data-mm-id=”_f97fn9csq”>Imagine, if you will, that the Boston Celtics are like the eye of a hurricane. Then imagine the storm surrounding them is made up of takes rather than rain, thunder, and lightning. Takes flying at high speeds about Jayson Tatum's clutch factor and the team's inability to get their act together when the game is close in the final minutes and whether Kristaps Porzingis is built for playoff basketball and the functionality of Jaylen Brown's left hand against locked-in defenses . No matter what the Celtics do, whereever the eye wanders, they bring the storm with them. It's been that way all year. The 2023-24 Boston Celtics are the perfect lightning rod for the hot take industry. And that has become even more apparent in recent days after they blew a 20-point lead in eight minutes to the Donovan Mitchell-less Cleveland Cavaliers. Getting slammed for that is not unique to these Celtics at all. Whenever a championship contender gets lit up by a guy named Dean Wade and blows a huge fourth-quarter lead, the noise is going to get loud. Especially coming after a 50-point win over a dying dynasty and causes the end of a double-digit winning streak. But it's not just the Cavs game. It's everything about this team that makes it the best launching pad for the hot-take debates that rage in studios across the country. They are the best team in the league record-wise this year, and have been so absurdly dominant for much of the season that expectations are completely inverted. When they win, it's what was supposed to happen, even if it's a massive blowout against a team that won a title less than two years ago. When they lose, it's the end of the world. A catastrophe. Indicative of everything wrong with the team and the problems we've seen in the past. "You think Michael Jordan settles for that? LeBron settles for that?"— @ColinCowherd on Jayson Tatum's game winning shot attempt in loss to Cleveland pic.twitter.com/Eow0xbagMZ— Herd w/Colin Cowherd (@TheHerd) March 6, 2024Because the past plays a role here, too. The Celtics have been good enough for long enough that they're constantly in the championship discussion. Pundits have wondered if this is the year Tatum and Brown break through over the last four seasons. Now, in Year 5, after a Finals loss and several flops against the Miami Heat, the Celtics have reached the limit of how long you can be in that discussion before the discourse moves on. There will never be more interest in whether "this is the year." If Boston pulls off a championship then the hot takes take a drastic turn towards being less dramatic. Audiences care a lot less about whether or not they can do it again. It's about whether they can do it the first time. There will still be plenty of takes given about their ability to repeat but it won't carry the same weight or garner nearly the level of engagement. Similarly, if Boston loses and does not hang a banner, then the burden of proof falls on them to prove everyone wrong. It is no longer a hot take to argue that Tatum and Brown don't have the goods. Viewers will feel we have more than enough evidence of that and the take is then lukewarm. Which means… this is it. This is the sweet spot of the take zone. Anything a pundit can say– the Celtics do have what it takes, Tatum is a Kobe wannabe, whatever– will receive vitriolic pushback and massive engagement. Because right now, anybody can be right! Tatum and Brown have shown they can win in the playoffs, but haven't won a title, but haven't played with a player like Porzingis. The Celtics are hilariously dominant and talented and everyone felt that way last year and they lost to the Heat when the three-point shot dissipated from existence. You can pick nearly any stance you want and back it up with a decent body of evidence and there is no definitive right answer, which means there is no wrong answer. In the sense of the letter of the law, that's always the case with sports takes. There's nothing stopping Bart Scott from getting on ESPN tomorrow and attempting to claim, again, that Patrick Mahomes ain't all that and the Chiefs miss the playoffs next season. You can always take a stance, no matter how outrageous, and pick some stats to back it up and maybe you'll end up right. But the general public does not care nearly as much as they do about teams in the Celtics' position. A team on the precipice of greatness. Whether or not they can reach the sacred mountaintop. Can they seize the moment? Those nebulous concepts that cannot be proven anywhere other than on the field of play (and sometimes not even that) are what captures the eyeballs nowadays. As of now, the possibilities are endless. Nothing has been proven on the court. That's what makes the Celtics such a hot button topic. But it will not always be this way. This postseason will bring answers, answers that will dim the flames of discussion. The Celtics are a big-market team with big names so they'll always be on the production team's shortlist of topics to hit when they need an engagement boost. But truly will never get better than what we've seen this season and what we'll continue to see. The hurricane will fade. Now is the time to capitalize on the take potential.
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I don t think i…