Are the Celtics 5 years away from being the best team in the league?

So when are the Boston Celtics going to be the best team in the league? Two years from now? Three? Four?

That’s a dumb prediction to make — in 2013, who saw the Golden State Warriors becoming arguably the greatest dynasty of all time? — but the path is increasingly being laid out in front of us. The Celtics have offered no qualms about building for the future, and they’re still laughably ahead of schedule. The team’s 102-88 win against the Cleveland Cavaliers on Wednesday didn’t mean anything — no Cleveland regular season game truly means anything, and Isaiah Thomas didn’t play. But it was at least another reminder of how great Boston has played this season against all odds.

Nobody knows if the Celtics will actually become the best team in the league in some uncertain amount of time. Golden State’s hegemony looks stable for at least another couple seasons. Houston believes they can keep shifting pieces looking for the perfect formula around James Harden and Chris Paul for three to four years. Philadelphia might have a new age Penny Hardaway and Shaquille O’Neal pairing in Ben Simmons and Joel Embiid, and never count out the Spurs, ever, for any reason. The same goes for LeBron James and whatever superteam he could create.

But Boston is already close — they have the second-best record in the league, the top seed in the Eastern Conference, and just walloped James’ team. Let’s start by acknowledging one fact:

Boston’s scraping the league’s ceiling mostly thanks to its No. 1 defense. Buoyed by the incredible Al Horford and versatile wings, the Celtics have held teams to 100.4 points per 100 possessions, more than a point better than second-ranked San Antonio.

The grotesque Gordon Hayward injury that opened the season should have crippled Boston’s offense, too. Not so! The Celtics have scored 105.4 points per 100 possessions this year, the 12th-best figure this season, better than teams like the Thunder and the 76ers. It’s only four spots lower than Boston was last season.

Kyrie Irving was never intended to carry this team alone. Hayward was supposed to give the Celtics another deadly shot creator fully capable of handling the ball or initiating offense, but Boston has adapted this season. They’ve seen Jaylen Brown’s game jump a level, an expected but necessary improvement. Horford has never been this efficient. Brad Stevens, of course, remains one of the brightest minds in the league.

Tatum’s a rookie with a 64 percent True Shooting Percentage and third on the team in scoring despite only taking nine shots per game. He remains the league’s leader in three-point percentage and has destroyed every challenge put in his way with dynamite.

There was a bit of laughter when it was reported that Boston was considering taking Tatum with the first overall pick, and a little more when they traded down and essentially passed on Markelle Fultz. Tatum was well liked, obviously, but no one saw this coming. He’s a 19-year-old who does 29-year-old things — side stepping defenders to free himself up for three-pointers, embracing pick-and-roll coverages, cutting into the lane hard with purpose, knowing when to grab-and-go with a defensive rebound and when he should just find his point guard.

Without Tatum’s immediate contributions, Boston’s offense would struggle more than it has. It’s reasonable and appropriate to expect that some regression still may be coming — the NBA season is much longer than the 29 games Tatum suited up for at Duke.

They currently have the best record in the Eastern Conference while starting a 19-year-old and a 21-year-old, while missing their prized 27-year-old free agency addition, and with a gaggle of younger players on the bench with varying amounts of potential. But the Celtics also will receive the Los Angeles Lakers’ pick this season if it falls between the second and fifth selection. Currently, the Lakers have the second-worst record in the league.

Let’s imagine that the Celtics do get that pick — they just need Los Angeles to not win the lottery, or else it goes to Philadelphia — and can pick between three highly prized centers, Mo Bamba, DeAndre Ayton, and Marvin Bagley. Or they could potentially draft Luka Doncic, the Slovenian wunderkind who would give the Celtics an embarrassment of riches on the wings. This is essentially what the basketball pioneers at Free Darko once imagined: the game played with five do-everything wings. While a center might be the more traditional pick, especially with the oldest core player being Horford, Doncic would represent the ultimate basketball experiment.

Again, this all assumes that the Lakers fail to win the lottery, or don’t go on a second half winning streak that puts the pick in Philadelphia’s hands. Even if they do, the Celtics still have picks: most notably, what would likely be Sacramento’s 2019 pick if they don’t snag the Lakers’ this summer; and a partially protected Grizzlies pick that will definitely transfer by 2021.

And yes, there’s always Anthony Davis and his potential trade sweepstakes.

Boston’s definitely in line to be “The Next Great Team” when the 2020s arrive — and they’ve even made the waiting room fun, too, in the meantime.