Boston Celtics
“We’re different groups — we really feel like we’re simply as gifted or we might beat them.”
The 2025-26 Celtics nonetheless have a strong core in place headlined the presence of established gamers like Jaylen Brown, Derrick White, and Payton Pritchard.
Championship expectations aren’t precisely in place for roster that was stripped down over the previous few months because of damage and cap-related measures.
However, even with Jayson Tatum sidelined with a ruptured Achilles tendon and Boston shedding (or dealing away) the likes of Kristaps Porzingis, Jrue Vacation, Al Horford, and Luke Kornet, Brown believes this reworked roster nonetheless has the means to make some noise this winter.
“We simply gotta keep the course,” Brown stated Monday on the Auerbach Middle. “We received sufficient. We’re different groups — we really feel like we’re simply as gifted or we might beat them. An important factor is just not hanging your head after some errors or hanging your head after a loss. We simply gotta transfer ahead.”
Boston ought to have sufficient expertise to at the least stay the playoff image within the Jap Convention — particularly if gamers like Brown and Pritchard step up in elevated roles.
However Boston nonetheless does have some evident flaws in place on this roster, particularly with regards to depleted entrance courtroom trudging forward with out a number of stalwarts in place.
Specifically, rebounding has been some extent of consternation for Joe Mazzulla throughout preseason motion — with Boston now longer having the luxurious of getting large our bodies like Tatum, Porzingis, Horford, and others in place down low.
As noted by NBC Sports Boston’s Chris Forsberg, Boston’s 64.3 p.c defensive rebound fee this preseason would have been 3.5 p.c worse than last-place Philadelphia for the whole lot of the 2024-25 season.
However, Brown believes that a few of the anticipated rising pains drawn from this season ought to profit a reworked roster and a number of other new faces — with Brown himself able to step into a brand new position as Boston’s de-facto scorer and chief on the courtroom with Tatum sidelined.
“I come to work each day making an attempt to share my experiences, my basketball information,” Brown stated. “And likewise fascinated about how I can carry essentially the most out of all people round me and my teammates. The best way to make them higher in addition to making an attempt to carry out at my highest degree. It’s a stability.
“I’ve the instruments to do it. I believe I’ve been in sufficient roles all through my years to have a superb really feel for the whole lot. I’m embracing it; I’m having fun with it.”
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