State of the Celtics

The State of the Boston Celtics right now is good. Very good. The future is so bright Celtics fans need to wear shades good.

It can be argued that the Celtics have the second best team in the NBA. Their starting five are Kyrie Irving (26), Jaylen Brown (21), Jayson Tatum (20), Gordon Haywood (28) and Al Horford (32). I put their ages in parenthesis just to show how young this team is.

The Celtics may also have the deepest roster in the league with the following regular rotation players coming off the bench; Terry Rozier, Marcus Smart, Aron Baynes, Marcus Morris, plus Semi Ojeleye, Daniel Theis, and Guerschon Yabusele. This year's first round pick Robert Williams may not even make the NBA roster and instead might have to spend the season with the Maine Red Claws. This deep roster should keep the team fresh for the playoffs and be good insurance against any major injuries.

Of course Boston being Boston some drama has to be drummed up to satisfy sports talk radio and that drama comes from two subjects. First Kyrie Irving is a free agent after this season and there is speculation he may want to play in New York. Anyone following the situation, however, knows that the Celtics can offer him much more money than any other team because of his "Bird Rights". Not sure why Irving would want to leave a situation where he'd be competing for an NBA championship, have perhaps the best coach in the NBA and would be getting a ton of media exposure playing for one of the NBA's marque teams.

The other point of "discussion" has been the contract signed by Marcus Smart. Celtics fans are happy to have Smart back. The man always gives his all and his scrappy play makes him a crowd favorite. The "complaints" stem from arguments that the Celtics overpaid a  guy who won't even be a starter. And yes that's true but Boston is home to an incredible 6th Man legacy including Hall of Famers like John Havlicek and Kevin McHale (who started off his career backing up Cedric Maxwell). I think Danny Ainge did the right thing in giving Smart a contract that more reflects his true value to the team than the number of minutes he might play each night.

It has to be noted how excited Celtics fan are to watch Jasyon Tatum continue to develop. And now that it's been pointed out how eerie he looks like a young Kobe Bryant I'll never get that out of my head.

Let's not forget that Danny Ainge has a couple more high draft picks coming in the next couple of years and for Celtics fans this truly is a great time to be alive.