State Your Case – NBA: Who is the best team in the Eastern Conference?
Daedan Olander
Wunderkind is a noun defined as “a person who achieves great success when relatively young.” The thesaurus may want to update their entry for the word and add the Boston Celtics organization as a synonym since they have three players and a coach which aptly fit this description. Terry Rozier, Jaylen Brown, and Jayson Tatum are each under 25 years old — Tatum is only 20 — all years away from their athletic primes, and all three are already stars in the NBA. They proved themselves in last year’s playoffs when they led the Celtics to the Eastern Conference Finals and took Lebron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers to seven games.
They did that without All-Stars Kyrie Irving and Gordon Hayward.
When the Celtics are healthy, they have 10 starting caliber players on their roster and are the only NBA team with a legitimate chance to send five players to the All-Star game. Not even the reigning back-to-back champion Golden State Warriors boast a roster that deep. At the helm of this high octane group is the brightest young coach in basketball, Brad Stevens, who has repeatedly brought the best out of his players. Players who thrived in Boston such as Jae Crowder, Avery Bradley, and Isaiah Thomas have all disappointed after leaving. It’s not hard to imagine a championship run as soon as next year with the bevy of talent now under Steven’s control.
The scariest part (no, its not Terry Rozier) is that a team with this ridiculous accumulation of riches could get significantly richer without sacrificing any of their young core since they have the draft capital to trade for another superstar this season.
The Celtics are the best team in the East and its not particularly close. You can choose to believe in Kawhi Leonard and the Baby Dinosaurs, or I’m-made-of-glass Joel Embiid and the 76ers, that’s your prerogative. I’ll take tried and true every time. After winning the East, the Celtics should meet Golden State in the Finals next season to challenge for league-wide supremacy. Boston’s arrived earlier than expected and with Lebron gone to LA, everyone should be very afraid.
Adam Larson
The Raptors have sort of become the “regular season” team in the East over the past few years. They have had some playoff success, but not the success that other teams in the conference have had, and not the success they have hoped to have had. The team had it’s best season in the history of the franchise, posting 59 wins and just 23 losses. It was great. Then it tanked in the playoffs against it’s kryptonite, LeBron James and the Cavaliers. Luckily for them, LeBron is no longer someone they will face until they make it to the finals.
Last year’s Raptors team finished the season second in offensive rating and sixth in defensive rating. These would be first and third in the East. The team was also known for the wonderful play it got from it’s bench unit. They return all of those key bench players, other than Jakob Poeltl, who will all be better this season because they were younger players. The Raptors also return four starters in Kyle Lowry, OG Anunoby, Serge Ibaka, and Jonas Valanciunas. The only thing this team was missing, and why they couldn’t get over the LeBron James hump, was a true superstar.
Queue Kawhi Leonard.
Toronto shipped off DeMar DeRozan and Jakob Poeltl for Leonard and Danny Green over the summer in hopes that it would take them to the top. It certainly will. The trade makes this team so much stronger than they already were, on both offense and defense. DeRozan has long been known for having defensive shortcomings. Over his career he has never posted a defensive rating under 102.4, and hasn’t been under 104 for the past three seasons. DeRozan also has only averaged one steal per game over the course of his career. Kawhi Leonard has only posted a defensive rating over 100 twice in his seven seasons, and has averaged almost two steals per game during his time in the NBA. Leonard has also won the Defensive Player of the Year award twice and been on the All-Defensive First Team three times.
DeRozan’s offensive skills were very good, but Leonard also is an improvement in that category as well. DeRozan has shot around 45 percent from the field during his career, and just 29 percent from the 3-point line where Leonard has shot almost 50 percent from the field and 39 percent from the 3-point line. Leonard also averages two more rebounds per game than DeRozan and just one assist per game less than him. He is just a much better player overall, and that is what the Raptors needed to get better.
There is no arguing that Toronto did not get better this offseason. If the best team in the conference last season got even better, then how will they not be the best team in the conference again this season?