During his appearance on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon last week, Boston Celtics superstar Jayson Tatum offered a prediction for the 2025 NBA Finals, suggesting that Boston and Dallas will meet again on the championship stage.
So, for the 14th and final installment of our Ramp to Camp series, we asked our NBC Sports Boston panel to channel their inner Tatum and offer a prediction for a potential 2025 Finals matchup. We also asked them to detail how the Celtics season ends and how we'll reflect on the 2024-25 campaign as a whole.
(Check out our full Ramp to Camp series here.)
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Maybe we’re still dizzy from all the Green Kool-Aid from last season, but it’s really hard to see these Celtics fading back to the pack. Yes, injuries are the ultimate wild card and the health of Kristaps Porzingis will remain a perpetual storyline. A midseason ownership change could add a layer of complexity, too.
But it feels like it will take multiple bumps in the road to derail the Celtics Express. This team has become elite at blocking out the noise -- or turning negative energy into a positive. We’re slotting them right back in the Finals and predicting a season that starts with two preseason games against the Nuggets in Abu Dhabi will end with a much more high-stakes series between those same two teams in June.
The Nuggets were pretty much the only team that had Boston’s number last season -- even if both games were competitive -- and it seems only fitting that the Celtics' title repeat goes through another proven champion.
What happens after that is anyone’s guess, particularly given the financial hurdles that will exist and a potential new owner at the helm. But the NBA’s first repeat champion of the past half-decade will generate some dynasty chatter, particularly with Boston able to keep its core intact for the 2025-26 season, so long as it’s willing to pay the ransom to do so.
We’ll admit it feels a little weird to be so bullish on Boston’s chances. Winning one title is hard, and sometimes it feels like winning two in the modern NBA is impossible.
But in a league where every team has at least a few question marks, the Celtics feel like the most known commodity. The rest of the East has to prove its has closed the gap. The Celtics were so dominant at the finish line of claiming Banner 18 that we struggle to find reasons they can’t stay on the mountaintop.
It won’t be easy, but the Celtics often made it look that way last season. Winning one title ensured this team will be remembered fondly in these parts; winning another could slot them in rarified air among modern NBA teams.
History is there if they want it.
Here’s what our panel sees in their crystal balls:
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John Tomase, Columnist
No way the Mavs get anywhere near the Finals again. Luka and Kyrie are too limited defensively, and too unreliable emotionally. Let's go with the 2025 Thunder playing like the 2012 Thunder and riding a young cast to their first Finals.
The Durant-Westbrook-Harden Thunder fell to the defending finalists in Miami, and today's SGA-Jalen Williams-Holmgren edition will meet a similar fate against the reigning champs, who go back-to-back for Banner 19.
Tom Giles, Multi-platform host
I have a hard time picking against Denver. I don't know if OKC is ready and I can't see the Mavs putting together another run. And Minnesota has to figure out Rudy Gobert in the playoffs.
So let’s go with the Nuggets losing in six to the back-to-back champs.
Darren Hartwell, Managing Editor
We haven't seen a repeat NBA champion since 2018 -- but we haven't seen many coaches like Joe Mazzulla. Mazzulla helps a determined Celtics team stay on course to return to the NBA Finals, where they face Anthony Edwards and the Timberwolves in a seven-game slugfest.
Jaylen Brown hits a game-winner over his fellow Georgia native in Game 7, as Boston succeeds where the 2008 champs fell short by winning another title with a star-studded core. Let the "dynasty" talk begin.
Nick Goss, Web Producer
The Celtics repeat as champs, including an Eastern Conference Finals win over the New York Knicks and an NBA Finals triumph over the Denver Nuggets.
The matchup we thought we'd see in the Finals in 2024 actually happens in 2025. And as a result of repeating, the Celtics' core joins a historic group of Boston sports legends that won multiple titles.
Justin Leger, Web Producer
I'm taking Denver to come out of the West, this time with the Celtics proving they can handle Nikola Jokic and Co. in a seven-game series. It'll be a much more competitive Finals this time around and it'll require a Game 7, but Boston gets the job done again at TD Garden.
We'll reflect on the season as another dominant run and possibly the start of a dynasty, but we'll quickly be brought back down to earth with questions about how Brad Stevens will manage their complicated financial situation -- unless someone like Jeff Bezos arrives to save the day, of course.
Kevin Miller, VP, Content
I don't think the Mavs make the West finals. I'm all in on the Thunder for this season coming out of the West. The Celtics will make their third Finals in four years and go back-to-back as champs.
They may not have a three-peat in them, but the desire to be the first Celtics team to go back-to-back since the 1970s is important. Mazzulla will have them focused and their depth and playmaking will ultimately be the difference.