The reigning NBA champion Boston Celtics have a strong cast of players, and though they may not be a truly dominant team, they have a relatively young group of mainstays that many feel can repeat this summer.
One big challenge for any team that wins it all is to retain its core over time in order to maintain its chances of claiming another championship, and the Celtics recently lost one of their bench players.
Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN reported that Svi Mykhailiuk is leaving Boston to sign a four-year contract with the Utah Jazz.
Free agent F Svi Mykhailiuk has agreed on a four-year, $15 million deal with the Utah Jazz, agent Michael Lelchitski of @SIGSports tells ESPN. He played 41 games for the NBA champion Boston Celtics last season. pic.twitter.com/kfUMaN9nM8
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) August 9, 2024
In 41 regular season games with the Celtics last season, Mykhailiuk averaged 4.0 points in 10.1 minutes per game while shooting 38.9 percent from 3-point range.
Since coming into the NBA in the 2018-19 season, the Ukraine native has been known as a 3-point specialist and has a career mark of 36.3 percent from downtown.
If the Celtics have a real weakness, it’s their bench. They ranked 26th in bench points per game during the 2023-24 regular season, and one could argue that outside of Al Horford, who is 38 years old, they don’t have any productive reserves.
Starter Kristaps Porzingis had surgery for a rare left leg injury he was diagnosed with during the 2024 NBA Finals and could miss the start of this coming season as a result.
If he does, it would in turn make Boston’s bench even weaker for as long as he’s out.
The Eastern Conference arguably has gotten better this offseason, and thus the Celtics will really have to huff and puff to earn championship banner No. 19.