Forward Daniel Theis is making steady progress in his recovery from a torn left meniscus injury and expects to be ready for training camp, A. Sherrod Blakely of NBC Sports Boston reports. The 6’9” German native was enjoying a solid rookie campaign before his season ended in mid-March. Theis has returned to the team’s training facility to continue his rehab and recently began doing full-court sprints. “I’ve been back two weeks,” he told Blakely. “I’ve been doing new stuff every day.” Theis was a rotation player last season, appearing in 63 games, including three starts. He averaged 5.3 PPG and 4.3 RPG in 14.8 MPG. He’ll have to fight for minutes next season with Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum established as starters and Marcus Morris, Semi Ojeleye, Guerschon Yabusele and rookie Robert Williams also on the 15-man roster.
In other developments involving the Celtics:
- Swingman Jabari Bird considers his first opportunity to play last season as a turning point in his career, as he explained to Marc D’Amico of Celtics.com. Bird got his number called in the second half with the team trailing by eight against the Sixers. Boston rallied for its first win of the season. “Getting drafted is one thing. That’s an honor. Playing Summer League and having some good games, that’s one thing,” he said. “But when you do it in an NBA game, regular season, road game, hostile environment, it just felt like I really belong at this level. Moving forward, I just knew: I’m here for a reason.” Bird parlayed his two-way deal last season into a standard two-year contract this summer with the first season guaranteed.
- Kyrie Irving is expected to opt out of his contract next summer and become a free agent but coach Brad Stevens has no plans to discuss the situation with his point guard, Chris Mannix of Yahoo Sports reports. Stevens told Mannix that the atmosphere around the franchise speaks for itself. “I’m not going to talk to him about it at all,” Stevens said. “One of the things I want to do is give everything I can to all these guys while they’re here. Hopefully, the people that are here recognize that it’s a really good environment with a high upside for a long time.”
- In his latest post, Blakely offers a month-by-month breakdown of the Celtics’ just-released regular-season schedule.
Like Larry Bird says in Boston they teach them to play together, stay together, and win championships. I read Irving hasn’t spoken to anyone about free agency. Also read they expect Al Horford to opt in next summer (@$30MM, could be). Steph Curry said he thought Kyrie was his equal last time they played each other. Boston plays Golden State well. I wouldn’t be upset if they played each other in the Finals the next 4 years.
Yes the Celtics always play The Warriors well lately. Without looking it up I think the Celtics in these Championship Warrior years, win at least one game out of the two every year and they’re all close games.
A little side note I think Marcus Smart as did Avery Bradley, had a lot to do with the grittiness and defense and it’s a good thing smart is Back.
The Celtics will be on ESPN or TNT 22 times, NBA.TV 12 times, and ABC 4 times.
Good
Of course is widely expected that Kyrie opts out of his contract, it wouldn’t be smart to opt in (but then again he believes in a flat earth, SMH) even if he wants to stay in Boston he has to opt out, so he can get a better contract, so either way if he goes, as I think, or he stays he has to opt out, that is the easy part, but then what he will do is for him to know & for us to guess.
Next 4 NBA Finals: Kyrie 4 with Boston, LeBron 0 with Lakers. My opinion and many others too.
I agree, LeBron doesn’t have the team to get past Golden State
Theis is going to make some money in this league. He’s a team player, plays hard every minute and can defend. Finding minutes will be tough this year, but Celtics will probably cut down on starter playing time to stay fresh.
Kyrie will Stay, I think he will do the Lebron thing and sign a 2 year with player option. But his injury issues may change that thinking. He would be a fool to leave Tatum and Brown.