After the way their inaugural season went, it’s hard to blame The Athletic’s John Hollinger for his lack of enthusiasm for the Boston Celtics 2019-20 rookie class.
In their defense, they’ve been thrown on a top-five team on both ends of the floor and have been asked to make meaningful contributions in many cases that they simply weren’t ready to do at this stage of their career — and not many first-year players can stay on the floor long anyway.
Hollinger’s gripes are all legitimate ones, though it tends to read as someone who hasn’t spent the same degree of detail watching the class grow and adapt to what has been a fairly bumpy season for some.
New at @TheAthleticNBA — Part II of my series with @ByJayKing on the Celtics — evaluating their rookies, discussing offseason targets and needs, and looking at how they line up in the playoffs.https://t.co/RFRrQgO9Q4
— John Hollinger (@johnhollinger) May 6, 2020
Forward Grant Williams got the best review of any Celtics rookie, and while he was actually a significant part of Boston’s rotation, it didn’t exactly floor the former Griz front office member.
“Williams was the most effective in the regular season because he has a high basketball IQ and plays solid defense,” opined Hollinger. “Offensively, however, he’s a total zero, and his glaring weaknesses as a shooter and ballhandler are going to really hurt him in a playoff series.”
Hollinger doesn’t think Williams’ shooting will be coming along any time soon regardless of whether he’s put that terrible cold streak to start his pro career behind him or not.
But he’s not ruling out the Tennessee product getting to the point of being a consistent jump-shooting threat, either.
Celtics raving about versatile rookie Grant Williams’ play at center https://t.co/gi40bysMtK
— The Celtics Wire (@TheCelticsWire) October 26, 2019
Guard Carsen Edwards, conversely, is cast as the stereotypical Summer League success story of smaller, trigger-happy gloves who can’t replicate the success they had in Las Vegas at the NBA level. “He’s very small and not really a point guard, so he has to rain fire to have value,” notes Hollinger.
The former exec grants the team’s highest pick — wing Romeo Langford — some slack for the myriad injuries incurred throughout the course of his Celtics tenure.
But he also picked on him for getting only six assists (and while he may have missed a lot of games, that is a low number) and his low rebound rate despite standing 6-foot-6.
He did not mention Langford’s impressive growth as a defender, especially late in the season where he handled some very difficult matchups in short stints — even LeBron James — effectively.
In fact, if he had his way, Hollinger would try packaging Langford with all three of Boston’s 2020 first-round draft picks in a bid to land Atlanta Hawks big man John Collins.
While he isn’t all the way off the island of Danny Ainge’s 2019 draft selections, it’s clear there is a common theme.
Despite early struggles, drafting Romeo Langford was no mistake https://t.co/swF8tuWS0l
— The Celtics Wire (@TheCelticsWire) December 6, 2019
Defense matters little in Hollinger’s metrics on what the Celtics need from these prospects, and playoff playability — and shooting in particular — being the key for all three to claim a major role in this team’s success.
The Athletic analyst is big on Time Lord, the second-year center more commonly known as Robert Williams.
The Texas A&M product has had “unbelievable stretches of play this season” and “seems ready to take on a much larger role”, but ought to be a much bigger part of what Boston is doing going forward according to Hollinger.
A fair if not exactly glowing assessment of Boston’s incoming draft picks playing significant minutes at the NBA level.
But also a tough — but not insuperable — path for Langford, Edwards and Williams to traverse if they want a long career in this league.
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