The Celtics rebuild has gone better than anyone could have expected with Brad Stevens at the helm and Danny using his treasure chest of assets to aid in getting the Celtics into the playoffs after just one down season. From that point, the Celtics have won more games with each season to the point where they were the top seed this past season and made it to the Eastern Conference finals. And after another great offseason, they are poised to be even better this season.
On the other hand, the Clippers have gone downhill with Doc at the helm. They were bounced out of the playoffs in the second round the first two seasons and didn't make it past the first round the past two seasons. The Clippers lost one of their stars when Chris Paul demanded a trade this summer. They managed to keep Blake Griffin but with his injury record, that may not be that much to crow about.
When CP3 left the team, there were reports of a very unhappy locker room due to Doc's favoring his son Austin at the expense of other players. Whether that was true or just sour grapes by one of the players, the fact is that the Clippers have not improved and have gone backwards in their development since Doc took over.
As a result, the Clippers have taken the front office duties away from Doc but he will be kept on as coach of the team. Lawrence Frank, a former assistant coach with the Celtics under Doc, will take over as the GM. If Doc's treatment of Austin was a sore spot with the players, it will be interesting to see how that goes this season.
Doc has always been a nice guy. He's always been a good interview and was good as a motivator of players like Pierce, Garnett and Allen, who were already self-motivated. He was the right coach for the team full of veterans that won the 2008 championship. But he is all wrong for a team that has to develop young players or to win with young players. Brad Stevens is the perfect coach for the Celtics now and so I'm glad that Doc wanted to take the easy way out and go to a ready made contender. It sure has worked out great for the Celtics.
The preseason schedule has been released and the first thing to notice is that there are just 4 games on the preseason schedule. I don't think that's such a bad idea. The preseason always seemed a bit too long as for the most part as coaches played guys who were camp invites and wouldn't be on the team past training camp to avoid injuries to their regular rotation. With just 4 games, the regular rotation players will get more minutes and it won't get near as tedious.
The Celtics will play 2 games against the Charlotte Hornets and 2 games against the Philadelphia 76ers. It's no surprise that they will try to get as many games between the Celtics and Sixers as possible as they will be showcasing the matchup between Markelle Fultz and Jayson Tatum after they were basically traded for each other before the draft. Along with the two preseason games, the Celtics and Sixers will be featured in a regular season game at London's O2 Arena on Jan. 11, 2018.
The Sixers and Celtics at one time had one of the better rivalries in the league. Who can forget those Wilt vs Russell showdowns or the Bird vs Doctor J duels. But, that rivalry has been pretty much dormant in recent years with both teams going through some tough times. But with the Sixers now boasting a budding roster full of top-level draft picks and the Celtics expected to once again be the top seed in the East, the rivalry could heat back up between the two rookies as well as between the two division rivals.
All eyes will be be on the two rookies as people analyze the trade over and over to determine whether Danny made the right decision or not. It's going to be hard to make any final decision on that trade because of all the variables that figure into it, including coaching, playing style of the team, and the role of each player on the team. But that won't stop people from trying.
ESPN and NBA.com have both been predicting the Power Rankings of teams as they finish up the off season and prepare for training camp. ESPN predicted that the Celtics will win fewer than the 53 wins that they had last season but they also predict that they will once again win the top seed in the East.
I guess that it kind of makes sense in that the rest of the East has improved also. Even the Nets may be competitive this season. The Sixers process is finally paying off and they should move up from being the league doormat that they have been over the past 5 years or so as they have gathered #1 picks as a result of finishing last just about every season. The NBA Power Rankings have the Celtics finishing 4th overall in the league.
I'll leave you with a play from Jaylen Brown in the Africa Game. He was the leading scorer for the World team and showed enough athleticism and BBIQ to make Celtics fans very excited for this coming season. I can't wait to see Jaylen and Jayson playing and growing as players together on the Celtics. After the nickname of 7-11 was put to rest after Jayson changed his number to 0, I've seen the name Trouble 07 floated on Instagram. Not bad, but I'll be looking to see what the players themselves come up with as they have stated that they are still thinking about it.
Oh my goodness, @FCHWPO #NBAAfricaGame #IsItOctoberYet pic.twitter.com/fVKb6PAbia
— Boston Celtics (@celtics) August 5, 2017
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