Boston Celtics are very good but not outrightly the best in the East

The Boston Celtics are good. They are very good. However, they are not the best in the Eastern Conference, of the NBA. They have been, on the rise since the 2016-17 season when they were the Eastern Conference’s best team, with a record of 53-29. The best record does not make you the best team, certainly not always and the Cleveland Cavaliers are a testament to that.

General Manager Danny Ainge had a different line up in 2016-17. The Celtics had a breakout season from Isaiah Thomas, a 5’9 point guard, who averaged 28.9 points per game. He was, for that season, a game changer for the Celtics. They had acquired Al Horford, the 6’10 centre/power forward, who then, was a three-time All-Star formerly of the Atlanta Hawks.

Danny Ainge’s signature skill, as a general manager, has been amassing good young talent. Danny Ainge also drafted seven times during the 2016 NBA Draft including Jaylen Brown and Ante Zizic. Marcus Smart and Terry Rozier had been acquired in the 2015’s NBA Draft.

The 2016-17 playoffs ended, for Boston in the Eastern Conference Finals, as they experienced a 4-1 series loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers and LeBron James. While there is no answer, for most teams, to LeBron James, after such a splendid season, changes were coming, for the Celtics.

Isaiah Thomas, who suffered a hip injury and only played two games in the Eastern Conference Finals that year was traded with Zizic, Jae Crowder and ultimately two draft picks for Kyrie Irving, who wanted out of Cleveland. Canadian centre Kelly Olynyk, in that same summer of 2017 was allowed to sign with the Miami Heat.

Boston made a huge splash, in free agency that summer, by signing one Gordon Hayward to a four year $128 million dollar contract. Ainge also added Jayson Tatum to the Celtics roster in 2017 as the third overall pick in that draft. By the eve of the 2017-18 NBA season, the Celtics had changed 11 roster spots, in hopes of staying competitive.

However, trouble struck Boston early. Less than six minutes into the NBA 2017-18 season Hayward fractured his left tibia and suffered a dislocated ankle. The Celtics persevered. They won 55 games finished second overall in the East and were once again Eastern Conference Finalists losing a seven-game series again to the LeBron James led Cavaliers.

Their playoff run was made more improbable because Kyrie Irving on March 24th, 2018 underwent surgery on a previously injured knee and was ultimately ruled out for the entire playoffs. Irving and Hayward will need to find chemistry with their mates to put the Celtics over the top. The truth is this team did great things without Hayward for most of the year and then without Irving for the playoffs.

Now here we are, in the early stages of the 2018-19 season. There is still and rightfully so much hype about the Boston Celtics. However, that enthusiasm must be tempered, by Boston’s newest challenge, the Toronto Raptors. The Raptors are not new to contending. They have been trying since 2014 to make it to the NBA Finals.

The Raptors' trouble had been LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers. In the last three years, Toronto has played 14 NBA Playoff games against James and the Cavaliers winning just two times. James is now in the West, with the Los Angeles Lakers. The Raptors have added the best player, in the East, in one Kawhi Leonard. Further, on October 19th, 2018 the Raptors beat Boston 113-101.

With the Celtics, who had led most of the way, pulling as close as to being down 101-99, the Toronto Raptors upped their intensity, shifted into another gear in the final three minutes of the game. That twelfth round performance, like a prizefighter ensuring he wins after going the distance, says a lot about Toronto and what they can be this year. The Raptors have won 166 games over their last three NBA seasons and have made it to an Eastern Conference Final and had two second-round knockouts, all to the Cavaliers.

The matchups between the Raptors and the Celtics will be exciting to watch. However, until Boston is billed as the Golden State Warriors' opponent (or whoever comes out of the West), in the 2019 NBA Finals, they may have to go through Toronto at some point.

Logic would suggest based on the recent playoff experience of both the Celtics and Raptors they will meet in the Eastern Conference Finals. The Boston Celtics are good. They are very good, but they have to prove they are good enough to replace Cleveland, as the Eastern Conference Finalists.

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