Appearing this morning on Toucher and Rich in Boston, Celtics president of basketball operations Danny Ainge confirmed that Aron Baynes is undergoing surgery today on his broken hand, tweets Chris Forsberg of NBC Sports Boston.
While an exact timeline for Baynes’ return likely won’t be determined until after that procedure is complete, Ainge said that he doesn’t expect the Celtics to seek out roster help while Baynes is sidelined. Boston’s frontcourt is banged up, but Al Horford and Guerschon Yabusele should be ready to return soon, according to Ainge, so reinforcements are on the way.
Here’s more on the Celtics:
- After an eight-game win streak, Boston has taken a step back over the last two games, as Tim Bontemps of ESPN.com details. “This is the NBA season. You just want to have great pockets of games, you have good consistent run, and then now you have a lapse,” Kyrie Irving said. “Now it’s [time to] build it back up, continue to work every single day to be a very great team. It’s a work in progress every day.”
- Coming into the season, the Celtics were viewed as one of the league’s deepest teams, with multiple All-Stars leading the way. However, the supporting cast around Irving has been somewhat underwhelming this season, writes Chris Forsberg of NBC Sports Boston. According to Forsberg, last year’s standouts like Jaylen Brown, Jayson Tatum, and Terry Rozier have “rarely asserted themselves” when the C’s need someone other than Irving to save them this season.
- Jabari Bird, who was arrested on assault charges in September, appeared in court on Tuesday and is scheduled to do so again on January 30, per Nicole Yang of The Boston Globe (Twitter link). The Celtics appear prepared to continue waiting on a decision from the league before they decide what to do with Bird, though if they really need an extra roster spot, that could change the equation, tweets Keith Smith of Yahoo Sports.
Hard to call it a win streak when really it’s just a huge break in the schedule where the Celtics only played terrible teams. They’re supposed to win those games.
They only have 5 wins against teams playing above .500
The Celtics have not been good this year.
The Celtics are not very good right now.
Shhhhhhh! You are disrupting the NBA writers narrative!
No worries fan/hater. The GOAT Boston Celtics will be good when it matters in the POSTSEASON. That’s WHERE it matters. I agree, they COULD BE BETTER, but lets NOT ACT like key guys haven’t been fighting injuries/illness etc all season. It’s a WORK IN PROGRESS. See the chokeland warriors season for help understanding this. Think golden states season is over after a ton of regular season losses? LOL
Golden State is currently 1 game back of first place.
Boston is closer to missing the playoffs than to first place.
As for the playoffs, I don’t like their chances against the top 4 teams in the East.
Last year, the Celtics played great. If last year’s team were playing this year, then maybe I’d have a different opinion. But this year they’re just plain not good. Wins against soft opponents just leads to a bloated record that looks more impressive than it is… and they’re still in 5th place.
I think people get excited about the Celtics because of their great young players who all took big steps forward last year. But development isn’t linear. This year looks like a step or two backward, plus some decline from older stars.
Still a very good team with lots of potential. But they’re very deserving of the 5th seed in the East. That’s who they are right now. If they were in the West, they’d be a coin toss to make the playoffs.
The Suns were 1-13 on the road before winning in New York and Boston.
You can’t lose to the worst team in the NBA at home.
It’ll still be Toronto- Golden State (no LeBron yayyyyyy) in the Finals.
I really do think that people are sleeping on the Bucks. They’re very, very, very good.
They were already better than most people gave them credit for last year, but they haven’t been well coached until this year.
Adding George Hill to the rotation was about as solid a move as they could have hoped to make before the playoffs.
I like the Raptors chances, but it could come down to home court.
Robert Williams has only been playing 15 minutes a game, but he’s been getting a couple blocks and a handful of rebounds doing it. He’s played well.
I agree… he definitely needs to work a little bit on his defensive reads (when to step up/when to stay home) and polish up his offensive game. but from what I’ve seen so far he looks like a promising, and legit C in the NBA. it’ll be fun/interesting to see what he can do with a little bit more playing time.
Robert Williams aka “Time Lord” shows he can play and deserves more minutes
Agreed, Bobby BOOshay has been great for the Celts in limited time/appearances. The sky is the limit for that young kid, truthfully. Here’s to hoping the C’s at long last have the athletic rebounder/shot blocker/finisher they’ve needed since…. forever. Fact is, this kid is just getting started. How often does Anthony Davis get blocked, let alone TWICE in the same game? LOL