The concept lingered in the back of most minds at every stage of the Celtics' unexpectedly deep playoff run:
Imagine this team with Gordon Hayward and Kyrie Irving.
"A couple years ago when Danny (Ainge) put this whole plan together we wanted to give ourselves as many chances as possible," Celtics coach Brad Stevens said postgame. "When things that are tough happen, we don't want to take big dips. This group, we had two really tough injuries -- three really tough injuries. There's no dip. They just battled. They were special."
An 87-79 Game 7 loss to the Cavaliers is crushing no matter how you spin it. But who had the Celtics' season ending anywhere near the Finals?
"It was a pretty incredible run by a pretty incredible group of guys," Stevens said. "The pain is part of the path...this group was resilient and tough enough to do it anyways."
They almost did, and Stevens doesn't want to take detract from that by thinking too far into the future -- bright as that future might be.
"We obviously have a good thing going," he said, "But I don't want to take away from what those guys that were in that room just did."
Still, can you blame him for getting a little eager to start the next part of the path?
"As fun as it's been for a lot of guys, it's been heart wrenching in some ways for (Hayward and Irving) because they haven't been able to be out there on the court. I think they're going to be really excited to get back with it," he said. "I mean, I could take a couple days to kind of get away from it, but training camp can't come soon enough."
