While success can be measured in many different ways, the Boston Celtics have set a pretty high bar for what can be considered “success” in 2024. According to Draymond Green, anything short of a championship for the Celtics is a complete bust given their talent, experience, and the status of Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown as two of the highest-paid players in the game.
“The Celtics season is a failure if they don’t win a championship — I normally don’t agree with sh*t like that. But Tim Legler is absolutely correct on this one,” said Draymond on his podcast. “You got Jaylen Brown making $300 million, soon to be Jayson Tatum making [the same]… It’s a failure! You won 60-plus games, you have built your team, you go out and get Jrue Holiday, you go out and get Kristaps Porzingis, and the season went exactly how you thought it would go. A finals appearance ain’t good enough. it’s time to win, it’s time now. We don’t care about how many Conference Finals anymore. You got to go win it all.”
“It’s time to win and it’s time now!”
—@Money23Green thinks the Celtics' season will be a disappointment without a championship pic.twitter.com/TVUIZL9KLC
— The Volume (@TheVolumeSports) May 18, 2024
The Celtics’ defeat over the Cleveland Cavaliers marked the fifth time in the past eight years that the Celtics have gone as far as the Eastern Conference Finals and they are hoping this year will result in a victory for the second time since 2022. With an 8-2 playoff record so far, it’s fair to say the odds are heavily in their favor. Then again, this isn’t the first time they’ve displayed this kind of dominance.
Since they first came together, Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown have separated themselves as one of the best duos in basketball and they’ve carried the Celtics to a top-four seed in the East for several years. To date, however, this Celtics regime still doesn’t have a single championship to their name and the franchise as a whole hasn’t raised the Larry O’Brien trophy in roughly 16 years.
The Boston Celtics Have A Bitter Fight Ahead
So far, the Celtics have had a pretty easy path through the East and it’s expected to stay that way through the Conference Finals. In the first round, they drew arguably the weakest opponent of the post-season: a Miami Heat team without Jimmy Butler, who managed to win just a single game against Tatum and the crew.
After taking care of business in 5 games, the Celtics shifted focus to their second-round opponent: an outmatched and injured Cavaliers squad. With both Jarrett Allen and Donovan Mitchell compromised, the Celtics handled the Cavs easily and became the first team to secure a spot in the Conference Finals this year.
On paper, the Knicks should pose a great challenge to the Celtics but if they advance to the next round, it’ll be in a severely weakened state without two of their top three players.
With a clear path through the East, the only real challenge that the Celtics are likely to face is for the championship against whichever team comes out of the West. If the Celtics are unable to handle business this year and break the seal of a championship victory, it will be the final straw for many skeptics who have been waiting for a chance to have some real conversations about Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown, and head coach Joe Mazzulla.
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