Through two preseason games, the 2026-2027 Celtics look like the 2020-2021 bull market. It didn’t matter what you bought — it was going to the moon. Bitcoin, Dogecoin, gold, Tesla, it didn’t matter; everyone thought they had found the infinite money glitch. That’s what the Boston Celtics feel like two preseason games in. Jayson Tatum, Baylor Scheierman, Dillon Mitchell…everyone is playing wonderful basketball.
Now bear with me as I keep making barely sensical financial metaphors about this season’s
Boston Celtics.
The Bitcoin Bros:
Celtics fans know these names. The chaos wing contingent of Baylor Scheierman, Hugo Gonzalez, Jordan Walsh, and Dillon Mitchell are foundational to how this era of the Celtics wants to play basketball. Mash people on the offensive glass, move the ball, play with pace, and make life for opposing offenses a living hell. Celtics fans are like Bitcoin investors in the early 2010s: no one thinks internet gold is anything but a scam, or, in this case, the rest of the league is dubious that a tsunami of late-round draft picks is coming to terrorize the league.
They showed last season that they can impact winning and over two preseason games, these chaos agents appear to have levelled up. It shouldn’t surprise anyone, given their work ethic, age and tenure in the league.
This is before we mention rookies Dillon Mitchell and Chris Cenac Jr. It’s hard to envision a path for Mitchell to earn playing time with the glut of aforementioned chaos agents of Baylor, Hugo and Walsh (and Ron Harper Jr.), but Mitchell is a special athlete. He combines his explosiveness with IQ and feel for the game that has been evident through two preseason games. Cenac’s ability to play the power forward of center position provide more pathways to playing time. I would expect the rangy big man to spend most of his rookie season with Maine, but it wouldn’t shock me to see Cenac flash a few times in the regular season.
Blue Chippers:
Jayson Tatum is like Apple stock. It doesn’t seem like his stock can get any higher, but it does. I was already bullish on Tatum coming into this season and his 27 minutes of preseason action did not dissuade me. By Tatum’s own admission, he was around 80% when he returned mid-playoff push last year. He quickly reestablished himself as an All-NBA caliber player. With the rust already shaken off and a full offseason to build confidence in his body, I expect Tatum to regain his place on First Team All-NBA. In Tatum’s first preseason action, he was effortlessly dominant. An MVP award for Tatum is on the table.
After last season, Derrick White’s ticker was in danger of falling out of the S&P 500. Despite one of the best shot-blocking regular seasons of all time for a guard, his dreadful playoff shooting has investors feeling uncomfortable. White’s preseason debut was rocky; early in the game, he clanked a few threes and turned the ball over a couple of times. The smooth-headed guard (I can say that because I am also smooth-headed), was able to rally as the game went on, impacting the game on both sides of the ball. It would really ease the concerns of fans to see him go on a hot shooting run to start this season.
Backing Payton Pritchard’s NBA journey has felt like investing in a sleeper tech stock that sceptics wrote off as incapable of scaling. Only to watch it grow every year until it makes everyone who believed in it rich. While I’m not as bullish as some who think Payton Pritchard can become Jalen Brunson, I believe Pritchard will continue to develop into one of the league’s most potent weapons. Jayson Tatum and Payton Pritchard have been a lethal combination since entering the league. In over 4,000 minutes sharing the court together, Tatum and Pritchard have a net rating of +8.1. Pritchard is the perfect perimeter teammate for Tatum; he spaces the court out to the logo, and their screening actions are lethal, as the opponent who is tasked with guarding Pritchard typically has no prayer in guarding Tatum, so when they are in action together, it creates difficult choices for opposing defenses. In Pritchard’s limited preseason action, he looks ready to handle an even larger offensive burden.
Precious Metals:
Apologies to Mike Conley and Paul George, but gold, silver, and all precious metals are clearly the NBA vets of the investment landscape. Gold is one of humanity’s oldest commodities. Reliable and necessary. NBA Champions require precious veterans. Al Horford, Alex Caruso, Andre Iguodala, the list is endless. Paul George and Mike Conley are here to steady the locker room and, in George’s case, perfectly complement Jayson Tatum. The theoretical fit of George, an elite shooter and defender who should seamlessly amplify Tatum’s scoring and playmaking, came to life instantly in their preseason game against the Philadelphia 76ers. George’s willingness to buy into his new role as an ageing superstar will pay dividends this season.
Reading too much into preseason can be dangerous. However, by my calculations, the 2026-2027 Boston Celtics are going to the moon.
