
Celtics Mailbag: Looming offseason trades, Kristaps Porzingis concerns
Boston Celtics president of basketball operations Brad Stevens speaks at a news conference during the NBA basketball group’s media day, Monday, Oct. 2, 2023, in Boston. (AP Photo/Michael Dwyer)AP
The Celtics start their 2nd round series this week with a date with the Knicks for the very first time since 2013. Any injury issues around Jayson Tatum have faded away after a strong finish against the Magic, however there are still interesting lineup decisions to think about with the pending return of Jrue Holiday. More offseason buzz has emerged about Boston this week too, so let’s deal with concerns on that and more in this week’s mailbag.What type of series
are we going to see from the Celtics versus the Knicks from a personnel perspective? Does Joe Mazzulla still play 9 guys if Jrue Vacation is back healthy? Will double huge lineups be needed against the Knicks or are they better off going smaller with a single big?– Ben F The news on Jrue Holiday’s status has actually been encouraging thus far
. He was spotted on the practice floor in group video on Friday and Joe Mazzulla verified he did whatever in practice on Saturday. The team won’t formally release an injury report until Sunday afternoon however it would be a little bit of stunner if Vacation isn’t upgraded after a two-week layoff because his last action. With Holiday back, the expectation here is the Celtics still go nine players deep in
their rotation in this series, a minimum of to start. The Celtics had fantastic success in the routine season versus the Knicks with their double bigs and the Knicks personnel shouldn’t terrify Joe Mazzulla away from utilizing among their best lineups all year. The return of Mitchell Robinson to the Knicks bench( he wasn’t healthy for the majority of the year )likewise adds another wildcard to the match. He can be a force on the offending glass together with Karl-Anthony Towns and Josh Hart so the Celtics may be best served choosing double bigs more than expected to secure the paint and the glass. Celtics are going to require a better series from Kristaps Porzingis on that front if Boston wants this to be an easy series. Is there any reason for worry about Kristaps Porzingis after a rough showing versus the Magic? He wasn’t able to feast
on mismatches down low like normal and the 3-point shot was mainly off? Did Orlando’s physicality simply throw him off? Or is this more of a sign of a guy that hasn’t been consistent in the playoffs for much of his profession?– Alex C Count me among those that are a little worried about Kristaps ‘performances. He has actually never played more than 7 games in his three postseason appearances and undoubtedly wasn’t a big consider the middle of the NBA Finals run last year due to his injuries. He didn’t hold up extremely well on the glass versus the Magic or in some dribble penetration circumstances versus Franz Wagner. The defensive job will be much harder in this series with Jalen Brunson most likely attempting to get him into seclusion on numerous occasions together with lots of big bodies to deal with on the offending glass in Mitchell Robinson and Karl-Anthony Towns. The good news for Porzingis is that the Knicks have actually been a favorable offending match for him throughout the previous 2 seasons, consisting of average 24.5 points per game this year. The open 3-point looks the Magic eliminated ought to be back in this series but he should see the exact same level of physicality as Orlando in inequalities. Porzingis needs to do a better job of getting used to that to be more effective on the offending end. Otherwise, his protective defects might keep hm on the bench a little more than anticipated against this group. What did you make about this Shams report about looming offseason trades? This wasn’t a surprise right? Did the ownership things becoming completed this week effect anything?– Mike T We have actually been doing about the offseason reckoning for over a year at MassLive so it shouldn’t come as a huge surprise to any routine readers. This was always going to be a special two-year window for this group to flourish and it’s currently been a success after last year’s champion. Achieving a repeat would
be historical however it would not necessarily alter anything about this summer from a spending plan viewpoint. Disallowing a stunner, relocations are going to have to be made to trim salary unless ownership is willing to pay a historical price tag for this group. Where the surprises could be available in this offseason is when it pertains to how the front workplace approaches this issue. How the Celtics end up out this playoff run this season will undoubtedly influence how Brad Stevens handles this lineup and what types of sacrifices he wants to make while still maintaining a contending group. Larger names like Kristaps Porzingis and Jrue Vacation will be obvious trade prospects, but there might be some surprises in there also. It all will boil down to the type of value the Celtics can protect in any deal for the present and the future. As for the new ownership group led by Bill Chisholm, it was not a surprise to see things get finalized from a financial viewpoint because the Celtics would have never made the offer public if they weren’t positive because. Having all the monetary pieces in location will be crucial for this summer season though given that it will extremely affect what Stevens tries to do this offseason with this lineup.
There will be a budget plan for this group that the front workplace will learn about and will need to customize their relocations accordingly to optimize this group. More Celtics content