The most balanced title team in NBA history

The “best” player doesn’t always win a series, especially against balanced, ensemble teams filled with a number of really good players.This detailed film breakdown & scouting report explores how the 2024 Boston Celtics might be THE most balanced title team of all-time, and how Game 5 of the Finals against Dallas epitomized nearly everything that makes them so great, from Joe Mazulla’s coaching adjustments to their historical spacing, intelligent defenders, unique backcourt, multiple playmakers and more.

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Music by csus (instrumental)

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4 seconds to go missed free throw four for the rebound here’s Pritchard he loves these puts it up half courter the buzzer the Celtics waltt to their first championship in 16 years with Jaylen Brown winning a well- earned Finals MVP over Jason Tatum but this team didn’t post the fifth best point differential of all time because of the Jays they posted the fifth best point differential of all time because they might be the most well-balanced Ensemble team in NBA history most championship teams are powered by a superstar or sometimes multiple Superstars but the ensembles are collections of stars where one player doesn’t really stand out from the others and multiple players could be argued as the MVP of Any Given series if we use an economic measure of equality known as the geni coefficient we can take an impact metric and compare how equal the top five players on championship teams are where zero is a perfectly equal team where everyone brings the same value and one is a lopsided team where a single player does all the heavy lifting using this measure the most topheavy title winner since the ABA merger is the 2020 Lakers LeBron and Anthony Davis formed a two-headed monster in the playoff offs and the most balanced teams are legendary Ensemble squads like the 1989 Pistons the 2004 pistons and the 14 Spurs those last two teams were the gold standard of equality with a genie coefficient of11 because their fifth best player wasn’t that much worse in the playoffs than their best player but the Celtics just set a new standard of equality with five starters posting nearly identical box score impact in the regular season and the playoffs this clinching game was a perfect illustration of what makes Boston such an egalitarian team and more than the sum of its parts right out of the gate they started with brown glued to Luca donic overplaying him and denying any Easy Pass and after this adventure just to get him the ball Jaylen slides with him well and it turns into a contested step back here it is again with brown out near half court to take away Luca he briefly loses him but a contested catch and shoot three isn’t Don’s game and denying him the ball means that Dallas runs offense through someone else so Kyrie Irving goes after Sam Hower but settles for a quick mid-ranger Jaylen was also picking him up in the backourt and hounding him around SC greens and after multiple picks to break free here he hustles back alongside Luca who foul hunts into a tough Runner and this one’s even more impressive just stalking donic around his escort as he brings the ball up then he shuts off any Drive idea they end up trapping him on the sideline and brown stays stuck to him so that’s it for Luca’s possession the Celtics help off the injured Maxi kleba and it’s another stop if Luka give it up I’m not letting him get it back you know what I mean if you want to if you want to get the ball bring it up yourself def so when Luca grew tired of all this harassment he just gave it up brown true to his word denied him the ball then he denies Kyrie on the switch that forces PJ Washington to run offense Brown strips him on the Dig Derek white face plants for the ball Horford’s on the ground Jaylen comes flying out of there and then streaks by by dones for a layup a minute later it’s the same denial from Brown Washington tries it again and Tatum just rips him and then he’s Off to the Races and plows through Luca for the finish and this is just unrelenting with brown right back to hounding donic full court and he did a great job defending Luca throughout this series and they were just daring Cleber to shoot with that shoulder notice how Brown does doesn’t just concede the switch that Luca is trying to hunt so he goes after Hower but Brown fights through and then strips him from behind Drew holiday flies to the floor so donic tries to no look it to a teammate but unfortunately he’s standing out of bounds and that’s one of seven Luca turnovers holiday also got in on this action picking up donic in the back court and then staying with him on the drive then he doesn’t bite on Luca’s up fake and that’s not an easy fade and just like brown he wouldn’t concede the switch Luca wanted fighting around and through multiple screens here which leads to another near turnover as Hower knocks it out of bounds Dallas was working hard to force christops porzingis into the pick and roll with Luca but Drew just refuses to be screened and gets all the way back in front of the ball so they can’t really attack porzingis and Boston was pretty happy to let Josh Green shoot above the break threes this time Brown’s denying Luca so he’s taken out of the play Then Drew gives Kyrie the treatment stonewalling him on this first screening action before white switches and the ball never breaks the three-point line and holiday made Irving’s life miserable throughout much of this series redoing what he’s done to Damen Lillard and so many others by shutting off drives denying catches off the ball and generally hounding opponents into a diet of turnovers and difficult shots Kyrie made an amazing one there but here he’s trying to isolate against Tatum and Drew just materializes to take his lunch and then the Celtics get out and transition again and turn their defense into offense holiday was everywhere this game Luca witches onto him so he immediately Sprints up to set a screen for brown so donic is behind the play and then he goes around the outside of his man only to cut back at the last second and steal an offensive rebound and he went full Josh Hart in this game crashing from the outside to grab a bunch of offensive boards which helped generate 15 more true shot attempts for the Celtics than the Mavs and set up second chances like this where Tatum has a bunch of space to attack in isolation Drew was active as a rle man in this game repeatedly slipping behind donic and then hurting the Mavs on that short roll catch and that brings us to Joe missoula’s subtle but brilliant adjustments this game when they attacked Luca holiday would slip the screen into space and so Luca is expecting a switch Kyrie never feels a screen so he doesn’t switch and the result is an easy holiday layup the Celtics also tweaked their spacing playing with their Center in the Corner more so when they hunt Luca here Drew just touches and rolls inside Irving when the ball swung around to White he can attack the close out and they end up with free throws here’s the first play of the game notice Al Horford remind Brown to fill that strong side corner and that leaves donich alone on the other side when they reverse the ball holiday touches and rolls and this is exactly how you draw it up with Horford filling in that far side corner corner so the Dallas big man has to worry about him and that’s either going to be a wideopen three or a holiday layup Boston really wanted to stretch Dallas’s shot blockers by pulling them into the pick and roll action and playing from there Tatum isolates this time right into donic Drew makes a brilliant little cut behind on the Baseline and that’s another layup and this allows them to pull the shot blocker away from the rim then hunt on in pick and roll with Dallas’s Center forced to stay on the outside Tatum collapses the defense and that’s a nice pass for the wideopen Triple and on this one they first bring Derek Lively into the action then holiday drags donic up into the play and Jason goes before the screen which catches Lively off guard and leads to an and one so after Dallas spent a ton of time keeping one of their big centers near the rim in game four Boston surgically tugged and pulled those bigs out of the paint in game five to make it easier to finish and if there’s one stat that sums up this series it might be the number of shots defended near the hoop by Lively and Gafford who felt like brick walls standing in front of the basket in the first three rounds but against Boston were often pulled out of the way and sometimes played off the floor I love this counter in the second quarter with donic on the bench they pull the center out to Tatum first Dallas doesn’t want Kyrie on Horford so they switch off the corner but the Celtics then screen with that corner man only to fake the screen and pop wide open and that is just filthy the next time down they run the exact same play this time it’s defended much better so Tatum drives Forces help and plan b is another Brown three Tatum’s decision making and playmaking were a huge part of orchestrating this dance for the Celtics and this was probably the best playmaking series of Brown’s career making good decisions to punish Health Defenders this is vintage Celtics Tatum spaces Lively out of the paint so Brown can isolate against the Matador he patiently waits to make a move and then at the last second jump passes to an open shooter and white drains a three despite breaking his tooth on the floor on the prior play and this time Brown picks on Luca again backs up to build Steam and then dimes up porzingis from the corner Boston put donic in 17 pick and rolls per game According to second Spectrum more than any other team and nearly twice as many as Minnesota in the Western Conference Finals so they basically removed Dallas’s biggest defensive strength by stretching out those shot blockers just so they could expose Dallas’s biggest defensive weakness by attacking daage of course the Celtics are really smart and versatile on defense too and we saw some vintage possessions in this game staying with Cutters switching seamlessly then helping exactly when needed making plays in the passing lane and then doing little things like holiday closing to take away the corner pass so a weak shooter has to launch everyone on the team knows The Scouting Report and opponent Tendencies like holiday not recovering to the weaker shooter here or everyone staying down on Luca’s up fakes all series long or white knowing the game plan on this play by stunting toward Derek Jones Jr but making sure Kyrie isn’t open and the defense has never put in rotation white gives Boston another multifaceted defender in the back court next to Holiday the these dudes just terrorize people and he’s one of the best shop blocking guards of all time leading the Celtics in blocks during their playoff run by making all kinds of plays like this near the basket he’s also incredibly quick tracking the ball out anticipating everyone on the floor and he grabbed four offensive rebounds in this game too which means Boston has one of the coolest funkiest backcourts in NBA history that probably needs a tag team nickname like the Cookie Monsters or the swish Army knives or anything that captures how quietly devastating but uniquely versatile they are as a Duo remember this is a team that posted the best raw offensive efficiency ever and the fourth best offensive rating relative to League average in NBA history their playoff offense wasn’t quite as strong although some of that was because porzingis missed most of their postseason run and KP gives them a seriously deep spacing threat to play five out or pick and pop and he can punish mismatches if you switch a smaller player onto him in the pick and roll their entire rotation is filled with high volume three-point Shooters who make at least 35% from long range and Coach Missoula has drilled historically great spacing principles into this veteran team to maximize its offensive Talent so instead the Celtics probably authored more beautiful game possessions this year than any other team because of how well they move cut shoot and how willing they are to constantly make the next pass and find better and better shots so yes they played easy competition but they also made minc meat of that comp competition their efficiency wasn’t great in this series but they also never really had a good shooting game and the thing is they didn’t ever need it they’re just too good across the board and while Tatum is their best overall player and one of the League’s best two-way players this team is so good because of the interaction between the Jays white holiday porzingis Horford the coaching of Joe moula and even their bench players and the 24 Boston Celtics are the latest in a line of Ensemble Champions that don’t need the best player in the series to win because they’re simply the best team to support this channel check out patreon.com thinking basketball that’s the best way to support us and the thinking basketball podcast we have additional content and a ton of stats throughout the season and historically thanks so much for your support and viewership throughout this season we really appreciate it and hope that you have enjoyed our coverage otherwise that is it for 2024 congratulations to the Celtics on their 18th championship and wherever you are watching especially in Boston I hope you are having a great day