Stepping back as C’s summer sets
LAS VEGAS — Putting the wraps on summer league after the Celtics have departed and I prepare to stick it out until the bitter championship end tonight. . . .
• The Celts might be set for a while with their roster, but look for more changes this season.
The Shamrocks simply have too many people for whom they’d like to find meaningful time (“First world problem,” is how assistant general manager Mike Zarren put it), and it seems they’ll be looking to loosen up some logjams before next February’s trade deadline.
Zarren didn’t say that latter part, but it’s fairly evident that the math doesn’t work when you’re trying to fit all they have and want to use into 240 minutes.
It will be interesting to see how the rotation shakes itself out to whatever degree that’s possible, but clearly the Celtics would like some players to separate themselves from the pack. In one of the only times Brad Stevens has been questioned by the players during his Boston tenure, there were grumblings when he didn’t have a set rotation. That ignored the fact that the coach would have loved to be more consistent with his substitution pattern, but he was still waiting for players to step up and command roles.
With the 15 players the Celts will have once they complete all their paperwork, there are five wild cards or developmental sorts. They hope Ante Zizic will be able to help at some point as he becomes accustomed to the NBA pace, and while Stevens is certainly high on Semi Ojeleye’s defensive prowess, the kid can also stretch the floor. It’s hard to say whether Guerschon Yabusele will fit into the plans, though it’s a lock that the Garden will be pleading for the Dancing Bear at least late in games.
Abdel Nader is coming off a very strong year in the D-League (now G-League), and Daniel Theis is probably headed up I-95 to Maine.
Back in the center ring, we know Isaiah Thomas, Gordon Hayward and Al Horford will be getting all the time they need, and Marcus Smart and Terry Rozier will see their roles increased in Avery Bradley’s absence.
We’ll wait to see how Stevens plans to use big man Aron Baynes, but even if the C’s are going smaller, there may be some trouble giving Jae Crowder, Jaylen Brown, Marcus Morris and Jayson Tatum all the time they deserve. That will certainly be the case if Tatum breaks out early.
So as much as depth is desirable, the Celtics will no doubt be ready to make one or more deals should they become available. They’ve got good young talent under friendly contracts, so even before teams start looking at the club’s draft stash, there is room for discussion.
• Two teams told me they were trying to trade up to get into the late first round when they saw Ojeleye was available.
“He was definitely a firstround talent,” said one general manager. “He can score from a number of places on the floor, and you just don’t see guys coming into the league with his kind of strength. He’s strong even for a veteran.”
Cracked Celts assistant coach Jamie Young, “When’s the last time you saw biceps like that — other than on me.”
• Jordan Mickey was drawing some quick interest around the league after he was waived by the Celts.
The big question teams have is why, if the Celtics were having rebounding trouble, they didn’t give him more of a look.
Mickey was a fairly dominant player for the Red Claws, averaging 20.8 points last season while improving his range greatly to hit 14-of-32 treys in 12 games. The flashier number is his 3.8 blocks per game over his two years in Maine.
• Joked with Celtics coach Walter McCarty at the Vegas Summer League that he was holding Scoochie Smith back because Dayton had beaten Kentucky the last time they played (1999, before Smith was a Flyer and after McCarty was a Wildcat). Alex Barlow piped in. “It was in Cincinnati. I was at that game,” said the C’s video assistant, whose family has Dayton season tickets.
• New Celtics assistant coach Scott Morrison, formerly the Red Claws coach, has volunteered to step in for the departed Kelly Olynyk and give me someone to talk hockey with this season. Morrison is a Canadian from Prince Edward Island.
• We discussed Zizic earlier, but here’s team president Danny Ainge on the young Croatian import: “We really like Ante. We think he can really help us this year. I mean, Ante was a very good player against the top European competition, and that usually translates over here. But it definitely, at age 20, will take him some time. He’s not going to be ready to dominate now, but we think that he’s got a very bright future.”