If Tatum is back to his former self, then it’s reasonable if not a little bit high. The team truly does seem to be a great regular season team at the worst. Our rebounding, hustle, and defense will still set us apart from the pack in the regular season

I feel the exact opposite. It always feels like it is the Celtics beating themselves in the playoffs.

Love it, but it seems irrationally optimistic.

Still sad about JB, but I’m ready for the new chapter. Excited to see what we can do this season.

I was downvoted to hell last year for saying that I believed the Celtics would still be a top 3 team in the east when everyone was advocating for tanking and we ended up finishing 2nd in the regular season. Our core group and bench depth is too good not to be a top team in the East again this year.

Piston, Knicks and 76ers will be tougher competition this season though.

Michael Pina believes in Joe Mazzulla

Think it’s pretty reasonable. I just think we’re going to be really annoying to play against. Excited most about our defense and the acquisition of Robinson to add into our “crash the offensive boards” philosophy. I expect our defense to get better than it was last year, 4th according to the NBA site, and that should give us a higher floor than we had last year.

Health is my only concern really, and specifically concerning Tatum, White, and Pritchard. I know people are focused on PG and Robinson missing games, but I’d say we have the proof of concept of guys able to step up and impact the game in those positions already based off this past season.

“Almost never beat themselves” is the sharpest sentence written about Boston all summer: 56 wins without Tatum for basically the whole year means the floor was raised, not lowered. Add a returning All-NBA scorer to a 56-win machine and fourth feels light. Discipline travels.

I’m optimistic but claiming we’ll almost never beat ourselves is a nuts. All of us have watched us lose games with poor shot selection and sticking with the 3 even it’s not falling. I think we’ll be good but we’re certainly capable of beating ourselves.

I was a pretty big hater when the JB trade was made. Warming up to the idea this team could be ok (possibly copium) but 4 seems high. 4th in the east? I could see that. Top two teams in the east? Not so sure. Starting to get a little excited either way

Going to be #1 very quickly lol. I don’t think people are prepared for a completely maxed out Sheets FC team.

Switch Hauser out for Paul George (I thought he was a good proxy for elite shooting big wing). I don’t expect them to have a +34 net rating over 2000+ minutes, but the starting lineup will be historically dominant (I also think our bench units will be). And this is with a much smaller oREB% than we will have next year and only 50% three point rate (I think that will be closer to 60% for our starting lineup).

The article does that funny dodge of “tiers that simultaneously reflect where they’ll finish in the regular-season standings and how likely it is that they’ll be the last squad standing”. Ultimately the proof will be how this team does in the playoffs, but in terms of regular season this is a team that was #2 in the east last season with JB as the head of the snake and will be both replacing him with JT, a better and more versatile #1, and also have a deeper, better roster. I think Mazzulla will absolutely be trying to win the east and probably come close.

People are talking about Celtics beating themselves in recent playoff series which I agree with. But I don’t think I’ve read any comments about Mazzulla’s coaching in the playoffs. He is a great regular season coach who gets the most out of his players. However, he hasn’t shown a lot with regard to game strategy and making adjustments during the playoffs. His stubbornness becomes a liability.

38 year old Mike Conley’s defense. Sign me UP

We 100% beat ourselves.

Just keep chucking up 3s gang. Regardless of time and score.

Then in the clutch? Time for the classic JT dumb side step 3. Can’t wait.

People underrate toughness. I have to see it with this team. Tatum is more talented but Brown was on a mission last season. The most talented team often doesn’t win. For people who have played, I think once you get to a certain level you start to realize that effort is an irreplaceable skill. It doesn’t matter how good you are if someone plays with incredible effort that you aren’t able to match, you lose when you shouldn’t. Pacers are a recent effort team. Tatum has stretches where he coasts. PG definitely does. They level up when it matters I think but I expect some regression in that fire they had last season.

We beat ourselves nearly every year in the playoffs. I think we could quibble if we are the fourth or fifth or sixth or seventh best team in the NBA, though.

This is the one time I will say Bill is directing his staff to gas up the Celtics.

Unless it’s the playoffs

Idk man. The potential for injury alone for our new additions is concerning. Tatum, post injury or not, still just doesn’t have that dog in him that I want from a 1a. White needs to return to form.

Otherwise, I do like our depth and how this team is great for “Mazzullaball” as the natives say.

We have the biggest gap between no. 1 player and no 2 player in the east, and are best player is coming off a torn achillies, I think we have the potential for a really strong season but 4 seems so optimistic given some of the potential issues facing the team

almost never except for last year in the playoffs

What? We beat ourselves constantly. Matter of fact, most of the time. Maybe I’m the only one that’s witnessed huge blown leads happen pretty regularly under mazzulla. If I am, the rest of you haven’t been watching. The author of the piece sounds brand new. Wtf? Lol.

I think we are going to be good. My only concern is that PG and JT have a lot more similarities in their game than JT and JB did. So I’m interested in seeing how that dynamic plays out.

I know that this is probably a ludicrous thought but I would like to see a few games where JT runs a lineup and then PG comes in to fill JT’s role and runs that lineup. This would be very similar to the way we used JB and JT after the first quarter of most games.

I want to see how PG performs in that role. This will help determine the way this season is going to play out. If for some reason he struggles with that then we will need some else to step up their game and fill that role.

I think PP did an admirable job last season helping to try and fill that void. So if we go the route described above I’m interested to see how that will impact his contributions.

For me personally it just feels kind of up in the air right now and I really don’t think that there’s any way to evaluate the team until we actually get a chance to watch them play together. I’m just excited to get the season going so we can see what this squad looks like playing together.

Idk I feel like the Celtics have beat themselves the past 2 playoffs and even more before the ring

The celtics have beaten themselves the last two years in the playoffs

Banner 18 doesn’t exist without 3’s but it’s tough not to look at the 2023 heat loss and the 2025 NYK loss as a bi product of missing threes

i don’t know…

if mitch will be healthy and paul george will be semi healthy we can be good

but what are the chances of that hapenning? extremely low.

add that jayson tatum first full season after career altering injury. and we have a lot of question marks.

“Teams that want to beat the Celtics must do so knowing they will almost never beat themselves.”

While maybe true, in the regular season.

Based on the past 5+ seasons, they will eventually, almost always, beat themselves in the playoffs.

Celtics are the kings of beating themselves

lol … who is going to beat contenders?

Tatum who gets anxiety attack towards the end of every game where Celtics are leading less than 20, and 36 year old PG who played 78 games in the last two seasons?