The Boston Celtics are entering the 2026-27 season as a bit of a dark horse contender. After all, despite coming off a season in which they won 56 games even though Jayson Tatum only played in 16 games following his recovery from a ruptured Achilles, many believe that the Celtics shot themselves on the foot when they traded away Jaylen Brown.
Making matters worse, not only did the Celtics trade Brown, a man who averaged 29/7/5 last season as the number one option for a shorthanded squad, they dealt him away to a direct rival in the Philadelphia 76ers — a team that fans believe is a legitimate contender for the title especially after pulling off the signing of LeBron James. And all Boston has to show for the Brown trade, at least at the moment, is Paul George — an aging star who has significant question marks regarding his availability.
But this Celtics team has all the makings of an excellent regular season team that no one should be sleeping on. Here are three bold predictions for the reigning Atlantic Division champion with only a few days to go before they begin their regular-season journey on the road on Tuesday afternoon against the Detroit Pistons.
Celtics finish as the number-one seed in the East
It’s difficult to project much improvement for a team that already won 56 games the previous season. It almost seems counterintuitive to think that Boston will be even better with Brown, the 2024 NBA Finals MVP, now in Philly.
But this Celtics team is built to win on a nightly basis. Every team in the NBA is going to look at Boston on their calendar and take a deep breath with the knowledge that they’ll be in for a rough night.
There are no holes in this Celtics’ defense. They might end up going with a bigger wing in the starting lineup (say a Baylor Scheierman or a Hugo Gonzalez or a Jordan Walsh) and deploy Payton Pritchard off the bench. Even then, Pritchard may not be the tallest player, but he’s no weak spot on defense, either.
It also seems like the Celtics are going to be starting Mitchell Robinson, or at the very least, that center spot is going to be interchangeable between him and Neemias Queta. Boston patched up their biggest weakness from last season; backup center Nikola Vucevic was so bad on defense to end last season that head coach Joe Mazzulla phased him out of the rotation in Game 7 of the first round against Philly.
Last season, the Celtics already finished with the fourth-best defense in the NBA. They should be even better than that last season. George, at this stage of his career, is a worse player than Brown in a vacuum, but he is a perfect fit in the Boston ecosystem. (He shot 39.2% from three last season.)
George should also help Boston win the possession battle even further. He constantly ranks near the top of the NBA in deflections, and in preseason action, he has seven steals in just two games. With the Celtics having the requisite offensive support to make George more of a play finisher than a creator, he should be able to expend more energy on the defensive end as well.
The Celtics also lost Brown’s 3.6 turnovers per contest, giving them more leeway in the possession battle. Boston already ranked atop the NBA in total rebounds per game last year, and they added Robinson, one of the best glass cleaners in league history.
To sum it up, the Celtics’ combination of three-point prowess and defense, which improved with the addition of George, and their elite rebounding as a team, which improved with the arrival of Robinson, makes them quite the regular season wins machine.
The three-point shooting might run hot and cold, and their overreliance on the long ball could lead to some frigid offensive nights. But their defense and rebounding are so good that they could mess around and end up with over 55 wins — which could be good enough to earn the best record in the East considering how congested the standings could end up being due to how many teams there are that intend to compete this season.
Jayson Tatum finishes in top three in MVP voting
The Celtics traded Brown away knowing full well that Tatum was going to come back to re-assume first-option duties on a regular basis after being in and out of the lineup to end last season. Tatum should step into that huge usage void that Brown’s departure opens up, and provided that he’s fully healthy, there’s no reason to think that he won’t be able to pick up where he left off prior to his Achilles injury.
Tatum, during the 2024-25 season, put up 26.8 points, 8.7 rebounds, and 6.0 assists per game on 45/34/81 shooting splits. He averaged those numbers on a usage rate of 31.2%. If he bumps that usage up to around Brown’s level from last season (36.2%), it may not be a stretch to say that the Celtics star could average over 30/9/7 per game.
If he does tally those numbers, which aren’t far away from what Brown put up last season on a sky-high usage rate, all while the Celtics earn the top seed in the East, it will be hard to deny his MVP candidacy.
For starters, the narrative is going to be on his side. Not only has he returned to peak form after a devastating Achilles injury, he would also have led Boston to the top seed in the East — finishing above their rival 76ers in the standings.
Of course, the likes of Nikola Jokic, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Victor Wembanyama, and Luka Doncic are going to put up incredible seasons in their own right, which could potentially bump Tatum out of that top three conversation. Nevertheless, the narrative is going to be so powerful in Tatum’s favor that he should earn his highest finish in the MVP voting — provided, of course, that some conditions (Celtics earn top seed in East, for instance) are met.
Payton Pritchard wins his second Sixth Man of the Year award
It sure does look like Pritchard is slated for a sixth man role. He came off the bench in both of the preseason games he played, and that was with the Celtics having their core players active for those contests.
Pritchard moved over to a bench role following their trade for Vucevic at last season’s trade deadline, and it looks like this role will stick for him for the long haul. He’s clearly elite at this microwave scorer job; in 29 games as a reserve last season, he averaged 17.2 points, 3.3 rebounds, and 5.0 assists.
He should average similar numbers for the Celtics, and as an invaluable and consistent contributor coming off the bench for a contending team, he should post the strongest case to win this award.
(The likes of Dylan Harper, Ajay Mitchell, Ayo Dosunmu, and DeMar DeRozan, just to name a few, could give Pritchard a run for his money. But the Celtics guard, if he averages around 18/4/5 this season, should be a top candidate, if not the favorite, for the award.)
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