Boston Celtics Daily Dish: Happy For Hump Day!

Good morning, Boston Celtics fans!  Welcome to yet another Hump Day edition of the Daily Dish!

Let’s kick start today’s links with some good news: Boston Celtics rookie James Young has been cleared for basketball activity!

Yeah yeah yeah: Young is not going to see a lot of playing time this year, most likely.  I don’t care – it’s good news, dammit!

As excited as I am over the prospect of watching James Young play for the Boston Celtics, that’s nothing compared to how excited Kyrie Irving and the rest of the Cleveland Cavaliers must be feeling as their season approaches:

Kevin Durant thought King James’ decision to return home was “classy” – could it also have provided some motivation for Durant to consider heading back to his hometown in order to play with the Washington Wizards?

"In other words, it’s stressful enough to hear it from all the reporters…and friends…and family.As Durant already is—whether it’s the prospect of following Kobe Bryant with the glamorous Los Angeles Lakers or joining current USA Basketball teammates John Wall and Bradley Beal with the rising Washington Wizards to revive Durant’s hometown D.C. area.“It’s being talked about. Everybody’s asking me about it,” Durant said. “Every time I go on Instagram or Twitter. All my friends ask me about it. So I’m not going to sit here and act like I’m naive to the fact that people think about that stuff. But I just tell everybody, ‘Look, I’m here in Oklahoma City. I love it here. Who knows what’ll happen?'”"

KD still has two years until he becomes a free agent, so God help the man: he’ll be answering questions about returning home to D.C. for a long, long time.

Perhaps you have already hear that the NBA wants to overhaul the NBA Lottery in order to discourage tanking.  And perhaps you have already heard that the Philadelphia 76ers have already started tanking, despite the fact that the 2014-2015 NBA season has not even started!   If this sounds like a recipe for confrontation, you hit the nail on the head!

"The NBA is pushing toward changes to the draft lottery system by next season but is facing a strong objection from the  , the franchise that could suffer the most from it, multiple sources told ESPN.com. Philadelphia 76ers"

"Earlier this month at league meetings in Las Vegas, lottery reform measures were introduced and changes could be voted into place by the NBA Board of Governors at their preseason meeting in October. Though there are several facets and the proposals haven’t been finalized, essentially the goal of commissioner Adam Silver is to balance out the lottery odds so the worst team or teams wouldn’t have the highest chances of landing the top pick, sources said."

"Currently, the team with the worst record has a 25 percent chance of getting the top pick and the team with the fifth-worst record has an 8.8 percent chance of winning it. In a new format, this could be altered so the bottom five or six teams all would have an equal chance."

"Though the NBA likely will not frame it this way, these considered changes could be seen as an anti-tanking measure, as teams with the worst records may not earn significantly higher lottery odds."

Finally, check out this piece on Tyler Zeller’s future with the Boston Celtics.  Then, come back for my poll regarding Zeller and a certain Hombre Indestructible! Thanks!