Hey! A Win! The Boston Celtics took the second night of an Atlantic Division back-to-back on Tuesday night with a narrow 101-99 victory over the New York Knicks, and now the team is back to .500 at 26-26.
Man, what a depressing sentence.
Expectations were sky-high coming into the 2020-21 season, yet here we are with 20 games left to play in the second straight pandemic-shortened season and the Cs are sitting in the #7 seed.
And look, if there were six teams the Houdini thought were better than Boston, then this wouldn’t be such a dramatic narrative. Charlotte and Atlanta, though? That’s not right.
It’s cruel in the case of the Hornets.
Terry Rozier and Gordon Hayward were notably cast aside from the loaded 2018-19 Celtics that probably had the best chance of winning the Eastern Conference. LeBron was gone, and the stars seemed to align with a healthy Kyrie Irving and Gordon Hayward joining the Jays and Al Horford to make the league’s most lethal starting five…on paper.
Marcus Morris and Marcus Smart battled their way into the starting five in place of Hayward and Jaylen Brown, and Rozier was no longer the folk hero who dominated Eric Bledsoe but a backup whose shooting percentages from the field and scoring output dropped in a pivotal contract year for “Scary Terry”.
Fast forward to 2021, and Rozier and Hayward are now the top stars of a Hornets squad that is achieving more success than any of Kemba Walker’s Queen City teams ever did.
You know what…let’s just fast forward once more.
The 2021 NBA Draft has plenty of clarity now that the NCAA Tournament has concluded, and the Cs have two upcoming draft picks to right the roster wrongs plaguing the current iteration of the Boston Celtics.
Here are the two selections HH believes could best support Jaylen Brown. Jayson Tatum, and whoever else the Boston Celtics retain moving forward:
Boston Celtics’ first-round draft choice: SG Cameron Thomas, LSU
Cameron Thomas has one of the most pro-ready games out of any backcourt prospect in the draft. His offensive numbers were eye-popping despite the dip in his output and efficiency as the SEC schedule wore on. Still, a 23-point-per-game output is nothing to sniff at.
His usage rate (31.6%) might have also had something to do with the dip in efficiency towards the end of the season. LSU head coach Will Wade isn’t exactly the most imaginative mind with his offensive schemes either.
Thomas created many of his looks through pure gamesmanship in isolation. Defenders had a tough time staying in front of him due to his athleticism and unpredictability in his movement.
The Boston Celtics could definitely use another offensive-minded creator, and having yet another lethal option from the triple threat stance should tire out defenses who would now need to contend with a third nightmare in both half-court sets and in transition.
The beauty of Thomas landing in the NBA is that no matter who he joins, open looks will be at a premium relative to his Geaux Tiger days down in Baton Rouge. Only Javonte Smart averaged over three assists for LSU.
Boston is an MLE pass-first point guard addition away (T.J. McConnell anyone?) from having more than enough facilitation to prop Thomas’s diverse offensive arsenal up even more.
Boston Celtics second-round draft choice: SG Quentin Grimes, Houston
Following the trend of surrounding Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown with knock-down 3-point shooting is Quentin Grimes out of the University of Houston.
2020-21 was the best season Houston has had in over 30 years and the junior out of The Woodlands, Texas was one of the primary driving forces as to why that was the case, along with Marcus Sasser.
Grimes did not have the best Final Four showing against eventual NCAA champion Baylor, but not many were able to do much damage to the stifling Bears defense all season.
Despite the sour note in his likely swan song for the Cougars, Grimes had a masterful 2020-21 campaign for the American (AAC) Champions. His 17.8 points, six rebounds, and two assists per game powered a Houston offense that shamed much of their fellow American Athletic Conference foes all year–including a 91-54 thrashing of Cincinnati in the Air Force Reserve American Athletic Conference championship.
Grimes’s form is textbook, so he could be another beneficiary of the C’s professional level setup game, although his 40% conversion rate from the 3-point line may indicate that he is already a capable enough shooter to thrive at the next level.
Grimes could be a second-round steal, and Danny Ainge has been known to find those here and there with long-time Cs rotation staple Semi Ojeleye and Abdel Nader, who is now a 42% shooter on the league’s second-best team, the Phoenix Suns.