The Celtics have built a roster that can do just about everything - except, maybe, draw whistles.
That’s the one obvious gap in an otherwise loaded group, and even that doesn’t read like a crisis. Brad Stevens, Joe Mazzulla, and the rest of the organization seem plenty comfortable with where the roster stands after the Jaylen Brown trade. The pieces line up cleanly, the depth is real, and Boston now has 14 solid-to-great NBA rotation players to work with.
That kind of roster gives Mazzulla a lot of freedom. The Celtics can go two or three deep at every position, mix and match lineups, and lean into the kind of versatility that makes opposing game-plans miserable. There isn’t an easy target on the board, and Boston should be able to answer a wide range of matchups without much trouble.
The concern some people have raised is replacing Brown’s production, especially the self-creation and tough-shot scoring he provided. But that issue feels a little overstated. With more ball movement and a broader offensive structure, the Celtics should not have to live off late-clock isolation looks nearly as much.
The tougher question is free throws.
Brown was excellent at getting to the line, and that’s not a skill the Celtics are likely to replace directly. Last season, Boston finished last in the NBA in free throw attempts, even with Brown ranking fifth among all players. That stat alone makes the hole obvious.
Paul George, at this point in his career, is not someone who gets to the stripe all that often. Jayson Tatum may not be either in his first full year back from injury. Payton Pritchard and some of the younger players could reasonably bump their numbers up, but the bigger picture still points in one direction: this probably won’t be a team that lives at the free throw line.
ESPN’s Ben Golliver identified “free throw generator” as the Celtics’ biggest roster hole, and that assessment fits. There just isn’t an obvious fix sitting there waiting to be tapped. Boston isn’t suddenly going to discover a player who manufactures fouls out of thin air.
Still, that doesn’t make it a major problem.
The Celtics have other ways to create easy offense, and they’re better suited to lean into those strengths anyway. Spacing, ball movement, offensive rebounding, and defense that turns into turnovers should do plenty of the heavy lifting. They may not get to the line as often as some teams, but they should make up for it with threes, extra possessions, and cleaner scoring chances.
That’s the point: points are points. Boston doesn’t need to chase contact just for the sake of chasing contact, and forcing players into traffic to hunt fouls would only make the offense less efficient.
If Pritchard and Tatum end up drawing more free throws than they have in the past, great. But that’s a bonus, not a requirement.
Scoring shouldn’t be the issue here. A shortage of free throws won’t sink the Celtics or slow them down in any meaningful way. If they keep getting quality shots and taking care of the ball, they’ll be fine - and with or without a big trip to the line, they’ll still have plenty of ways to win games.
In Other News...
Celtics Are Sending A Clear Message To Doubters Without Jaylen Brown
The Celtics have spent much of the season trying to answer the same question about how far they can go without Jaylen Brown, and the latest outside projection does not exactly settle the debate. ESPNs Basketball Power Index still places Boston among the leagues elite, ranking it fourth on the regular-season board and giving it a 7% shot at the title, which is enough to keep the club in the mix even as the scrutiny around its playoff ceiling lingers.
What makes Boston hard to dismiss is not just where it sits in the standings, but how well it appears built for a postseason run. The Celtics have favorable playoff positioning, the kind of depth that can survive the grind of a series, and a rsum that stacks up well against the other top threats in the East. So while the noise around Browns absence has fueled plenty of doubt, the playoff path still leaves room for Boston to prove the conversation was premature. [Read more 🡒]
Celtics Doubters Keep Ignoring One Reality About The East
The Eastern Conference may look crowded enough on paper to invite a little chaos, but Boston keeps standing apart because of what it already knows about itself. The Celtics have a proven system, playoff success, and a roster built with a higher ceiling and a safer floor than the teams trying to chase them down, which is why so many of the leagues would-be contenders still feel more theoretical than finished.
New York, Philadelphia, Toronto, Detroit, Cleveland, Indiana and Miami all have reasons for optimism, but each comes with its own obstacle, whether that is roster uncertainty, health questions or the gap between regular-season promise and April reality. Bostons edge is less about flash than stability, and until one of those teams can show a more reliable path through the postseason, the Celtics remain the standard everyone else is still trying to reach. [Read more 🡒]
Baylor Scheierman Is Forcing His Way Into A Celtics Debate
Baylor Scheierman spent his first two NBA seasons mostly as a name to file away for later, but his post-All-Star break stretch last year changed the conversation in Boston. The third-year guard-wing showed better efficiency and a sharper scoring touch, enough to make the Celtics look twice at how he might fit into a rotation that already has three likely starters set and two other spots still up for grabs.
Scheiermans case is built on something Boston always values: enough offense to matter, enough defense to stay on the floor. With an increased role expected this season, he has put himself into the mix for one of those open starting jobs, which is no small development on a team where lineup competition tends to be unforgiving. The Celtics do not need him to be a headline act, but he has started to look like someone who can make the decision harder than it was supposed to be. [Read more 🡒]