, my friends, is sorcery.
Now, if only someone could teach Brad how to tie a necktie.
Isaiah Thomas Could Be 6th Man of the Year
The little guy that some people probably still haven’t realized isn’t THAT Isiah Thomas has made so much noise off the bench this year, it’s a wonder anyone else on the Celtics gets to shoot the ball. Since Thomas arrived in Boston after the trade deadline, he’s put up 19.0 points per game and 5.4 rebounds.
Thomas doesn’t start. Also, he’s 5’9’’ tall.
Put it another way: Boston’s leading scorer on the year is point guard Avery Bradley. He averages 13.9 points per game this year. Isaiah Thomas is the literal definition of instant offense, and he’s anchored a Celtics lineup that ended up ranking 13th in points per game and 4th (!) in assists per game.
Plus, how can you not love a 5’9’’ guy (not a typo) saying this about his first trip to the playoffs?
“It’s everything. In my NBA career I haven’t been to the playoffs so it’s something that I want to experience. I heard it’s fun, it’s exciting and it’s a new season. Once you make the playoffs, everybody’s 0-0 and it’s a new season so I’m excited about it, hopefully we do get it.”
If the idea of a 5’9’’ guard crossing over on guys like LeBron James and Kyrie Irving doesn’t sound like a blast to you, go back to watching UFC and eating Hot Pockets.
Most of the Celtics are Cast-Offs With Something to Prove
More on the Island of Misfit Toys: the post-trade-deadline Celtics look like a who’s-who of players that lit it up in college, and then failed to make much of an impact in the NBA until Brad Stevens got ahold of them. Take a look at how decorated some of these guys were coming out of college:
Evan Turner: 2010 NCAA All-American, 2010 National Player of the Year, 2-time Big 10 Scoring Champion, 2nd overall draft pick, 2010.
NBA career points per game: 10.8
After bouncing around from the 76ers to the Pacers to the Celtics this season, Turner finally seems to be in a situation where coach Brad Stevens can use him as a Swiss Army knife in Boston’s starting lineup. Since signing with the Celtics, he’s notched three triple-doubles, and hasn’t hesitated to call teammates out for dumb mistakes, like punching someone in the junk. That counts for something.
Jared Sullinger: A two-time NCAA All-American, after Ohio State lost to the Kansas Jayhawks in the 2012 NCAA Tournament, Sullinger’s back problems dropped him from a potential lottery pick all the way to pick 21, where the Celtics happily scooped him up and gambled that his flashes of brilliance would outweigh the medical concerns. Did it work? Yes and no. Sullinger’s good moments, like his 25-point 20-rebound throwdown against the Raptors in 2014 (the first 20-20 game by a Celtic since Kevin Garnett), have been acccompanied by season-ending back surgery in 2013 and a stress fracture in his foot this season, but Sully is back for the playoffs. Root for this kid. He needs the luck.
Tyler Zeller: For a guy who was crowned ACC Player of the Year in 2012 and won the NCAA Championship with the North Carolina Tarheels in 2009, not to mention making the NBA All-Rookie team in 2013, the rest of Zeller’s NBA career has been pretty pedestrian by comparison. Until, of course, he was traded to the Celtics from Cleveland, where he improved from 5.7 PPG in 2013-2014 to 10.2 PPG in 2014-2015, notched a career-high 5.7 rebounds per game, and bumped his free-throw percentage from 74.5% in 13-14 to 82.3% in 14-15. You could argue that pretty much all those numbers are the result of increased minutes. You could also look at it as a 25-year-old finally making the most of his chances.
Marcus Smart: Putting Marcus Smart in this category is a stretch, but it’s important to remember that Smart was considered a top-3 pick after his freshman year, and while returning to Oklahoma State was widely commended at the time, Marcus hurt his NBA stock considerably by shoving a Texas Tech fan into the stands during a game, quite possibly for being a racist d-bag. Not only that, but Smart started the season shooting a ghastly 21.4% from 3-point-land in his first five weeks as a pro, and has since improved to 33.5% on the season. Smart, ladies and gentlemen, is getting smarter.
Recap: A coach that looks like a senior going to prom, but other coaches consider one of the most brilliant minds in the game. A lineup that, on paper, looks thinner than the “District 5” Mighty Ducks. The team’s best player makes Russell Wilson look tall by comparison. Everything to gain, and nothing to lose.
Going up against LeBron James’ “I’m Coming Home” homecoming coronation?
If you ever rooted for Skywalker and Solo or Charlie Conway, the 2014-2015 Celtics are your guys.