Glad to see Boston get their act together and roll through Chicago. IT did not matchup well with Rondo, at all, but I think a lot of people wrote off IT and Boston after their troubling start, which was understandable given what IT had to deal with personally. I'm not sure if they can win a title with IT but that has less to do with IT and more to do with how Boston assembles the rest of their team. Golden State is ridiculously good and will be for another 2-3 years, at least. Cleveland is still the team to beat in the East. Kawai and the Spurs are much better than I think anyone predicted they would be post-Duncan and are contenders as long as Pop is coaching. If Houston can add another star they'd become contenders also.
They are getting valuable playoff experience this year and if they can make it to the ECF and win a game or two against Cleveland they could make a splash in the offseason to really challenge for a title next year. I think Stevens is a good enough coach to lead them to a title, it's matter of adding another star or two though to play alongside IT though that would be needed for them to be able to beat Golden State or Cleveland. They have the cap space to offer someone the max but there aren't a lot of good to great FA's this offseason but they definitely have the trade pieces to bring one in, it's a matter of getting the right one though. If they brought in Melo, I don't see that moving the needle but guys like Paul George and Andre Drummond will be available in the offseason like they were at the deadline. The Brooklyn pick alone should be able to fetch them a star. They own Brooklyn's pick next year and have a lot of young talent also, so who knows what they end up doing. I hope they swing for the fences though because Lebron has had it too easy out East for too long.
