Joe Mazzulla says that just because the Celtics won a title, it doesn’t change how they go into the 2024-25 season
Winning an NBA championship was supposed to silence the doubters, but it has instead fueled them.
The Celtics may be favored to repeat, but that doesn't mean they were treated to a coronation. Quite the contrary, July and August brought incoming flak from virtually every direction, some of it highly public (insert Olympic theme music), some heavily implied (insert Knicks theme music).
With the opener less than two weeks away, Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown and Co. should have no shortage of motivation. Let's run through the 10 people/opponents/destinations that should carry just a little extra juice.
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1. Steve Kerr
First matchup: Nov. 6 at 7:30 p.m. ET on NBC Sports Boston
This has only a little to do with the new-look Warriors and everything to do with their coach. He resided at the center of all controversies Celtics, first for his part in leaving Brown off the Team USA roster not once but twice, and then for benching Tatum for reasons that even he couldn't explain, except to say he's an idiot.
Kerr's Warriors should prepare to reap the whirlwind. While the Celtics remain firmly in their collective prime, the Warriors are a team in transition. The incomparable Steph Curry turns 37 in March and is entering his 16th season. Klay Thompson is gone, Draymond Green is diminished, and the Dubs will probably be a play-in team at best.
Remember last season's 52-point beatdown in Boston? That was nothing.
2. Kendrick Perkins' house
Perk lives in Texas, right? When the Celtics visit Houston, Brown should detour the team bus and recreate his viral drive-by dunk of 2017, even if it means stealing the ball from one of the former Celtics big man's children and shattering his backboard.
Extreme? I mean, have you heard Perk? Even those of us who make a living manning the hot-take hibachi think he's losing it. Joe Mazzulla is a birdbrain? No one fears the Celtics? He's sick of Jayson Tatum?
While it's easy to dismiss the heated rhetoric as Perkins giving ESPN what it wants, it's also true that he renders his opinions pretty convincingly. Maybe he actually means every word.
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3. New York Knicks
First matchup: Oct. 22 at 7:30 p.m. ET
New York seems to be the one team in the East clearly intent on countering what the Celtics do best.
Undersized superstar Jalen Brunson is fearless and tough as nails, but he can't beat Boston alone. So New York added Mikal Bridges, one of the more accomplished Tatum-stoppers in the league, and then traded ball-dominant power forward Julius Randle to the Wolves for a better offensive fit in Karl Anthony-Towns.
Whether this is enough to take down the C's is debatable -- Mazzulla will surely torture KAT on the perimeter -- but that hasn't stopped the punditocracy from declaring New York the biggest threat in the East. The Celtics will get a chance to silence that talk immediately, since the teams open the season in Boston on Oct. 22.
4. Anthony Edwards
First matchup: Nov. 24 at 3:30 p.m. ET on NBC Sports Boston
Edwards talks like he's Michael Jordan, and while his bravado is strangely endearing, it's also not yet supported by team success. He only won his first playoff series this year.
His most recently revealed trash talk, from a just-dropped Netflix documentary, is sure to light a fire under Tatum, if Edwards' starring role on Team USA didn't already.
After the Wolves beat the Celtics in overtime in Minnesota last year, Edwards was captured on camera boasting how he had locked down Tatum defensively. He then discussed what makes him different. "You've just got have it or you don't," Edwards said. "And I've pretty much got it."
Oh, yeah? Perhaps the Celtics will have something to say about that. As it is, when the two met in Boston for the rematch, Tatum dropped 45.
5. Jimmy Butler
First matchup: Dec. 2 at 7:30 p.m. ET on NBC Sports Boston
The narrative that the Celtics didn't beat anyone en route to a title started in Miami, where Butler missed the first-round series and then declared that the result -- Boston in 5 -- would've been different if he had played. That comment earned a rare STFU from Heat president Pat Riley.
Assuming Butler is healthy, the Celtics should have little problem finding the motivation to put their long-time tormentor in his place.
6. Mavericks
First matchup: Jan. 25 at 8:30 p.m. ET
It's incredible how many "If you could start a team with one player today?" questions start with Luka Doncic. Did anyone watch the Finals?
The Celtics abused Doncic on defense from the opening minutes of Game 1 and never relented. Last I checked, there are two ends of the floor, and Tatum is the superstar who brings it on both of them. So does Brown.
Dallas will be hyped for this one, because losing in the Finals hurts. Not being able to do anything about it will just irritate the wound.
7. Nuggets
First matchup: Jan. 7 at 10 p.m. ET on NBC Sports Boston
Of all the asterisks attached to last year's title, "You didn't have to go through Denver," might be the most annoying.
It's not Boston's fault the Nuggets couldn't close out the Timberwolves after opening a 3-2 lead. And it's such a lazy counterfactual to declare Denver would've repeated when in fact the Nuggets were a flawed two-man team by the postseason, and not even the great Nikola Jokić alongside running mate Jamal Murray could lift them.
Beyond that, if we're going to criticize the Celtics' path to a championship, we should probably acknowledge Denver's a year earlier: three play-in teams, plus the perpetually underachieving Suns. Speaking of which...
8. Devin Booker
First matchup: March 26 at 10 p.m. ET on NBC Sports Boston
New owner Matt Ishbia tried to buy a title by jamming Kevin Durant, Bradley Beal, and Booker together on a hastily conceived super team, and the result was a first-round sweep at the hands of the Wolves.
Phoenix may very well be dismantled at some point this season in an acknowledgment of failure, but let's hope that doesn't happen before the C's get a crack at them.
This one is mainly about the Olympics, where Booker and Durant played starring roles while Tatum languished on the bench and Brown traveled the world. Booker is a nice individual talent and a gifted scorer, but his teams have regressed over the last four years, from a 2021 Finals berth to last year's early ouster.
There's also the fact that Booker made an All-NBA team over Brown, who went on to become a two-time postseason MVP. Devin Booker over Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown? Please.
9. Clippers
First matchup: Nov. 25 at 7:30 p.m. ET on NBC Sports Boston
The Brown Olympics fiasco could've been avoided if Team USA had just done the sensible thing and given him the roster spot that originally went to Kawhi Leonard, a broken-down superstar who predictably bowed out before the Games even began.
There were a whole bunch of players on that roster Brown could reasonably claim to surpass, but the one with the game most similar to his might be Leonard, a three-level scorer on one end and a lockdown defender on the other.
What better way to pass the torch than simply to take it?
10. LeBron James
First matchup: Jan. 23 at 10 p.m. ET
Do it for our guys Drew and Scal! James did not care for their commentary defending Russell Westbrook during the Abu Dhabi series with Denver, and he voiced his displeasure on the site formerly known as Twitter.
Scal took the heat for that one, and now the C's should have his back!
