Boston Celtics: 4 players who could lead Cs in assists in 2021-22

Fans anticipated it and, earlier this summer, Bleacher Report predicted it — this season’s Boston Celtics squad will look rather different when in comparison to last year’s.

Thanks to the high-end activity put forth this offseason by new President of Basketball Operations, Brad Stevens, the team’s front office has made it a point to execute some much-needed roster shakeups that should better the team’s overall level of play and, in turn, cater more to the scheme in which new head coach, Ime Udoka, wants to run.

Perhaps the biggest improvement this new coaching staff apparently wishes to see is within the team’s distribution game, an aspect of last year’s play that, in his first appearance as the C’s head man, Udoka publicly criticized, insinuating that ranking 27th in assists is not something he wishes to see repeated in his first year running the show.

Despite being viewed as an offensive-minded coach, Boston’s production on this side of the ball with Stevens running the show was rather sluggish and choppy. Due to their isolation-heavy play style, points were rather difficult to come by and, in turn, we saw the team’s points per game averages drop from ninth overall in 2019-20 to 16th in 2020-21.

This type of production is certainly not a recipe for success.

“Team basketball” is a term heard rather often from the C’s incoming rookie coach and, should this type of ball ultimately be played, more assists will undoubtedly be made.

As for who on the team could lead the charge in the passing game, we here at the Houdini believe 4 players, in specific, could wind up dropping the most dimes come year’s end: