[high floorParticipant]

Boston is going to be absolutely filthy in 2018-19.

• Kyrie is in his prime, and as he recovers from his knee issue can afford to go 80% & miss 12-15 random games with Terry Rozier showing out. Even operating at 4/5 potential, he’s still a top 3 PG in the East.
• Jaylen Brown has all defense potential, and is also a budding scorer. Having him as a 4th option is just insane.
• Jayson Tatum is already one of the most efficient wings in the game, and should significantly improve his iso game this season.
• Gordon Hayward is a legitimate all-star, and can play the 2-4. His shooting percentages should reach career high levels & once he gets his mojo back, should have a huge 2nd half.
• Al Horford is as underrated as they come, and IMO is a top 5 center. Perfect compliment to this team
• Brad Stevens is a top 3 coach
• They also have a top 3 bench rotation as well…..

They won 55 last year, and with their own internal improvement + East getting weaker + getting Gordon & Kyrie back….. I think this team is every bit as good as Houston was last year. And they won 65 in an uber-competetive West.

The Celtics are beyond scary.

[HobbyOGParticipant]

They should win..BUT I worry about chemistry..lot of really good players who want minutes. And these players are younger and talented scorers. After last season playoffs, Jaylen, Tatum, Rozier will want to keep the same role as last year or will they sacarfice to win? 

[BothTeamsPlayedHardParticipant]

The two guys who will have to sacrifice the most are Rozier and Hayward. Rozier altered the course of his career with how he played when Kyrie went down, and is going into the final year of his rookie deal. Kyrie is also going into the final year of his deal, and has made it clear he wants to see what is out there. On paper, it looks fine to think that Rozier takes the backup job this year, the team rolls with Kyrie, and then signs one or the other next summer. Everyone ends up getting paid. It looks great on paper. How it works out in reality might be another matter. The other guy is Hayward. Boston didn’t pay him thinking that Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum were what they showed themselves to be in last year’s playoffs. Plus, even if he has a full training camp, it is not clear how long it will take him to get back to where he was two years ago. These are both good problems to have, but it will be worth following.

[HitsterParticipant]

 The Celtics have only ever won 65 games or more 3 times in their history so it would be a big achivement to reach that level. But when we consider that Hayward only played a few minutes, Kyrie missed 22 games and Jaylen 12 games I can see it being possible.

High Floor doesn’t make these predictions lightly so whilst I think it may be a stretch I can see why he is saying it.

I definitely think they can win over 60 games with 65 being upper limit.

 

 

 

 

[cohenbc1Participant]

 If I had to bet I don’t think any team will win 65 … maybe not even 60. The Rockets and Warriors are the only teams I can see hitting 60, and it depends on how much they care about the regular season.

Reason is, the bottom of the league is not as horrible as it has been, especially in the East. Even bad teams like Chicago, Brooklyn, Orlando, etc. have some serious talent and will, I think, not be total pushovers for the top teams.

 

[OhCanada-Participant]

 I think the Celtics have a better chance of finishing with 65 wins then both teams but alot of things have to go right for that to happen. The West just seems too deep for a team to do it this year.

 The Warriors have shown they have very little interest in dominating the regular season and are much more concerned with resting their guys and making sure everyone is healthy going into the postseason.

Houston looks like they are built for another big season but Im interested to see how much of a loss Ariza’s defesive influence on the team will be especially with Anthony replacing him. The West has also gotten alot better with the Lakers acquiring Lebron, Rondo and vets while losing nothing, the Spurs acquiring Derozan and Poeltl while losing players that were injured most of last year and even some of the lottery bound teams are starting to round out their rosters.

I also dont think the East has gotten that much weaker then people are saying. Lebron heading out West wouldnt affect a single teams overall record by much because Boston and Cleveland dont play enough times in the season for it to matter.

 

 

 

[JDB12Participant]

 Not sure if they’ll win 65… As good as their team was last year without arguably their best player all season, along with the rise of Rozier, Brown, and Tatum towards the end of the season I feel like it might be a lot like what we expected from the Warriors when Durant joined. "How could a 73-win team not get better adding one of the best players in the world?" I know it’s not like they got worse with him, but their record wasn’t nearly as good that season. I think this is the same situation for the Celtics, how could they get any worse adding Hayward and the young talent that took that next step last season? Maybe they will win 65, but I also wouldn’t be surprised if they win 55 or so again. Chemistry will be much different this season with Hayward on the court. He’s gonna be another 15-20 shots per game, and 35+ minutes that won’t go to guys like Rozier, Brown and Tatum. Maybe they mesh perfectly and they are as good as they look on paper, but I’d expect some struggles for a bit.

[antiwork3000Participant]

I think they will regress a little. Kyrie is a ball dominant guard that’ll put up 20 to 25 shots a game. Minutes are going to be distributed fine, but guys are not going to get enough shots. At some point guys will start jacking up shots as soon as they touch it.

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