Celtics about to raise the bar to heights well beyond Heat
MIAMI — The future of the NBA East is an abstract, even with what the Boston Celtics already have accomplished this postseason.
Because unlike previous offseasons, what the rest of the conference, and perhaps the rest of the league, will be chasing, is an unknown.
This good already. And Kyrie Irving and Gordon Hayward available to be added to the mix next season.
After years of pursuing LeBron James with the Miami Heat and Cleveland Cavaliers, the target has changed.
And, yes, teams already are bracing.
“It’s a copycat league,” an Eastern Conference scout said this week, “and people are going to go, ‘wing player, wing player, wing player, wing player, wing player — quick wing players, that’s what we need.’
“I mean, five of their six, seven key guys, they’re all wing guys. [Al] Horford’s mobile, but everybody else is 6-foot-2 to 6-foot-8 and a wing player. They’re quick. They can handle the ball. Many of them can shoot.”
While LeBron has been the singular focus in the East for a decade, the conference is braced for going from “How do we stop him?” to “How do we stop them?” If the challenge sounds familiar, just ask those who have been in chase mode these past four seasons in the West.
“I mean, is that any different than the Warriors?” the scout said of what the Celtics are about to field. “No, not really. The Warriors are probably better pure shooters, but it’s similar.”
With their Hamptons Five of Kevin Durant, Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson, Draymond Green and Andre Iguodala, the Warriors transcended beyond something as mundane as a Big Three.
Next season, the East could see something similar from the Celtics in Horford, Irving, Hayward, Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown.
It took years for the Houston Rockets to crack the code to level the West playing field with the Warriors. Next the Sisyphuslike challenge seemingly moves to the East.
“I think a lot of it depends on what the 76ers get,” the longtime scout and personnel evaluator said. “If they’re the same team, if they can’t get [Paul] George, LeBron or [Kawhi] Leonard, coming back with the same team that hopes to improve, a lot depends on how the 76ers look different. But if they get a major player, maybe there is no gap at all, or very little gap. If not, I think the gap is six games.”
Six games better than the field. An impressive projection for a team that has fielded the HorfordHayward-Brown-TatumIrving for a sum total of five minutes.
No, not yet viewed at the Warriors’ level. But close.
“The Warriors have three legitimate superstars or two superstars and one star, with Thompson being the third,” the scout said. “Currently the Celtics don’t have that. I think it’s most of the gestalt a little bit at the moment. But once you add Irving and Hayward, I think that’s a fair comparison.
“The guys who aren’t playing, one certainly is a superstar, the other a star, maybe a superstar. So, yes, certainly on paper, it certainly looks like that. And they have more pieces, too. If [Terry] Rozier is your backup point guard, I think they have more depth relative to that team. They have a better big guy, for sure.”
And if Marcus Smart is retained in free agency and assuming Marcus Morris remains part of the mix, that is an eight-deep that seemingly trumps anything James has had alongside in Cleveland or even Miami.
“Irving is a very good player. But he’s not top five. LeBron is a once-in-ageneration guy and that has its own potency,” the scout said. “But I think the Celtics would have more depth.”
For years, even with this latest challenge from the Rockets, the model was the Warriors. It eventually pushed Andrew Bogut out and Zaza Pachulia and JaVale McGee to the side.
Now the Celtics already are emulating, with a legitimate question of whether they’re about to trump.
“So the model is wings and good wings?” the scout said of the Celtics’ abundance. “Am I missing something?”