5 Lessons from the Celtics' 2024-25 Regular Season

*What's good!? With the postseason still a few days away, I wanted to keep things nice and light. I've also been working on launching a Discord channel to replace the DM feature of Substack - should launch that in the coming days. And the podcast is back in full swing! For now, though – let's talk Celtics basketball!*

Entering a new campaign while wearing the crown of being the reigning champions can't be easy. Every team wants to be you. Every team wants to beat you. And eyes from all around the world are hyper-focused on the smallest of details.

Smoke a layup (sorry, Draymond), and it's a talking point on national TV the next day. Lose a winnable game on the road, and your credentials as a contender are dissected, brutally.

In fairness, the Celtics handled the additional pressure well. At no point in the season did they lose more than two consecutive games. And, even with the ever-rotating door to the treatment room, Joe Mazzulla's often makeshift rotations didn't miss a beat.

It's been a fun season for Celtics fans.

A season that has positioned the franchise to become the first back-to-back champion since the Golden State Warriors in 2017 & 2018. What's also fun, it that throughout these past 82 games, we've had a bunch of storylines and lessons to work through.

Here are 5 lessons I've taken away from this season

#1. Kornet Is In The Perfect Spot

This season began with somewhat of a roster battle for the backup center position. Both Luke Kornet and Neemias Queta were given opportunities to impress. At times, Queta's size and motor made a legitimate impact, but for the most part, Kornet's cool, calm, and well-polished approach impressed.

By the time we reached the end of the regular season, Kornet had not only established himself as a core part of the bench unit, but conversations had already begun on what it would take to sign him to a longer-term deal this summer.

Kornet, remember, is heading into unrestricted free agency.

With the postseason just days away, Kornet will have a legitimate role to play as the third big in the rotation. There will undoubtedly be times where Mazzulla opts to run with double-bigs, and when that occurs, Kornet's minutes will increase as a byproduct.

Kornet ended the regular season as the Celtics' leader in screen assists, averaging 2.9 per game and generating 5.9 points. He was also second on the team in contested 2-point shots with 5.7 contests per game, trailing only Kristaps Porzingis with 7.5.

Both Kornet and the Celtics suit each other perfectly. This is Kornet's second impressive season for Boston. Now, all eyes will be on Brad Stevens this summer as the team looks to keep him longer-term.

#2. Svi Mykhailiuk Was an Unknown Luxury

We rarely saw Mykhailiuk during his one-year tenure with the Celtics in the 2023-24 season. Sam Hauser was balling out, the rotation was set, and for the most part, everyone was healthy.

However, when Hauser started this season with lower back spams, and his shooting inevitably fell off, the Celtics didn't have another sharpshooter to bring off the bench. Last season, Mykhailiuk could have provided the much-needed floor spacing and shot-making off the catch.

This season, Hauser's struggles meant the Celtics had to play through the issue, with minimal alternatives on offer. Fortunately, Hauser has bounced back and ended the season strongly. In his last 15 games, the undrafted sharpshooter shot 46.5% from deep, taking a total of 101 shots and hitting 47 of them.

Still, having another single-skill shooter on the bench never hurts, especially during the regular season.

#3. Baylor Scheierman is LEGIT

When Baylor Scheierman struggled to begin the season, I was among the crowd that believed he would need a year or two to become fully acclimated with the pace, physicality and intensity of the NBA.

I was wrong. And I am ECSTATIC that I was wrong.

Scheierman has looked like a legitimate role player during his minutes to close out the season. He's playing with confidence, making some ridiculous passes, and has begun to showcase his potential as a three-level scorer - all things we touched on during his scouting report to begin the season.

A big area of improvement for him will be learning to control angles on the defensive end. His lack of burst means he must mirror the style of defense we see from players like Al Horford, who use their length and basketball IQ to be elite in their roles. We already got a flash of what that could look like against the Charlotte Hornets on Sunday.

If Stevens is forced to part with one or two of the older/more veteran talents on the roster during the summer, Scheierman looks like a safe bet to assume a larger role while continuing to improve. He could become an important piece over the next few years.

Great draft choice by Stevens and the scouting department.

#4. Scalability is a key trait of this roster

Stevens has done a great job of rounding out the roster with multi-skilled guys. Everyone within the top-six, heck even top-eight, rotation can give impactful minutes in more than one type of role.

For example, Jrue Holiday can be a screener, passer, scorer, dunker spot threat, cross-matching defender, corner 3-point assassin, and so forth. If we look at Hauser, he can be a screener, movement shooter, catch-and-shoot threat, he can attack close-outs, and he has become a viable defender in space.

We can go down the list.

Boston has dealt with a string of injury issues this season. The roster's overall scalability and positional diversity are key reasons why the Celtics were still able to finish 2nd in the Eastern Conference. The hope now is that those short-handed reps have set the team up for success, even if someone like Jaylen Brown is forced to miss time due to an injury – such as a bone bruise in the knee.

#5. This team still has another gear...Maybe two.

A lot's been said about how the Celtics haven't hit their stride this year. A lot of finger-pointing led to discussions surrounding the championship-winning starting five and how, for most of the season, they had a negative NetRating.

However, the truth is that we haven't seen this "turn it on" to the point where they play lockdown defense and unstoppable offense. We've seen each of those things throughout the season, just not both at the same time.

What's scary is that Boston hasn't needed to find that extra gear. They've cruised through the regular season. Their largest losing streak stood at two games. TWO.

Come playoff time, we're likely to see a completely different Celtics team. One that's locked in defensively and looking to dominate across all three levels on offense.

This Celtics squad has shown they can win ugly. They've shown they can win pretty. They've shown they can win when key pieces are missing. Now, we're about to see what they can do when they decide to make everything click at once.