This is an appreciation post. This team, to me, is the most well managed team in sports. Better than any team across the major leagues in North America. The Celtics are so well oiled, and it starts from the top down. The ownership, while *understandably* cutting costs to go under the 2nd apron, still maintaind a close eye on getting quality contracts. Then we have Brad - absolute unit as the GM. Dumped two major contracts off the books. Got some solid picks and players out of it. Made incredible trades to improve the team each year. Then there’s the coaching staff, starting with Mazzulla, is absolutely incredible at leading a pack of lions and winners. Then the players. The players have unreal chemistry, and work so well together, even if the combinations and lineups vary from game to game.

We have an innate ability to find and develop homegrown talent (e.g. JT, JB, Hugo, Pritchard, Hauser) and finding hidden gems that thrive in our system (Queta, KP, DWhite).

And we have an insane player dev system. We just develop players and keep them good and working so well.

We are so consistent and have been in the 2020s. Through 2026, we have 4 conf. finals appearances, 2 finals appearances, and a title. Tied with the Heat for most Finals appearances this decade. This is unmatched in the NBA right now.

andoCalrissiano

107 | 2 days ago

Honestly ever since Danny Ainge took over and started drafting well with low picks with Al, Perk, Delonte, Rondo, life has been good as a Celtics fan. Well over 20 years now.

boneappletv

39 | 2 days ago

As good as Ainge was, I honestly think Brad is better. And the coaching staff has a lot to do with it too. The amount of guys we have able to play big minutes in a playoff game is kind of insane.

Ill-Procedure9866

11 | 2 days ago

Way better. Ainge was fine — maybe good to very good. Brad is legit great.

Naive_Cube

32 | 2 days ago

Ainge got us the Jays for the corpses of Pierce and KG. He wasn’t just fine

TheTurtleOne | I witnessed a chip I can die in peace

27 | 2 days ago

He also hired Brad so…

andoCalrissiano

15 | 2 days ago

Ainge was doing the same thing we are doing now, getting Daniel Theis or Jonas Jerebko from overseas, drafting Ryan Gomes or PP or Semi Ojeleye in the second round. Stealing IT from Phoenix.. Super advanced cap management with Mike Zarren in those days too on the fringes.

Danny was a great drafter with Smart, Rozier, Brown, Tatum, Rob Williams, Grant Williams, Nesmith were all pretty much best picks at their draft position for the next 10 picks after the selections.

PapaSheev7 | Jayson Tatum

5 | a day ago

Fully agreed. We’ve had back to back top 5 GMs in the league and they’ve both done brilliantly in their roles.

Ill-Procedure9866

2 | a day ago

ainge made some all time great moves, sure. he also had long runs of of drafting short guards / failed to build a real player development program. imho he was pretty boom/bust. like i said, i’m willing to go as high as “very good” on him, so no complaints, really.

just that brad is a level above. he’s nailing all the big moves, has built a real player development pipeline, and top-to-bottom, vibes are great. imho, he’s already established himself as a great gm, and he’s just getting started. we are so lucky to have him.

tangcity

1 | a day ago

Ainge drafted tatum and brown by the way not sure if you’re aware

DarkEnchilada

1 | 8 hours ago

What were those long runs? I can remember one or two but they weren’t that long.

Ainge hired Brad who immediately started establishing a top notch player development program. And Brad was on no one else’s radar to be an nba coach. Doesn’t Ainge get some credit?

evanphox

7 | 2 days ago

Real ones remember the struggle when Ricky Davis was the only reason to watch Celtic games back then.

Arrow362 | Boston Celtics LOSCY TIME

44 | 2 days ago

Other than the black hole that was 90s, we have been for a while…one of the biggest what-ifs in professional sports imo is what would have been had Len Bias and Reggie Lewis not tragically pass away, many non Celtic fans don’t realize how big of a blow that was, it took a decade plus to recover from those tragedies.

Landlord-Allmighty

10 | 2 days ago

The 90s was a lost era in Boston. The team was bad but the league was in a stranglehold from Chicago and then LA. Our front office was consistently garbage. We made bad draft picks and gave up on the good ones too soon.

Anchor_saway

8 | 2 days ago

Good shout here. I’m a little young but I remember my father telling about the big what if that is Len Bias. Wonder how great a Celtic he could have been 🤔

Landlord-Allmighty

3 | 2 days ago

He’d have been great, but I do wonder how much he would have held things together with the decline of the big three.

Arrow362 | Boston Celtics LOSCY TIME

3 | 2 days ago

Many experts said he was a larger more athletic version of Jordan, the two of them had crazy duels in college. It would have been comparable to the boost the Lakers got from James Worthy taking pressure and mileage off of Magic and Kareem. Who knows at the end of the day but another title or two would have been probable in the 80s and in the 90s during Bias’s prime the sky would have been the limit…so many decisions would have been made personnel wise it’s hard to nail down but that’s what makes it a great and tragic what-if.

TheJaylenBrownNote

-5 | 2 days ago

He was objectively worse than Jordan in every single way. I hate that comparison lol. Jordan’s college stats were so obviously superior.

I think he would have been a massive bust. Even if he didn’t die of coke, he was a massive coke head - and that ended multiple careers in the 70s and 80s alone. Then you top it off with the fact that he had about the worst AST:TO I’ve ever seen from a lottery wing prospect - as a fucking senior - while also having terrible stock and rebound rates despite being this supposed athletic freak. All that implies his basketball IQ was absolute trash and it probably would have pissed Bird off to no end and I wouldn’t doubt he would have gotten him traded.

P00PooKitty | Bll Russell

2 | a day ago

He wasn’t a massive cokehead. He had never really done coke before when he tried and died from it.

TheJaylenBrownNote

1 | a day ago

The NYT and Washington Post ran stories about this. He snorted lots of cocaine, regularly.

TheJaylenBrownNote

-1 | a day ago

Nope. That’s a complete lie. If anything he was probably a coke dealer. I don’t know where this lie was started, but his friends told the actual truth. It was not his first time. Nobody does the amount of coke he did for like 6 straight hours the first time they try cocaine.

SinibusUSG

2 | 2 days ago

Genuinely wild that two of the biggest losses in talent to early deaths happened to the same team in the span of less than a decade

chinesefox97

12 | 2 days ago

And we managed to do all this without star players just going to us in FA like the Lakers do. Or having insane lottery luck like the Spurs.

1AML3G10N | Boston Celtics

5 | 2 days ago

The myth of the spurs being well run is so wide spread… ping pong balls made that franchise.

chinesefox97

8 | 2 days ago

They are a well run organization as well. But they have been the luckiest franchise in the history of the league. Meanwhile the Celtics have been one of the unluckiest with Len Bias, Reggie Lewis, Bird’s back, etc and still have the most banners.

FlatwormNo3937

5 | 2 days ago

Ah yes legendary lottery picks Manu, Parker, Leonard

1AML3G10N | Boston Celtics

0 | 2 days ago

lol what about Robinson, Duncan, and Wemby. No brainer number one pics. No other Franchise has had that “luck”.

Furqan23 | Jaylen

4 | 2 days ago

I don’t say this to dispute your post but just to consider some counter points

Their biggest stars like Robinson, Duncan, Wemby were obviously lottery luck

But they also helped to develop guys like kawhi, Tony Parker, manu who were not high picks

Similar to the Celtics they had a way of finding bench players who weren’t highly regarded and turning them into productive players

Again not discrediting anything from Boston’s standpoint but mentioning that San Antonio has a history of finding or developing unproven talent

1AML3G10N | Boston Celtics

-2 | 2 days ago

All that player dev doesn’t matter if you don’t luck into THREE once in a generation players. Celtics haven’t gotten one. I’d say the Heat are a better franchise. OKC too.

IcyMission3

2 | 2 days ago

The Admiral -> TD -> Wemby, they foresure getting another generational talent in 2040s

ProteinSnookie

10 | 2 days ago

Coupled with us being in the best city in the goddamn Union GO BOSTON

Different-Mall-1701

8 | 2 days ago

Started with Red Auerbach and was spotty at times since but the Steven’s/Mazzula we have captured an essence of what basketball is all about going back to founder James Naismith.The Celtic organization has put first and foremost what type of person puts on the green clover uniform.If the individual isn’t driven by integrity and hard work they are not signed.IMHO the NBA is rigged.Driven by politics and social justice platforms and of course now gambling it has turned very dark which wasn’t the vision intended.The Celtic organization refuses to bow down for the most part to these entities and that’s why they are always bypassed on media coverage.The Jayden Ivey incident has opened a can of worms and I hope the Boston Celtics end up on the right side of history which is possible looking at Mazzula’s frame of mind.

MWave123

5 | 2 days ago

A team can’t be a Mecca.

Such_Detective_7315

10 | 2 days ago

My apologies - Boston

Beantowndreamt0wn | Banner Day Al Horford

3 | a day ago

The only time I’ve agreed with anything those pills felger and mazz in the past two years is when they talked about how lucky we are as fans. We have an exceptionally well run and genuinely cared after franchise. We will always put a great product on the floor. It’s the most consistently great team in the history of the city.

Zargoza1

3 | 2 days ago

gif

_The_Flying_Elvis_

2 | 2 days ago

I think mecca is a place, and the celtics are not a place. If you want to say boston is the mecca of basketball, it would make more sense.

Such_Detective_7315

1 | a day ago

Yes my apologies, I meant Boston

Spence52490

2 | a day ago

This is what happens when everyone from the top to the bottom in the organization cares deeply about playing good basketball and delivering a good product.

askthetruth1

1 | 2 days ago

If the Celtics are Makkah of basketball where are we supposed to do tawaf

VLHACS

1 | 2 days ago

You only need to look at how the players that did well in our system in recent years fell off in production once they moved to other teams. Rozier, Baynes, Morris, Grant, RobWill, KP.

BostonVagrant617

1 | a day ago

EVERYTHING IS AWESOME!!! GO CELTICS!!!!

RetiredArmy18Z

1 | 7 hours ago

We want Boston lol. Lets go Philly!

The Celtics are the Mecca of basketball