Celtics 2023-24 Season Preview & Bold Predictions

The Celtics overhauled their roster and built massive expectations this summer by acquiring Kristaps Porziņģis and Jrue Holiday, answering Milwaukee’s Damian Lillard heist by scooping up the Bucks’ heart-and-soul after losing their own. Marcus Smart, Malcolm Brogdon, Robert Williams III and Grant Williams depart, opening the door for needed depth contributions, but those changes likely proved necessary after a turbulent season ended by falling behind 0-3 to the Heat in the east finals then losing Game 7 badly.

A hyped, intense training camp also contrasted last year’s chaotic entry, losing head coach Ime Udoka days before the season and Williams III for most of the first half. Boston enters this season healthy, still highly dependent on staying that way in the front court, but with few other questions across the perimeter. Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum truly enter a critical, all-in year with the microscope on them. Everything else has changed to this point. Now it’s on them. Joe Mazzulla will share similarly high expectations surrounded by the class of attainable assistant coaches, including Charles Lee, Sam Cassell and Jeff Van Gundy as an advisor.

That all makes it difficult to forecast challenges, particularly through the course of the regular season, but we’ll try as we do here at the Garden Report with another round of bold predictions entering opening night on Wednesday in New York. Jimmy Toscano, John Zannis, Josue Pavon, A. Sherrod Blakely and Bobby Manning return for another season of coverage on the Celtics Post Game Show, and share their bold and season predictions below.

John Zannis: 3 Celtics make All NBA and none of them are Jaylen Brown.

I know. I know. Here comes the Zannis Jaylen slander. Not necessarily so. Tatum is a lock. Porzingis will make it as the 3rd team center and Holiday sneaks in as the All-NBA Third Team guard. Brown gets squeezed after his scoring average takes a drastic dip…BUT…that may not necessarily be a bad thing. Brown not being relied upon as the only other viable shot-creating player aside from Tatum should make for a freer more efficient Brown. The likes of which should benefit Boston.

Jimmy Toscano: Payton Pritchard wins the three-point contest.

I think he shoots well enough off the bench to get the invite. Then he goes full Pro-Am mode at the event – he may not miss – and Boston P-Party is officially born. My only concern is that the three-point line is TOO close for him.

A. Sherrod Blakely: Jrue Holiday will be the NBA’s Defensive Player of the Year

He’s regarded as the best on-the-ball defender, a deep playoff run for the Celtics fueled in part by his ability to keep some of the league’s top wing scorers in check, will make him a feel-good pick to win the award akin to former Celtic Marcus Smart a couple of years ago.

Bobby Manning: Jrue Holiday will start fewer than 50 games

It sounded improbable to begin training camp but I’m legitimately convinced Holiday could come off the Celtics bench, at least for the early portion of the season. Holiday only arrived several weeks ago, and continues to acclimate to a team that’s mostly spent significant time together among the top rotation players. A bench role would give Holiday more time with the ball in his hands to connect with his new teammates, the ability to seek his shot more aggressively and still play over 30 minutes each night as a closer.

If Holiday will factor significantly into the late game ball-handling, it only makes sense to keep him in that role throughout the game. Especially if the team has any doubts about Brown and Pritchard as second unit facilitators. Mazzulla said he’ll start so many lineups over the first 20-30 games that the regular starting lineup no longer becomes a question. By season’s end, Holiday might prove he can thrive as the sixth man, expressing a willingness to make that sacrifice in the preseason. Maybe the Holiday bench conversation was a diversion to have conversations with Horford about a bench role, which I won’t rule out. We’ll see.

Josue Pavon: Kristaps Porzingis makes his second All-Star selection this season.

Porzingis will thrive as a third star to the Celtics’ Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown’s tandem.

Zannis: Sam Hauser will fall out of the rotation by December.

Hauser needed to play last season because the Celtics NEEDED more shooting. That’s not the case this year. The Celtics have plenty of shooting in their top 6 who will be eating up the bulk of the minutes. Assuming Holiday and White start, Pritchard will be the first guard off the bench so that’s 7. You have other bench options like Svi Mykhailiuk and Oshae Brissett who can shoot well enough on their own. There will also be minutes available for more capable defenders like Lamar Stevens and eventually Jordan Walsh. Hauser would have to be shooting at a blistering pace to justify guaranteed minutes given his defensive deficiencies.

Jimmy: Kristaps Porzingis saves a baby from a burning building on way to TD Garden. Proceeds to drop 25-10-7 that night.

Listen, there is nothing this guy can’t do. I’ve seen enough through a couple preseason games. He’s Kevin Garnett meets Larry Bird – sprinkle in a bit of Steph Curry. When it’s all over, he’ll have his number retired, a statue outside and a Little Latvia neighborhood carved out of the North End. We’ll all be eating – *Googles Latvian food* – OK, we’ll eat in the North End but crush beers in Little Latvia.

John Zannis: Luke Kornet will have more DNP-CDs than games played

Yup, an oldie but goodie. Running back the same prediction as last year. Last season Kornet played 69 games and 11.7 minutes per game. That’s waaaaaay too much. A lot of it had to do with Rob Williams missing the start of the season and Al Horford slipping the second night of every back to back. While Kristaps Porzingis isn’t exactly and iron man he’s certainly more reliable than Rob, right? Also, enter Neemias Queta into the equation who could press Kornet for serious minutes.

Sherrod: Celtics will be among the league’s best at both ends of the floor with top-five status in both offensive and defensive rating.

The 1-2 scoring punch of Tatum and Brown, along with Porzingis and Holiday, provides Boston with the kind of offensive firepower few teams have the ability to slow down let alone contain. And with the defense is as strong as we’ve seen in recent years on the perimeter with Holiday and fellow all-NBA defender Derrick White.

Bobby: Two Celtics will make the All-Defensive team.

Their names won’t be Holiday, Tatum or Brown. White will return to the team as he did last year with a block total that rivals and surpasses some of the top shot-blocking big men in the league. Porzingis will surprise many by joining the list as one of the league’s top shot-blocking centers on the league’s top defense. His ability to make deflections, stand back by the rim and block shots behind Boston’s guards who navigate screens so well, along with letting Horford handle the burlier centers while he focuses on help defense, will turn Porzingis from a past liability on the defensive end into one of the game’s best stoppers.

Josue: Boston will lead the NBA in offensive rating.

Propelling a 14-game win streak shortly after Christmas, thus making the All-Star trio’s selections a no-brainer.

Zannis: Jaylen Brown does one vague, rambling, head scratching interview. Media will be blamed for taking exact quotes out of context.

Hey, that would be one less than he did last year so, an improvement. Once under-appreciated, always under-appreciated Brown, who got the bag this offseason, will feel like he’s playing third or fourth fiddle on a team that has an All-NBA wing, big and point guard and let it be known in his own weird, ‘misunderstood’ way. Even though he will do his part he won’t necessarily like it. We call this, Ray Allen Syndrome. On this team Brown is no longer even Robin to Tatum’s Batman. He’s just another member of the Justice league. Maybe Aqua Man. Who cares about Aqua Man?

Jimmy: Al Horford hits 50% of his three-pointers this year.

It’s wild how much Horford has changed his game offensively. He took a total of 29 three-pointers over the first seven years of his career. Last year he took 325! But he also shot 44.6%! Unbelievable. With so much attention being paid to the rest of the lineup, Horford can park himself in the corner for the rest of his Celtics career. And that’s good because they need to preserve him. He’s like a mummy in NBA years. He may not ever take a two-point shot again. In fact, I guarantee he doesn’t.

Sherrod: Derrick White will barely qualify as a reserve, but he’ll come off the bench enough to be named the league’s Sixth Man of the Year.

The double-big likely means he’ll come off the bench, which is OK. Because White will serve as a great example of the value in playing lies more in who finishes game than who starts.

Bobby: Malcolm Brogdon becomes the most missed departure — in Miami

The Heat will trade Kyle Lowry and future draft picks for a scorching Brogdon by the trade deadline and make him their starting point guard bent on revenge against the team that traded him twice this summer alongside Jimmy Butler, Bam Adebayo and their Miami teammates that knocked Brogdon and Boston out of the east finals last year. The Heat return to the east finals against the Celtics and somehow force the series seven games again. Grant Williams, although largely forgotten, will score a revenge game in his return to TD Garden.

Josue: This is also the season Tatum wins MVP.

A force on both ends of the floor, leading a team that will outshine Eastern Conference’s Milwaukee Bucks, Miami Heat, and Philadelphia 76ers, Jayson’s ascension to the league’s most valuable player will feel like a foregone conclusion for the seven-year star.

Zannis: Celtics start hot and fade just like last season

This is the best Celtics team on paper since 2008 and it’s not particularly close. They came into camp focused, and more serious than they have at any time during the Jays tenure. They are the best team in the NBA and will play like it to start the season. Then they’ll get bored and for 40 games will drive us absolutely INSANE with their inconsistent play. A lot of “we need to” quotes will be spoken postgame. Fans will still somehow blame Smart.

Jimmy: Jaylen Brown is your Finals MVP.

Suck on that, Brown haters. And also suck on that to my haters. The Celtics are built to win the title this year. They are my pick. Shame on them if they don’t make it happen and shame on anyone who says that anything less isn’t a disappointment. ENABLERS! I can actually see Brown not making an All-NBA this year (bonus bold prediction – too much talent in starting lineup), but he has shown up in the playoffs before and I think makes a point to show up when it matters most and do what he does best, which is get buckets. Sometimes that’s all that matters. Bonus, bonus bold prediction: Tatum no-shows the Finals and we continue on with the two can’t play together narrative until we’re all dead.

Sherrod: Brad Stevens will be this year’s Executive of the Year.

If the Celtics have the kind of season many envision, Stevens will get lots of credit for making strong, stealth-like moves in adding Porzingis, Holiday along with a handful of end-of-the-bench guys that are short on experience, but long on upside.

Bobby: Dalano Banton becomes the surprise backup wing

The Celtics have a variety of backup wings for different situations but Banton becomes a Mazzulla favorite for his mix of wing defense and point guard playmaking. He’ll frustrate at times with his shooting but become that energy player alongside Lamar Stevens that Boston let go in Smart and Grant. Hauser, less needed during a strong Pritchard season, will take a back seat to Banton for stretches.

Season result predictions:

Zannis: 58-24 (2 seed), Finals Win over Golden StateCall to “Split up the Jays!” will be deafening when the Celtics go down 3-2 to the Miami Heat in round 1. But Boston rallies to take that series in 7 and breezes through the next two opponents to make the NBA Finals for the second time in three years. The Finals will be a rematch with the Golden State Warriors featuring starting center Robert Williams III whom they acquired in a deadline deal with Portland. I am unable to watch or cover any games due to my allegiance and inability to root against Rob. Weeks later people tell me the Celtics won. I don’t know how to feel.

Jimmy: 59-23, NBA champion over the Suns

I am going to put it all on the line this year. In past years I have been hesitant to do so and if they brought the same group back together I would not be picking them to win it all. But Brad Stevens made some big moves in the offseason. I will miss Marcus Smart and appreciate what he brought to the Celtics, but Kristaps Porzingis made this team dangerous. And then to top it all off, Jrue Holiday makes them the team to beat in my eyes – in the East anyways. He brings a defensive mindset and knows what it takes to win a championship. Tatum and Brown are in their primes. Derrick White will do everything else. Yes the C’s may be a little thin on the bench, but I don’t care. If they’re healthy, they’re hard to beat and in my eyes anything less than a title is a disappointment.

Sherrod: NBA champions in 6

Picking the Boston Celtics to win an NBA title feels odd. Yes, they have an awesome starting five and yes, head coach Mazzulla will be better than he was a year ago. But the deja vu feeling that this will end how so many others recently have ended – short of the ultimate goal, which is to win an NBA title – sooner than expected. However, I’m still going to go all-in on this team for one reason only. They have no excuses to not, at a minimum, get to the NBA Finals. A dynamic scoring tandem. A third scoring option who can get you points and it not be a big deal. A defensive menace that, truth be told, is an upgrade on many levels from what you’ve had before. This team checks off damn near every box you want if trying to assemble an NBA champion, which is why I am more bullish than usual on this team’s title quest.

Bobby: 60 wins (1 seed), lose NBA Finals to Nuggets in six games

It takes time for a star-powered team to gel at the highest level and while Boston will blow away the competition at times with their new additions, Denver powers to back-to-back titles and cements itself as a dynasty led by Nikola Jokic in a close Finals battle where Tatum and Boston’s centers struggle to contain the MVP. The Celtics make it there by fighting through an east gauntlet that includes long series against Indiana, Milwaukee and Miami.

Josue: 61-19, NBA champions

Setting the stage for an NBA Finals matchup against the Phoenix Suns, Tatum’s MVP season is punctuated with the Celtics winning the 2024 NBA Finals. As a leader of one of the league’s best defenses, Jayson makes his presence felt on that end, and that will be the difference between the Celtics’ better-balanced attack against Kevin Durant, Devin Booker, Bradley Beal and the Suns.

Bobby Manning

Boston Celtics beat reporter for CLNS Media and host of the Garden Report Celtics Post Game Show. NBA national columnist for Boston Sports Journal. Contributor to SB Nation's CelticsBlog. Host of the Dome Theory Sports and Culture Podcast on CLNS. Syracuse University 2020.