Over the last few years, this idea of “The Process” has been thrown around the NBA, mainly being associated with the Philadelphia 76ers. “The Process” supports this year to year tactic of teams purposely losing (better known as tanking) to continuously position themselves within the first 3 – 5 picks in the NBA Lottery.

This way of team building emphasizes the lack of integrity by team managment and embraces a losing attitude only to get rewarded with the chance of selecting top 5 talent. But what if I told you that there was a “process” going on right now where the team still heavily competes AND they acquire top 5 – 10 talent. Four Words: “The Boston Celtics’ Way.”

The Boston Celtics could have fell into this fad of tanking to get better after watching Ray Allen leave for the Miami Heat, trading Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett to the Brooklyn Nets and moving on from the All Star caliber point guard in Rajon Rondo. Honestly in 20-20 hindsight, most would have thought that was exactly what they were doing after seeing these moves on top of them literally trading away their coach, Doc Rivers, in favor of moving towards an unproven coach in Brad Stevens from Butler University.

Yes, you heard correct, they traded their own coach to the Los Angeles Clippers, all for a single draft pick. Four of their best players and even the coach kicked to the curb and somehow they are still winning. All because of their Basketball Executive Danny Ainge. We don’t even have to look too far back to see his success, let’s just look at what he’s done in this season alone.

Changes in the Roster Before and During the Season:

• Traded Isaiah Thomas for Kyrie Irving
• Traded Avery Bradley to the Pistons in a contract year for Marcus Morris and a 2019 draft pick
• Drafted Jayson Tatum #3 (traded back with the 76ers to do so)
• Acquired Gordon Hayward; got hurt in the first few minutes of the very first game of the season
• Acquired Greg Monroe after he was bought out by the Suns
• Marcus Smart injured and was out until Game 4 of the 1^st Round of the playoffs
• Kyrie Irving injured and ruled out for the playoffs

Ainge has been frequently criticized and scrutinized for hoarding draft picks and never having any players to show for it, but through big name acquisitions like Kyrie Irving and Gordon Hayward, as well as promising play from his young, developing talent in Terry Rozier (drafted in 2016), Jaylen Brown (drafted in 2017), and Jayson Tatum, Ainge is in the works of building a future dynasty. The #1 seed last year and #2 seed this year in the Eastern Conference. Almost a lock to go to six or seven games in the Eastern Conference Finals against the Cleveland Cavaliers after getting out of the series with the mediocre team who coined “The Process” being the 76ers in the 2^nd round of the playoffs. I mean it’s absolutely amazing to see them having this kind of success and during the postseason, these players are only furthering Ainge’s excellence with their outstanding play in the absence of their two newly acquired all stars. The proof is in the stats. These three players led by their veteran big man in Al Horford have all raised their play and stepped up to challenge as a contending team in the Eastern Conference.

Terry Rozier (Playoffs)

2016-2017: 5.6 PPG, 1.9 APG, 2.6 RPG

2017-2018: 18.3 PPG, 6.1 APG, 5.5 RPG

Jaylen Brown (Playoffs)

2016-2017: 5.0 PPG, 0.8 APG, 2.1 RPG

2017-2018: 16.2 PPG, 1.3 APG, 4.9 RPG

Jayson Tatum

Regular Season: 13.9 PPG, 1.6 APG, 5.0 RPG

Playoffs 2017-2018: 18.3 PPG, 3.1 APG, 4.6 RPG

Al Horford - 2017-2018: Postseason Career high in points being 17.2 PPG as well as 3.4 APG and 8.7 RPG

I don’t know about the rest of the league, but I know the Celtics would take “The Boston Celtics’ Way” any day of the week over "The Process." In a league where it’s either you have 2 – 3 superstars to contend or you have nothing, the Celtics have developed a system where having a well-developed, hardworking team with a quality system can outshine any top heavy, star dependent team.

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