With the Summer time League winding down, permit your self to dream a bit of bit. We’re heading right into a stretch of the summer time the place precise basketball is few and much between. We’ll get glimpses of offseason exercises, possibly a Professional-Am right here and there, however for probably the most half, sneaker-squealing and rock-pounding might be mirages on this basketball desert from late-July to mid-September.
However after a comparatively profitable stint out in Sin Metropolis, we’ve acquired sufficient precise tape to do some prognosticating with our younger gamers. Certain, the Summer time Cs didn’t make the Summer time League playoffs, however we are able to dream a bit of and possibly, simply possibly, undertaking a extra significant championship of their future.
Along with Hugo Gonzalez’s sturdy exhibiting in three video games, it’s been rookie Chris Cenac Jr.’s recreation that has actually opened the eyes of Celtics followers. The numbers don’t precisely leap off the web page — 10.5 factors and eight rebounds per recreation — however you may see how given a bit of extra time to develop, his bodily expertise and expertise will translate shortly to the NBA recreation.
Already, he’s a wonderful rim protector (2.8 blocks per recreation) and he’s tried to catch a physique on a number of dunk makes an attempt during the last week. He seems like a mixture of Chris Bosh, LaMarcus Aldridge, and Shawn Kemp. What’s going to make him a constant contributor within the trendy NBA is shifting his mid-range recreation previous the three-point line and having the ability to defend faster gamers on the swap.
If you wish to catch Cenac Jr. and our boys of summer time of their final recreation on The Strip, our pals at FanDuel have the Celtics as +1.5 underdogs towards the Orlando Magic later in the present day at 4:30 pm EST.
