The Boston Celtics come into the 2021-22 campaign with a ton of hope after a long and active offseason that saw a tremendous amount of transactions take place.
From the team’s decision to have Brad Stevens take over as President of Basketball Operations and hire long-time NBA assistant coach, Ime Udoka, to take his place on the sidelines to trading away Kemba Walker in exchange for veteran big man, Al Horford, this past summer was quite a busy one for the Cs.
Now, as we approach October 20th’s game-one tip-off against the New York Knicks, fans of the organization are excitedly waiting to see what this new-look squad may have in store.
While we’re still just about two weeks away from the season opener, and several months away from season’s end, we at the Houdini are already making some assertions about what we believe could wind up transpiring between now and next summer.
With this, today we present to you 2 rather realistic predictions for the upcoming season:
Boston Celtics realistic prediction No. 1) C’s will have a top-5 bench scoring unit
Throughout the past several seasons, perhaps one of the biggest weaknesses found within the rotation for the Bosto Celtics was found within their second unit, particularly on the offensive side of the ball.
Since 2019-20 the team has found itself ranking 29th and 28th, respectively, in bench points per game while also finishing each year off ranking 20th and 23rd in offensive rating.
In short, of late the Cs have struggled mightily to put the ball in the basket whilst their starters were found getting a much-needed breather on the sidelines.
Because of this, during this time period we at the site have been talking rather often about how the front office should strongly consider pursuing players who could help improve the team’s overall play in this specific area.
Now, heading into 2021-22 it would appear as though the shamrocks have the makings of a much more menacing scoring group coming off the pine thanks to some of their savvy transactions made this past summer as well as the development of some of the C’s younger talents.
Perhaps the biggest reason why we believe Boston could finish the season as one of the top-5 bench scoring units is because of their decision to bring aboard perhaps the biggest steal of this summer’s free agency period, Dennis Schroder.
Due to the fact that he had somewhat of an underwhelming season last year with the Los Angeles Lakers, boasting per-game averages of 15.4 points and 5.8 assists on just 44 percent shooting from the floor in 61 starts, the cash-strapped Celtics managed to land the point guard at an unbelievably low price of a one-year, $5.9 million deal.
Though his status across the league may have taken a hit because of his performance last season, make no mistake about it Celtics fans — Schroder is a very talented player.
For the eight years in which he’s been in the league, the German-born baller boasts sound per-game averages of 14.3 points, 4.7 assists, and 2.9 rebounds.
On top of this, over the past five years he has put up averages of 17.4 points and 5.3 assists, is one of only 16 players to have put up 6,000 points and 1,500 assists during this time span, and, just two years ago, finished second in the running for the Sixth Man of the Year award.
Schroder alone will undoubtedly make the team’s bench a much more productive scoring bunch than they have been over the last few years, but he alone is not why we believe they could finish the season off as a top-5 scoring bunch.
Alongside him, Boston also saw them bring back veteran forward, Al Horford, to Eastern Massachusetts in the deal that shipped out Walker’s contract back in June.
Last season proved that the former All-Star still has a solid amount of juice left in his tank, especially on the offensive side of the ball as he put up 14.2 points a night on 45 percent shooting from the floor and 37 percent shooting from deep.
Should Robert Williams ultimately get the starting nod at the five, it’s very plausible that Ime Udoka will use Horford as the primary backup big for the Boston Celtics, thus gracing the bench with his well-document offensive skill set.
The other major factor as to why we believe the Cs could finish so high in this category by year’s end actually bleeds perfectly into our next realistic prediction…
Boston Celtics realistic prediction No. 2) Cs will have sophmore standouts
We’ve all heard of the phrase “sophomore slump”, a title given to second-year pros who have taken a step back in their progressions when in comparison to their year one turnout.
Today, we present to you our bold prediction No. 2 — both of Boston’s first-round picks from last season will find themselves taking rathe sizeable strides forward in their development.
Perhaps the biggest jump could be seen in Boston’s lone lottery pick from 2020 Aaron Nesmith who, though had a rather inconsistent rookie campaign, showed solid potential later on in the year (9.7 points and 4.9 rebounds per game on 53.6 percent shooting from the floor and 45 percent shooting from deep through final nine games).
He then followed this up with a strong showing in August’s Summer League, dropping 17.4 points and 6.2 rebounds per game on 50 percent shooting from the field and 36 percent shooting from deep and, most recently, was a stud performer in Boston’s preseason debut, dropping 10 points and three boards on a whopping 80 percent shooting from the field and nearly 67 percent shooting from deep.
The writing is on the wall for a big season from Nesmith, and we’re certainly not the only ones who believe this.
As for Payton Pritchard, he found himself having the more successful year one between him and his fellow rook, as he posted averages of 14.7 points, 4.6 rebounds, and 3.4 assists per-75 possessions on 44 percent shooting from the floor and 41 percent shooting from deep.
Like Nesmith, the 23-year-old also found quite a bit of success during this year’s Summer League and in this week’s preseason opener, as he averaged 16.8 points, 8.5 assists, and 5.8 boards on 47 percent shooting from deep in August and put up nine points, five rebounds, and five assists on 50 percent shooting from deep during Monday’s game against the Magic.
With the two having a full year of experience under their belt, the belief is that the Boston Celtics will look to thrust them into bigger roles than they were given last year.
We at the Houdini believe they’ll wind up producing admirably.