For the month of October, Mitch Pratt, Andrew Kasmarek and Charlie Tritschler will be previewing the NBA teams for the exciting 2013-2014 season.
What I know:
- The three players and coach that brought Boston a title in 2008 are a memory. With Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett leaving for Brooklyn, and Doc Rivers forcing his hand to Los Angeles, this will not be the Celtics team we are now used to seeing.
- They hijacked Brad Stevens from Butler. Stevens is a basketball junkie. Basketball is all he knows. He is inexperienced, but the same could be said about Larry Brown at one time too.
Additions/Subtractions:
I mentioned the losses of Pierce, Garnett, and Rivers. They also traded Jason Terry. To replace them they got MarShon Brooks, Gerald Wallace and Kris Humphries. Humphries is solid. Wallace was on the ’99 Sacramento Kings[1], and Brooks for those that do not know is a scorer. He has tons of potential, but from watching the NBATV series “The Association” I have discovered Brooks is laughably bad at defense. As a rookie, his defensive deficiencies were overlooked as the Nets were struggling. Last year however, as they were competing for playoff positioning, Brooks’ matador defense was left on the pine. This guy can straight fill it up however, and he will be getting a lot of minutes. If you are playing fantasy basketball, do not be afraid to take him.
They drafted Kelly Olynyk from Gonzaga. I mean, he is tall and has long hair but do not think Adam Morrison. Morrison did a bunch of drugs and ended up in Europe looking like this.
What I have been pondering:
The Celtics have been a tricky team to put a finger on. Ainge is in a tough spot, but if he has shown anything through his tenure as the Celtics’ GM is that he will squirm until he is comfortable. He absolutely needs to figure out what the hell he is doing with Rajon Rondo. That much is for sure.
Rondo makes everyone around him significantly better, guys like Brooks and Jordan Crawford would get plenty of easy looks to capitalize on with Rondo distributing, and Jeff Green showed in the last year’s playoffs that he can play. They have some solid frontcourt pieces in Kris Humphries, Brandon Bass and the under-the-radar Jared Sullinger. And once again don’t sleep on Kelly Olynyk[2], he absolutely balled out during Summer League…
But In Beantown, it is all about the rings. The fans think it, and Ainge knows it. Rondo has been known as a huge turd, and he has already scuffed about the roster. Ainge knows that when Rondo returns from injury that a lot of responsibility will automatically fall unto him. Rondo has always had guys like Garnett and Pierce around to help him when he is struggling. Those guys are gone. He has also always had Doc Rivers to guide him, who now he is replaced with a rookie head coach. Ainge sees that this could be a problem.
Prediction:
If Rondo somehow stays all year and comes back from his knee injury problem free, I see these guys grabbing the seven or eight seed. Rondo is too good. Watch this, this or this. He will win games by himself when he needs to, but ultimately I think this season will go only one way for Boston, and that is south towards the draft lottery. Ainge realizes that in todays NBA, unless you have the opportunity to get LeBron James (slim in Boston’s case) or you cash in on a top pick, it is hard to compete for championships. Usually it takes teams a couple years to bottom out, Ainge might be able to squeeze Boston’s tank period into one year. The Celtics will more than likely trade Rondo, tank for a top pick, and then use their open cap space to snag a top free agent after the draft.
Pencil them into the lower third of the East this year.
-Andrew
[1]Like the same Kings team that had White Chocolate Jayson Williams, Chris Weber and Vlade Divac. The same team that was super pesky to Shaq, Kobe and Robert Horry. The same team that Shaq called the Queens. Wallace is old.
[2]Two things just happened that I’m really struggling with. 1. I just said that Kris Humphries was a solid frontcourt piece. I’m sorry. 2. I just told you to not sleep on Kelly Olynyk.
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