Limited Upside NBA podcast: The Celtics won the East regular season, then changed their entire team
Boston brought in 11 new players, including two all-stars. It looks awesome on paper. How will it look in real life?
The Celtics had the East’s best record last year, then promptly turned over more than two thirds of their roster. What’s left is a new superteam built around Kyrie Irving, Gordon Hayward, and Al Horford, but also one with youth waiting in the wings and a whole lot of uncertainty for how this is going to work.
To help us make sense of the madness, we brought on SBNation.com senior writer Paul Flannery and Celtics Blog contributor/CLNS Radio founder Nick Gelso to talk through the following.
- The emotions of losing Isaiah Thomas after what he did last year, combined with the cold hard reality that the trade for Irving needed to be made and IT was never going to match that success even if healthy. How is Irving warming up to Celtics fans?
- How will Irving fit in to Brad Stevens’ offense? Early returns seem promising.
- Let’s not forget about Hayward. The Celtics chose signing him over pursuing Paul George and Jimmy Butler. Can he make them justify that decision?
- Who plays alongside those two and Horford? Who plays in the backcourt? Do they have too many options, or not enough?
- What should fans expect from Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum this year? Why did the Celtics trade the No. 1 pick to get Tatum, anyway? What kind of dude is Brown, anyway?
- We circle back to Brown’s comments about it being weird that the team traded IT while talking up tradition. What did we make of those?
- RIP Nets Picks.
- What kind of person is Irving, anyway? Is there more to him than we’ve seen before, or is there actually not as much? It’s kind of weird how we’ve learned so much about him over these past three months. How much of it is authentic?
- Paul and Nick pick very different banana boats.
- We know they should be good this year, but what defines success for the Celtics? Does it even matter if they repeat last year and don’t progress?
This podcast was part of the Limited Upside podcast’s 2017-18 offseason series previewing all 30 NBA teams with members of SB Nation’s team communities and other friends of the show. We’ve spent the last two-and-a-half months gauging the temperature of every fan base heading into what should be a terrific NBA season. There’s no better way to understand what makes NBA fans in each market tick.
We began these in August and counted down worst-to-first leading up to the season. Here’s how to listen to them all:
- Nets with Kristian Winfield and Nets Daily’s Anthony Puccio
- Lakers with Zito Madu and Silver Screen and Roll’s Anthony Irwin and Harrison Faigen
- Suns with Bright Side of the Sun’s Dave King and Evan Sidery
- 76ers with Tyler Tynes and Liberty Ballers’ Kyle Neubeck
- Knicks with Kristian Winfield and Posting and Toasting’s Seth Rosenthal
- Magic with Orlando Pinstriped Post’s Zach Oliver and Cory Hutson
- Kings with Kenny Carraway and Sactown Royalty’s Tony Xypteras
- Mavs with Tim Cato and Mavs Moneyball’s Kirk Henderson
- Wolves with Canis Hooups’ Eric Goldman and John Meyer
- Pelicans with The Bird Writes’ Oleh Kosel and Travis Tate
- Hornets with James Dator and At the Hive’s Nicklaus Denning
- Pistons with John Ketchum, Kofie Yeboah and Detroit Bad Boys’ Lazarus Jackson
- Nuggets with Denver Stiffs’ Adam Mares
- Heat with Kelly Cohen and Hot Hot Hoops’ Surya Fernandez
- Bulls with Ricky O’Donnell and Blog a Bull’s Jason Patt
- Pacers with Whitney Medworth and Indy Cornrows’ Caitlin Cooper
- Blazers with Blazers Edge’s Brian Freeman and Peter Sampson
- Bucks with Kevin McCauley and Brew Hoop’s Mitchell Maurer
- Hawks with Harry Lyles Jr. and Peachtree Hoops’ Brad Rowland
- Grizzlies with Grizzly Bear Blues’ Joe Mullinax
- Thunder with Eddie Maisonet and Welcome to Loud City’s Joshua Broom
- Thunder addendum! Carmelo Anthony trade emergency pod with Eddie Maisonet
- Wizards with Sports Illustrated’s Andrew Sharp and Bullets Forever’s Michael Sykes
- Jazz with SLC Dunk’s Mychal Lowman and James Hansen.
- Raptors with Raptors HQ’s Daniel Reynolds and freelance writer Seerat Sohi
- Cavaliers with Fear the Sword’s Chris Manning and MMA Fighting’s Eric Jackman
- Clippers with Clips Nation’s Lucas Hann and former L.A. video coordinator Mo Dakhil
- Celtics with Paul Flannery and Celtics Blog’s Nick Gelso
- Rockets with The Dream Shake’s Ethan Rothstein and Jeremy Brener
- Spurs with Pounding the Rock’s J.R. Wilco and Bruno Passos
- Warriors with Golden State of Mind’s Bram Kincheloe
