Boston Celtics: 5 takeaways from the 2018-19 NBA season
By Joe Hagen
The Boston Celtics season came into the 2018-19 campaign with championship aspirations and Bill Simmons promising 60-plus wins. They left with a disappointing second round exit. Here’s what we learned about the team after a tough year.
While the Boston Celtics are objectively in a good place, it’s not exactly where fans and basketball pundits projected them to be.
They were supposed to be a super-team in 2018-19, competing directly with the Golden State Warriors in the NBA Finals, but found themselves in a late-season battle just for home-court advantage in the first round of the playoffs and succumbed to an early knockout.
They still have extremely talented young players in Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown. They still have a good shot at retaining superstar Kyrie Irving. They have great role players like Al Horford and Marcus Smart, but something just did not click for Boston this season.
After a sub-50 win season, confidence in the Celtics’ championship dreams has slipped quite a bit. With the front office left to pick up the pieces, there are a lot of moving parts with potential trades, free agency and the draft to put into place for Boston’s future.
Here’s what we’ve learned from the team’s chaotic season.