Celtics

Would it be a failure if Celtics don’t win NBA title this season? Draymond Green and others believe so

"It's time to win. It's time now. We don't care how many conference finals [you've made] anymore."

This season might be Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown's best chance at winning an NBA title. (AP Photo/David Dermer)

May 18, 2024

The Celtics have continued to stake their claim as one of the NBA’s elite this season.

Following a 64-win regular season, Boston punched its ticket to the Eastern Conference finals Wednesday, defeating the Cleveland Cavaliers in five games in the second round. With the win, the Celtics will play in the Eastern Conference finals for the sixth time in the last eight seasons.

Despite consistently making the NBA’s final four, the Celtics have yet to get over the last hump in the Jayson Tatum-Jaylen Brown era. As this year appears to be their best season to do that, several NBA pundits believe that it would be a failure if the Celtics failed to win the title this season.

Draymond Green is joining the chorus. He said in the most recent episode of his podcast, “The Draymond Green Show,” that “I normally disagree” with that sentiment because it’s “hot take-ish.” However, he believes the time is now for the Celtics to win a title.

“You got Jaylen Brown making $300-plus million, soon to be Jayson Tatum making $300-plus million. It’s a failure,” Green said. “You won 60-plus games. You have built your team [to be this good]. You go out and get Jrue Holiday. You go out and get [Kristaps] Porzingis. The season went exactly how they thought and wanted it to go when you made those moves. Because the season went that way, you extended Jrue Holiday.

“So, guess what? It’s time to win. It’s time now. We don’t care how many conference finals [you’ve made] anymore. A Finals appearance ain’t good enough. You’ve got to go win it all.”

The additions of Holiday and Porzingis helped the Celtics have one of the best regular seasons in recent memory. On top of winning 64 games, they had the fifth-best scoring differential (11.34) and the fourth-best net rating (11.6) in NBA history. They were elite on both ends of court, ranking first in offensive rating (122.2) and second in defensive rating (110.6).

Tim Legler was one of the first analysts in recent days to state that it would be a failure for the Celtics to not win a title this season, citing the upside that Porzingis and Holiday bring compared to what they’ve had in the past.

“You’re talking about a team that added Jrue Holiday and Kristaps Porzingis in the offseason,” Legler said on ESPN’s “Get Up!” “So, they lose Marcus Smart and Robert Williams, their two best defenders, and they add two great defenders who are significantly better offensive players to go with Tatum, Brown, and Derrick White. Yes, you win 64 games in the regular season, you clearly have the most versatility on both ends of the floor in your starting lineup of any team in the NBA. Yes, to me it’s a failure.”

Legler did add a caveat that if Porzingis is still out or limited with his calf strain through the remainder of the playoffs, it wouldn’t be a failure to lose in the NBA Finals because “he’s massively important to them.”

Even without Porzingis for the majority of the playoffs so far, the Celtics have done just fine. They were the first team to punch their ticket to the conference finals, going 8-2 so far. They have the second-best offensive rating (118.9), the third-best defensive rating (106.1), and far and away the best net rating (12.8) this postseason.

Of course, those games have come against weaker competition than what they would face in the NBA Finals, if they were to make it there. The Nuggets have been the presumed favorites to make it there for the majority of the season, looking prime to defend their title for much of the season. But after the Nuggets won three games in a row to take a 3-2 series lead against the Timberwolves, they lost by 45 in Game 6 as Game 7 looms Sunday.

ESPN’s Zach Lowe previously said that it wouldn’t be a failure for the Celtics to lose to the Nuggets in the Finals if it were a heavily competitive series. However, with Denver’s unevenness this postseason, he’s also thinking it could be a failure if Boston doesn’t win Banner 18 in June.

“The more vulnerable Denver looks, the more I would kind of begin to – on the continuum between disappointment and failure – the more I would inch toward maybe Denver is a little bit rickety this year,” Lowe said on his podcast, “The Lowe Post.” “[The Nuggets’] starting five is now minus-23 for the playoffs [in net rating]. Jamal Murray is shooting 39 percent. This just isn’t the same machine that it was last year.”