Celtics Takeaways from 1st Month of 2020-21 NBA Season
It's been a strange first month of the 2020-21 NBA season for the Boston Celtics.
On one hand, they've followed the lead of surging stars Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown to the third-best record in the Eastern Conference.
On the other, there are few statistical indicators outside of the wins column suggesting this is a heavyweight title contender. Boston isn't in the top 10 on offense (11th) or defense (17th), and it sits just 12th overall in net efficiency.
Not having Kemba Walker to start the season didn't help, but that's partly due to the fact that this roster has some question marks outside of its budding stars.
That's why our early takeaways from this team highlight both the excitement the star wings bring and the concerns around them.
The Tatum-Brown Duo Is Elite
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For all of the stars the Celtics narrowly missed out on in recent years, maybe they did the right thing by waiting for the rises of Tatum and Brown.
The under-25 twosome is quickly scaling up the ladder of the league's best pairings. They create shots, make shots, move the basketball and hold their own defensively.
Tatum made his first All-Star appearance last season. Brown should join him this time around.
The future only knows if this will come to fruition, but they look like the kind of tandem that could lead a championship charge—if not now, then very soon.
"We're just trying to play off each other as we both continue to get better and grow, individually," Tatum told reporters. "Obviously, we're going to be together for a while and we feel like we're two of the best guys in the league and only going to continue to get better."
Given their ages, they probably haven't played their best basketball yet, as scary as that sounds. They're laying the foundation for a great team; they just need their teammates to catch up.
They Miss Gordon Hayward
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Gordon Hayward's contract situation offered no simple solutions for the Celtics this offseason.
He had a $34.2 million player option for this season, which, given his injury history and sub-star production, wasn't going to make it easy to balance the budget. But if he exited—which he ultimately did to take a four-year, $120 million deal from the Charlotte Hornets—they didn't have an easy way of replacing him.
He helped diversify the offensive menu with the glue-guy ability to fit where needed. Whether the Celtics needed scoring, playmaking or outside shooting, he could scratch all three itches. Their fourth-ranked attack gained 4.0 points per 100 possessions when he played.
Boston couldn't afford to sign a player possessing anything close to that skill level. Its free-agency expenditures wound up being just Tristan Thompson (a frontcourt hustler with limited offense) and Jeff Teague (a past-his-prime scoring guard). The lack of a viable replacement for Hayward has been glaring at times, and it could remain that way at least until Kemba Walker gets his legs under him.
The Celtics have resources to bulk up this roster with draft picks, prospects and an enormous trade exception to put in play. But will they find a trade partner willing to part with a player of Hayward's caliber? The answer to that question could go a long way toward establishing this club's ceiling.
They Got a Steal in Payton Pritchard
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Payton Pritchard wasn't an out-of-nowhere selection when the Celtics snatched him up with the 26th overall pick, but he also wasn't a lock to land in the opening round.
B/R's resident draft guru Jonathan Wasserman put Pritchard 31st on his final big board. The Ringer's Kevin O'Connor had him two spots lower.
But the Celtics saw something in Pritchard they liked, and he's quickly proving their intuitions were correct. He has already received the ninth-most minutes in this class, and he ranks joint-third in win shares.
His shooting touch is as smooth as advertised. It's obviously early, but he's on course to make a serious push for inclusion in the famed 50/40/90 club with an eye-opening 49.4/43.6/90.0 slash line.
"Boston hit that pick on the head and appears to have a solid, affordable backup under team control for the next four seasons," SI.com's Jeremy Woo wrote. "Even if Pritchard is never more than that, it's great value for where the Celtics got him."
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