The Day After May 27, 2018
The road here was not easy, but the Boston Celtics we came to love in 2018 found their way to the NBA Finals... sort of
This is the moment Celtics fans have been waiting for since May 27, 2018.
As the team booked a trip to the NBA Finals on Sunday, it was the culmination of nearly a decade of work, but more specifically what seemed like the beginning of something special found by accident in 2018.
Not a complete accident… when you draft Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum, you expect good things. When you sign Al Horford, you expect good things… but you also expected Kyrie Irving and Gordon Hayward. The plan was not for the Jays, Horford, Terry Rozier and Marcus Smart to nearly carry you to the NBA Finals in 2018.
Yet they almost did.
Beating LeBron James in the postseason is a hard task. Every team that has done so since 2007 in the years a James-led team did NOT reach the Finals went on to reach the Finals. Then add in the years he made the Finals and a team had to beat him to win a title… the league has gone through LeBron for a long time.
The 2018 Celtics did not pass that test, but it was okay. You were there with a 20-year-old Jayson Tatum, 21-year-old Jaylen Brown, 24-year old Terry Rozier and 24-year old Marcus Smart. You’re not supposed to make the Finals when your top two postseason scorers are under the age of 22.
This team played the entire season without Gordon Hayward (minus 5 minutes on opening night)… but losing Kyrie Irving in March, that was supposed to be a death sentence. They were 46-21 the night after Kyrie’s last game of the season on March 11, 2018… 3.5 games back of the first seed Toronto Raptors… they had the 4th best record in the NBA.
Still, the group rallied and went on an improbable playoff run.
Surely the next few years would be glorious… not exactly.
Turbulent… that’s the best way to describe it.
From a disastrous season in 2019 filled with drama, leading to the departures of Kyrie Irving and Al Horford, to Kemba Walker coming to Boston and saving the day before a disappointing ECF loss in 2020 (still a great achievement we made it), to a season full of dismay, injuries and sickness in 2021, the trajectory of the organization did not shoot to the moon as many thought it would after May 27, 2018.
June 2, 2021.
There’s been a lot of stunning days the past decade for Celtics fans, but I’d argue the day it was announced Danny Ainge was leaving the Celtics as president of basketball operations and head coach Brad Stevens was replacing him, and therefore stepping down as head coach, is right up there with all of them. No one saw THAT coming.
Stevens would be tasked with finding his replacement at head coach and building around the Jays. Enter Ime Udoka. Welcome back Al Horford (thanks for the memories, Kemba Walker). Among many other moves, those two would be paramount to the upcoming season.
As the season began, 4 of the 5 primary starters (the Jays, Horford and Smart) were the only holdovers left from May 27, 2018. The 5th person to join them in the primary starting lineup was 2018 first round pick Robert Williams.
The first 3-4 months of the season seemed a lot similar to 2021. It sucked, people said to split the Jays up… but once everyone was healthy and consistency formed, suddenly this group looked like a contender (read more about that here).
The Celtics stormed to a 51-31 record to finish the season, good for second in the East.
Their prize? Face Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving in the first round.
What would become step 1 of a revenge tour, the Celtics swept the Brooklyn Nets in 4 close games. Kevin Durant had one of his worst series in years, while Kyrie Irving disappeared after Game 1. Step 2 was facing the defending champs and 2x MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo. The Celtics were down 1-0, 2-1 and 3-2 in the series, but won games 6 and 7 to move on to the ECF… facing the Miami Heat, just like 2020 (step 3).
In another grueling 7-game series, the Celtics outlasted Miami, finally kicking through the door they had first knocked on those days in May 2018.
As turbulent as 2019 through 2021 was, it became clear those years that Jayson Tatum was a superstar. It became clear Jaylen Brown was no slouch either, a formidable player in this league. Marcus Smart was always a world class defender, but his role on offense seemed unclear… after years of IT, Kyrie, Rozier and Kemba at PG, it turns out Smart was the answer all along for this group.
As the team ultimately built around the Jays (which may not have been their first choice leading up to the 2017-2018 season… or even after May 27, 2018), it amazes me how many of the solutions derived from homegrown talent.
2014 first round pick Marcus Smart; 2018 first round pick Robert Williams; 2019 first round pick Grant Williams; 2020 first round pick Payton Pritchard. Al Horford may not have been drafted by Boston, but clearly he fit with this core as well as any group he’d ever been part of. His two seasons away from Boston were not fun, and it was fair to wonder if his days were numbered after 2021. Instead, he returned home to Boston and became a vital piece to this group. Oh, and lets not forget Daniel Theis found his way back home too.
Maybe Danny Ainge knew what he was doing keeping those first round picks after all.
The only major piece of the supporting cast that was not drafted by, started their career with, nor a previous piece of the core of Boston in some capacity in the Ainge/Stevens Era, was Derrick White.
White became a polarizing figure of sorts in these parts for some less-than-ideal shooting performances, but he fits… he fits this group like a glove. Not to bash Scary Terry, especially considering how young he was way back in 2018, but every fault he had, White does not. White is not a possession-stopper, nor a liability on defense. He is quick with his actions on offense, gets downhill, and allows the ball to move and flow to sustain. He is a major asset on defense, adding to a group that thrives on that end with multiple plus defenders forming arguably a historic unit on that end.
He was not a complete novice to the status quo, as Ime Udoka was his assistant coach his first two seasons in the NBA, while lead assistant Will Hardy was with him in San Antonio through the end of last season.
I said at the end of March it finally felt like this was the start of something. It finally felt like, when we least expected it, the foundation we dreamed of had formed around the pillars of this team. We expected many happy days after May 27, 2018, but sometimes good things in life take time… many good things in life are not easy to come by.
Four long years later, the Celtics are finally in the NBA Finals.
A moment that seemed impossible to think of at times, Celtics fans now get to watch as… a 24-year-old Jayson Tatum, 25-year-old Jaylen Brown and 28-year-old Marcus Smart - the three who have been here every step of the way the past 5 seasons - make their NBA Finals debuts.
My advice? Don’t look too far ahead just yet. Enjoy the moment, whatever it might bring, but remember how special it has been for those three - plus Horford - to make it here. Don’t forget how much changed after May 27, 2018… and don't forget what a difference a year makes, as Thursday, June 2 - Game 1 of the NBA Finals - is the one year anniversary of Danny Ainge’s departure and Brad Stevens’s role change.
The ride isn’t stopping yet.