Ahead of Schedule, Celtics Know There Is Work to Be Done to Catch LeBron

BOSTON — The end of a title chase always comes with uniquely somber imagery. It's not just the long faces and empty gazes. It's the industrial-size trash bags that fill the losing locker room.

One by one, the Boston Celtics filled those bags with their personal belongings late Thursday, like a group of kids at summer camp, quietly packing up the happy memories before trudging back to reality.

The Celtics were good enough to win 53 games, good enough to snatch the East's top perch in the playoffs and good enough to make an unlikely run to the conference finals—only to get torched by LeBron James because, well, that's what happens to Eastern Conference teams who face LeBron James.

"You've got to be almost perfect playing against those guys," Marcus Smart said glumly after a 33-point loss to James and the Cleveland Cavaliers in the decisive Game 5.

The end is always painful. Yet the raw emotions of the moment can be deceiving. This was, objectively speaking, a profoundly, wildly successful Celtics season—one the franchise will be celebrating once the sting subsides.

Three years ago, the Celtics were a gut-renovation project, with a rookie head coach and a roster recently stripped of its superstars. Two years ago, they were a surprise playoff entrant, albeit with a losing record.

Last week, they were a final-four team, bravely storming the castle of King James.

By any reasonable measure, the Celtics are ahead of schedule. Far ahead. The gap between them and the Cavaliers is massive, but no moreso than the gap between any other Eastern hopeful and LeBron's team. And none of those hopefuls is better positioned to close that gap.

The Celtics have an all-NBA point guard, an abundance of young talent, payroll flexibility, the No. 1 pick in the June draft, another high pick coming in 2018, one of the sharpest young coaches in the league in Brad Stevens and one of the savviest general managers in Danny Ainge.

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This isn't a team of aging veterans worried about a closing window, or a pack of mid-career All-Stars who just learned they're nowhere good enough. These Celtics are still embryonic, a barely formed entity with infinite possibilities.

Of course, the Celtics expected to be back on this stage—title contention is viewed as a birthright around here—just not this soon.

So when Ainge stopped in a hallway to reflect late Thursday, on his way out of TD Garden, you could sense the pain of the moment already starting to pass. And you could almost hear the gears turning as the Celtics team president pondered his next moves.

"It was a very fun year," he said, a rapid rise that was all the more enjoyable "because I know that it's not a finished product."

Not finished, because for all of Isaiah Thomas' heroics and Al Horford's steadiness, the Celtics know they still need a top-tier star to lead them to the Finals. Not finished, because Smart and Terry Rozier are just 23 years old, and Jaylen Brown is 20, and even the veterans—Avery Bradley and Jae Crowder—are just 26.

Not finished, because the Celtics are positioned to draft Markelle Fultz, an 18-year-old guard with All-Star potential, with the first pick in the June 26 draft.

Ainge and his staff knew, long before the Celtics unexpectedly grabbed the top seed in the East, that there was much work to be done.

"We still have a ways to go," Ainge told B/R. "I've known that from training camp. I don't think my views of our team as a whole have changed at all."

Charles Krupa/Associated Press

An unlikely appearance in the conference finals doesn't alter the long-term vision, or obscure the reality of where the Celtics stand today.

"I think I have an idea," Ainge said. "People around our team, they know sort of where we stack up. It's not anything I'm going to talk about. But we know internally where we stand."

Take that ambiguity any way you want. But around the league, no one expects the Celtics to stand pat. Nor would any rival be stunned if Ainge traded Thomas (assuming his injured hip has healed), or any other core player. Sentimentality has never ruled the day here, and Ainge has never hesitated to part with beloved icons—whether future Hall of Famers (Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett) or fan favorites (Kendrick Perkins, Tony Allen)—if he believes it will move the franchise forward.

Thomas made the Celtics relevant again and has provided both thrills and inspiration along the way. He is fun to watch, easy to embrace. And yet, probably expendable if the Celtics take the long view.

The Cavaliers are not going anywhere for the foreseeable future. That's the cold reality that every would-be challenger in the East must confront, from Toronto to Washington to Boston. Adding Gordon Hayward in July, or even Jimmy Butler, probably won't put the Celtics in position to topple James and Kyrie Irving.

Can the Celtics build a contender around a 5'9" point guard who poses a liability on defense? Rival executives don't think so—and don't believe that Ainge thinks so either.

Thomas turns 29 in February and will be a free agent five months later, likely seeking a max contract in the $200 million range. Bradley and Smart will also hit free agency in July 2018, and the Celtics cannot pay them all. Logic, and salary-cap math, dictates that Ainge will start thinning the guard herd in the next several weeks.

So much of the Celtics' season has been judged—reflexively, and irrationally—by the vagaries of the moment: the stumbles in the first round, Ainge's purported "failure" to swing a blockbuster trade in February. It's comical to recall that, just a few weeks ago, angsty fans were openly doubting Stevens' acumen when Boston began the playoffs with two consecutive losses.

But this is not a franchise that flinches in the moment, no matter how loud the wails outside the Garden walls. Ainge and his staff have always taken the long view.

Alex Brandon/Associated Press

If the Celtics want to focus on the present, they have the flexibility to keep adding this summer and give this group another shot at a deep playoff run. If they want to focus on a time horizon that coincides with James' decline—in 2020? 2021? Eventually?—they have the youth and the draft picks to build a contender for a post-LeBron era.

They might just be able to do both simultaneously—a rare feat indeed.

"Those are difficult choices," Ainge said, then added with a slight grin, "Those questions will be answered soon enough."

Howard Beck covers the NBA for Bleacher Report and is a senior writer for B/R Mag. He co-hosts The Full 48 podcast. Follow him on Twitter, @HowardBeck.