5 irresponsible predictions for this Celtics season

The NBA season begins… at the moment! It means actual Celtics basketball, actual inspiration for actual takes with actual proof to again actual conclusions. However wait, does that imply I gained’t get to make irresponsibly unsubstantiated projections about how the season goes to go anymore?! Oh god…uh, fast! Seize the keys to the nuclear codes and launch each loopy take-missile we’ve in reserve!

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1. Jayson Tatum goes to have comfortably one of the best season of his profession

Schematically, I’ve no cause to consider this. Tatum’s scoring has no cause to go up until Jaylen Brown, Derrick White and Jrue Vacation resolve to go kind a Fleetwood Mac cowl band till Kristaps Porzingis is again, and even in that case Payton Pritchard may simply take extra photographs. This take is based on ~positivity~.

I don’t care about nor even wish to discuss what occurred with Tatum in the course of the Olympics. That’s meaningless, out-of-context tomfoolery that I cannot permit to invade the realm {of professional} NBA basketball. He didn’t play as a result of he was actually fairly redundant on a workforce with seven thousand ball-dominant scoring forwards of their swan swong, one thing I touched on even on the time.

Photograph by Brian Babineau/NBAE through Getty Pictures

As an alternative of unfavourable ridiculousness, I’d argue positivity is in all places for Tatum this 12 months. The creeping horror of what would occur to his profession if he didn’t win a championship is now gone, and supplied he has even 20 % of the famous-person literacy I believe he has, he’s capable of block out the trolls that say he lacks “aura” or is a few type of phony Kobe-clone. The individuals who say which might be both idiots, don’t even watch the NBA, or are Lakers followers like my SBNation.com editor Harrison Faigen who tries to sneak Tatum-snipes into each piece I write for him.

With out this existential strain, Tatum ought to be free to experiment and construct on his already extremely sturdy offensive and defensive recreation. He’ll nonetheless say “nothing issues however holding the trophy in June,” however like… some stuff issues aside from that now. He obtained his contract, he has his ring, so now it’s time for Tatum to evolve his greatness into issues I didn’t even think about once I wrote a gobsmackingly lengthy profile of the man in the course of the All-Star break.

And if he does what I believe he can, perhaps I’ll write one other one.

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2. Wage cap may make this bizarre round March

nineteenth Century Europe has Karl Marx and historic materialism. twenty first Century NBA has Bobby Marks and wage cap determinism. And I’m not a wage cap determinist.

(See what I did there? Marx versus Marks? Two guys who in all probability consider that economics drive the wheels of historical past, albeit in barely totally different contexts? Anybody?)

I type of aspire to be one, however my humanities-coded mind has a very laborious time believing that NBA historical past is only one lengthy march of 1 financial calculation to the following. I’m a story man, and to a lesser extent, a stat man. To a good lesser extent, I’m an X’s and O’s man (although it is best to in all probability ask Adam Taylor about that stuff), and to the less-est extent, I’m a wage cap man.

And I don’t know in case you guys have been seeing the apocalypse-is-coming-and-you-can’t-stop-it degree projections for the Celtics’ 2026 luxurious tax invoice, however a lot of the wage cap determinists on the market appear to assume that Boston goes to need to promote numerous their present roster for elements in the event that they wish to keep away from like… opening a black gap to a different dimension and inadvertently inviting a hostile alien invasion. It’s one thing like that.

So, whereas I’ll all the time defer to the precise wage cap-ists for this, I fear that this may get bizarre round March if issues aren’t simply absolute sunshine and rainbows in Boston. Say the Celtics are in 4th as a substitute of 1st within the East, and each hundred-something million greenback extension that’s coming down the pipeline offers them precisely zero flexibility to sort things. Individuals may begin one another and calling names.

It additionally may pressure me to start out writing stuff that’s titled “who ought to the Celtics commerce this offseason to repair their cap invoice,” however within the curiosity of optimism and alluring within the new 12 months, I’m simply plainly not going to speak about that proper now. We’ll cross that bridge once we get there, even when there’s a crocodile infested river beneath it.

3. Nothing within the first half of the season issues

That is clearly ridiculous, however I felt the necessity to get this one out of the way in which in case Boston loses to the New York Knicks tonight to hedge my bets in opposition to that. Till Kristaps Porzingis comes again — which might be round Christmas however who truly is aware of — nothing issues.

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“We don’t have ______ so you possibly can’t criticize us” is a monumentally lame type of argumentation, however I’m going to make use of it right here as a ultimate line of protection in opposition to catastrophe. Porzingis was the Celtics’ tremendous weapon final 12 months; the ultimate harbinger of the apocalypse for groups unfortunate sufficient to play him. They ripped by the playoffs with out him final 12 months, and solely obtained two actual NBA Finals video games out of him (although the primary one was mainly a spiritual expertise). If Porzingis is wholesome for the entire Playoffs? Overlook it.

However it may not be superb proper firstly. Karl-Anthony Cities may trigger matchup issues tonight. The Celtics may not have one of the best rim safety till January. However who cares? The East isn’t like… that good, so Boston ought to saunter their method to a strong file earlier than getting Porzingis again to personal everybody. Sound good? Okay, break.

4. The Los Angeles Lakers suck and aren’t going to be related

This isn’t concerning the Celtics, so I’m not going to sit down right here and defend this for 400 phrases, however I believe we will all agree that the Lakers are lame and have a brilliant lame roster and are going to have a brilliant lame season with tremendous lame gamers and obtain tremendous lame ethical victories on LeBron James’ tremendous lame two-to-three 12 months farewell tour. That’s all I needed to say.

5. The Jap Convention is worse than it was final 12 months

It’s laborious to say that the (inhales) Knicks revolution, a “regular” 12 months for the Bucks and the 76ers slotting Paul George into their cap house together with a 12 months of continuity for younger Pacers, Magic and Cavaliers groups makes the convention worse, but it surely does.

Welcome to the Oliver Fox Faculty of “Do you’ve gotten a plan to beat one of the best workforce in your convention?” the place we train NBA groups that crucial a part of… present is to determine learn how to beat the juggernaut in your convention. The Minnesota Timberwolves had been constructed to beat the Denver Nuggets, and so they did that. Now the Western Convention has to determine the Oklahoma Metropolis Thunder, however a lot of the East has made no progress on the Celtics query.

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The Knicks are the one workforce that has ideas of a plan to match up with the Celtics, and even they’re rolling out two defensive liabilities named Jalen Brunson and Karl-Anthony Cities. They’ve firepower to match the Celtics’ traditionally environment friendly offense, however the remainder of the East type of simply pressed “Simulate to Subsequent Season” and hoped their gamers would progress prefer it’s a online game.

Perhaps they may, however the Pacers, 76ers and Bucks aren’t lighting the world on fireplace with wing defenders — the Pacers are traditionally unhealthy at protection, Paul George isn’t the defender he was once and the Bucks don’t have anyone — and the remainder of the convention is such a tire fireplace of confusion that the Celtics ought to be a fairly good guess for the primary seed as soon as once more.

We’ll see how a lot they care about that, however with a Joe Mazzulla captained squad rolling by city, I’m certain he’ll get everybody able to roll. If not, it doesn’t matter. We’re all going to die anyway.