Bobby Marks: Don't Sleep on the Celtics

[trickybilly]

An earlier poster mentioned that they thought Horford is a bit washed up. I'm not sure I agree.

1) He looked great at OKC.
2) He is such a great passer - a skill that ages well
3) He is a very reliable 3pt shooter now.
4) He won't need to run his minutes high with TimeLord becoming our primary defensive big, and Kanter, Juancho, and even Fernando all projecting having roles to play during the year.


Finally, he just seems like his game will age well.

[GreenlyGreeny]

With the Sixers situation there are only two teams in the East that are clearly better than Boston on paper and when healthy, especially in the regular season where more balanced teams with good depth can often end up with a record better than they actually are as a team (see the Toronto Raptors for all those years).  So Boston could pretty easily finish as high as the 3rd seed.  I think the 5th or 6th seed is most likely, but they could drop into the play-in game again also.  So I'd say anywhere from 3-8 assuming Tatum plays 70+ games.  If Tatum misses extended time, the team is in trouble.

If Tatum or Brown misses considerable time, we’re probably lottery-bound. If everyone stays healthy, we’re going to be contenders.

[Who]

An earlier poster mentioned that they thought Horford is a bit washed up. I'm not sure I agree.

1) He looked great at OKC.
2) He is such a great passer - a skill that ages well
3) He is a very reliable 3pt shooter now.
4) He won't need to run his minutes high with TimeLord becoming our primary defensive big, and Kanter, Juancho, and even Fernando all projecting having roles to play during the year.


Finally, he just seems like his game will age well.

I view this as (1) Horford's offensive game should age well because it is based on skill & avoids physical punishment (2) His defense & rebounding may be the opposite. Undersized bigs rely on superior quickness and athleticism to overcome their lack of size. This is what has allowed Horford to be an impact defender. As he ages and loses that quickness advantage, his defense & rebounding could fall off drastically in a short space of time.

This is my expectation on how Horford will likely age. Offense good, defense & rebounding bad.

[gift]

An earlier poster mentioned that they thought Horford is a bit washed up. I'm not sure I agree.

1) He looked great at OKC.
2) He is such a great passer - a skill that ages well
3) He is a very reliable 3pt shooter now.
4) He won't need to run his minutes high with TimeLord becoming our primary defensive big, and Kanter, Juancho, and even Fernando all projecting having roles to play during the year.


Finally, he just seems like his game will age well.

I view this as (1) Horford's offensive game should age well because it is based on skill & avoids physical punishment (2) His defense & rebounding may be the opposite. Undersized bigs rely on superior quickness and athleticism to overcome their lack of size. This is what has allowed Horford to be an impact defender. As he ages and loses that quickness advantage, his defense & rebounding could fall off drastically in a short space of time.

This is my expectation on how Horford will likely age. Offense good, defense & rebounding bad.

Yep, and we've already seen this to some extent while he was here. He's a high skill offensive guy who can stretch the floor and facilitate offense. On defense, we saw him have more and more trouble guarding quicker players one-on-one. But he seems to maintain a slim frame even as he ages which should prevent a more dramatic drop-off.

[Celtics4ever]

I think we will be better as we have more overall talent and we got bigger.   Our bench last year was horrific, it's better now and not a world beater by any means but I think it will help us.

So pencil me as a guy who thinks we will be better by default.

[GreenlyGreeny]

Calling it right now for 2021-2022: 1st in the East and fall short in 6 or 7 against Brooklyn or Milwaukee in ECF (but it’ll be a heck of a fist fight). Tatum and Brown are going to both leap into the top ten. Tatum possibly in the top five. Unlike Stevens, they’re going to listen to Udoka and make that transcendental leap we’ve been waiting for. 

Wrong about Brown, as I quickly learned to start the season (but he’s coming along and I’m back on JKJB unless a top ten player becomes available). Hopefully wrong about falling short this year. I remember writing this and thinking to myself at the time, “you’re such a Homer,” but it’s not looking so cray any longer.

[GreenlyGreeny]

FWIW, DraftKings currently has the Celtics win total O/U at 45.5

Easy over.

Well done!

[Big333223]

Calling it right now for 2021-2022: 1st in the East and fall short in 6 or 7 against Brooklyn or Milwaukee in ECF (but it’ll be a heck of a fist fight). Tatum and Brown are going to both leap into the top ten. Tatum possibly in the top five. Unlike Stevens, they’re going to listen to Udoka and make that transcendental leap we’ve been waiting for. 

Wrong about Brown, as I quickly learned to start the season (but he’s coming along and I’m back on JKJB unless a top ten player becomes available). Hopefully wrong about falling short this year. I remember writing this and thinking to myself at the time, “you’re such a Homer,” but it’s not looking so cray any longer.

It's possible for the Celtics to be #1 in the East by the end of the day. It feels cray.