Boston Celtics
Moving on from Kemba Walker and Evan Fournier in the offseason and adding the likes of Dennis Schroder, Josh Richardson and Al Horford seemed like some good moves for the Boston Celtics, but just one win separates them from the likes of the Pistons and Magic in the Eastern Conference standings.
Both Jayson Tatum (26.7) and Jaylen Brown (25.7) have continued to put up All-Star-like numbers this season, as they are both currently averaging above 25 points per game, but the rest of this Celtics team has struggled offensively at times and they are not that strong of a team defensively right now.
Last season, Boston ranked 10th in offensive rating and 14th in defensive rating during the regular season, but so far this year, they rank 19th in the league in offensive rating and 25th in defensive rating.
First-year head coach Ime Udoka is definitely going to face a learning curve with this team and maybe this is just some first/second-week problems that this Boston Celtics team will sort out, but right now, consistency is the biggest problem the Celtics have.
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After going out and improving their second-unit, Boston still ranks 24th in the league in bench points per game and their backcourt seems to be where most of their problems lie. Dennis Schroder has been their most consistent guard, which is kind of puzzling seeing as the Celtics just invested a lot of money in Marcus Smart to be their long-term solution in the backcourt.
Only averaging 8.8 points, 3.5 rebounds, and 4.0 assists to begin the year, Marcus Smart is going to have to be better for the Boston Celtics if this team is going to have a chance to be a “dark-horse” in the Eastern Conference. Just being a factor defensively is not going to cut it for him, especially since he just earned himself a big contract extension in the offseason.
Their frontcourt of Robert Williams III and Al Horford has looked really strong early on in the season, but finding ways to get veteran Enes Kanter involved is not a terrible idea either. Last season in Portland, Kanter averaged 11.0 rebounds per game and 3.9 offensive rebounds per game, which ranked him 7th and 3rd in the league respectively in those categories.
While they do rank 11th in the league in rebounding right now, the Boston Celtics would highly benefit from getting second-chance opportunities because of Enes Kanter’s offensive rebounding abilities. Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown are two of the hottest scorers in the league right now, so getting them more chances to score is definitely an advantage for this team.
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It is not time to hit the panic button just yet with the Boston Celtics, but the month of November will definitely be an important one for them to finally get back on track and prove that they are a contender in the Eastern Conference.
