The Celtics need offseason change, maybe even Giannis

I’ve obtained a prediction for you, Celtics followers, pecked out with the utmost confidence:

Brad Stevens goes to summon all the pieces inside his appreciable energy and team-building creativeness to make a giant transfer this offseason.

Possibly even one thing Giannis-sized.

And he ought to, except the franchise’s mission assertion has instantly been revised in spite of everything these a long time. The Celtics’ objective is — say it with me — to win championships.

This is able to not have been Invoice Russell’s, or Larry Fowl’s, or Kevin Garnett’s favourite season, as a result of somebody apart from the Boston Celtics shall be standing triumphant within the hurricane of confetti when it’s over.

A captivating underdog makes for an honest interlude every so often. However banners fly without end, and champs reside on lengthy after the gamers that made it occur go their separate methods.

We nonetheless agree on this, proper? It’s clear Stevens does. His postmortem press availability almost two weeks in the past after the Celtics’ season ended with a first-round loss to the 76ers may need been essentially the most candid the president of basketball operations has been since shifting to that function in June 2021.

There have been a number of notable moments, none extra so than his unsolicited point out of the Celtics’ 3-11 file this season towards groups that earned top-three seeds within the two conferences.

That was a blunt confession that this staff just isn’t adequate as at the moment constructed. The Celtics, for some causes past their management and others nicely inside it, have gone backward since gathering that 18th banner two years in the past. Final yr, the Knicks ruthlessly bounced them within the second spherical. This yr, a flawed 76ers staff despatched them away for the summer time with out profitable a single playoff collection.

So ask your self this: How does Stevens make the Celtics a championship contender once more whereas Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown are of their primes?

As Celtics followers discovered with the breakup of the 2024 champs after important two seasons as a unit, the punitive present collective bargaining settlement slams that window shut on costly veteran groups in a rush.

Stevens has some choices to enhance the staff across the margins, and even perhaps extra considerably than that, together with a $27.7 million commerce exception.

However even the interesting names that could be attainable, comparable to Knicks shot-swatter Mitchell Robinson, most likely wouldn’t make the Celtics the Japanese Convention favourite subsequent season, not to mention a staff that may have a snowball’s probability in Texas of beating, presumably, the loaded Spurs or Thunder within the Finals.

This isn’t an add-a-few-pieces-and-run-it-back scenario. A giant swing is important.

I wasn’t satisfied two weeks in the past, however I’m now:

That swing must be for Giannis Antetokounmpo.

Buying and selling for the Bucks’ two-time MVP and one-time champ carries immense threat. He shall be 32 in December. He’s endured 4 calf accidents in a yr and a half. He’s been one thing of a drama king lately. After which there’s the deal-breaker for a big phase of Celtics followers: Buying him would virtually actually imply parting with Brown, the 2024 Finals MVP, the sixth-place finisher in the MVP race this yr, and somebody who has an appreciation of what it means to be a Celtic.

However taking all sentiment out of it — which is Stevens’s job, and one he has executed stealthy and fearlessly, comparable to when he traded Marcus Sensible — it’s the suitable transfer.

When making trades within the NBA, it’s near crucial to be the staff getting again the very best participant.

How usually has Brown been pretty much as good or higher than Antetokounmpo through the nine-year overlap of their careers? You would argue this season, however that’s largely as a result of Brown was extra sturdy, taking part in 71 video games to Antetokounmpo’s 36. Brown averaged extra factors per sport (28.7 to 27.6), however Antetokounmpo had him beat in rebounds, assists, and blocks per sport, and turned it over at a barely lesser clip.

In each different season, Antetokounmpo was, undeniably, in a extra elite tier of participant than Brown.

Will that be the case going ahead? I imagine so, and I imagine the Celtics do too, primarily based on widespread sense and among the latest reporting on their previous and present curiosity. He seems to be in first rate form.

He was some of the earnest gamers round earlier than the latest drama. The Celtics should do their due diligence on what he’s like as a teammate, or Jrue diligence, so to talk.

He’s roughly three months older than Kevin Garnett was when the Celtics acquired him in the summertime of 2007. When you’ve by some means forgotten how that season performed out, look towards the rafters on the Backyard.

Sometime, in fact, Brown’s No. 7 will fly in those self same rafters. He’s a true Celtic, his place in franchise lore already safe.

However when you don’t imagine he desires the on-court dynamic to vary between him and Tatum going ahead, it’s since you don’t wish to hear it. This may be the time to offer him his personal staff. Simply not this one.

There’s an overriding reality concerning the Celtics, isn’t there? The mission is championships, even when it means sending a beloved Celtic elsewhere.

Antetokounmpo — a superior participant who fills an assortment of Stevens-cited wants — would, in tandem with Tatum, supply a greater shot at Banner 19.

And banners, not numbers, are the rationale we glance up.

Chad Finn

Sports activities columnist

Chad Finn is a sports activities columnist for Boston.com. He has been voted Favourite Sports activities Author in Boston within the annual Channel Media Market and Analysis Ballot for the previous 4 years. He additionally writes a weekly sports activities media column for the Globe and contributes to Globe Journal.