Boston Celtics Daily Dish: Finally, Friday!
A good Friday morning to you all, Celtics Nation!
We are down to less than a week until the Boston Celtics tip-off their 2014-2015 NBA season – are you excited yet?
Or do you buy SI.com’s assertion that the Celtics will be one of the five least entertaining teams to watch this season?
Me, I’m cautiously optimistic. I don’t see the playoffs in the Celtics’ near future, but I don’t anticipate a team that is so painful to watch that I want to pull an Oedipus Rex and gouge my eyes out. In Brad we trust – there’s your mantra for this year.
(Of course, if you’re interested, here are Bleacher Report’s odds of each team making the playoffs in 14-15.)
Speaking of the least entertaining teams in the NBA for 14-15 – you know which teams were not on SI.com’s list? Any from the Western Conference. Really? Do you think the news that Los Angeles Lakers’ point guard Steve Nash will miss the entire season would change Matt Dollinger’s opinion any? As for your opinion of Nash, don’t let his recent spate of injuries change your outlook on just how good he was when he was healthy.
"He had done it in most every other manner before: back-to-back MVPs, eight-time All-Star, the only player in NBA history to shoot at least 50 percent from the field, 40 percent on 3-pointers and 90 percent from the line four times. That’s two more than Larry Bird and three more than everybody else, third all-time in total assists, first all-time in free-throw percentage with at least 1,200 makes.And if anything, Nash was underrated on offense — which is saying something considering the praise he earned. But to trigger one of the game’s lethal pick-and-roll games (particularly with superb finisher Amar’e Stoudemire) and also succeed in the high-octane offenses of coaches Mike D’Antoni and Alvin Gentry as the Suns reached the Western Conference finals is a note few point guards can reach. He was never a good defender who could get in the conversation with, say, John Stockton or Gary Payton as all-time great two-way point guards. But Nash with the ball was still a clinic.That’s Nash’s direct impact. His final legacy, though, won’t be known for years, maybe even for a decade."
Sad to see a great player limp his way to the finish line. Sadder still to think the damn Lakers might get another juicy draft pick because of this!
With the preseason all but wrapped up, it’s time to look at which players emerged as the biggest winners . . . and which have the dreaded L stamped on their foreheads!
The other day, I wrote a piece in which I declared that I wasn’t buying the fact that Rajon Rondo and the Boston Celtics would be willing to risk further injury by rushing Rondo to start on opening day. I had a reader criticize me for not being a doctor, which renders me incapable of commenting on the topic. For readers like that, I present this amazingly obvious piece over at ESPN on how healing will dictate whether or not Rondo plays next Thursday.
Duh.
Finally, here are some notes from Boston’s practice Thursday, including how rookie James Young felt in his NBA preseason debut.
Enjoy!