As the NBA playoffs begin, Boston Celtics President Danny Ainge, Coach Brad Stevens and the entire Boston Celtics team hope to improve on last year’s encouraging performance. After being eliminated by the Cleveland Cavaliers in 2015, the fifth seeded Celtics would like to get off to a good start by upsetting the fourth seeded Atlanta Hawks in 2016. Isaiah Thomas, the team’s 5-foot- 9 all-star led the team in scoring and assists during the regular season. Hopefully, he can also lead them to a deep run in the playoffs.

How They Reached This Point

Going into this season, many experts believed the Celtics wouldn’t be able to compete with the top teams in the league if they didn’t have a superstar player. Isaiah Thomas hadn’t been with Boston for the entirety of the 2014-15, but he emerged this year as one of the league’s top point guards. The Celtics have had little to no difficulty scoring while leading the Eastern Conference in that category.

With six players having averaged double figures in scoring, the team had plenty of options. On the defensive side, key players such as Marcus Smart, Jae Crowder and Avery Bradley were able to shut down the league’s top players. The Celtics had key wins this season against the Cavaliers, Raptors, Clippers and even the practically unbeatable Golden State Warriors on April 1.

Looking Towards the Future

For the upcoming 2016 NBA Draft, the Celtics will have a plethora of picks, including three in the first round. Highlighting this year’s picks is the one the Celtic’s received in the trade with the Brooklyn Nets for Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett.  It has the third best odds of being the top overall pick. The lottery system will determine whether the pick is anywhere from first to seventh overall in the draft, so they have a good chance of obtaining a high impact player, and that makes AHS freshman Mohammad Zaidan very happy.  “The future looks really bright for the Celtics; they are a superstar away from being a contender,” said Zaidan.

Most think that Ben Simmons, a 6-foot-10 versatile forward from LSU will be the number one pick.  With comparisons to LeBron James, he is being sought after by all teams who have a chance of receiving the number one overall pick. No matter where the Celtics finish this season, the future looks bright for years to come.