Player Grades: Spurs 95 – Celtics 93
Boston Celtics (Summer League Squad)
Grade: A
Las Vegas Summer League Record: 4-1
The Celtics, were admittedly stacked entering summer league. There was no way they wouldn’t make the “Playoffs” this summer with more contracted players than most teams.
While they had two former first-round picks returning, it was actually the 2015 draftees that ultimately had the biggest impact.
The synergy between Mickey, Rozier and Hunter provided the boost this squad needed in order to compete. This trio was simply more talented, mature and NBA-ready than 90% of their opponents in summer league.
However, if it wasn’t for the wild card in Jonathan Holmes, this team would have suffered in the spacing department. At 6’9″, Holmes was the perfect stretch-power forward this squad needed in order to conduct it’s lethal brand of small ball. This allowed Mickey to move over to center, which created mismatches throughout the summer.
While the Celtics already have 17 players (with a 15 player maximum) signed, Ainge may want to consider finding a way to squeeze Holmes into the lineup. He’ll be a perfect player to come off the bench and spread the floor in limited intervals. In order to not hinder his development, he’d be a great player to monitor in Maine with the Red Claws.
In Summer League, he shot 45% (13-28) from three and had the highest PER at one point. Teams will likely see this and pick him up as a stretch-four option. Considering the stretch-four’s the most enticing position in the new age-NBA, don’t be surprised if a team – open to experimenting with small ball – picks him up.
The Celtics agenda includes Danny Ainge managing to reduce his number of players to 15. This should be very interesting, as it’ll likely involve at least one unexpected roster move.
At this point we can look forward to August 1st, when Brad Stevens will be the assistant coach for the World Vs. Africa exhibition game. He’ll bring along fellow-Celtics, Evan Turner and Marcus Smart to the ‘World’ team, assisting head coach Mike Budenholzer, with Gregg Popovich assuming head coaching duties for Team Africa.
It’ll be a long couple of months for fellow basketball junkies. Things will be very quiet for the C’s until media day in September, which unofficially kicks off the NBA season. However, I don’t know if I can make it to then.There’s only so much baseball (a vastly inferior sport) a man can watch. Sob.
“Don’t cry because it’s over, smile because it happened.”
~ Dr. Seuss