Boston Celtics have five players ranked in The Athletic’s top-125 player tier rankings

Boston has solid representation in the overall range of players, but are some underrated?

The Athletic’s Seth Partnow has released his second annual NBA player tiers assessment, with five current Boston Celtics ranked among the league’s 125 best players, stacked in tiers of what Partnow describes as “an expression of which skills, traits, and combinations one has identified as most important in playoff basketball.”

The Athletic analyst does take into account things outside of the control of players like COVID and similar, non-viral factors which might have distorted a player’s value, but ultimately places a premium on which players — and their capabilities — can help a team hang banners at the end of next season.

Let’s take a look at his assessment of the Celtics relative to their peers around their league — and last season.