I can't say with confidence that I have "zero doubt" about them hanging a banner soon, because the NBA is just too hard, and the league has been littered with all-time great players who never won a ring: Barkley, Stockton, Malone, Ewing, Harden, Nash, etc.
But I do think that there's a pretty good chance they'll get a championship with this core of Tatum and Brown. While Tatum seemed to shrink from the moment, Brown didn't (other than a bad game 5). But again...Tatum is just 24, and in his age 23 season did things that Jordan, Curry, LeBron, Giannis, and a bunch of other all-time greats didn't do. It's not an excuse (he's "just a kid"). It's just the reality that unless at that age you are already paired with an elite player - like Magic had with Kareem, and Bird had with Parish and Tiny (we forget he was a HOFer), and excellent support in Maxwell and McHale - 24 years of age is really too young to carry a team to a title, historically speaking. Or else we'd have seen lots of these other great players do it.
It took all of them til their mid- or late- 20s in order to win a championship. There's no reason to think that Tatum *CAN'T* get there. Al probably stays one more year, but in some ways all they really needed was a healthy Time Lord (a sketchy proposition, I know) and a productive bench (more on that in a second) and they could have won this series.
Top three bench players (White, Grant, Pritchard), last 3 games:
- Game 4: 5-16 (.313), 19 points, 3 reb, 1 ast, 4 to
White: 4-12, 16 points, 1 reb, 1 ast, 3 to
Grant: 1-2, 3 points, 1 reb, 0 ast, 0 to
Pritchard: 0-2, 0 points, 1 reb, 0 ast, 1 to
- Game 5: 1-9 (.111), 4 points, 5 reb, 4 ast, 4 to
White: 0-4, 1 point, 1 reb, 3 ast, 0 to
Grant: 1-2, 3 points, 3 reb, 1 ast, 3 to
Pritchard: 0-3, 0 points, 1 reb, 0 ast, 1 to
- Game 6: 2-10 (.200), 5 points, 4 reb, 2 ast, 3 to
White: 1-6, 2 points, 2 reb, 0 ast, 1 to
Grant: 1-2, 3 points, 1 reb, 1 ast, 1 to
Pritchard: 0-2, 0 points, 1 reb, 1 ast, 1 to
So in the last 3 games, all Celtic losses, these three bench players COMBINED for:
8-31 (.258), 28 points, 12 rebounds, 7 assists, and 11 turnovers
They were virtually invisible in the last three games, putting ALL the responsibility for production on the starters. And since Rob was hobbling, that put a TON of pressure on, really, Tatum and Brown. Smart, as usual, tried to step up, but when Marcus Smart is one of your go-to scorers, you know you're in trouble. And they were.
So they're going to need to upgrade their bench considerably - either by acquiring different players or by having these three all grow significantly over this next year so that when the playoffs come around again, we don't see that kind of disappearing act.
And of course we did see each of these guys have their quality playoff moments, for sure, so we know they're CAPABLE. But man, these last three games, they disappeared completely (White did score in game 4, even as he shot poorly overall).
Smart gives Boston a TON, but for sure, trading him, since they do have White (at 6'4", he's longer than Smart), who can approximate what Smart does, might be a way to acquire scoring help off the bench. Who knows.
So I don't know if they'll win a title, but if nothing else, they'll be right there in the mix for a while with Tatum and Brown, who are, I believe, still ascending players (and they're already really good). They do have things to work on and areas to grow in, but again, they're still young.
I'm very hopeful.