Celtics' new starting five has real chance to rank among team's best ever
Celtics' new starting five has real chance to rank among team's best ever originally appeared on NBC Sports Boston
The Boston Celtics have built a very talented and deep roster entering the 2023-24 NBA season.
They added All-Star caliber players in point guard Jrue Holiday and center Kristaps Porzingis to an already strong core consisting of Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown, Derrick White and Al Horford. Boston, at least on paper, has the best roster in the league.
Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla has indicated his team could use a bunch of different starting lineups this season. With so many new players, it makes sense to tinker with the lineup in the regular season and figure out which five-man rotations work best together.
But we know Tatum and Brown are going to start when healthy. Same for Porzingis. Holiday likely starts most of his games as well. That leaves White or Horford as the fifth guy, and the choice for who starts probably will come down to the matchup that particular game.
For now, let's assume a regular starting lineup of Holiday, White, Brown, Tatum and Porzingis.
This lineup is absolutely stacked. Tatum just became the first Celtics player to average 30-plus points per game for an entire season (30.1 to be exact), while Brown posted a career-high 26.6 points per game. Tatum and Brown were selected first and second team All-NBA, respectively. Porzingis poured in a career-high 23.2 points per game last season, while shooting 38.5 percent from 3-point range. Holiday scored 19.3 points per game and played elite perimeter defense. White is an excellent combo guard who can defend, shoot and run an offense.
This lineup is versatile, it has great shooting, it can defend at a high level and it's very athletic. There are almost no weaknesses in this starting five, making it the most formidable group in the league. The real question is whether Boston can stay healthy.
Will it become the best, or one of the best starting lineups in Celtics history? If yes, it has to beat out the groups listed below.
Here are the four best starting fives to ever grace the parquet floor for Boston.
1. 1986-87 Celtics
PG: Dennis Johnson
SG: Danny Ainge
SF: Larry Bird
PF: Kevin McHale
C: Robert Parish
Total PPG: 99.9
You might be wondering, where's the 1985-86 team? It's the best Celtics team of all time. That's true, but the starting lineup for the 1986-87 team was actually better, and it had to be because the depth in 1986-87 was worse than the year before. It also didn't help that head coach K.C. Jones played his starters way too many minutes. Four starters in 1986-87 played 37-plus minutes per game. Zero Celtics starters played that many minutes in 2022-23. Part of that is a reflection of the era, but it's still a crazy number.
This starting lineup averaged 99.9 points, which is 10.4 more than the 1985-86 squad. McHale was at the peak of his powers this season and set career highs of 26.1 points and 9.9 rebounds per game, while leading the league with a 60.8 field goal percentage. McHale also was first team All-Defensive and All-NBA.
Larry Bird was First-Team All-NBA, too, and finished third in MVP voting after winning the award each of the previous three years. Bird also became the first player to join the 50-40-90 club. He shot 52.5 percent from the floor, 40 percent from 3-point range and 91 percent from the free throw line. He accomplished this feat in 1987-88 as well, and he's one of just three players (along with Mark Price and Reggie Miller) from the entire 1980s and 1990s to do it.
Robert Parish, at 33, led the team with 80 games played and set a career high with 37.1 minutes played per game. He was the glue that kept an All-Star frontline intact. Dennis Johnson was one of the best defensive guards of all time and could chip in offensively, too.
Injuries and a lack of a good bench ultimately prevented this team from winning a title, but it's hard to come up with a more dominant starting five in Celtics history.
2. 2007-08 Celtics
PG: Rajon Rondo
SG: Ray Allen
SF: Paul Pierce
PF: Kevin Garnett
C: Kendrick Perkins
Total PPG: 73.3
The first year of the new "Big 3" was phenomenal. Not only could this group score, its defense was incredible, led by Defensive Player of the Year award winner Kevin Garnett. Garnett changed the culture in Boston and instilled a kind of energy and focus on defense that was contagious.
Paul Pierce, Ray Allen and Garnett all had to sacrifice a little bit offensively for the good of the team, and neither player averaged 20-plus points per game. But they could still score at any time. Pierce was lethal from the mid-range, Allen was a great 3-point shooter, and Garnett could bully defenders on the low block. Rondo was a very competent floor general and a solid defensive player, while Perkins provided much-needed interior defense and rebounding.
The Celtics finished with 66 wins (third-most in team history) and the fifth-best net rating (11.2) of all time.
It all added up to the Celtics' 17th championship with a 4-2 series win over the Los Angeles Lakers in the 2008 NBA Finals.
3. 1972-73 Celtics
PG: Jo Jo White
SG: Don Chaney
SF: John Havlicek
PF: Paul Silas
C: Dave Cowens
Total PPG: 90.4
This Celtics team was loaded, and it might be the franchise's best squad that didn't win a championship. The 1972-73 Celtics won a team record 68 games, including a 26-3 start and a 14-1 end to the regular season. Hall of Fame center Dave Cowens won the league MVP award.
An injury to Havlicek in Game 3 of the Eastern Conference Finals was too much for the Celtics to overcome against a great New York Knicks team that won the series in Game 7 at Boston Garden and ultimately won the NBA Finals.
4. 1964-65 Celtics
PG: K.C. Jones
SG: Sam Jones
SF: Tom Heinsohn
PF: Tom "Satch" Sanders
C: Bill Russell
Total PPG: 73.7
This was probably Bill Russell's best team as a Celtic. This group won 62 games -- the most by a Russell-led Celtics squad -- and defeated the Lakers 4-1 in the NBA Finals. Russell averaged 24.1 rebounds per game and his 5.3 assists per game were the most ever for a center in a single season at that time. K.C. Jones and Tom "Satch" Sanders were two of the best defensive players at their position, and Sam Jones ranked among the best scorers and clutch performers (9-0 in Game 7s) of his era.
John Havlicek came off the bench, making this squad one of the best in league history.
