The 2023-24 NBA season delivered plenty of twists and turns, yet it was also characterized by an all-too-predictable run to the Finals for the eventual champions, the Boston Celtics. The team started the season as the NBA Championship favorites (by no means a guarantee of success), led the Eastern Conference the whole way through the season _*1, barely broke a sweat in last season’s NBA Playoffs, and eventually dispatched the Dallas Mavericks with only a minor hiccup or two on the way _*2.

There was a sense — after picking up Jrue Holiday and Kristaps Porzingis — that the right team won the Championship. You might not love the Celtics, but few would argue that they were not the best team in the NBA last season.
Some of the Celtics’ stats were historically good. Going 80-21 combined record _*3 across the regular season and playoffs is the 13th best overall record _*4 for a season in history. The team won 19 games by a 25+ point margin _*5 – the best in NBA history.

Celtics Were a Model of Efficiency

The Celtics’ tag as being finely balanced also showed up in the stats. The C’s recorded an average of 122.2 points per 100 possessions _*6, the highest in NBA history. On the opposite end of the court, the Celtics limited opponents to 110.6 pts per 100 possessions _*7, particularly notable in the Finals versus the Mavs.

Yet, when looking ahead, plenty of NBA champions have failed to live up to expectations the next season. Things can change quickly in the offseason. Indeed, ask anyone who engages in betting on NBA games, and they’ll tell you that a team’s momentum for a season can change in just a few minutes in a game. So what positives can the Celtics take into the 2024-25 season?

The Celtics Core Are All Returning

The stat that is jumping out at us overall is the fact that 15 players who recorded 93% of the Celtics’ regular season minutes will return for the new season _*8. – Yes, Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown, Derrick White, Holiday, Porzingis, Al Horford, Payton Pritchard, Sam Hauser, and Luke Kornet are all returning.

That’s huge. How huge? It’s the most of any defending champion in ten years. It puts the Celtics in a position where they do not need to do much in terms of trades, although they can always tweak things.

As of today, the Celtics are clear favorites with sportsbooks to repeat in 2025. Their odds are actually significantly shorter than last season (+300 versus +550) _*9. Of course, as we have mentioned earlier, being the favorite counts for diddly-squat across the course of a season. Yet, returning champions in recent years – with the exception of the Golden State Warriors – have often had new hurdles to overcome, and that has left them to come up short when it matters.

This Celtics team is a unit. The team learned to lose together, before learning to win together. They learned how to be dominant in the regular season before learning how to be dominant in the NBA Playoffs. Things are not completely perfect – Kristaps Porzingis’ injury issues are a worry and Al Horford is getting on in years – but if this Boston team remains relatively healthy, it’s going to a special team to stop them.