Richard Jefferson: Boston still would’ve won title with Donovan Mitchell instead of Jayson Tatum

Former Cleveland Cavaliers forward Richard Jefferson is seemingly incredibly high on the roster that the Boston Celtics had last season. He claimed that the Celtics would have won the 2024 NBA title even if the team had Donovan Mitchell instead of Jayson Tatum on its roster.

It’s up for debate as to which of Jaylen Brown or Tatum was the Celtics’ best player during the team’s title run, but the latter led the team in several major statistics, including points, rebounds and assists per game.

Mitchell is an elite scorer like Tatum, but it’s hard to argue that he is on the same level of Tatum as a playmaker, rebounder or defender.

Though Tatum may be the better all-around player of the two, one can see where Jefferson is coming from when he claimed that the Celtics would have still won the 2024 title if Mitchell were on the team instead of Tatum when considering all the talent on Boston’s roster.

The 2023-24 iteration of the Celtics was full of talented complementary players around Tatum and Brown. For one, Jrue Holiday and Derrick White made up one of the better defensive backcourts in the history of the NBA, as both players qualified for the All-Defensive Second Team last season.

Kristaps Porzingis also enjoyed a successful season in his first season in Boston. Across 57 games played in the regular season, he averaged 20.1 points and 7.2 rebounds per game.

Even folks such as Payton Pritchard and Sam Hauser were stars in their roles off the bench for the Celtics.

Mitchell will try to join Tatum among the long list of stars in the NBA today who have won a title, but the Cavaliers don’t necessarily stand out as the favorites to come out of the Eastern Conference next year. The Celtics are essentially running it back with last year’s championship squad, and the Philadelphia 76ers look like an improved team after it added Paul George, Caleb Martin and Eric Gordon in free agency.