Boston Celtics president of basketball operations Brad Stevens had a successful start to his second career.
After building an Eastern Conference champion in year one, Stevens got to work this offseason, signing forward Danilo Gallinari and trading for guard Malcolm Brogdon to sure up their rotation in the hunt for Banner 18 -- moves in which he received high grades.
An underrated part of the Celtics offseason is the fact they improved while keeping their starting lineup together. Marcus Smart, Jaylen Brown, Jayson Tatum, Al Horford and Robert Williams III were the league's best lineup in 2021, finishing with a plus-24.3 net rating.
When taking a look at the best starting lineup in the NBA, Bleacher Report's Grant Hughes chose Boston as the league's second best.
This group does most of its damage on defense, holding opponents to 94.8 points per 100 possessions last season, good enough to rank in the 96th percentile among all lineups. With DPOY Smart at the point of attack, switchable wings in Tatum and Brown and mobile bigs in Horford and Williams, Boston has all its bases covered. It doesn't matter that the Celtics' starting five only scored at a rate that ranked in the 71st percentile during 2021-22; it had enough stopping power on the other end to produce blowouts on a nightly basis.
Projecting ahead, Brown and Tatum are still young enough to make incremental improvements on both ends that should offset slippage from Horford as he enters his age-36 season. And if the veteran big man suffers a steeper decline, the Celtics can just slot in Grant Williams instead.
Lineups including Williams in Horford's spot last season were shockingly even better, hammering opponents by 33.3 points per 100 possessions.
Boston -- understandably -- slotted behind the Golden State Warriors, who they lost to in the 2022 NBA Finals. That, however, hasn't stopped most sportsbooks from choosing the Celtics as the favorites to take home the 2023 crown.
