The Boston Celtics are a very, very good NBA team, and in some estimations, so good they could conceivably have as many as four players from their roster on the NBA’s 2024 Eastern Conference All-Star team.

And while such an outcome is very much an unlikely possibility, it is almost as unlikely that the best team in the NBA would have just one player in the league’s annual testament to mediocre basketball and a near-total absence of basketball. But the sacrifices the individual Celtics players are making may be playing a role in depressing the typically gaudy numbers that have put most players into the All-Star game.

If any Celtics player were to make this year’s All-Star squad, it’s probably going to be Jayson Tatum — and that is the only Boston player on Bleacher Report’s recent projections of who will be on this year’s All-Star team.

“This case can write itself in seven words: best player on perhaps the best team,” writes B/R.

“Tatum is also far more of a mission-critical offensive lifeline than his playmaking numbers suggest and despite what some of the on-off splits imply,” they add.

“Boston only recently started looking like a more coherent team when he’s not on the floor,” suggests B/R. “Like always, his defensive workload pales in comparison to that of his frontcourt running mates, Giannis and Embiid. But also like always, he wears a more disruptive hat than most other All-Stars, period.”

For our part, we think one All-Star is almost as unlikely four, with the difference in-between far more like. Whether that’s two or three Celtics taking part in All-Star Week ends up the reality remains to be seen.

But we are as certain as Bleacher Report is that Tatum will be among them, for all the reasons noted above.

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Story originally appeared on Celtics Wire