Boston Celtics: 3 bold Houdini predictions for Cs in 2020-21
By Mark Nilon
Boston Celtics bold prediction No. 2) Aaron Nesmith will make All-Rookie team
Last week, Bleacher Report came out with an article discussing players on each team that people should get excited about seeing heading into the season.
In every section, writer Andy Bailey would go on to list both the “obvious choices” and an “under-the-radar choice.” While you might have expected he went on to chose Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown in the first category, for the second Bailey went on to list the C’s lottery selection, Aaron Nesmith, in the second.
His reasoning read as follows:
"First-year players are rarely ready to contribute right away, but on a team with Tatum and Brown, Nesmith may not be asked to do much more than catch-and-shoot. And his abbreviated sophomore season at Vanderbilt suggests that’s well within his capabilities. Nesmith only played in 14 games in 2019-20, but that was enough time to get 115 three-point attempts up. He hit a whopping 60 of those (52.2 percent). As we just saw with Cameron Johnson on the Phoenix Suns, high-end shooting and a little size can be enough to help, even as a rookie. And at 6’6″, Nesmith should be able to switch all over the floor with Tatum, Brown and Smart."
We certainly don’t expect Nesmith to post anything close to what he did during his final season at Vanderbilt, where he averaged 23 points, 4.9 rebounds, 1.4 steals, and just under a block per game on 51 percent shooting from the floor and 52 percent shooting from deep.
That said, if he were to post, say, a fraction of these kinds of stats, he would easily have a chance at being considered one of the best first-year players from the 2020 draft.
The Celtics will likely look to give the collegiate scoring machine ample opportunities this season, as he was brought on as a potential answer to their second-unit offensive woes. Last year, Boston’s bench seemed incapable of scoring, as they finished the season ranked 29th in points per game (28.5), 28th in 3-point percentage (31.8), and 20th in offensive rating (53.6).
We believe his skillset compliments this team quite well and, being that he’ll be on a team boasting quite a few capable scorers already, clean looks at a basket could come his way rather easily, thus allowing points to rack up for the 21-year-old.
In a class deemed reletively weak, should Nesmith be a consistent rotation guy on this title-contending team while putting up around a meaningful 10 points a contest at an efficient rate, it could wind up being enough to nab him a spot on one of the NBA’s All-Rookie teams.
That’s exactly what we predict is in store for the 14th overall pick.