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BOSTON - On Tuesday, we asked you fans out there to submit questions using the hashtag #CelticsMailbag on Twitter. Today, we pulled several that were submitted and answered them below.
Without further ado, let's get right into it...
ANSWER: First off, Gerald Green is an established off-the-bench contributor in the NBA. His reclamation project was back in 2011 with the Nets. He has since had five consecutive quality seasons, averaging 18.1 points per 36 minutes during that span while ranging from a good to very good 3-point shooter. He’ll come off the bench and provide some shooting, scoring and athleticism for Boston, but don’t count on him to average 15-20 points per game. He’s in a far different place in his career than David Lee and Gerald Wallace were when they joined the Celtics, as they were in their respective twilights.
ANSWER: I actually think the Celtics have had an identity since the day they started playing for Brad Stevens. Their identity is that they will play hard and for each other nearly every night while emphasizing perimeter play and an inverted offense. The difference now is simply that there is more talent on the roster, so we’ve seen an uptick in the win column.
ANSWER: There are plenty of options (Kelly Olynyk, Terry Rozier, Jordan Mickey, etc.), but I’m gonna go ahead and give the same name I gave last offseason – Marcus Smart. He didn’t make the offensive leap I expected him to make last season (he actually regressed), though he did improve as a defender. I don’t think he’s ever going to be a high-level scorer in the league, but I really think he’s poised to take a big step forward on offense this season. He has it in him, and this season’s team should give him more space to make plays. FiveThirtyEight’s CARMELO projections agree, as it projects that Smart will more than double his Wins Above Replacement score this season and approach All-Star-level play.
ANSWER: A little early to predict the top eight seeds in order for this coming season, but I guess I’ll give it a go. The Cavs will be No. 1 and I think the Raptors, who bring back nearly all of their core, will be No. 2 in large part because of their continuity. The Celts, however, will be right on their heels (and potentially in front of them) while landing in the third seed. It gets tricky from there, as I think the next four to six teams are all pretty even. I’ll predict the C’s will face one of the following three teams: Washington, New York or Milwaukee. And no, they aren’t yet title contenders.
ANSWER: Isaiah Thomas, Avery Bradley, Jae Crowder, Al Horford and Amir Johnson.
ANSWER: I don’t think so. The Celtics won only eight fewer games than Toronto last season, and I expect Toronto’s win total to drop this season. With Horford in the fold, I think the C’s and Raps are neck-and-neck at No. 2 and No. 3 in the East, which means reaching the Eastern Conference Finals is very realistic.
ANSWER: To be blunt, the way the current roster is built, it’s going to be tough for any of the Claws to crack the Celtics this season, so I’m going to go with a call-up for someone who played for Maine last season – Jordan Mickey. I think he has a shot to break into the rotation.
ANSWER: One already went off. Al Horford, the second-best free agent this offseason, signed with Boston.
ANSWER: Hard to criticize Stevens at all, but over his first three seasons, I do think this has been his greatest area for potential improvement. He could establish a lineup and rotations earlier in the season. I think he will improve here this season because the hierarchy of the roster is much more clear. The only real question in the starting lineup is whether he goes Horford-Johnson or Horford-Olynyk. One of those bigs, along with Marcus Smart and Jaylen Brown, will also be key rotation players, so rotations will likely be defined much earlier this season than they were during the previous three. The only real questions linger at the back end of the rotation.
ANSWER: I think he’ll be regarded as one of the top long-term players, but his numbers won’t stack up against many of his fellow lottery mates simply because he won’t have the same level of opportunity that they will. I expect every other player chosen in the top eight picks to receive more playing time than Brown, and in turn put up greater numbers, because they are on worse teams with less depth. Still, Brown will show plenty of upside throughout the season, as he did during Summer League.