MILWAUKEE — For many years, the Celtics held tightly to their first-round draft picks, often with good reason. Those assets produced Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown, Robert Williams and Grant Williams in the last five years alone, young building blocks of varying importance Boston’s core.
However, as the Celtics emerged as true East contenders ahead of schedule in 2018 and again in 2020, a lack of aggressiveness with those future assets started hurting the present. Both of those playoff runs came up short in the Eastern Conference Finals with those complete rosters looking like a player or two short as injuries emerged along with bad matchups. There was always a weak spot on the floor for Boston that could be attacked in those moments, spoiling the promise of a deep run.
When Brad Stevens took over for Danny Ainge who surprisingly stepped away from Boston’s front office last offseason, there were no easy choices to be made. Kemba Walker was an albatross contract that was going to cost serious capital to move. A case could be made that punting on the present for a better chance at contending in the future in a year or two would have been a defendable choice.
Yet, Stevens and the rest of Boston’s front office personnel (all of whom remained in place when Ainge stepped down) saw opportunity in the present around the players that Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown had become. Finding the right fits around that duo became top need and deploying future capital in order to land said players became a priority from day one, a credit to the sense of urgency this group felt for the present.
With that, the early seeds were planted to a return to contention. Al Horford returned to Boston after a two-year hiatus at the cost of the No. 16 overall pick in the 2022 NBA Draft. That was a high price to pay for a 35-year-old who had underachieved on an big contract with Philadelphia, but had been angling for months to return to Boston ahead of the eventual deal, according to league sources.
Horford has been a perfect fit as a steady presence around Brown, Tatum and Marcus Smart last time around as the team let one chance at the NBA Finals slip away in 2018. The chance at redemption Stevens gave Horford by dealing for him last summer has helped fuel what has become the more consistent Celtic this postseason. Incredibly, the veteran scored a playoff career-high 30 points in his 132nd postseason game.
“I just know that I’m just really grateful for this opportunity that I have,” Horford said. “All of this past summer, preparing for the season, to be in these type of moments. And then throughout the season just consistently making sure that I did everything I had to do physically to stay healthy, feeling well. And the team here has been unbelievable with me. Our performance staff really keeping me feeling really well. For me, I credit that: That kind of work. I feel like this past summer I understood that I needed to take it even to another level. It started with the summer and it just continued in season. And now, these are the moments that I want to be a part of, that I want to play.”
The promise that group with Horford showed in January led to another pivotal step that helped bring the Celtics a Game 4 win on Monday night: Derrick White.
Boston’s braintrust caused a few double takes around the league at the trade deadline when they arguably paid above market price for the 27-year-old, handing over a 2022 first round pick, a nearly unprotected future pick swap for 2028 (top 1) along with a useful reserve in Josh Richardson and Romeo Langford.
It was a win-now move for the present and the future, consolidating Boston’s resources into a strong all-around player. Yet as Boston took off in the second half of the season, White struggled more offensively than perhaps any rotation player on the roster, a slump that continued in the early parts of the postseason.
However, the tide turned for White in Game 3 with 14 points in 21 minutes and he paid his biggest dividends during Game 4, albeit under the radar. With Rob Williams out and Grant Williams struggled, Ime Udoka leaned into small ball which opened the door for White to play a postseason-high 34 minutes, including the final 12 minutes.
White did a bit of everything in the win (11 points, 4 rebounds, 3 assists and a block) and his defense was tremendous against the Bucks’ role players (Bucks shot 0-of-12 with White as their primary defender). After years of having a weak spot to go at defensively in the backcourt, White has proven to be a rock solid contributor to play behind or alongside Smart in the backcourt.
The Celtics still have a long way to go to take down the defending champs in what is now a best-of-seven series but Boston probably isn’t in this spot to begin with if not for Horford and White. Stevens and the rest of Boston’s braintrust had to swallow hard to give up enough assets to land the duo but the Celtics look like more of a contender than ever because of them.
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