The Boston Celtics are in a class of their own in the Eastern Conference
The Toronto Raptors added one of the best players in
the NBA by adding Kawhi Leonard. The Washington Wizards got more interesting by
adding Dwight Howard and the Philadelphia 76ers will return an extremely
promising roster with two of the best young players in the NBA. However, none
of them belong in the same sentence as the Boston Celtics and it really isn’t that
close.
I understand the fact that the Raptors won 59 games
last year and then added Kawhi, but there will be an adjustment period by
switching superstars and having a new head coach at the helm. People forget how
much a head coach impacts the game and it will be intriguing to see how Leonard
fits into a team that isn’t coached by one of the best coaches of all time with
a completely new offense around him.
The Indiana Pacers are a pesky team that brought the
Cleveland Cavaliers to the brink of elimination, but the Celtics will be
returning two all stars on top of a team that could have beaten them last year.
This will be simply too much for them to handle. The Wizards adding Dwight
Howard will make them stronger on defense and give John Wall a new weapon, but
they don’t have the firepower to match up with the Celtics either.
Finally, we have the 76ers. A team that the media has
loved to label as an Eastern Conference favorite. Yet, regardless of what Skip
Bayless has to say about them, this team is wildly overhyped. Philadelphia will
not be in the same class as Boston this year and it may be completely lopsided
when its all said and done. There is little indication to believe that
they have enough firepower to compete with this team. Last year they played
them head to head in the playoffs and were missing quite possibly their two
best players. They won that series 4-1. How does adding those two guys make
this matchup more competitive by any stretch of the imagination?
The 76ers have two of the most talented young players
in the NBA in Joel Embiid and Ben Simmons but it simply isn’t enough. The Celtics will have two of the most
promising prospects in the NBA in Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum to go along
with veteran all-stars Kyrie Irving, Gordon Hayward and AL Horford all in the
same stating lineup. There are plenty of talented and promising teams in the
Eastern Conference, but the fact remains that none of them are on the same
planet as these Celtics are. The combination of youth, talent, leadership and
the best young coach in basketball will prove to be too much for any other
team. This of course will be barring any major injuries as we all learned last year.
Photo-- Elise Amendola/AP