need a breakout year from Sully/KO/Zeller

[Tr1boy]

We are pretty strong in all other areas. Lots of depth and wont be in trouble due to injuries if they temporarily occur. Jeff green is jeff green but he still requires attention from opposing teams.  Our bench is much stronger vs last seasons team.

If KO/Zeller/Sully can each avg 12-14 pts, 7-9 rebounds , 1 block, it will give this team a chance to make 8th imo

Thoughts?

[jambr380]

12/7 seems a bit on the low end of what Sully and KO should produce. If Zeller makes a major jump this year, then I totally agree with your prediction for the 8th spot.

Unfortunately I don't necessarily see Zeller as a key starter moving forward, but if Sully/KO come in healthy they could really surprise people.

[arctic 3.0]

I don't see this team making the playoffs, to many mismatched parts, no go to scorer, no paint D.
Need to spend the year developing players and identifying keepers.
If turner gets "it", if sully or Oly take steps toward their potential, if rondo and smart gel, if Zeller regains rookie form, if Green brings it consistently we could make a push but that's to many ifs.
I'd say we end up keeping one of sully, Zeller, Oly.
One of smart, Bradley
One of green, turner
Def keep rondo
Def keep young (on slow track)
Every one else is trade fodder.
The players we don't keep plus picks should bring back pieces that fit better and make us a legit playoff team.

Still think prying Monroe and smith from Detroit would propel us to the 4 seed.
They are far better then detroits record would indicate.

[D.o.s.]

We already averaged more rebounds than Memphis, the same number of boards as Toronto, and fewer than Philadelphia last season, when Sully averaged 13-8 and Olynyk averaged 8-5.

Five extra points and a pair of boards for KO, plus the increased shot blocking (about half a block more for each of them) doesn't move the needle for me at all in regards to winning ~15 more games than we did last year.

[Celtics4ever]

12/7 seems a bit on the low end of what Sully and KO should produce

I can see it for Sully but what do you base this on KO.   Having a true C will make it harder for Sully to get RPG if  Tyler is getting them.    I would like to see us play high low basketball with Zeller in the high post where we can use his mobility and Sully can go down low.   When Oly is in then you move Zeller low and Oly as stretch four.   Sully shows very little capacity as a stretch four and thus far the only stretching he has down are on his stretch marks.

[Fred Roberts]

I think all 3 will be better, but I don't see all 3 having a "breakout". Maybe one of the 3 could have a breakout and the other 2 remain positive contributors?

Doesn't a breakout mean something like 15 /10? No chance all 3 guys can average 12/ 7 for the same team. Something's got to give minutes and production-wise.

Perhaps Sully gets up to the 15/ 10 mark and the KO and Zeller are more like 12/ 8 and 9/ 6? That would still be good.

These three all have strong potential and need to do well for this team to make a step this season.

[slamtheking]

this team isn't making the playoffs no matter how much the 3 of them develop.

Personally, I'd be satisfied if they each were better than last year.  not that pts and rebs are the end all/be all of how much a player contributes, I'd be looking for something like this:
Sully: 14 pts/ 8 rebs & more focussed on playing in the paint
KO: 16 pt/ 7 rebs & less hesitancy with his shot on offense (or more decisive on offense in general)
Zeller 10 pts/8 rebs & solid boxing out for boards.

that would require Stevens to find them all court time and not expend a lot of that time on Bass, Anthony and very little to Fav if any.  also requires Green to stick to SF and not splitting time at PF.

what they really need to develop is their D.  C's go nowhere until the D dramatically improves

[Tr1boy]

Position, team D will improve. All three have high iqs. You wont be able to do much in regards to some 1on1 matchups. Thats where stevens creativity/strategy capability come into play (example utilize the double team).

Conditioning is another factor. Not getting pushed around (zeller and ko) and able to improve lateral quickness (sully) will be a big first step