The Boston Celtics are now two games into their preseason period and, in turn, have just two more outings and less than ten days to go between now and their regular-season tip-off matchup against the New York Knicks at Madison Square Garden.
Thus far into these exhibitions, the shamrocks find themselves undefeated at 2-0.
Though this factoid may not be anything that should be written home about, for there have been plenty of teams in the past who have blown up during the preseason and followed it up with a dud of a campaign overall, when looking at the C’s play there have certainly been things in which fans should be impressed with.
Specifically, there have been quite a number of players who have shown out during these past few games, so much so that, by preseason’s end they could be soundly in consideration to take on a starting role heading into the regular season.
Though we’re certainly not making any guarantees here, for we believe there’s only one, maybe two spots up for grabs in the first five for the Boston Celtics, today we pinpoint 3 players that could vie for a starting gig during this coming season:
Boston Celtics player No. 1) Al Horford
Ever since the Boston Celtics brought Al Horford back to eastern Massachusetts, we at the Houdini have been discussing the idea of seeing him once again man the middle down low, for he only proved to be successful in this role during his original stint with the Boston Celtics (13.5 points, seven boards, 4.6 assists and an All-Star selection) and, last year, proved to still be an effective starting big (14.2 points a night on 45 percent shooting from the floor and 37 percent shooting from deep with OKC).
Though we may have seen the vet coming off the bench during Boston’s first game of the preseason, in their game two victory he saw himself inserted into the starting lineup and, in turn, produced rather well.
In 23 minutes, Horford posted an impressive stat line of 16 points, three boards, two assists, and two blocks on nearly 67 percent shooting from the field and a perfect 100 percent shooting from deep.
While we initially considered the 35-year-old to be the more trusty option for Boston to have as their main center option heading into the year, with his specific skill set coupled with his most recent successful showing alongside Robert Williams down at the pivot, it has become more of a realistic possibility that we could wind up seeing Al Horford slotted into the first five, however, maybe as the team’s starting power forward rather than at center.