3 Celtics Overreactions After Fantastic Finish to 2025

ByNBAUSA



Coming in 2025 Boston Celtics they were expected to do one thing: win. And while they did plenty to finish the 2024-25 regular season, the 2025 NBA playoffs marked their earliest exit since 2021.

It also featured one of the most devastating moments in recent Celtics history. Star forward Jayson Tatum suffered a ruptured Achilles and the C’s were baffled by the fact that their best guy wouldn’t play again in 2025. As a result of Tatum’s brutal injury, The NBA world has adjusted its expectations for the Celtics.

They weren’t supposed to just win anymore, especially after losing multiple key pieces during the offseason in addition to Tatum’s absence. However, internal expectations have not changed.

Ahead of the 2025-26 campaign, the Celtics president of basketball operations Brad Stevens still discussed the championship as the “North Star” of his team. Tatum also went on ESPN during the offseason to shut down any rumors from the potentially slumping Celtics.

“The way our organization is run, it’s the culture we’ve set, it’s the standard we have — no matter who’s on our team — that we have to go out there every night and play to that standard,” he said while laughing at the idea of ​​the Green Team losing on purpose. “That’s the Boston Celtics way. And that’s a championship game.”

Boston spent the rest of 2025 backing up its talk. Through 32 games, the C’s are 20-12 overall and in third place in the Eastern Conference, far exceeding most outside expectations placed on them.

Continuing these winning ways over the next 50 games won’t be easy, but it’s clear that the new-look Celtics are much more capable than many fans and pundits predicted. So with the new year almost upon us, let’s delve into three overreactions from Boston’s promising finish to 2025.

Jailen Brown should end up in the MVP conversation

While some may be confused about how the Celtics are doing this season, there is a pretty simple explanation.

Celtics star Jaylen Brown is playing the best basketball of his 10-year career. In fact, in the 10 games he played in December, he scored fewer than 30 points just once, tying the record of the legendary Larry Bird for the most consecutive 30-point games in franchise history.

Brown is averaging a career-high 29.5 points per game, breaking his previous best of 24.7 points per outing. He’s also shooting a career-high 50.5% from the floor and averaging five assists per game.

The NBA has taken notice of Brown’s rise, as he was recently named Eastern Conference Player of the Week. And for his efforts, he should be in the MVP conversation.

Brown has scored the fifth-most points in the league, but every other player above him has at least 30 more minutes. Its efficiency is also virtually unmatched, with a triple MVP Nikola Jokic and the reigning MFA Shai Gilgeous-Alexander as the only current MVP candidates who recorded it better.

Keeping up with Jokic is almost impossible for any player, but still Denver Nuggets superstar expected to miss next four weeks (at least) after hyperextension of the left knee. That puts a serious dent in Jokic’s MVP campaign and puts SGA in the driver’s seat.

Can Brown realistically outplay Gilgeous-Alexander? The Thunder point guard has led his team to the NBA’s best record (28-5) and shows no signs of slowing down. Brown’s biggest advantage is that his team is mostly led by him and he lacks the top star power of Jaylen Brunson’s SGA Thunder and New York Knicks.

Regardless of how the MVP race goes, Brown should earn another All-Star selection and receive his first ever MVP votes. He’d have a long way to go to take home the Michael Jordan trophy, but the fact that he’s even in the conversation right now is impressive.

“I’m the most introverted in my life,” he said on a recent Twitch stream. “I’m ready to do whatever it takes to win.”

Joe Mazzulla should be the favorite for coach of the year

Another accolade the Celtics could win this season comes in the form of the NBA Coach of the Year award.

Off the court, Celtics head coach Joe Mazzula helped his guys stay motivated and ignore the outside noise surrounding the team, which largely expected the current iteration of the C’s to fail. He also helped in developing youngsters like Celtics wing Jordan Walsh and Celtics rookie point guard Hugo Gonzalez, both of whom are improving exponentially.

On the field, Mazzulla devised one of the Association’s best offenses. The Celtics are fourth in offensive net rating — an especially astounding feat when you consider Tatum’s Achilles and the offseason departures of Celtics starters Jr. Holiday and Kristaps Porzingis.

At the end of 2024, when the Celtics were still in contention for back-to-back titles, Mazzula’s men held a 24-9 record. After a double-digit win over the Utah Jazz to close out the 2025 slate, the Celtics are 20-12 and not far off last year’s pace.

However, Macula will never take much credit for his team’s success, he was a significant part of it. His faith in his players and ability to push the right buttons with his various lineups have the C’s on the right path to the playoffs, a place some never thought they would reach.

While Detroit Pistons head coach JB Bickerstaff and San Antonio Spurs captain Mitch Johnson have led their respective teams to major rebounds, at least on record, they haven’t gone through the same monumental changes as the Celtics. What Macula is doing without its prime minister deserves recognition.

Of their offseason losses, the Celtics miss Luke Cornett the most

If the Celtics have one New Year’s resolution, it’s to improve their defense. They are in the middle of the pack with the 15th best defensive team rating and would ideally be around the top 10.

Boston’s defense took multiple hits this offseason, as the Celtics parted ways with some of their best defenders (along with the loss of Tatum). And while center Luke Cornett isn’t the biggest name to leave, he’s probably the one the Celtics miss the most.

The 7-footer made it with the Spursaveraged a career-high 8.1 points per game while starting occasionally. In addition, he averaged a career-high 6.7 rebounds per game and posted a career-high 1.4 blocks per outing in 24 contests.

Cornett doesn’t have an All-Star selection like the rest of the Celtics who left, including Holiday, Porzingis and veteran big man Al Horford. However, he has achieved something that others have not this season; The 30-year-old remained available.

Horford missed just over half of the season with injuries, and the same can be said for Holiday. In the meantime, a nagging illness has hampered Porzingis. The Latvian center has missed 22 games so far and is averaging a dismal 25.9 minutes per game with the Atlanta Hawks.

Hopefully the sick and injured former Celtics can make a full recovery this season and look a little more like their old selves. They were all key pieces to the Celtics’ title run in 2024, and many fans were upset by their departures, even despite their predictability.

But if the Celtics had a choice of who to bring back — considering cost, age and health — they would ironically pick Cornett.





2025-12-31 20:20:00

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