Celtics are just fine, thanks

Yo, Brad. Don’t do a thing. Don’t you dare.

You’ve done enough. And we mean that in all the right ways.

At the midseason mark, we know this to be true about the 2023-24 Celtics, who are a league-best 32-9 overall and 20-0 on the Garden parquet after Wednesday night’s win over Victor Wembanyama and the Spurs:

They have enough, good health willing, to collect Banner 18 come June.

Better, this team has something that for some other talented recent Celtics teams was more elusive than a winning record or a high playoff seed: flawless team chemistry. It has elevated them from an enjoyable if occasionally exasperating team to watch to must-see entertainment every time they are on the court.

This team likes playing together. The players bring out the best in each other. The pieces fit. The role players complement the stars . . . and sometimes the stars complement the role players.

Remember the 2017-18 Celtics, with that loaded roster: Kyrie Irving and Gordon Hayward, Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown, Marcus Smart and Al Horford, Terry Rozier and Marcus Morris . . .

Man, they were miserable, weren’t they? What an annoying, broken team that was. Half the roster seemed to be playing for a contract, and the other half for their own stats, with more than a little overlap on that particular Venn diagram.

I’ll always believe the misery of that season, even more than the $103 million that was thrown his way, was the impetus for Horford leaving for the 76ers.

I apologize for dredging up that season, but I do it to make this point: This, what we’re witnessing right now, is the opposite.

Oh, the roster is as talented, maybe more so. The pieces all fit, and so do the egos.

Brown has made alterations to his game that some among us (hi there) never thought he would. He’s attacking the hoop with a vengeance, unleashing his deadly turnaround jumper at all the right times, sharing the ball more (and with previously untapped creativity), and playing defense as if he covets an All-Defense acknowledgement.

Part of his progress as a team player, I believe, is that he’s confident that the ball will make its way back to him when it should. I didn’t think he would do this. I didn’t think he even knew he should do this. But the evolution of Jaylen Brown is something to behold. The rest of the league is on notice. Meanwhile, Tatum’s 30 points a night, give or take a step-back three, are pretty much taken for granted at this point, and his commitment to finding other ways to affect the game — such as his steal to break up a three-on-one against the Raptors Monday, or his 14 rebounds in that same game — is admirable. He doesn’t get enough credit for how hard he has worked to improve his allaround game.

Tatum and Brown weren’t the problem six years ago, but their maturity since then should be acknowledged. And it helps — really, it’s essential — that they are now surrounded by extremely talented players in their own right who prioritize winning over everything else.

I’m not sure how Kristaps Porzingis can be a revelation considering he has been in the league eight years, entered the league under the New York spotlight, and earned the nickname “The Unicorn” for his freakishly impressive skills. So let’s just leave it at this: I had no idea he played with such an edge, nor did I expect he would be such a willing and deft passer.

And after spending a year-plus in Wizards purgatory, he seems to enjoy every millisecond of being a Celtic. I loved Marcus Smart as a Celtic. I love the trade Brad Stevens made to get Porzingis more.

Jrue Holiday? He’s the anti-Kyrie, a them-first player who does what’s best for the team because it’s who the NBA’s threetime teammate of the year has always been. And watching him aggravate two or three players on defense on every possession has become one of the most fun in-game subplots of this season. He’s a wonderful basketball player, but in a parallel universe he is a six-time All-Pro free safety.

Derrick White? Well, that guy should be an All-Star. Everyone knows that.

The bench pieces fit too, from Horford (why no Sixth Man of the Year chatter?) to Payton Pritchard, Sam Hauser, and human energy boost Oshae Brissett. This has to be the only season since, oh, Terry Duerod’s Garbage Time Superhero days that I’ve wished the last man on the bench, Lamar Stevens, got a little more run.

I do not believe Stevens needs to add to this team before the trade deadline. I don’t. I suppose he could use his limited resources to get a depth big man or wing. But I like this roster, top to bottom, just as it is. They don’t need anything, and they don’t need to mess with what they have.

It’s kind of silly, but I keep thinking about this picture that was going around the other day on some of the Celtics players’ social feeds. It was taken on the team plane, with everyone on the roster in the photo smiling or flashing some goofy hand signal, or both.

It was, so obviously, the literal picture of unity, of a team that enjoys being together on the court and off. Remember back in the day, when the Globe would insert an official team photo into the Sunday edition at some point during the season? This photo would make a fine insert. Because it’s what an excellent, happy, winning team looks like.

Halfway through the story of this season, the 2023-24 Celtics already have written many memorable and satisfying chapters. All of them, every one, deserves to be around for the story’s final word.