Stevens said something disturbing to me in a halftime interview tonite. He said, at Butler, he learned to work with small front lines because the bigger kids went to the bigger schools. So now the Celtics are restricted to small front lines because of the coach? I certainly hope not, but they do seem to pass up every opportunity to get a guy with some length.
I didn't watch the 2nd half against Utah tonite, but I heard Lyles had a big night. Not surprising with the smallish front line the Celtics were throwing out there. I just don't see the size required to compete against taller NBA bigs. The biggest kid they have out there is about 6'8", and the French kid isn't even that.
I can't see this team seriously competing without more size up front. Horford just isn't enough.
A few things:
1) Ainge gets the players.
2) It's summer league. He's not even coaching.
3) It's summer league. Most of these players won't be in the Celtics rotation.
4) He was remarking how the league is trending smaller now, with players who in the past were small forwards playing power forward. The interviewer was trying to give him praise for being ahead of the curve in doing that in Butler, and Stevens in his awe-shucks persona said they did that because they couldn't get the tall kids.
5) The front line will be Horford, Amir, Olynyk, and Jerebko. That's a decent amount of size.