Celtics Hot Takes 2 Months into 2023-24 NBA Season
The Boston Celtics have bulldozed their way through the first two months of the 2023-24 NBA season.
Frankly—and somewhat incredibly—that should surprise no one. This has been a championship-caliber roster for the past several seasons, and the offseason additions of Jrue Holiday and Kristaps Porziņģis have worked as well in practice as they appeared on paper.
The team may run a tad top-heavy, though you could argue that says more about the Shamrocks' collection of high-end talent than it does their lack of depth. If Boston has the best six-player rotation in basketball, it's probably not a huge deal that things start to slide once you get to the seventh, eighth and ninth players in their rotation.
In many ways, the Celtics are who we thought they were. It's still possible, though, to glean some information from the data on hand to formulate a trio of hot takes around this team.
Derrick White Should Be an All-Star
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When ESPN's Kevin Pelton recently cobbled together his way-too-early All-Star rosters, only a single Celtic made the official cut: perennial MVP candidate Jayson Tatum.
Two other Bostonians were mentioned among Pelton's "other contenders," though. One was Porziņģis. The other wasn't Jaylen Brown, a recent recipient of the richest contract in NBA history. It also wasn't Holiday, who has previously booked a pair of All-Star trips.
Rather, it was the subtly spectacular Derrick White, who has made an All-Star-level impact, even if he hasn't quite produced traditional All-Star-level stats. He may not have the loudest volume numbers (15.5 points and 5.1 assists), but he's been exceptionally efficient (48.2/42.5/87.9 shooting slash) and downright dominant on defense.
White is regarded as a 94th percentile stopper by Dunks & Threes' defensive estimated plus/minus metric. For context, that puts White on the same tier as Giannis Antetokounmpo, a former Defensive Player of the Year, and OG Anunoby, an All-Defensive second-teamer last season.
Look beyond White's surface stats and toward his impact on winning at both ends, and it's clear he's more than just a contender for an All-Star spot—he's deserving of a career-first selection.
The Championship Is Theirs to Lose
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NBA champions aren't crowned in the month of December. Well, other than the new In-Season Tournament champs, at least.
If you view the championship race as a season-long marathon, though, it's hard to assess this field and reach any conclusion other than Boston being the favorite.
They are tied with the Minnesota Timberwolves for the season's highest winning percentage (.773), own the second-best net rating (plus-8.4) and are one of only two teams (along with the upstart Oklahoma City Thunder) holding top-seven efficiency ranks on both offense (seventh) and defense (fourth).
Now, this certainly doesn't guarantee that the Celtics will cruise to a title, but they're right where every other team wants to be: In the driver's seat of the championship chase.
They Can't Prove Anything in the Regular Season
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Because greatness is the expectation for this group, it's hard to be blown away by its on-court brilliance. That's maybe unfair, but it's true.
Then again, part of the reason why no one is watching this team in outright amazement is because we've all seen the Celtics dominate the regular season before. What this core hasn't proven, though, is whether it can finally translate these marathon triumphs into an actual title.
And frankly, that simply isn't a question this club can answer ahead of the postseason.
Only in the playoffs will we know for sure whether Boston's frontcourt will hold up, whether it will maintain its offensive flow and whether this group can avoid the ill-timed, in-game gaffes that have plagued it in the past. While one can hope the Celtics are building winning habits, it remains unknown whether those habits will sustain once the stage and the stakes are as big as they can be.
