Celtics Takeaways from 2024 NBA Trade Deadline 1 Week Later | News, Scores, Highlights, Stats, and R

OK, this was probably true even before the deadline, but coming out of trade season, it feels like the Shamrocks are running unopposed for Eastern Conference supremacy.

For most of this season, the consensus was there were three inner-circle contenders in the East: the Celtics, Milwaukee Bucks and Philadelphia 76ers. Maybe that still winds up being the case, but for now at least, those others simply aren't in Boston's class.

The Bucks have yet to master the two-man game between Giannis Antetokounmpo and Damian Lillard, and they've gone just 3-6 since handing the coaching reins over to Doc Rivers. The Sixers, meanwhile, are predictably spiraling since losing MVP big man Joel Embiid to a meniscus injury.

With all due respect to teams like the Cleveland Cavaliers and New York Knicks, they won't strike fear into the Celtics the way a clicking-on-all-cylinders Bucks team or a full-strength Sixers squad would.

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