Taking stock at mid-season: the Celtics’ veteran grades so far

With the midpoint of the 2019-20 NBA season in the rear-view mirror, it’s time to take stock of what the Boston Celtics’ veterans have done so far.

All-Stars

This subgrouping should be pretty straightforward — Boston has two former All-Stars on its roster, and the ideal scenario would be that both would be able to reach that level once again surrounded with talent and possessing good health.

It likely isn’t going to work out that way, but let’s take a look at the context.

Gordon Hayward

Hayward has finally returned — on most nights — to the player Boston hoped they were signing in 2017. There still seems to be a gear (or three, sometimes) skipping on some nights, but the brilliant, skilled play on both ends is back, if in slightly diminished form.

While the hope he could return to All-Star form isn’t likely to be met, it’s not entirely his fault; the system he’s operating in isn’t designed to showcase him as it was on the Utah Jazz, and it’s not ike he asked for a broken hand or recurrent foot pain,

That latter bit is a little scary, as is his future contract situation. But neither of those things are being analyzed here, just how he did vs. what we hoped, reasonably from him. He’s had a very good season even considering the bad stretches, enough so the notion of him opting out of his final season is a bit scary too.

Kemba Walker

The UConn product came to the Celtics as the free agency equivalent of a buzzer-beater, and has been an integral part of the team’s success. His leadership has been the salve the team needs after a season we’d like to forget, and his on-court skills provided the cover needed for the Jays to make the leap we’ve been hoping for.

There’s not much to critique the Bronx native for, but there are a few areas we could reasonably have hoped for more. Chief of which is health, but one can’t fault a player much for that, even if Walker has missed more time this season than he had in his last several as a Charlotte Hornet combined.

The drop in scoring and assists from last season (21.7 down from 25.6 and 5 from 5.9, respectively) is negative, but some of that is due to him carrying less of his new team’s load, evidenced by boosts to his shooting numbers (50.2 %, a career-high from two, up from 49.4 % and 39 % from from three, up from 35.6).

Pages: Page 1, Page 2, Page 3, Page 4, Page 5, Page 6, Page 7, Page 8