Boston’s hot start in context — what is the Celtics’ ceiling?

The Boston Celtics are arguably bound to reach the Eastern Conference Finals with the start they’ve had to the season.

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While the season may be far too young to draw any ironclad conclusions about how the title hunt for the NBA’s 30 franchises may look come April, one thing has become clear:

The Boston Celtics are for real.

Now, what “real” means in terms of postseason play is among the many things that haven’t been settled in terms of what we’ve seen so far from what many assumed to be a flawed roster — on paper — and which may yet prove to be one.

But much like how the roster looked on paper last season proved more akin to what was expected this season, and vice-versa, even the best analysts have been known to misread potential.

Last season, most of them fell for the allure of a star-powered lineup dominating the Atlantic Division, the East and maybe even the league as a whole. Now, more than a few Celtics fans are joining said analysts in scratching their collective heads and in a good way for a change.

At 8-1, the team sits squarely atop the league standings and barring a phenomenal game from Washington Wizards point guard Isaiah Thomas (who is still beloved in Boston) will likely expand that to a .900 record by Wednesday.

By the end of the week, the Celtics could easily bring their record to 12-1 after facing off against the depleted Golden State Warriors and struggling Sacramento Kings before they face a fairly tough stretch against the Phoenix Suns, Los Angeles Clippers and Denver Nuggets on the backside of their five-game West Coast road trip.

While a fair part of the last 15 years have been spent in rebuilding mode, four seasons over that span have mirrored the excellent start that Boston may have.

The 2017-18 Celtics began like a house on fire, winning 15 consecutive games after an 0-2 start and you’d have to hearken back to the Big Three era in Boston for the next such smoking start.

In 2009-10, the Celtics’ most heralded trio of the millennium got out to a similarly strong 8-1 record, though that actually was among the first signs of decline for that group when placed in a larger context.

The season prior, fresh off a championship win, Boston managed to jump off to a sizzling 27-2 start. In their championship season, the Celtics started the season 20-2.

In fact, of those three other noted seasons, they either made the Eastern Conference Finals (2009, 2018) or the NBA Finals (2008).

Is that predicative of similar outcome from this group?

If you’d asked such a question in October, it’s one that would have been shrugged — perhaps even laughed — off.

This team was materially weaker in terms of talent and structure both, with some of the same potential issues regarding their upcoming free agency period and the often-hungry mouths that contract years create still looming.

Yet, the clean sweep and culture shift orchestrated by the front office in bringing in high-character players from top to bottom, coupled with eliminating at least one of those aforementioned issues in signing fourth-year wing Jaylen Brown to a high-value long-term deal has proved prescient.

It seems to have re-ignited some of the fire we saw driving that 2017-18 Celtics squad far deeper into the postseason than most imagined, leaving many scrambling to understand how a team that lost two top-50 players can be doing so well.

Chemistry aside, adding All-NBA point guard Kemba Walker has been a major factor as well, as has been the resurgence of again-injured (though mercifully less seriously) Gordon Hayward, who has shown flashes of being the player Boston had hoped to deploy when they signed him in the summer of 2017.

Strong play and development from younger players — Brown and Tatum in particular — have also helped, with even this season’s expansive rookie class playing significant (and surprisingly mature) roles.

For a team with seven (yes, seven) such novates, the fact they are on pace to have one of the lowest turnover rates in league history suggests another factor needs to be considered.

That factor would be that Celtics head coach Brad Stevens, disappointed by the team’s lack of chemistry last season (per MassLive’s John Karalis) working diligently to find the best combinations he can have on the floor.

Chemistry, it seems, cannot be entirely ignored no matter whether we believe it a byproduct of other habits that lead to winning or a tangible intangible that any real contender needs to succeed.

After last season, the case for the former is a strong one. The question of whether this team is actually a contender given the tectonic shifts within the league’s elite teams over the summer is still a legitimate one though.

It is, as are many things, too early to tell. However, the signs of the Celtics becoming a truly special team are already undeniable.