Matt Barnes has no hesitation — he thinks the Boston Celtics are the team to beat in not only the Eastern Conference, but the NBA as a whole. The 44-year-old NBA veteran believes the defending champs are the NBA Finals favorites heading into the 2024-25 season. He went on to argue that the 2024 Summer Olympics snub of Jaylen Brown combined with the limited playing time that Jayson Tatum saw will only provide even further fuel as the Celtics look to repeat.
“I like Boston,” Barnes said when asked who are his title favorites during a one-on-one interview. “I like Boston because [Kristaps] Porzingis had a whole offseason to get healthy and Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown got did dirty. Tatum not playing in the Olympics was horrible and there's no excuse for it. And Jaylen Brown not even getting an opportunity in the Olympics after the season he had, winning Finals MVP was very disrespectful.”
“So I know those two are going to come out with a chip on their shoulder,” Barnes continued. “I like them in the East — although there's a couple of other teams. I like Philly, I think Milwaukee's window is closing with their team as great as Giannis [Antetokounmpo] still is.”
Despite winning Finals MVP after leading the Celtics to their first title in 16 years, Brown wasn't among the 12 selected for the Team USA roster, with role players such as Jrue Holiday and Derrick White selected over him. Meanwhile, despite leading the Celtics with 22.2 points per game during the NBA Finals, Tatum was a healthy scratch for two of the games and only averaged 5.3 points in 17.7 minutes per game.
Tatum — who didn't play in the semifinal victory over Serbia and played just 11 minutes in the Final against France — spoke of the humbling experience shortly after the conclusion of the Olympics, via Brian Windhorst of ESPN.
“You're not necessarily worried about fueling me for November or [whenever] the season is, but like I said, it's something I'm going to take away from this and learn from this experience,” Tatum said back in August. “It's definitely challenging and humbling at the same time.”
Considering the Celtics dominated the Western Conference champion Dallas Mavericks, in five games with Porzingis limited due to injury and missing two of those games, it's hard to envision a team unseating Boston if they're fully healthy.
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While Barnes is fully confident in anointing the Celtics as the title favorites and the team to beat coming out of the Eastern Conference, he's not so sure about who's coming out of the Western Conference due to the youth movement with the Oklahoma City Thunder and the Minnesota Timberwolves. It's a big reason why he believes the LeBron James-led Los Angeles Lakers and Steph Curry-led Golden State Warriors — two veterans who led Team USA to a gold medal — will be battling for play-in spots.
“In the Western Conference, it's young,” Barnes explained. “I think youth is going to be at the top, I think it's going to be Oklahoma City up there. I think they got a lot better with Isaiah Hartenstein and Alex Caruso. They were already No. 1 in the West, I think last year was good for experience. Interested to see how Minnesota acclimates Julius Randle and Donte DiVincenzo. Dallas, I don't think Dallas made a lot of moves to get better this year. But they represented the Western Conference and then you can't forget about Denver. And then Ja [Morant] is back (in Memphis).”
As Barnes continues to re-iterate, the Celtics are a “safe bet” when it comes to coming out of the East and winning the title.
“I think it's going to be an exciting year,” Barnes said. “The one safe bet I can say is I feel like Boston is going to come out of the East and I feel like they're going to win a championship. I don't know who's going to come out of the West yet. It's up in the air still.
