Building the Future Championship Celtics
For the majority of the decade, each team that had won the Finals, or has even had a chance at winning the Finals, has had a core group of players that did the majority of the work. The Warriors dynasty had KD, Steph, Klay, and Draymond. The Heat had LeBron, Wade, and Bosh. The Lakers had Kobe and Pau (and maybe Odom). The Spurs had Duncan, Parker, Ginobili, and Leonard. The Cavaliers had LeBron, Kyrie, and Love. All of these teams had two to four guys doing the heavy lifting, with a good enough crew behind them to get the job done. The only exceptions to this rule were the 2011 Mavericks and 2019 Raptors, but you can even make an argument that those teams had a main three or four. The Mavs with Marion, Nowitzki, Terry, and Kidd, and the Raptors with Leonard, Lowry, and Siakam. My point is, the teams that just have really good depth and no true superstars rarely end up winning it all. Sorry you have to hear that Pacers and Jazz fans. As a Celtics fan, I wanted to peer into the past to see how the current Boston core could stack up to the cores of championship past.
As the main piece of the puzzle, there is Mr. Jayson Tatum. The budding superstar of the Celtics who “might” be getting the max this summer. (Thanks for that Brian Windhorst.) He’s the piece that Danny Ainge has to build around and it’s more clear than ever. He can score, he can defend, he can drive, I mean the guy just has that itch. Tatum’s the dude who needs the ball in his hand at the end of games and it’s that energy that makes him so great. The best thing about him, and why he’s so comfortably taking those shots, is because he’s not afraid of failure. You can’t teach that mentality, and it’s impressive that he already has it, especially at such a young age. Tatum is the Celtics’ LeBron, their Kobe, their Kevin Durant on those 2017 and 2018 Warriors teams. He’s the centerpiece to Boston’s success. The difficult part is filling in the pieces around him.
The second most important puzzle piece, I would argue, is Jaylen Brown. And before I even get into the main argument for this, I’d also like to commend Brown for his actions in Atlanta. Much respect. Hopefully others can follow in his footsteps.
Yes I know, Kemba is still probably the second best player on the team right now, but if we’re talking competing for rings long-term, Jaylen is the guy. Another stellar wing player who can shoot and defend, but best of all, can drive to the rim as well as anybody in the game. He improved his shooting from last year, and his defensive game is off the charts, but his ability to drive to the rack was always there. He’s just polishing off the finishing touches on that part of his game. I saw someone say this somewhere, it may have been Max Lederman on my latest podcast, but Danny Ainge was ahead of the game in drafting all these crazy talented wings. Brown is the secondary star to Jayson Tatum. The Wade to his LeBron.
So everything after those two is a little tough for me to decipher because of where the Celtics are right now. Obviously, they are currently competing for a championship with the core of those two plus Kemba, Hayward, and Smart. However, with Tatum and Brown being so young, Boston could be competing for championships for years and years to come. This means that Kemba and Hayward could be gone by the time the Celtics are winning over and over again (potentially). So who replaces them in the championship core. The easy answer is that it’ll be someone not currently on the Celtics roster, but for the purposes of this article, I’ll act like it will be.
So the next piece of the puzzle is a solid big man to anchor the paint, and potentially spread the floor a little bit. Theis is the perfect guy here, but even he’s a little too old to fit in perfectly with the Celtics core of Tatum and Brown. So the next possible suitor for this role would be Robert Williams III or Grant Williams. Maybe even both… I’m torn between the two because they bring two different things to the court. Grant has the ability to stretch the floor to some degree, and also has the basketball IQ of a guy who’s been playing for a decade in his first year in the league. Meanwhile, Robert Williams has as much athleticism as anyone in the game, elite blocking ability, and can run the pick n’ roll better than almost anyone on the Celtics roster. It’s a tough decision, but if I’m looking back at teams who have previously won this decade, I’m picking Grant Williams to be a part of the main core here. He’s like the Draymond of the team. The Kevin Love (with better defense). Robert Williams III is more like the Tyson Chandler of the 2011 Mavericks - essential, but not quite as versatile.
Last, but not least, I would argue that every good championship team needs a solid guard who can do their job, but not necessarily take the spotlight away from the core guys. There are obviously the Warriors with Steph and the Cavs with Kyrie, but this Celtics team isn’t built to have a star point guard outside of Kemba for right now. If we’re talking long-term, the C’s would need a solid PG who can defend and make his shots. A Mario Chalmers, if you will. If Marcus Smart is too old to fill that role, I think the guy could very well be Tremont Waters. Although he may be super short, he’s an amazing defender and can easily develop a more consistent jump shot. If you’ve seen him in the G-League, you know he was putting up crazy numbers, and with a little more work those abilities could easily transfer over to the NBA. We’ll just have to wait and see.
So all in all that would leave the Celtics with a championship starting lineup of Tremont Waters, Jaylen Brown, Jayson Tatum, Grant Williams, and Robert Williams III. Call me crazy, but for the future that sounds pretty solid. As long as Grant, Tremont, and Robert can develop their games to the best of what they can be, then Boston has a bright future ahead of them. This lineup parallels in my mind a lineup of Mario Chalmers, Dwyane Wade, LeBron James, Draymond Green, and Tyson Chandler if I’m using guys from championship teams of the last decade. That’s a winning team if I’ve ever seen one. I just hope that all my dreams of this can come true. I’ll make sure to bring this article back out again in the mid-2020s when this team wins it all.
