The Boston Celtics came within two wins of an NBA championship last season and appeared to get even better this offseason. Many sportsbooks peg them as the 2023 NBA title favorite.
But the league's general managers apparently don't share the same optimism about the Celtics.
NBA.com on Tuesday published the results of its annual GM survey, which included a straightforward question for NBA front office leaders: "Which team will win the 2023 NBA Finals?" Here were the results:
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- Milwaukee Bucks – 43 percent
- Golden State Warriors – 25 percent
- Los Angeles Clippers – 21 percent
- Boston Celtics – 11 percent
Nearly half of all respondents picked the Bucks as the 2023 champs, while the Warriors and Clippers (!) both have better chances to win the title than Boston at 11 percent, per this survey.
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There's a pretty strong case for the Bucks, who took the Celtics to seven games in the second round of the 2022 playoffs without All-Star Khris Middleton and boast arguably the game's best player in Giannis Antetokounmpo. The defending champion Warriors also look like the team to beat in the Western Conference if Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green stay healthy.
But the Celtics were the best team in the NBA after the All-Star break last season, and their nucleus of Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown, Marcus Smart, Al Horford and Robert Williams is still intact. While Williams could miss the first two months of the season due to a knee injury, the Celtics are deeper than last season after trading for veteran guard Malcolm Brogdon, whom NBA GMs actually pegged as the most underrated player acquisition of the offseason.
Boston is already facing adversity with injuries to Williams and Danilo Gallinari (torn ACL) and the shocking suspension of Ime Udoka, who will be replaced by a 34-year-old assistant with no NBA head coaching experience in Joe Mazzulla. That said, the Celtics are battle-tested after last season's run to the Finals and are led by two very motivated young stars in Tatum and Brown.
The Clippers' duo of Kawhi Leonard and Paul George may boast more experience and overall talent, but neither player has appeared in more than 57 games since joining Los Angeles three seasons ago, so the Celtics seem like the stronger bet to make a deep playoff run.
Boston received plenty of praise from fans and the media for its strong offseason, but it sounds like executives still don't fully believe in this team -- which is probably just the way the Celtics want it.