We did it, fans of the Boston Celtics. We made it to the month of September amid one of the longest breaks in Celtics basketball, thanks to an ignominious defeat at the hands of the New York Knicks in the 2025 NBA Eastern Conference Semifinals. But let’s not dwell on that debacle, and instead do what we do at this desolate stretch of the league calendar: rank things in the NBA!
Generally speaking, we tend to shy away from such exercises simply to drive engagement. But it can be a fun exercise to inject at least a smidgen of objectivity into the process for an assessment on which Celtics players have been the most impactful — or at least recognized as such — over the course of the last quarter-century now that we are heading into the first season of the next 25 years of the current 100-year stretch kicked off at the millennium.
For this exercise, we put together a rubric based on the awards a player has been given over the course of that stretch played with the Celtics, and the higher echelons of the league’s prestige awards are weighted a bit heavier, if admittedly arbitrarily. Do not view this list as a take on canon — it’s September, and this is a take, if an informed one.
How does the scoring work?
The scoring is as follows: All-NBA First Team: 4 points; All-NBA Second Team: 2 points; All-NBA Third Team: 1 point; All-Star = 1 point; Defensive Player of the Year: 3 points; All-Defensive First Team: 2 points; All-Defensive Second Team: 1 point; Scoring leader: 2 points; MVP: 5 points; Finals MVP: 3.5 points; Eastern Conference Finals MVP: 1 point; All-Star MVP: 1 point; Sixth Man of the Year: 1 point; Player of the Month: 0.5 points.
No. 10 – four-way tie
Malcolm Brogdon – Sixth Man of the Year 2023 (1 point)
Payton Pritchard – Sixth Man of the Year 2025 (1 point)
Robert Williams III – All-Defense Second Team 2022 (1 point)
Kemba Walker – All-Star 2020 (1 point)
No. 9 (tie) – Kyrie Irving
All-NBA Second Team 2019 (2 pts)
Total: 2 points
No. 9 (tie) – Ray Allen
All-Star 2008-09 (2 pts)
Total: 2 points
No. 9 (tie) – Derrick White
All-Defense Second Team 2023-24 (2 pts)
Total: 2 points
No. 9 (tie) – Al Horford
All-Defense Second Team 2018 (1 pt)
All-Star 2018 (1 pt)
Total: 2 points
No. 8 – Isaiah Thomas
All-NBA Second Team 2017 (2 pts)
Player of the Month 2017 (1x 0.5 pts)
Total: 2.5 points
No. 7 (tie) – Antoine Walker
All-Star 1998, 2002-03 (3 pts)
Total: 3 points
No. 7 (tie) – Avery Bradley
All-Defense First Team 2016 (2 pts)
All-Defense Second Team (1 pt)
Total: 3 points
No. 6 – Marcus Smart
All-Defense First Team 2019-20, 2022 (6 pts)
Defensive Player of the Year 2022 (3 pts)
Total: 9 points
No. 5 – Jaylen Brown
NBA Finals MVP 2024 (3.5 pts)
All-NBA Second Team 2023 (2 pts)
All-Star 2021, 2023-25 (4 pts)
Total: 9.5 points
No. 4 – Rajon Rondo
All-NBA Third Team 2012 (1 pt)
All-Defense First Team 2010-11 (4 pts)
All-Defense Second Team 2009 (1 pt)
All-Star 2010-13 (4 pts)
Total: 10 points
No. 3 – Kevin Garnett
All-NBA First Team 2008 (4 pts)
Defensive Player of the Year 2008 (3 pts)
All-Defensive First Team 2009 (2 pts)
All-Defensive Second Team 2008, 2012 (2 pts)
All-Star 2008-11, 2013 (5 pts)
Total: 16 pts
No. 2 – Paul Pierce
All-NBA Second Team 2009 (2 pts)
All-NBA Third Team 2002-03, 2008 (3 pts)
All-Star 2002–06, 2008–12 (10 pts)
NBA Finals MVP 2008 (3.5 pts)
Scoring leader 2002 (2 pts)
Player of the Month (4x 1 pt = 2 pts)
Total: 22.5 points
No. 1 – Jayson Tatum
All-NBA First Team 2022-24 (4x 4 pts = 16 pts)
All-NBA Third Team 2020 (1 pt)
Eastern Conference Finals MVP 2024 (1 pt)
All-Star 2020-25 (6x 1 pt = 6 pts)
Scoring leader 2023 (2 pts)
Player of the Month (5x 1 pt = 2.5 pts)
All-Star MVP 2023 (1 pt)
Total: 33.5 pts
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