Indiana
Indiana Pacers conference rival offseason check-in: Boston Celtics
Only two teams beat the Indiana Pacers three times last season — the Chicago Bulls, who are a weaker squad, and the champion Boston Celtics. Even the best teams couldn’t consistently beat Indiana, but Boston was a different beast.
In the postseason, the Pacers and Celtics met again, and the series ended in a sweep. Indiana may have taken down Boston twice during the regular season, but in general, the Celtics had the Pacers number. They’re a terrific team. They won the title for a reason.
After acquiring Jrue Holiday and Kristaps Porzingis last summer, Boston was set up pretty well to be at the top of the association for a year or two. Since then, they extended Jaylen Brown’s contract, extended Jayson Tatum’s contract, extended Holiday’s contract, and found ways to pay the rest of their talent on fair contrats. The Celtics are set up to be great as long as their financial situation will let them.
That made their 2024 offseason extremely straightforward. After winning a championship and having a core locked up, Boston just needed to keep everyone that was important and minimize their losses. They were able to do so, and it was fairly pain free.
As of this writing, the only two departures for the Celtics in the summer of 2024 are former Pacers forward Oshae Brissett and guard Svi Mykhailiuk. Neither of them were in Boston’s nightly rotation last season, and they didn’t play much in the playoffs. They were replaceable.
Instead of those two, the Celtics have added Baylor Scheierman (via a first-round draft pick) and Lonnie Walker (via free agency). Walker may not be around when the season comes, but those two fill an open forward and guard spot from the Celtics departures.
Elsewhere, Boston’s rotation is the same. Holiday, Tatum, Brown, Derrick White, Porzingis, Xavier Tillman, Sam Hauser, Luke Kornet, Neemias Queta, and Al Horford are all back. That is, on paper and in practice, the best rotation in the NBA.
Boston’s offseason was fairly trivial as a result. They have an amazing team and they were willing to keep everyone — so they did. They should be considered the championship favorites for the coming season.
In fact, after the offseason in Boston, the Celtics should be thought of as potential favorites for the next few seasons. In just the last four months, Holiday and Tatum have added to their deals. In the offseason, the front office kept Hauser and White on longer deals. The core of the champs are all locked up for the next few years.
They will be tough for anyone, including the Pacers, to topple. Indiana’s up-tempo style did give the Celtics fits at times, and their playoff series was closer than the 4-0 result suggested. But Boston will continue to grow. Indiana will have to improve to keep up.
The Celtics offseason was simple. If they were willing to pay all of their players, they should have. And that’s what President of Basketball Operations Brad Steven did. Boston’s roster is back together, and they will be hard for the Pacers to take down in the coming seasons.
RIPLEY COUNTY, Ind. (WSBT) — A statewide Silver Alert has been issued for two young children in Indiana.
Police in Ripley County, southeast of Indianapolis, are looing for the children who may be siblings.
The first child is 3-year-old Aaliyah Buckingham.
She was last seen wearing a pink cat shirt and tie-dye shorts.
The younger child is 1-year-old Shane Buckingham, last seen in a red shirt and diaper.
Police think both are with 45-year-old Timothy Buckingham, who was last seen driving a brown GMC truck.
Timothy is described as a 6′ 3″ white man weighing 225 pounds with brown hair and blue eyes.
Photo of Timothy Buckingham provided by Indiana State Police
Police have not confirmed the relationship of the three, or why the children are believed to be in danger.
Anyone who sees the three are asked to contact the nearest police department.
INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — A firefighter for the Indianapolis Fire Department was sent to the hospital Wednesday after battling a fire at a vacant house.
According to a Facebook post made by IFD, the fire happened around 10:15 a.m. at a house on Bluff Rd. IFD says that there were several complications, including limited access to fire hydrants and “interior hoarder conditions” that IFD says was due to squatters.
The injured firefighter received “slight injury,” the Facebook post said.
It took over an hour and a half to get the fire under control, according to IFD, and another hour to put out all the remaining hot spots in the building.
According to IFD, the cause of the fire is currently unknown. Their Fire Investigations Unit is working on figuring out what caused the fire.
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