The Celtics could have the East’s top seed AND the 1st overall pick

The New England Patriots winning Super Bowl LI reminded us of something most of us knew and keep trying our best to repress: Boston has been the best place for sports teams since 2000 began.

The win is the Patriots’ fifth Super Bowl victory since 2001. The Red Sox won three times since 2004, the Celtics once in 2008, and the Bruins took the Stanley Cup championship in 2011.

Next season, the Patriots will be defending champions, the Red Sox enter the year ranked No. 2 in ESPN’s way-too-early power rankings, and the Bruins are at least a decent team in the NHL’s Eastern Conference. And then there’s the Celtics.

The Celtics are currently the Eastern Conference’s second best team, trailing the Cleveland Cavaliers by two games for the first seed. The Cavaliers have struggled of late, but we’re all expecting them to ultimately hang onto that top seed. Still, two games is clearly within reach with a little more than 30 games left in the season for most teams.

Boston also owns the rights to swap first-round picks with the Brooklyn Nets. Rest assured, they will swap picks with the Nets, who are far and away the worst team in the league this year. As of Monday, Brooklyn has nine wins, while the next-worst team (the Phoenix Suns) boast 16. It’s almost guaranteed they’ll have the best odds in the lottery at the top overall pick, although remember that’s only a 25 percent chance. The Celtics also own Brooklyn’s pick next season without any conditions.

For now, I assume Boston fans will be gloating about the Patriots for weeks. (If I were a Boston fan, I’m sure I would be insufferable, too.) But after the buzz winds down from Tom Brady’s record-setting fifth championship, they can seamlessly switch to bragging about the Celtics, and nobody can say anything.

Yes. Unless the Celtics somehow win the championship and Brooklyn wins the lottery, they won’t top the 1982 Lakers. That season, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Magic Johnson led the Lakers to a championship against the Philadelphia 76ers while owning Cleveland’s pick, which ended up being the first overall selection. They selected James Worthy and went to six of the next seven NBA Finals, winning three of them.

The Celtics themselves also had a nearly identical situation a few years later: In 1984, Boston traded Gerald Henderson Sr. for Seattle’s 1986 draft pick, which ended up being the second overall selection. Sadly, they infamously picked Len Bias, who died of a cocaine overdose two days after the draft.

That’s the only time a championship team has ever picked first or second overall in the NBA, but there are other examples of good teams benefiting from high draft picks.

Famously, David Robinson was injured for most of the 1996-97 season, causing the Spurs’ playoff roster to fall into the lottery. Of course they won it, taking the top pick and selecting Tim Duncan in a franchise-altering move.

The Mavericks drafted in the top 10 (fourth, seventh and eighth) three straight years from 1984 to 1986 despite going to the playoffs all three years and the Western Conference semifinals twice. Like the 1982 Lakers pick, it came thanks to Cleveland, who traded away all their first-round selections chasing quick success and ended up bottoming out. (The Stepien rule, which prohibits teams from trading first-round picks in consecutive seasons, was created and is named after Cleveland’s general manager at the time, Ted Stepien.)

Last season, the Raptors finished second in the Eastern Conference and drafted No. 9 overall. They nabbed Jakob Poeltl, a center who has played sparingly thus far in his rookie season.

The Celtics will probably finish second in the East, and they’re almost guaranteed at this point to have a much better selection in a much deeper draft than Toronto did last year. Only a hugely successful push from Brooklyn during the final third of the season could conceivably stop that.

The Celtics signed Al Horford this past offseason and their second-leading scorer is Avery Bradley. Isaiah Thomas is legitimately pushing himself into MVP considerations this year, but for Boston to meet their championship aspirations, you could see how they need a true second star on this roster.

Maybe that’s Markelle Fultz or Lonzo Ball, the top two projected picks in the coming NBA draft. Thomas is the Celtics’ point guard, but Fultz or Ball both have the size to play off the ball for long stretches of the game. It might not be the best way to use them, but Boston should select them anyway if they’re sold on their potential superstardom. You can always figure it out later.

Trading down a few spots might help the Celtics draft a Josh Jackson or Jayson Tatum, either of whom would potentially fit better on the roster. However, what would trading down net Boston, more draft picks? Their biggest problem this offseason was having too many assets and prospects, forcing them to draft prospects who could stay overseas in last year’s draft. They need star talent, not more solid role players.

Given that, you know the Celtics will be interested if a superstar enters the trade market. DeMarcus Cousins is the name that immediately jumps to mind, and what could be more enticing for Sacramento than the potential No. 1 pick? Cousins and the Kings have to reach the point where they’re trying to trade him, of course, and that doesn’t seem likely given the latest rumors that Cousins wants to sign a long-term extension. But if they did, the Celtics could offer a handsome package in return — probably a handsomer one than anyone else in the league.

Whatever happens with this pick, it’s bound to make the Celtics better in one way or another. If you’re a Boston fan, that just adds to your spoil of riches.