2017-18 Finish: 51-31 (4th seed)

Season Highlight:

Pushing the eventual champions to a hard fought out six game series. Apart from the game six blow out where Cleveland really put their foot down and asserted their authority the series was back and fourth and a true display of the modern day game with elite play on both ends. I would imagine It’s probably not a “highlight” in the books of some Celtic faithful but considering that the Cavs just walked straight into the finals and steam rolled the defending champs in the Spurs many considered the ECF as the true big dance. 

Season Lowlight:

Hard to be critical of a team banging out another 50+ win season and nabbing a fourth seed for yet another deep play off run. I guess the eventual disappointment of losing in the ECF stings enough but I’m sure the GM would like a couple trades back if he could turn back time but yet again thats just the rise and fall of the “traders life”. 

Best Trade:

The Boston Celtics send Andre Iguodala and Daniel Theis to the Golden State Warriors.

The Golden State Warriors send Al-Farouq Aminu, Lucas Nogueira, Paul Zipser and 2019 First rounder (GS) to the Boston Celtics.

Wow… Just wow. This one still blows my mind, to get off Iggy’s contract that gets worse by the day and pick up youth and a projected lottery pick is just nuts. I almost feel violated just looking at this trade. 

Worst Trade:

The Boston Celtics send Jose Calderon, Kyle Lowry and Al-Farouq Aminu to the Sacramento Kings. 

The Sacramento Kings send Carmelo Anthony, Darren Collison and Mike James to the Boston Celtics. 

The Celtics made 21 trades last season and ultimately I fell on this transaction as the “worst” and that’s really only possible for me to label it as such when I’m picking it apart months later. I tried really hard to find another that stood out as being heavily favoured against the Celtics but it just speaks to their front offices ability to build an elite squad through trading when we’re looking at this trade specifically. 

The trade made sense for both teams at the time and both Carmelo and Collison played handy roles in their limited time for the Celtics. Without Carmelo being the centrepiece of a trade later on that would see the Celtics pick up Milsap it would never of eventuated. The fact that Jose and Aminu got moved on for Ingles by the Kings and James being cut a week later in hindsight is what makes it not AS strong as some of the other deals they made. 

Other Notable Trades:

Pull up a chair… We’re going to be here for a while. 

The Bostons Celtics send 2020 First rounder (Bos) to the Bucks. 

The Milwaukee Bucks send Skal Labissiere to the Boston Celtics. 

Solid get for a late first but it’s what Boston do after this trade in true Celtic fashion flipping the asset for a bevy of picks to Golden state which makes this notable. 

The Boston Celtics send Dwight Powell to the Indiana Pacers and Carmelo Anthony to the Phoenix Suns.

The Phoenix Suns send Marcus Georges-Hunt to the Boston Celtics.

The Dallas Mavericks send Paul Milsap to the Boston Celtics.

Boston had their hand in the biggest deal of the year with a total of 6 teams involved, there was a lot left out of this for obvious reasons but this is Celtics part of it. They get good value for the pieces sent out and Milsap was a perfect fit for them on both ends heading into another deep play off run. It just made a lot of sense and the friendly team option on Milsaps contract is a bonus. 

The Boston Celtics send Derrick Favors, Avery Bradley and Lucas Nogueira to the Miami Heat. 

The Miami Heat send Devin Harris, Channing Frye, Dwight Powell and Kyle Kuzma to the Boston Celtics. 

The Miami Heat send a 2nd Rounder (Sac) to the Boston Celtics. 

Some key pieces here that will be used in future deals to come but apart from that the Celtics made a savvy move to shed a little salary, drop all the FA risk and pick up a nice young up and coming star in Kuzma. 

The Boston Celtics send Brook Lopez to the Philadelphia 76ers. 

The Philadelphia 76ers send Richard Jefferson and Avery Bradley to the Boston Celtics. 

The Toronto Raptors send a 2nd Rounder (Den) and 2nd Rounder (Tor) to the Boston Celtics. 

A few other little pieces left out here but this is the guts of the deal. Boston get off some major salary and move along Lopez on an expiring deal who was underperforming all year and just not contributing in the way the front office needed. As mentioned above Avery was a big reason for Bostons ability to pull off the deal involving Kuzma and along the way pick up a handful of handy future picks. 

Free Agency:

The Celtics have four guys on the books at the moment and this off season will be largely centred around retaining KD and Evans. KD should be a lock as he has been quite vocal about his loyalty to Boston but hopefully the faith shown by the organisation in Evans game is enough to have him stick around. 

Outside of that the Celtics will have a lot of work in front of them to round out their roster because even if O’Quinn and Beverly are still around they will need to fill 5-7 roster spots. Boston wont have any problems persuading players to join the ranks but it will be a testing period to say the least. 

Star:

Obviously KD is the reason they sell out every night. He didn’t get much MVP love as he should’ve though, probably could be argued that this year he did take a step down defensively but only because he wasn’t expected to do every single thing on the court while alongside a more competent supporting cast. He transitioned back into a more small forward role which is suited to him as the Celts went away from the small ball line ups they ran out a lot last year. 

Goat:

Hard to pin point as any guy not pulling their weight during the season was shipped out pretty quickly. Perhaps Brook Lopez gets the nod here… He was touted to be part of the Celtics “Big Three” including Lowry and Durant but the Celtics quickly shifted focus and went another direction. Of the three teams he played for this season the Celtics was where he really underperformed and seemed to be more of a negative then anything else. 

Draft Grades:

The Celtics played no part in the draft this year which is pretty typical as we’ve touched on multiple times their preference is to build through trading and free agency. 

The Future:

KD is still well in his prime and shows no sign of slowing so the “future” is now. The Celtics will continue to build around him but with Kuzma and their heist of the Dubs 2019 first round pick they seem to have all bases covered. It would be crazy to see the Celtics follow up with another strong season and have them picking up a blue chip prospect as well come draft time.