From Charlie Hoefer to Alaa Abdenaby to Rick Fox to Kristaps Porzingis, there has been no shortage of players who were born abroad who have worn the green and white.
The Boston Celtics are a storied franchise for more than just their titles. They have been a trailblazing team in terms of signing and fielding players from all over the world, a philosophy that started in their first season.
From Charlie Hoefer to Alaa Abdelnaby to Rick Fox to Kristaps Porzingis, there has been no shortage of players born abroad who have worn the green and white.
But who were the best and who were the worst? What criteria should we use to judge them across eras? In the spirit of the annual arrival of #RankingSeason, the thing to do is try.
And try the hosts of the CLNS Media “How Bout Them Celtics!” did on a recent episode.
Take a look at the clip embedded above to hear how they assessed the international Celtics of all time.
Today’s installment focuses on the 34 players who wore No. 12 over the years as of September 2023.
The Boston Celtics have more retired jerseys than any other team in the NBA, but that doesn’t mean the rest of their jerseys have little history of interest tied to them.
In fact, with 17 titles to their name and decades of competitive basketball played in them, their unretired jersey numbers pack in some of the most history not hanging from the rafters of any team in the league. To that end, we have launched our accounting of that history, with every player in every jersey worn by more than one Celtics player in the storied franchise’s history accounted for.
Today’s installment focuses on the 34 players who wore No. 12 over the years as of September 2023.
It’s no coincidence this team has the most retired jersey numbers with 17 banners hanging alongside them. https://t.co/UVR0NFZnBf
2023 #Rockets free agency targets reportedly include names like Khris Middleton, Brook Lopez, Bruce Brown, Jordan Clarkson, Austin Reaves, Cam Johnson, Dillon Brooks, and Jakob Poeltl.
With an NBA-leading figure of approximately $60 million in space beneath the 2023-24 salary cap, the Rockets have been linked to big-name pursuits in the 2023 free agency. Many media reports have tied them to the likes of James Harden and Fred VanVleet, which could offer a veteran presence to surround Houston’s young core.
The Rockets will also have the room exception at their disposal, which allows for an additional contract starting at near $8 million.
Yet, since the rebuilding Rockets aren’t going to immediately contend for a championship regardless of this offseason’s signings, general manager Rafael Stone will need to balance short-term upgrades with a need for value contracts on the team’s books.
Per Jonathan Feigen of the Houston Chronicle, the Rockets will likely try to sign three or four free agents, with a particular emphasis on two-way production (offense and defense). Two could be signed to larger deals, while one or two others may fill in around them.
By position groups of guards, wings, and bigs, here’s a statistical look at Feigen’s list (published Sunday, June 25) of potential Rockets targets in 2023 free agency. Three of these names are restricted, meaning that the player’s current team would have the opportunity to match any deal and block a potential move to Houston.
All statistics are from the NBA’s 2022-23 regular season.
A month ago, Notre Dame received its first 2024 recruiting class commit in shooting guard [autotag]Cole Certa[/autotag]. He was recruited out of Bloomington Central Catholic in Illinois. But he has decided that that school is no longer sufficient to continue his athletic growth. He has announced that his final year before joining the Irish will be sent at IMG Academy, the famous sports prep school in Bradenton, Florida:
Certa, a three-star recruit weighing in at 6-foot-4 and 165 pounds, is heading to a school that has produced some quality talent. Among them are Purdue star and reigning national player of the year Zach Edey and North Carolina’s Armando Bacot. Several alumni also have gone onto the NBA, including Anfernee Simons, Dwight Powell, Josh Green and Jonathan Isaac. What’s more, Kyle Brey, son of former Irish coach [autotag]Mike Brey[/autotag], is the coach of the varsity football team.
While Certa’s decision is a loss for the state of Illinois, it’s necessary for him to take the next step in his game. Here’s hoping it works out for him and eventually, the Irish.
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On this day, the Celtics traded Rajon Rondo to the Mavericks for Jae Crowder, and Boston logged 46 assists against Dallas, their most ever.
On this day in Boston Celtics history, the storied franchise traded champion point guard Rajon Rondo and center Dwight Powell to the Dallas Mavericks in 2014 in exchange for small forward Jae Crowder, point guard Jameer Nelson, big man Brandan Wright, draft assets, and a $13 million trade exception.
The move finally brought to an end the last remaining player from the team’s 2008 NBA title tenure with the franchise, Rondo having been with the Celtics since the Phoenix Suns drafted him out of Kentucky with the 21st overall pick of the 2006 NBA draft and dealt him to Boston on draft night.
Powell was a more recent arrival, having come over in the deal with the Cleveland Cavaliers for Keith Bogans in September of that year.
On this day, the Celtics traded Rajon Rondo to the Mavericks for Jae Crowder, and Boston logged 46 assists against Dallas, their most ever.
On this day in Boston Celtics history, the storied franchise traded champion point guard Rajon Rondo and center Dwight Powell to the Dallas Mavericks in 2014 in exchange for small forward Jae Crowder, point guard Jameer Nelson, big man Brandan Wright, draft assets, and a $13 million trade exception.
The move finally brought to an end the last remaining player from the team’s 2008 NBA title’s tenure with the franchise, Rondo having been with the Celtics since the Phoenix Suns drafted him out of Kentucky with the 21st overall pick of the 2006 NBA draft and dealt him to Boston on draft night.
Powell was a more recent arrival, having come over in the deal with the Cleveland Cavaliers for Keith Bogans in September of that year.
As the Utah Jazz now resume basketball activities, there are major issues they need to fix regarding stars Rudy Gobert and Donovan Mitchell.
As the Utah Jazz now resume basketball activities, there are major issues they need to fix regarding stars Rudy Gobert and Donovan Mitchell.
After so much time off due to the coronavirus pandemic, there will be a lot to iron out for all rosters. But the recent gap also exposed some harsh truths about the two best players on the Jazz.
In a recent story, Tim MacMahon reported that Gobert feels he should receive more lobs from Mitchell (via ESPN):
“Gobert rarely hesitates to let teammates know if they miss him when he is open around the rim. He’ll occasionally point up during play in animated fashion, sometimes as he is running back on defense, to note that a lob should have been thrown … Gobert knows his lobbying for lobs wears on teammates to the point of being counterproductive, like the wide receiver who gripes at the quarterback after every play when a pass isn’t thrown his way, regardless of the pass rush.”
Gobert led all NBA players with 306 dunks recorded last season, according to Basketball-Reference. But even when including alley-oops layups, the big man paired with Mitchell for only 28 lob connections during their 2018-19 campaign.
Considering that Gobert attempted 125 alley-oops in 2018-19 (17.6 percent of his total attempts from the field), this is certainly a major offensive focal point for the two-time NBA Defensive Player of the Year.
As such, McMahon continued, the two players have specifically worked on their “lob chemistry” in individualized practice sessions to further avoid the blunders like the one seen above during their game against Denver back in January:
“Utah coach Quin Snyder and his staff have attempted to help facilitate that trust, especially between Mitchell and Gobert. That duo have had dozens of two-man workouts under the watch of coaches, with a focus on ironing out intricacies of their pick-and-roll partnership and lob chemistry. They also occasionally join coaches – usually some combination of Snyder, Jensen and Johnnie Bryant, the assistant who works most with Mitchell – for small-group film sessions at the team’s facility.”
Gobert made 16 alley-oops following passes from Mitchell, per NBA.com. This accounted for 4.5 percent of his total field goal count, down from 5.9 percent last season. This would average out to approximately 0.36 connections per 36 minutes when looking at their total time spent (1607 minutes) on the court together, down from 0.48 last season.
For a better understanding of how that compares to other lob threats around the league, we looked at the top combinations on this play type. Brooklyn’s Spencer Dinwiddie assisted DeAndre Jordan on 46 alley-oop opportunities this season. This means they averaged 2.76 alley-oops per 36 minutes shared (599 minutes) on the floor.
(Photo by Ronald Martinez/Getty Images)
While these two players are no longer on the same roster, Houston’s James Harden and former teammate Clint Capela were also successful on 46 of their alley-oop possessions. Capela, now on the Atlanta Hawks, was able to catch 1.53 alley-oops per 36 minutes that he played alongside Harden (1,082) in 2019-20.
Other prolific pairings in the NBA this season include Dinwiddie-to-Jarrett Allen (40), Trae Young-to-John Collins (36), LeBron James-to-Anthony Davis (34), Chris Paul-to-Nerlens Noel (33) and Elfrid Payton-to-Mitchell Robinson (33).
The data makes it clear that there is certainly room for more lob connections between the two players. However, considering how rare these opportunities are even for the most prolific duo, perhaps there are other aspects of offense to worry about in Utah.
HoopsHype’s Alberto de Roa contributed research to this report.
A scary hit to the face of Jacob Evans broke the second-year guard’s nose and gave him a concussion.
A scary collision with the Dallas Mavericks in town led to another injury on a long list of ailments that have hampered the Golden State Warriors’ season throughout the 2019-20 year.
Luka Doncic tossed Dwight Powell a lob, and on the way up, the Mavericks forward inadvertently elbowed Jacob Evans directly in the face. The Warriors’ second-year guard was down on the court for a period of time before leaving the game into the locker room.
Jacob Evans III is out with a broken nose and a concussion after this shot from Dwight Powell pic.twitter.com/VMfJxsDbac
After Golden State’s 124-97 loss to Dallas, the Warriors announced Evans was sent to the hospital for further evaluation. Before Golden State tipped off against the Denver Nuggets, Golden State announced the former Cincinnati Bearcat suffered a broken nose and a concussion in the violent collision with Powell.
Evans will now enter the NBA’s concussion protocol and will wear a protective face mask once returning to the court.
Evans is ruled out against the Nuggets and has no clear timetable on his return to the court. Evans has already missed 20 games in the 2019-20 NBA season, and that number could grow while he’s in concussion protocol.
With the Warriors going through roster turnover from his rookie season, Evans was due for an increased roll in Steve Kerr’s rotation in his sophomore year. However, injuries have hampered any form of consistency for the former first-round draft pick. Evans is averaging 4.4 points and one assist per game in 21 contests this season.
While Evans is in concussion protocol, rookie Jordan Poole will be the next guard off the bench behind D’Angelo Russell and Damion Lee.
