BOSTON — After a summer of celebration, a new Celtics season is now upon us. Tuesday is media day for the reigning NBA champions, who will tip off the 2024-25 NBA season in less than a month.
Nearly the entire roster from last season’s title run is returning. Brad Stevens got the band back together, and the Celtics are on a mission from Red to bring home Banner 19. Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown are not only champs, but they’re motivated by greatness — and a few snubs — to keep this run going. Jrue Holiday and Derrick White are back to wreak havoc on opposing backcourts, and Al Horford will be holding down the court until Kristaps Porzingis returns from his offseason surgery.
And we know that Joe Mazzulla is going to find some unorthodox and weird way to keep his players hungry, as the Celtics look to become the NBA’s first back-to-back champ since the Warriors did so in 2017 and 2018.
While Tuesday won’t feature any basketball, the Celtics will be playing soon enough. They’ll open their preseason slate on Oct. 4 with their first of two exhibition games in Abu Dhabi against the Denver Nuggets. They’ll raise a new banner and get their championship rings at TD Garden on Oct. 22, and when that celebration is over, the C’s will tip off the season against the New York Knicks.
When the new season tips off, here are the storylines we’ll be following as the C’s look to make it back-to-back titles.
How do the Celtics follow up their historic 2023-24 season?
The 2024-25 Boston Celtics have a tough act to follow after a historic run to a championship. But as long as they win another title, no one will mind if they take a step back along the way. (No pressure.)
The Celtics are coming off a season where the pretty much ran through their competition from start to finish, culminating in the franchise’s 18th championship. They went 80-21 including their playoff run, outscoring opponents by an average of 10.7 points per game, which ranks fifth in NBA history.
The Celtics’ offense was historically incredible — with their 122.2 points per 100 possessions in the regular season the highest in NBA history — and finished first in efficiency. The defense wasn’t historically great, but it was pretty damn good, finishing second in efficiency.
Boston’s 64 wins during the regular season was seven more wins than the Denver Nuggets and the Oklahoma City Thunder got to last season. The Celtics won 14 mores games than the No. 2 team in the East, with the Knicks sporting a 50-32 record.
The Celtics are bringing back nearly the entire group of players that just did that to the NBA. How will they follow it up in 2024-25?
The offense probably won’t be historically great again this season, but it’s still going to be one of the league’s best. Same goes for the defense. The overall win total might take a hit as the C’s navigate Kristaps Porzingis’ recovery.
The Celtics are probably going to lose more than 18 games during the regular season. They might actually lose more than one in a given playoff round.
But as long as the Celtics win their final game of the season sometime in June, no one will complain if the regular season record or their overall stats are a little lagging compared to last year’s historic squad.
How motivated are Tatum and Brown after an interesting summer?
Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown are NBA champions — and they still had to combat doubters in a number of ways throughout the summer.
Under the cheers of Boston fans, Tatum had to hear the foolish narrative that he was a passenger during the title run because of his shooting struggles. Then he had to deal with his Olympic benching from Steve Kerr, whom Celtics fans can’t wait to welcome to TD Garden on Nov. 6.
Tatum won his first NBA title and a second Olympic gold medal, yet he still had to listen to haters. And not just the haters that hate on everything Tatum does, including his tattoos. They are seriously questioning his offensive abilities. It’s quite foolish.
Tatum does a great job shrugging it all off, going out and doing his thing on the court. So does Brown, who has an even bigger chip on his shoulder.
How will the reigning Eastern Conference Finals and NBA Finals MVP Brown find motivation this season? Like Tatum, he can look toward Kerr.
Brown is ready to go Man on Fire on the league after he was outright snubbed from a spot on the Olympic roster by Kerr and company. That spot ultimately went to White, who was great in Paris, but Brown deserved to be there and go for gold.
Winning back to back titles earns you immortality in the NBA and would help advance Tatum and Brown in Celtics lore. That would have been plenty of motivation for them to keep winning in 2024-25.
But Boston’s duo got another shot of motivation thanks to Kerr and Team USA. Defending champs don’t usually have something to prove, but the Jays will be out to keep proving their many doubters wrong yet again.
Kristaps Porzingis’ recovery and how the Celtics handle his absence
Porzingis should be back at some point in around the new year, but the Celtics should be in no rush to get him back. They are capable of weathering the storm until then, though it will be a delicate balancing act for Mazzulla since the Celtics don’t want to burn the 38-year-old Horford out by midseason.
So a lot is going to fall on the shoulders of reserve big men Luke Kornet, Xavier Tillman, and Neemias Queta. The Celtics brought all three back over the summer to keep some cohesion in the front court, and that trio will have to carry the load until Porzingis comes back. And chances are they’ll have to answer the call a few times after he gets back, too, given the bubble-wrap approach the C’s should take with the Latvian big man until the playoffs arrive.
“The Other Guys” filling out the back of the roster
It’s safe to assume that Sam Hauser is going to knock down some threes and play underrated defense off the Boston bench, and Payton Pritchard is going to provide some energy and even deeper threes.
Stevens has built up a pretty solid back end of the roster too. Jaden Springer played sparingly after he was acquired at the trade deadline, but he can give Boston some solid on-ball defense off the pine. We’ll also be looking to see what rookie Baylor Scheierman can bring to the mix after he showed off some strong shooting and playmaking skills during his summer action. Now we’ll see if those translate to the NBA game.
Lonnie Walker IV is also a fascinating addition, coming in as a veteran looking to earn the team’s final roster spot. He’s a gifted offensive player who can also show up on the defensive end, though his defense was not good last season.
Oshae Brissett is the only player on last year’s roster that isn’t back for Boston’s title defense.
How will Joe Mazzulla keep everyone hungry?
The Celtics are defending champs, but whatever you do, DO NOT call them the defending champs in front of Joe Mazzulla. He doesn’t like that phrase.
“We’re not defending anything. We’re chasing another championship,” the C’s head coach recently told Tatum, via The Boston Globe.
Not that Boston players need any reminder to stay motivated, but comments like that will keep their hunger for another title insatiable. And if it wanes at any point, we have full faith that Mazzulla will conjure up some weird, borderline psychotic way to keep his team focused on adding to the TD Garden’s banner collection.
Whether it’s a movie marathon or forcing an actual hunger strike remains to be seen. But Mazzulla will have something ready in case his team needs a little push at some point.
